GMC Jam Voting The Thoughtful GMC Jam 42 | Voting Topic

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Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator



Get the Games:

ALL GAMES + RANDOMISER (331 MB)
this zip folder contains a handy jam game player made by @Alice to help you play & rank the games!
[mirror]

or you can just download individual games from the games topic here:
https//forumyoyogamescom/index.php?threads/the-thoughtful-gmc-jam-42-games-topic88721/


Voting Deadline
September 20th at 12:00 UTC


  • As soon as the Jam ends on Aug 30th 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 September 20th at 12:00 UTC.
  • Any member of the GMC can vote, even if they didn't enter the jam. You cannot vote for your own entry.
  • Votes shall be posted in a single post in the voting topic. You may create a post and continue to edit it as you review more games, do not create more than one post for your votes.
  • Voters are encouraged to rank as many games as possible, and their final votes must include at least their top 3 games.
  • The top 3 votes must also be accompanied by a short review of why you liked the game and voted for it (any beyond the top 3 do not need a review, but it is nice to have).
  • Voters can also vote for the best game in each of the following (optional) categories: Best use of theme, best concept, best story, best presentation (gfx/sound) and best devlog (as written in the games topic).

Voting Template
(optional but helpful)

HamishMcSweeney'S REVIEWS AND VOTES

1st Place - Game Name by HamishMcSweeney

I voted for this game because...



2nd Place - Game Name by HamishMcSweeney

I voted for this game because...



3rd Place - Game Name by HamishMcSweeney

I voted for this game because...



Best Ofs

Best use of theme: game name by HamishMcSweeney

Best concept: game name by HamishMcSweeney

Best presentation: game name by HamishMcSweeney

Best story: game name by HamishMcSweeney

Best devlog: game name by HamishMcSweeney



Full Ranking

1. game name by HamishMcSweeney

2. game name by HamishMcSweeney

3. game name by HamishMcSweeney

4. game name by HamishMcSweeney

5. game name by HamishMcSweeney

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 <BASE SCORE> * <TOTAL VOTES> / (<TOTAL VOTES> - <VOTING AUTHORS>)
For example, with 20 votes:
- the entry whose author didn't vote would have average score of <BASE SCORE> / 20
- the entry with 1 voting author would have average score of <BASE SCORE> / (20-1) = <BASE SCORE> / 19
- the entry with 3 voting authors would have average score of <BASE SCORE> / (20-3) = <BASE SCORE> / 17

More info in the Jams Suggestion topic
Alice shall handle voting for the most part. Alice you are the best!



Live Streams! This is a list of people who have told me that they are planning on streaming their playthroughs of the jam games! I encourage those that want or are wanting to stream the games to do so and also let the community know! Streaming games allows the devs of the games to have play tests of their games and gain useful info about how they can further improve their game dev skills!
 
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Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
Streams
twitchtv/videos/1136343647
[link] Hades vs Satan by @kburkhart84
[link] The Insufferable Pan by @Pixel-Team
[link] Babel: ACTLTBMDGIDOHH by @Mr Magnus
[link] Sleepy Gods by @Mr Magnus
[link] Cthildha by @Mightyjor
[link] Murder on the Styx Express by @Alice
[link] Spielcomm: Origins by @Bart
[link] Blade of Redemption by @SoapSud39
[link] CROW by @Terminator_Pony
[link] Otter: prolouge -mythologies- by @Cantavanda
[link] Gravity Bunny @GuineaPig
[link] Lore Quest by @BraydeeJohnson
[link] Gilgamesh by @Ninety
twitchtv/videos/1137232187
[link] The Will o' wisp by @HeadlessOne
[link] UIIR by @Siolfor the Jackal
[link] Rolldyce Kingdoms by @GameDevDan
[link] Unicorn Rampage by @Richerama
[link] Mars God of War and sometimes internships by @Mercerenies
[link] Invaders or Egypt by @Jarfunkados
[link] hat Wearing Children @Bearman_18
[link] The Third Day by @ghandpivot
[link] Escape from Tartarus by @Ericbomb
[link] Half A dozen potatoes by @bandman28
[link] Map of Legend by @PugWizard101
[link] FarOutPost 42 by @HayManMarc
[link] Ravana by @The M
[link] Toilet Story by @Micah_DS
[link] Minitaur by @Sirham
[link] APOLLO by @CardinalCoder64
[link] Typhon's Return by @herostone67
[link] Secrets of Tapiola by @Poizen
[link] CRUSH by @Toque
Reviews

Top 3:

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
This is really great, the art style the narriaton, its all really wonderful.

Their is just something primally pleasing about watching numbers go up, and I love it!

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
all i can say is i suck at this and the hitboxes hate me, alice has once again found a game to exploit to get a high score, >:p
lol fun game, love it

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
Very fun board game, got good at it some how,
The rng feels like of baked into it, to only serve as a saftey for making the game too easy,
the ending smoke is a huge buff to the player if they play it right, was able to be givin a kingdom basiclly
also no evanski character :(

all in all great game! had lots of fun.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Best Concept: Ravana by The M
Best Presentation: Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
Best Story: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

Full ranking:

  1. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  2. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  3. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  4. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  5. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  6. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  7. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  8. Ravana by The M
  9. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  10. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  11. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  12. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  13. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  14. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  15. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  16. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  17. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  18. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  19. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  20. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  21. CRUSH by Toque
  22. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  23. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  24. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  25. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda
  26. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  27. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  28. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  29. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  30. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  31. Minitaur by Sirham
  32. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

Comments:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64

Its a shooter,
Personally I perfer teh keyboard as aposed to the mouse
and space to shoot,
it seems like more of the same level each time but with a diffrent weapon, good game however

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus

Huge props to use my input system, and reminding me its a buggy mess that needs fixed later!

Good game, better when trying to hack the score table!

maybe be a little forgiving on my pressig space bar, :p

Blade of Redemption by Ezra

Maybe work on making it more challanging and have more reason to use other options besides attacking everything,
all in all very nice and cute I like it alot

CROW by Terminator_Pony

needs more exciting gameplay, chaning the tide of a war is interesting but the game doesnt really explore beyond the concept, would like to see more effects on the war and such.

CRUSH by Toque

short simple sweet and fun,
im assuming after a point its just impossible

Never knew the jolly green giant was such a boxer

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

This is really great, the art style the narriaton, its all really wonderful.

Their is just something primally pleasing about watching numbers go up, and I love it!

Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb

Audio games can be really interesting and fun, however it doesnt really work here,
the narriator talks over himself at time and waiting for his dialoug is very annoying,
the audio is loud, the gmae play is very repetative

I recommend checking out this video

FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc

I did it I guess?
Game just ended it self after a while.
Game is very slow to play
I dont like how I have to controll the defender ships myself while everything else is automated
Nice game and concept tho

Gilgamesh by Ninety

Nice little platformer
the flying mechanic was really nice and good, helped a bunch

Gravity Bunny by Koopashy

Game needs a lot more polish, its a nice attempt at a platformer but the controls need mroe work put into them, as to jump properly I must hold a direction while jumping and do it just right,
the spikes have a square hitbox and thus are rather cheaty,
Nice concepts needs more love put into it tho.

Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84

You lied to me, you said this wouldnt be like ET
Why do you live to hurt me? What I did I ever do to you.
Fun game, I enjoyed the parts where I was not dying.

Needs coyote time, or more cause I didint notice it had any.
Enemies are cheaty and very stressful to deal with.
would make final boss easier to understand how im killing it.


Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28

yes., i understnad I need to color the grid but I can not kill anything at all, its a nice walking simulator at best, sorry
the music was alos really loud

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18

Wow the eniemys are not forgiving in the slightest, the camera is all over the play,
but its pretty fun, needs way more polish

Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados

Kind of hard to focus on two things on the side of the screen at once, the muic gets reptative at times, the menu needs to be reorginized to make more sense, and the font needs to be a little easier to read
all in all fun game i enjoyed

Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

Game seems to be broken, And jsut stops at picking a card, sorry

Map of Legend by PugWizard101

Nice concept but very hard to use and is kind of glitchy, the game is also very small, great concept tho

Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies

Just like how i work a real job, amazing!
great voice acting!

Would like sound effects, hope you fleahse this more out, very funny!

Minitaur by Sirham

okay?
short, simple,
thier was music?

Murder on the Styx Express by Alice

Would love to see what this game would have looked like with a weeks extra time added to it,
it has good potintal but falls a bit flat as it stands right now, witty dialouge and story but not enough to really make it shine

Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

I unironiclly love this, Much better then the first game, Cant wait to see mroe from this series!

Love the covers!

Ravana by The M

Really good concept
The player moves to where the mouse is on a room switch causing me ot hit traps on accident
ran into a soft lock in the end boss fight
great game tho

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan

Very fun board game, got good at it some how,
The rng feels like of baked into it, to only serve as a saftey for making the game too easy,
the ending smoke is a huge buff to the player if they play it right, was able to be givin a kingdom basiclly
also no evanski character :(

all in all great game! had lots of fun.

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen

What?
The bear!
Skull on tree!
Bird!
Egg?
Shed?
WHAT?!

Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus

I feel like im playing mercereniers emmy and sal from GMCJ 40, but with less polish and charm,
Had fun figureing it out without @noctunre shouting at me about how he was right

overall too smart for my raccoon brain

Spielcomm: Origins by Bart

Lacking gameplay, otherwise, not bad, look sensitivitzy is pretty crazy, feel fisheyed
needs some polish but found a way to have my own fun with t

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

better platforming mechanics, coyote time, inout buffers,
all in all great game!


The Third Day by Ghandpivot


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ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object GMS:

SERVER ERROR:Action Logout cannot be executed when not logged in

Please note: This is a server-sided error message. To hide all GameMaker Server-errors, call gms_debug_hide_errors().
at gml_Script_XServer_error
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Script_XServer_error (line -1)
gml_Script_gms_step
gml_Object_GMS_Step_0


uhh... okay

Un very flashy and showy but not much meaning other then losing points, the music syncs well
needs that extra poilsh cause otherwise im getting a very showy carpel tunel simulator, needs more to it, hope to see more from this

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

Very cute game, nice and interesting gameplay and concept, last puzzle got me stumped tho, shame. :(

Toilet Story by Micah_DS

like the 3D look, the issue is with that sideways look, its hard to tell depth, and so I'd reccomend locking the depth so I can only be in a set distance away and close to the camera
The slide jumping was really difficult, but really interesting for how short it is

Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67

Would like music and sound effects,
dont like that the projectiles colled with eachother as then the enemies gang up on me
good game, like the art style

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal

all i can say is i suck at this and the hitboxes hate me, alice has once again found a game to exploit to get a high score, >:p
lol fun game, love it

Unicorn Rampage by Richerama

Pretty good, would recommend chanign the font so its eaiser to read, very long wiht no much diffrent over how long it is
needs a polish here and their over ll fun shooter
I am the bestest
 
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Mightyjor

Member

MIGHTYJOR'S REVIEWS!
The number score I gave it isn’t necessarily how I’ll rank it, it just helps me organize my thoughts. I’m also not exactly an objective reviewer, though I try to be. On some of these I look back and think I may have been too harsh, on others too generous. I think the only way around that would be to not post the score until I’ve sat with them a few weeks, but I also don’t want to withhold feedback from eager devs. I also don’t want to be swayed by seeing how others rank my game, positively or negatively.

There are also things, like all of us, that just really work well for me. I want to share what I believe are some of my biases when reviewing a game, so at least it’s not a shock if you see it reflected in reviews.

- I love to see people trying something new. Even if the game falls flat on its face, I’ll usually be pretty generous with the score knowing they didn’t rehash the same thing they’ve done in a thousand other games.
- I really appreciate originality. I understand not everyone can be great at everything, so I don’t expect everyone to compose a full soundtrack for every new game, but I really appreciate it when it’s there. If you do use materials from a different author, I can be pretty harsh if they’re not properly credited. I know this is a rule now thankfully, but it’s one of those things that REALLY bothered me in previous jams. If you’re giving proper credit then of course I’m happy you’re supporting a fellow creator! I just don’t like artists taking credit, even if it’s only implied and not stated, for another persons work.
- if I look at a game and see that the author set out to do something and they DID it, that’s usually my highest marker for success. That’s true even if I didn’t particularly find the game fun. I don’t particularly like dating sims or real time Battle strategy games, but it wouldn’t be fair for me to mark you down for trying something you loved. I also firmly believe that games can be more than just an entertaining pastime. They can inspire and educate as well. So what I’m trying to say is the artistic value for me is as important if not more important than whether or not the game is fun. If it sticks with me, you’ve made a successful game.

Top 3:
Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal

Score (out of 5)
5 Theme : Very nice! I don't know if this is related to a single myth of some snowboarding legend but has a good general feel of mythology. *UPDATE* This is apparently based on a real myth. I don't know how, but you found a great one.
5 Concept: Such genius. Surprised we don't have a genre of shield snow boarding archery games
5 Audio: Really nice audio, good sound effects. No complaints here!
5 Presentation: Looks and feels great to play
5 Art: Excellent as always. Love the high res sprites
3 Story: Not really a lot here, though I'm sure this mountain man has an excellent back story
5 Fun: An absolute blast to play. A high score leaderboard here would have been fantastic. Sometimes the arrow jump trick doesn't quite work also

33 Overall (out of 35) Final score of 337,650. I have absolutely no idea how you all get so high.


Ravana by The M

Score (out of 5)
4 Theme : Very cool exploration of a mythology I don't know much about, would be interested to see what the story behind this is
5 Concept: Mouse only game that takes advantage of the best parts of Undertales bullet hell combat system. Sign me up!
4 Audio: Soundtrack and sfx are both good, but that double kick drum 8 bit sound can be a little distracting
5 Presentation: I'll admit when the first pictures were shown of this game I wasn't terribly excited, but now that I've played it I'm all in. The graphics work perfectly so that everything is so simple to read and understand. I see this asthetic and I usually think to myself I'm going to spend 10 minutes just figuring out how to use a dang key, but this was so well designed I didn't have to think for a minute.
4 Art: Accomplished what it set out to do, but I think some sprites might have been a bit uglier than they needed to be. Again, I suppose Undertale's influence is showing here too! I really enjoyed the use of red and green in the otherwise black and white game. It really accentuated important features.
3 Story: Would have loved to hear how all of this action relates to the story, but the simple one of getting your wife back works I suppose
4 Fun: Super fun game! I really did love the combat here. It works so well to just focus on what worked best in Undertale (sorry for all the comparisons) and in my opinion improve it, though don't tell the fandom I said that. I love that you have to stand in the green circle to get a turn so that you're constantly engaged and without direct effort you'll never actually get a turn. Excellent game design! There were a few problems I have with the current way the game plays though. The main one is that the character will jump to the part of the screen where the mouse was previously the moment he enters a room. This can be SUPER annoying, especially when the rooms are filled with traps. What happens is that you immediately trigger some weird trap on the far end of the room when you walk in, and then you do the mini game which places your character in a DIFFERENT part of the room, so I'm literally tripping every trap in the entire room and I feel like a fool. Another issue I think is that mashing the button to attack without any cooldown can take down a boss in a single turn, which isn't quite as fun and encourages me to mash the button which physically hurts my body. I think adding a cooldown would help a lot here, even a small one so that you can't attack for 60 hits per second if you destroy your body enough. The last problem I had was that the final boss bugged out on me. Got to him, then he wouldn't die on the final sliver of health, he just hung out on the top of the ceiling not doing any attacks. I killed myself so I could try again and he did the exact same thing. Not sure what was supposed to happen there, but I got sad because I didn't get to see the end.

29 Overall (out of 35) Got to the final boss and the game soft locked, then tried again and it did it again, so that was where I stopped.

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen

Score (out of 5)
3 Theme : Don't know much about this mythology but it seems to work just great for the game you wanted to make
5 Concept: Escape room type game with some really fun challenges! Would love to see more games like this in jams! Just fun and satisfying with little challenges to overcome that don't wreck my brain trying to solve.
3 Audio: Gets the job done but was lacking in some music I think
5 Presentation: Really well done, can't think of anything I would add
5 Art: Again, well done!
3 Story: Not much here, but I did enjoy small bits like the swamp monster that kept me on my toes
5 Fun: Very cool! I actually had a blast with this one

29 Overall (out of 35) Beat the game, had a blast

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
Best Concept: Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
Best Presentation: The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Best Story: Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
Best Devlog: Ravana by The M

  1. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  2. Ravana by The M
  3. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  4. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  5. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  6. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  7. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  8. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  9. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  10. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  11. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  12. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  13. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  14. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  15. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  16. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  17. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  18. CRUSH by Toque
  19. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  20. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  21. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  22. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  23. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  24. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  25. Minitaur by Sirham
  26. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  27. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  28. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  29. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda
  30. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  31. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  32. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson
LIvestream of the games P.1
Livestream of the games P.2

Here are the games played in each:
Live stream 1:
Prometheus Rising by Evanski @EvanSki
The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping @HeadlessOne
Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb @Ericbomb
The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team @Pixel-Team
Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84 @kburkhart84
Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies @Mercerenies

Live stream 2:
[*]Blade of Redemption by Ezra
[*]Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
[*]Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
[*]CRUSH by Toque
[*]Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
[*]CROW by Terminator_Pony
[*]Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
[*]Minitaur by Sirham
[*]Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
GOOGLE DOC W COMMENTS (click here)
(sorry but it went a few thousand words over the 10k limit)
 
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Pixel-Team

Master of Pixel-Fu

Pixel-Team's Reviews


Top 3:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
APOLLO is a bullet hell shooter themed after greek mythology. The action was there, and I loved the power-ups. The music was really good too, as were the sound effects. The game featured several levels, each one granting a new special weapon. The weapons were very creative, and genuinely turned the tide during gameplay. There was not a whole lot of variety with the enemies, but the author made up for that with different attack patterns. If I were to make any suggestions, it would be to make the health get knocked down easier. It was not overly challenging, at least not until the later levels. Overall, I really enjoyed this entry! Great job!


Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
A game where you have to shoot things with a bow and arrow and jump over hazards while riding a shield down a mountain. I had a blast with this game. Easy controls, but hard to master. Quick game loop. Played very well with my 8BitDo SN30 pro+ controller. The tune was very catchy as well!! Well done, Siolfor!


Ravana by The M
Ravana is a pixely RPG with a unique control style, and skill based combat. I really liked this entry, and enjoyed the good pixel art and sound. There were minigames for unlocking doors and chests, and the combat was challenging, but not too difficult. The theme was represented well. All in all, an exceptional entry!!​


Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
Best Concept: Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
Best Presentation: Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
Best Story: Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
Best Devlog: Blade of Redemption by Ezra

Full ranking:

  1. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  2. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  3. Ravana by The M
  4. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  5. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  6. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  7. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  8. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  9. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  10. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  11. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  12. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  13. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  14. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  15. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  16. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  17. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  18. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  19. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  20. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  21. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  22. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  23. CRUSH by Toque
  24. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  25. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  26. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  27. Minitaur by Sirham
  28. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda
  29. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  30. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  31. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson
  32. The Third Day by Ghandpivot

Comments:

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

This is my game. Bugs aside, I think I did ok this time out. I appreciate all of the playthroughs, and feedback I've received. As is usual for me, I think I may have had more ambition for this game than I could pull off in the 96 hours, and as a result, my game had a few flaws, which I am sure will come out in the reviews. At any rate, thank you all again for your feedback and support. I love the GMC, and I will see you all in the next Jam!


APOLLO by CardinalCoder64

APOLLO is a bullet hell shooter themed after greek mythology. The action was there, and I loved the power-ups. The music was really good too, as were the sound effects. The game featured several levels, each one granting a new special weapon. The weapons were very creative, and genuinely turned the tide during gameplay. There was not a whole lot of variety with the enemies, but the author made up for that with different attack patterns. If I were to make any suggestions, it would be to make the health get knocked down easier. It was not overly challenging, at least not until the later levels. Overall, I really enjoyed this entry! Great job!


Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus

Babel is a stacker game that features an online high score table. I had a lot of fun with this one. I felt like the game cheated me on the timing a few times though.

Blade of Redemption by Ezra

Blade of redemtion is an RPG where you play a girl trying to restore a broken sword by engaging in battles with monsters. I really liked the presentation. The character and creatures were drawn well, and the action was fast paced. While there was music, I didn't hear many sound effects. A decent entry here.

CROW by Terminator_Pony

A game where you fly over the battles to influence units which are fighting on the ground below you. The game fit the theme, although I was not familiar with Badb before now. This is an interesting game with an original concept, but I'm not sure giving the player the ability to switch sides of a battle provides any incentive for either side to be victorious, at least in my opinion. During gameplay, this game crashed on me but I didn't catch the error to paste it here, I'm afraid.


CRUSH by Toque

This was a very short game, where you play a giant that kills villagers. There wasn't really a way to defend myself from projectiles and not take damage, resulting in my eventual death no matter how skilled I was. That's not a good feeling, Toque. I did like the pixel art in this game, though. I think you're getting better!


Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

This was a well presented game about the daughter of Cthulu, where you have to create planets, and absorb resources from those planets to spend on making more planets. First off, I loved the voice work, and the beautiful narrative of being antithetical to the story of Cthulu, the destroyer of worlds. My only problem with this entry was that this was less of a game, and more of a short story, with no conflict that needed resolving by the player. While this is okay if you're making a sandbox game, there has to be a sense of achievement the longer you play, and making planets seemed to come way too easy. I thought it had a lot of heart and creativity put into it, and it was enjoyable to play, but I felt like there should have been some more. Good job!


Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb

I could play this game with my eyes closed! That's what I wanted to say about a game that is completely blind accessible, except I kept getting killed. From what I gather, you take on the powers of a god and have to do battle with spirits. I think this is a really original idea, and having eyes makes me completely under-appreciative of such a game. You have a voice guiding you and telling you what your powers are, and during combat, he is describing what is happening. I think the game could have been a little more descriptive as to what was going on, although there were some really cool sections where there were the sounds of suffering in the background, and some well thought of narrative. I am certain there is demand for games like this, and I think an undertaking like this deserves more nurturing. Great Job!


FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc

This is a real time strategy where you have to mine asteroids while defending your base from enemy ships. It has absolutely nothing to do with the theme. That said, I had a good time playing this game. A couple annoyances I had though is the asteroids always come from the same places, never near the base, so you always have to venture off. Also, if you make a shipyard and 4 ships right off the bat, you get attacked by an equal number of enemy ships. So it looks like the attacks are proportional to the amount of fighter ships you have. I would have rather the scale of the attacks be something that builds up gradually. I'm going to be playing more of this game, though. There's definitely potential here. Good job!


Gilgamesh by Ninety

A platformer adventure based on the epic tale of Gilgamesh. It had a very stylized look, and I loved the music and sounds. It was extremely short, and there was a bug where you could do your sword attack in midair and bypass certain areas. There was not a whole lot of innovation in this design other than a wall slide, (and the mid-air sword attack, if you count this a feature) and so while it was a beautiful looking game, I think that it was not strong enough to overcome some other entries. I would love to see more of this, maybe a boss fight! Good Job!


Gravity Bunny by Koopashy

Gravity Bunny is a physics platformer. The horizontal platforms you have to move with them because they don't move you. I think this game is a good starter game, but I think it needs some work. Maybe make the bunny not be in a run animation if he's not actually running. Maybe have a jump animation when he's jumping that is different from his running animation. I give it a 1 for theme, since technically the Easter Bunny is a myth, but it needs some more in the WINS column.

Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84

Very difficult platformer. Good pixel art and sound. I found the collisions a bit unforgiving. The weapon was a bit unbalanced for killing the bad guys too. For example, there were a few areas where there were coins, but these coins had bad guys right on top of them so you had to risk dying just to get them, since jumping down to the level where the bad guy was to shoot at him would require too many risky jumps to be worth it. All that aside, this was a good entry, and fit the theme well. Good Job!




Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28

A battle royale game where you're a bunch of potatoes. I'm not sure where to place this. So you have to cover most of the spaces and turn them to your color, and when you get to a weapon space, you can launch projectiles out. I liked the graphics, and the music was really catchy. I'm not so sure the theme was very strong though. I'm not 100% clear on the rules, and I wish they were better explained. Sometimes I felt like I was just running around only to get my colors turned back by AI players.


Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18

This was a game where you're kids playing nerf guns. I really liked it, but it didn't fit the theme, like at all. I would have liked the game to take up the whole screen, too.


Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados

An action shooter that reminded me of a cross between Space Invaders and Yars Revenge. Features an upgrade system. I think this game would be better played with 2 players cooperating, because trying to keep track of bad guys on both sides got to be really stressful. Still, this was a decent entry.



Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

This game looked like it was going to be a card playing battle RPG. Tragically, it was unplayable.

Map of Legend by PugWizard101

This was a platformer where you have to click boxes to alter the tiles you are jumping on. The art was ok. (a little rushed, maybe) and the sound and music was decent as well. I found it difficult to jump in the air, click a box, move to where I want to relocate the box that's beneath me, and click it again, all while still in mid air. I think the game mechanic itself was a recipe for some frustrating gameplay. Unfortunately, I did not finish.




Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies

This is a game where you play as Mars, God of War, who has to use a PC and do tasks for his boss. This was pretty cool. It looked like a Windows 3.1 interface. The boss has you type a few items from one column in a second column. I did this for a while, then the boss said to do it for 8 hours and don't look at the documents. So then I looked at the documents, and saw a banned video, but it wouldn't open. I then spent the next 8 hours trying to get the video player fixed. I'm not sure if the game has an ending, because once I did the typing part and fiddled with the files, there wasn't anywhere else to go. I did have fun, and I think this would make a cool Job Simulator game with some more content, so good job!


Minitaur by Sirham

After a near impossible intro, this incredibly short game where you can't touch the stomping legs ended with a series of simple jumps. The gameplay was not very strong for me, unfortunately. About the only thing this game had going for it was the really cool sprite animation of the Miniataur. I think this game should have had something more than just a few jumps and dodges. It didn't crash, though. So it wasn't the worst game. But I don't think this is 96 hours worth.


Murder on the Styx Express by Alice

A detective game where you talk to characters and solve the murder. I really loved the concept! While I was playing, I did not know to combine hypotheses with portraits of the characters, and I was unclear of why there were profiles of characters in my inventory, or that profiles could be "combined" with items. I guess my problem was there was not a whole lot of clarity on how the items could work together. I think if instead of combining profiles, it should have let me combine the portraits instead, since those were the real people. Eventually, I looked up the solution (Thanks, Alice!) because I just couldn't figure it out. I think this game has a lot of potential, and fell just a bit short on execution. Good Job!



Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

I was concerned about even opening a game by Cantavanda. And my worries were well founded. I did get to jump over a cat, so that was a game. I wanted so badly to rank this game last, but there were more than one entry that had fatal crashes. Better luck next, Jam. You other devs better shape up and make your games crash free. Cantavanda can't do this all by himself!

Prometheus Rising by Evanski

A 3D game in the spirit of Doom. The problem of making a Doom game is there's such a high bar of expectation. Firstly, the things that were done right were enemies and their attacks, the doors and switches, and the gathering of keys to open the doors. The issues I had were not major, but just annoyances. I could barely see the projectiles come out of the hand, at least the first power you have. The highest power you get, the one that charges, covers so much of the screen I am unable to see if I'm pointing at the boss. I would have liked to have some audio feedback when shooting magic, and when hitting enemies. Impact sounds are important. Lastly, I think a bit more could have been done theme wise beyond the title and some narrative text. Still, this was an impressive technical achievement, and I hope to see more games come from this engine. Good job, Evanski!


Ravana by The M

Ravana is a pixely RPG with a unique control style, and skill based combat. I really liked this entry, and enjoyed the good pixel art and sound. There were minigames for unlocking doors and chests, and the combat was challenging, but not too difficult. The theme was represented well. All in all, an exceptional entry!!


Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan

A dice rolling game where the objective is to fill a board with your pieces in patterns that give you the most points. It was very well drawn and presented, as are all of GameDevDan's games. There were different characters, each with different personalities and AI strategies. The pace of the matches were a bit slow for my tastes. The theme was not strongly represented either. While there's definitely an element of skill when it comes to placing your pieces strategically, there's also an element of chance, which can greatly affect your success in a match. Good Job!


Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen

I really enjoyed this little puzzle game. It featured a lot of interactable objects and a couple minigames. Artwork was decent, and the music soothing. The thing that got the bear scared me. Nice job!


Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus

This is a very challenging puzzle game where you have to make the sleepy gods go to bed at the same time and light up all the squares. And yes. It's even more challenging than it sounds. I found this game very difficult, although I did get several levels in.

Spielcomm: Origins by Bart

This game had a rough opening. Watching the text disappear and move up a line and reappear threw me off for a bit. Movement was really slow. I'm glad there was a shift button speed up, but I would have started with that speed. There were no sound effects. There was no attack animation, so I couldn't tell if I was striking the bad guys. When the battle was over, I couldn't escape out of the game. I think this game was a miss for me, unfortunately.


The Third Day by Ghandpivot

This game fatal crashed right out of the gate. ***UPDATE*** I tried this game again after reading some posts about it, and yes. It appears the game is playable as long as you don't go off the platform. This game was actually pretty good. It was a series of boss fights between Jesus and Satan, where Jesus got bigger and bigger weapons. I feel bad I didn't keep trying to play this after the crash now. There was some good variety on the attacks from Satan, and the weaponry was cool. It kind of reminded me of a South Park episode. Good job, and I hope you can sort out the crash!

############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object GMS:

SERVER ERROR:Action Logout cannot be executed when not logged in

Please note: This is a server-sided error message. To hide all GameMaker Server-errors, call gms_debug_hide_errors().
at gml_Script_XServer_error
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Script_XServer_error (line -1)
gml_Script_gms_step
gml_Object_GMS_Step_0

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

This was a unique game where you play a wisp, (Whatever that is) and direct a child to the exit in a series of puzzles. You could also possess either the child or a snail to hit switches, which in turn would let you gain access to proceed. The graphics were decent, and there was sound. I'm not sure of the theme here because there was neither a readme, nor an explanation of what the premise is. I think there's some decent mechanics here, with sime minor exceptions. For example, on level 3, I got the child caught in the lower area when the time ran out, so I was unable to control him and get him back where he needed to be, and could not hit the timed switch myself to get him back there either, rendering the level un-resettable by death.

Toilet Story by Micah_DS

This was a 2.5D platformer. The theme was represented by the unicorn. Level design was pretty basic. Just make the jumps and shoot the unicorns. The game was pretty short, and apart from the 2.5D technical challenge, there was not a whole lot of game here. The hardest part was where you had to do a slide followed by a jump.




Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67

This was a sidescrolling shooter where you play Hermes, and you have a weapon that deflects. I really liked the pixel art in this game. The theme was well represented here. The game was VERY short, and there was no sound. Also, there was an issue with the deflection mechanics. For example, if you didn't get on the right half of the screen, the enemies would shoot a projectile that would block any projectiles that you previously deflected, including theirs. This made it where you were confined to the right side of the screen if you wanted to be effective. Another issue I saw was that if an enemy appeared at the same time as the boss, the boss would absorb all deflected attacks, rendering the lesser enemy impossible to kill until the boss was defeated. This gave the boss a second projectile in addition to his and the snakes, which I'm not sure was intentional. I think with a little work and some music and sound, this game would be really cool.

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal

A game where you have to shoot things with a bow and arrow and jump over hazards while riding a shield down a mountain. I had a blast with this game. Easy controls, but hard to master. Quick game loop. Played very well with my 8BitDo SN30 pro+ controller. The tune was very catchy as well!! Well done, Siolfor!


Unicorn Rampage by Richerama

A Shoot em up where you play as a unicorn in modern times, killing helicopters. The gameplay was pretty basic, but kept me entertained. My only problem with this game was that the buildings would collide with your bullets, but the helicopters had absolutely no problem flying through them, making it impossible to kill the ones that fly below the top of the buildings, and providing plenty of hazards for the player. I think if the bullets could not collide with the building I would enjoy this game more, but even that was a minor gripe. I had a good time and was able to beat the dragon. Plays best with an analog controller! Good Job!
 
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kburkhart84

Firehammer Games
Phew! Finally got these done. As usual there was quite a bit of variety to this so that's always good to see.

Below you will find my votes, etc... My scoring system, in order to try to keep myself equal from day to day, bases the actual values almost as if they were being judged as completed games. This means that I very rarely put "great" for any of the categories, except for when something really stood out(I only put one of those this time). I also generally didn't hand out many "poors" in the categories, except for example in cases where there is literally no story, or a COMPLETE lack of theme usage. Even a bare minimum on these things and I made it "OK" atleast. There were also a few games that were simply not my type, and so though I attempted to not downrate them for that, some of my bias may have leaked in. Anyhoos, take a look below.

Reviews

Top 3:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
Action was fun. There were a few different powerups somewhat unique as well. The last level was also extremely difficult and the only way I could beat it was the "freezing" power as there were just way too many bullets to dodge otherwise. The only fault I can really give it is that the enemies were basically palette swaps. At the least they has different behavior in general though.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Pretty nice little concept you have there...could turn into much more with some polish and actual development beyond jam time constraints. I gave it best presentation because the pixel graphics were quite well done, the music fit both the theme of the game and the graphics, and I noticed the detail even with the flute playing notes.

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
This one had a boring concept and was certainly much more story oriented. That said, the narration was really well done and is where all your points came from. That narration is why I rated this game the best story.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
Best Concept: Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
Best Presentation: The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Best Story: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  2. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  3. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  4. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  5. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  6. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  7. Ravana by The M
  8. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  9. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  10. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  11. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  12. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  13. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  14. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  15. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  16. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  17. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  18. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  19. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  20. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  21. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  22. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  23. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  24. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  25. CRUSH by Toque
  26. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  27. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  28. Minitaur by Sirham
  29. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda
  30. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  31. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  32. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

Comments:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64

Action was fun. There were a few different powerups somewhat unique as well. The last level was also extremely difficult and the only way I could beat it was the "freezing" power as there were just way too many bullets to dodge otherwise. The only fault I can really give it is that the enemies were basically palette swaps. At the least they has different behavior in general though.

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus

Short and sweet...I gave extra points to "presentation" just because of the high-score system not only being there but showing in game as you play.

Blade of Redemption by Ezra

Legit mini-rpg, just needs variety. It is weay too easy to just grind click and just win like that.

CROW by Terminator_Pony

The lack of an actual defined goal hurt this one I'd say. Most sandbox games have some sort of goal, and I don't know if the points thing was it.

CRUSH by Toque

Short, not much indication on what to do, and not much of a way to defend yourself from those ranged attacks. Health apples were too scarce too so there wasn't any easy way I could see to survive very long.

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

This one had a boring concept and was certainly much more story oriented. That said, the narration was really well done and is where all your points came from. That narration is why I rated this game the best story.

Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb

Not my kind of thing certainly...would have been better if there had been an actual goal instead of the never ending cycle. It could also have used a button saying actual stats, including strength with the spear.

FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc

Little mini-RTS isn't bad...just a little confuzzling on the buildings types since they are so small they are hard to differentiate. I think the AI should have been smarter, where the defenders would automatically gang up on the pirates, and the other ships would automatically return for repairs after maybe 50% health or somehting. An alternative would be manual control that could be toggled.

Gravity Bunny by Koopashy

I got a few levels in, didn't want to replay them when I lost and since you restart from the beginning...that was that. It is really strange not moving along with the platforms too.

Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84

This is the BEST game this jam has! I give it 6.5 out of 5 stars!!!!!!!!! Mario Shmario, we got the best platforming right here. Shooting action more your thing?! Forget Contra, Hades has you covered. TOP NOTCH!!!!!

Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28

Not bad once you figure out you can only shoot on the right spots(which are labeled in their fashion). It really needs more mechanics though, and maybe something like faster health regeneration for more territory owned(if it didn't have it).

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18

Interesting, but certainly hard to control and aim as it is quite fast. I couldn't even beat the first level though.

Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados

I don't really like the concept of having to control the two sides at once. It is too easy to focus on one and not the other. I'm sure other people enjoyed it though.

Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

Had no choice but to rate this one low since it wouldn't work.

Map of Legend by PugWizard101

The concept idea itself is sound...but needs work. Once you start having to click and drag precise and fast, it turns into something else instead of a puzzler. You either need to make it so there is more time to make those things happen, or do some kind of "planning" system where it can be pre-timed or something.

Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies

Mock OS was interesting...the lack of an overall goal or winning condition wasn't much fun though.

Minitaur by Sirham

Very limited actual gameplay...I added a bit of points for the ambience of the rooms after the first one and the bit of effort to story in those same rooms.

Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

I only gave points for the bit of effort you put into the parodies.

Prometheus Rising by Evanski

Ambitious for your 3d beginnings...glad you got that much done, surprised you credited me for the help but you are welcome to it. I actually had no issue finding the secrets myself, the texture being just so slightly different was what I think is a good balance, easy to miss, but not so hard to see if you actually look for it.

Ravana by The M

Quirky concept...really needed that bug with the final boss to be fixed to see the ending(though it wasn't much as you posted in the forum).

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan

I didn't get the theme or story part, and those are part of the judging, sorry. I REALLY liked the concept though. I don't think it exists in any form I've seen. Some iteration and a few more mechanics could certainly turn this into a commercial casual game product. This game got rated best concept since it was pretty damn unique.

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen

The effort of "nodding" at the folklore is certainly visible. The game just isn't really my style though. I gave it best of theme because most of these games really just kinda "glanced" at the theme but yours included a lot of elements relating to the theme.

Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus

Actually an interesting concept...a little clarity would have been nice as far as the icons since the little arrows were hard to see. It might have also been nice to be able to "pre-view" what happens without starting the "simulation."

Spielcomm: Origins by Bart

Seems like you just didn't get things done this time around honestly.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

Pretty nice little concept you have there...could turn into much more with some polish and actual development beyond jam time constraints. I gave it best presentation because the pixel graphics were quite well done, the music fit both the theme of the game and the graphics, and I noticed the detail even with the flute playing notes.

The Third Day by Ghandpivot

Interesting, quite hectic in the end though. Couldn't find a story but it was fun.

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

Gave me an error when exiting the game via the main menu. The concept itself is interesting enough. However, I'm not sure how much I like the idea of mixing rushed movement with the basic puzzle mechanics(even if one side holds for more time than the other).

Toilet Story by Micah_DS

Game seemed fun, but lack of custom controls kinda ruined it for me. I've never been able to properly play games using movement on the arrows and actions on the left. It got pretty difficult pretty fast, and then I don't know how to make that long jump once you end up needing to go all the way from the back to the front.

Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67

Short, but complete level with boss. The cooldown on the weapon sucks though since it is possible to just miss the timing, or to have the snakes come in just after other projectiles. I understand it though since it would be too easy to just spam it.

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal

Game is interesting enough concept...I don't mind doing multiple things at once when one of them is optional(as in shooting targets isn't required so you can focus on the jumps when they come). I still don't know why this god of skiing is skiing though...

Unicorn Rampage by Richerama

Not a bad concept so far...just needs more cues on the upgrades, like maybe progress on temp or permanent ones.
 
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Bart

WiseBart
Bart's Reviews

Top 3:

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
I have to say I was sold on this game from the moment I saw the first pixel art appearing in the game's post.
The art is absolutely beautiful! The music fits perfectly (is it a sitar instrument that's playing there?). The loop is so simple yet it doesn't easily become repetitive.
The sound effects are great as well: the hooves, the blocks, the rotating gears, the rat, the flute that plays notes that are adjusted to the background music, ...
All of these elements create an atmosphere that fits the theme perfectly.

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
What a beautiful game! I absolutely love it!
This may be more of an experience than an actual game but it pulled me right in.
It managed to captivate me and left a lasting impression. Thank you for that.

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
Finnish mythology sure sounds interesting!
I really enjoyed playing this game. The somewhat dark ominous atmosphere is great.
I did have to look at some of the clues in the readme to be able to advance.
Neat game!

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Best Concept: Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
Best Presentation: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
Best Story: Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  2. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  3. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  4. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  5. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  6. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  7. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  8. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  9. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  10. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  11. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  12. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  13. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  14. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  15. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  16. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  17. Ravana by The M
  18. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  19. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  20. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda
  21. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  22. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  23. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  24. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  25. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  26. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  27. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  28. CRUSH by Toque
  29. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  30. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson
  31. Minitaur by Sirham
  32. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy

Comments:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64

What a fun and addicting game!
The visuals are nice, music and sound effects fit well.
The game was very easy in the first levels which made me wonder why you have that much HP.
The later levels became a lot harder, so that explained it.
I enjoyed this game a lot!

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus

Lovely concept. I played it a couple of times, my maximum score is 47.
Good choice of background music and a fitting block sound effect.

I might play this game again later. It's pretty addicting :p

This might be best concept

Blade of Redemption by Ezra

Very impressive game that you created. I really like all the enemies, they look great!
The game feels a bit too simple, though. I eventually defeated the level 100 dragon but the only thing I had to do to get there was to defeat all enemies, level up, defeat enemies again, ... I essentially pressed the Attack button the entire time and then picked the fight on the map depending on my level.
I got one brownie point in the end. It seemed like I could still continue to play the game then but I quit after that.

CROW by Terminator_Pony

Nice to see an Irish myth. The crow is an interesting symbol.
I couldn't figure out what to do in this game.
I kept flying over the units, pressing S and D. Pressing S seemed to remove the corpses which prevented morale from going down.

CRUSH by Toque

Lovely little game! Cute enemy characters. A 'classic' Toque game with the man in the underwear present as usual.
The giant looks a lot like the Hulk

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

What a beautiful game! I absolutely love it!
This may be more of an experience than an actual game but it pulled me right in. It managed to captivate me and left a lasting impression.
Thank you for that.

Definitely also a candidate for best use of theme and best presentation

Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb

This is an interesting idea. I played the game for a while and beat a couple of enemies.
The audio is well done, background music fits well and creates a somewhat dark atmosphere. I like that.
I personally found it fairly hard to stay concentrated on this game and the spoken text started feeling a bit repetitive quite quickly.
Perhaps what could work is to add some more sound effects that keep the attention.

FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc

This seems like a very nice game. The somewhat 'dark' background music instantly sets the tone.
I'd love to play the game a bit more but it seems like collecting resources goes incredibly slowly.
I restarted a couple of times to try other ways to spend the resources you start with but I always ended up at 0. As said, after that collecting resources goes very slowly.
I'm not sure if I missed something. I might play again later.

Gilgamesh by Ninety

A very short platformer. I absolutely enjoyed playing it!
The atmosphere is quite unique. Nice background music and sound effects.
Very nice but too short!

A candidate for best presentation

Gravity Bunny by Koopashy

A very basic platform game. Lovely cute bunny.
I played the first couple of levels.
Overall it feels a bit too incoherent and there are quite a few bugs with the platforming.

Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84

I really enjoyed playing this.
Great color scheme and selection of music and sound effects.

The ability to change the keyboard keys is nice to have for people like me with an AZERTY keyboard layout.
It took me a moment to figure out that you have to hold the new key down for a moment to actually set it.

Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28

Very nice game with some clean, polished visuals. It's a nice concept that's quite fun to play. I enjoyed it!
I also like the potato characters a lot, they're adorable!
One thing that I couldn't figure out was how to attack. Clicking the left mouse button doesn't always seem to work.
I tried standing on hexagons with my mark on it though I'm not sure if that's what's needed to be able to attack. (That does seem to be it. That's a nice idea to do it that way.)
The enemy potatos' AI could be a bit better I think. Winning seems to be as easy as capturing as many hexagons as possible, then killing the last potato opponent.

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18

This game is really hard! Die after a single hit.
This feels like you continuously have to play with the precision of a sniper in TF2.
And while I do like that since it requires you to focus it's a bit too much for me to have that level of focus on a game all the time.
So I quit playing after a couple of attempts... I really like the idea, though!

Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados

Controlling two sides at the same time is an interesting idea.
Very nice background music.
The colors and visuals are nice overall though the resolutions of the sprites seem to be a bit inconsistent (e.g. compare sun and moon to the eyes or to the enemies).
It seems like the Shift key is included as a character when entering a name for the highscore list.

Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

This looks like it is a battle game with cards.
The visuals are basic yet nice. I like the atmosphere of the forest environment.
Unfortunately it's not clear to me how I'm supposed to play this.
When I drag an attack card to the center the enemy health quickly goes down and below 0.
Also, the button End Turn doesn't seem to do anything.
Not sure if all this was implemented in this jam version. It seems like this wasn't finished.

Map of Legend by PugWizard101

Neat game. I like the concept of the two sides where you move blocks on one side which changes the level on the other side.
Lovely characters in the introduction.
I played it for a short while. Got stuck in one of the later levels.

Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies

Lovely idea! I managed to complete the game.
It's quite fun to switch between the different programs and look for clues.
I constantly tried navigating between input fields using the Tab key and other hotkeys such as Home and End, which didn't work :p
It's nice that you managed to code all this, though. It looks and feels like a pretty realistic OS.
The voice acting is a nice addition.

A candidate for best story and for best concept

Minitaur by Sirham

A very short game. The minitaur character is cute.
There's not much to see or do in this game unfortunately.

Murder on the Styx Express by Alice

A lovely, well chosen background tune. It really manages to captivate the "grandeur" of those legendary "Express" trains.
I also really like the title of the game.
There's some interesting humor in the dialogues.

I got stuck after talking to the alchemist about the poisoning. It seems like I'm missing something.
I might play again later.

A candidate for best story because of all the detail that clearly went into the characters and story. A convincing use of theme as well.

Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

This entry left a mark! And, despite it being a joke game, I expect it's the joke game with the most effort gone into it.
This is unique, to say the least. Great audio, great a capella singing. The credits music is great.
I can really appreciate the humor in this.

Prometheus Rising by Evanski

Nice game, it looks good and plays smoothly. A good selection of background music to go with it. I love the odd chair-like thing in the boss room.
A bit too bad that you mostly used pre-made assets and an engine that was partially made before the jam. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the game. I definitely did.
Hoping to see this little engine being developed further! :)

Ravana by The M

Very clever game idea!
The controls using only the mouse work very well.
I particularly liked the lockpicking minigame.
Also, the boss looks beautiful!

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan

Interesting puzzle game! Highly polished, as usual.
I played a game against Daddy O' Luck (great character names).
At first it seemed like I was winning but the difficult decisions seem to come at the end when the board is almost full.
That makes the gameplay more complex than it might appear at first. That's a good thing.
The good selection of background music really sets the right mood for this game.

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen

Finnish mythology sure sounds interesting!
I really enjoyed playing this game. The somewhat dark ominous atmosphere is great.
I did have to look at some of the clues in the readme to be able to advance.
Neat game!

Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus

I was able to complete most of the puzzles but gave up somewhere near the end.
The concept is interesting. Some puzzles aren't too obvious to solve though.
The blocks that indicate the direction that the gods take could be more clear (the arrows should be a bit bigger)

You have a nice soothing voice, great for narration. I love the "roll the main menu" (that's a very nice rolling "R" :p)
I could greatly appreciate the humor in there.

I got an error when returning to the menu from the level select screen. Something with o_curtain.moving
Use of the theme is quite limited

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

I have to say I was sold on this game from the moment I saw the first pixel art appearing in the game's post.
The art is absolutely beautiful! The music fits perfectly (is it a sitar instrument that's playing there?). The loop is so simple yet it doesn't easily become repetitive.
The sound effects are great as well: the hooves, the blocks, the rotating gears, the rat, the flute that plays notes that are adjusted to the background music, ...
All of these elements create an atmosphere that fits the theme perfectly.

This is the seventh jam game that I play and it takes first place. Any other entry will have to be quite exceptional in its own right to change that.
It's definitely a candidate for best use of theme and best presentation as well.

I couldn't advance in the level where you need to get the rat to the button in the top left corner but I'm definitely going to play this again later!
The rat does seem to turn into a flying one when it's left on a single block and then charmed by playing the pan flute. That seems to be a bug and the consequence is that you're forced to restart the level.
One more tiny thing is that it'd be neat if the game would support ZQSD as well, for those people like me with an AZERTY keyboard layout.

Not more to add I think. To me this seems as close to perfection that a jam game made in 96 hours is going to get.
What could be a nice addition I think are some particle effects and more moving things to make the environment a bit livelier.

I still have to play the post-jam version.

The Third Day by Ghandpivot

I played the game for a bit. The boss's attacks are nice.
At one point I didn't seem to have any ammo anymore and couldn't attack further.
Can this game be completed?

I wonder why this game throws a server side error when I fall off the sides.
It makes me wonder what it's doing behind the scenes (highscores I assume?)

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

This game looks beautiful visually! The concept is nice.

A candidate for best concept

Toilet Story by Micah_DS

So Toilet Story made it! :p
The visuals look great, very nice colors.
It's enjoyable to play this, it plays smoothly. In later levels the game slows down quite a bit. I expect that can be optimized.
Nice background music. It felt like it was missing a sound effect for the gun.
I didn't play until the end. Not sure if I missed a/the toilet somewhere?
There doesn't seem to be a connection to the theme except the unicorn

Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67

What a lovely little game! Pretty visuals and fun to play.
It could use a couple of sound effects and a background music to make it complete.

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal

Nice one! It's a fun game to play.
Nicely polished too, as usual.
I especially like the combination of the skiing and the shooting.
It feels a bit dumb that he stumbles over his own arrows. It does increase the realism of the game, though!

Unicorn Rampage by Richerama

Lovely little game. I didn't get a very high score.
It plays smoothly, starts out slowly and then increases the difficulty.
I like the colors of this game.
It felt a bit odd to see the bullets get destroyed on collision with the buildings but not the unicorns and helicopters.
 
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Ericbomb

Member
EDIT: Added comments for every game!

Reviews

Top 3:

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
I am ready to worship Cthildha. When do we meet? Super cute, super well executed.

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
That was such a complex puzzle game for a jam! I was impressed by the blue berry puzzle because there were so many "Almost" successes. Wonderful work all around. Also I thought I would have a nice picknick with the bear... that... did not happen.

Toilet Story by Micah_DS

Amazing style, just loved it. I could see myself playing a game like this for hours.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
Best Concept: Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
Best Presentation: Toilet STory by Micah_DS
Best Story: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
Best Devlog: ...



Full ranking:

  1. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  2. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  3. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  4. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  5. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  6. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  7. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  8. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  9. Ravana by The M
  10. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  11. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  12. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  13. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  14. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  15. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  16. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  17. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  18. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  19. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  20. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  21. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  22. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  23. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  24. CRUSH by Toque
  25. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  26. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  27. Minitaur by Sirham
  28. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  29. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  30. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  31. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson
  32. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda


Comments:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64

An okay little shooter, but I felt like the levels were too long and too easy. So getting new powers felt completly unncessary and the levels felt repetitive. A variety of enemies, levels getting harder, and shorter level would make this a wonderful game though I think.

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus

Simple game, but it felt very smooth and fits in the theme well. Grahpics also fit nicely.

Blade of Redemption by Ezra

Really cool! But I felt the way everything was set up there was no point in doing anything but spamming attack. If you focused + attacked, you did less damage than just two attacks since they'd defend. But still a very solid entry.

CROW by Terminator_Pony

The concept is really nice, the idea of indirectly controlling a battle to make it so that it goes on longer and is more grand is super unique and fresh. The controls were a bit hard though and I wasn't always sure what was going on. Still really cool game and the theme fit in super well.

CRUSH by Toque

Rather fun for a few minutes, but felt rather simple and with your slow movement it didn't seem like you could last very long regardless of what you did. Having a little bit more that you could do would have felt nice.

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

I jsut love this one so much. I of course would have loved more game play, but just placing different planets and listening to the story was super enjoyable. The movement felt strange, but I'm fully behind this story.

FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc

So the concept and style are both really nice, controlling is a little difficult and it seems like it's expected to do things in a certain order. I got swamped pretty quick because I was trying to read/figure everything out, then got hit by a large fleet, built defenses, then didn't really have a way to collect more as I had lost my collectors.

Gilgamesh by Ninety

A really well done platformer. The enemies seemed to get in the way of actual game play more than anything, but the controls felt nice, and I just really enjoyed this one.

Gravity Bunny by Koopashy

Good effort, I feel like making the hitboxes less painful on the spikes and making the rabbit sprite not move constantnly, while funny, would be great improvements.

Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84

The amount of attacks it took to kill things seemed to slow the game down, and for me the art style was a little too... I can't think of the word, but too much red.

Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28

So it took me a bit to understand how to attack, and sometimes I think the AI bugs out not sure why it's not firing as it'll stand there looking at me like it's trying to fire, then wander away. But for some reason it just was fun. The theme though kind of felt just like a skin. Like could just have easily put a dozen different themes/costumes/weapons and gotten the same result. But still was just fun for me.

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18

Hard to control, like you said it's not done yet. But still interesting entry.

Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados

So for this one I feel like the style was really well done, it just didn't land for me in regards to having to control two creatures, and each invidual bullet shot doing very little sometimes felt like the best thing was just to sit one on spawn and it would sometimes do it for me. It was certainlly well programmed and everything works wonderfully.

Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

Card engine seems like it's not quiet working, but looks like it was giong to be real nice.

Map of Legend by PugWizard101

Very cool concept! Some of the jumps/moves that requried you to be fast with moving the blocks on the map and moving your character were a bit tricky and felt clunky. But I still really liked the concept of this.

Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies

Not sure what to say here besides how silly it is. The desktop simulation was well done, and the story was rather ridic. Did fall prey to mostly feeling like the theme was skinned on. But still was enjoyable.

Minitaur by Sirham

Pun is great, game is very simple. But the laugh I think is worth a lot still.

Murder on the Styx Express by Alice

This one seems super well made, the sylization wasn't exactly for me and knowing exactly what to do in these types of games can always be hard. Also I did get this error Variable <unknown_object>.name(100021, -2147483648) cannot be resolved.
at gml_Script_anon_gml_Object_ui_InteractionButton_Other_10_536_gml_Object_ui_InteractionButton_Other_10
############################################################################################
gml_Script_anon_gml_Object_ui_InteractionButton_Other_10_536_gml_Object_ui_InteractionButton_Other_10 (line -1)
gml_Script_flow_pop
gml_Object_ctrl_ItemInteraction_Other_10
gml_Object_ctrl_Flow_Step_0 (line -1)
While trying to interact with object. I don't remember what object, maybe I had misclicked, but trying to test out trying objects on the ferryman (I got this while looking at it the second time, I didn't get an error and not report it I promise!)


Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

Quality troll post

Prometheus Rising by Evanski

Really well made, I didn't understand how the last ammo you picked up was supposed to work, it mostly just seemed to sit in front of me after firing, and since all the other manas were so limited I didn't get as much time to mess with them as I would have liked. So basically beat the game just using the default. Which is fine, but would have loved to rock out to some other.

Ravana by The M

I dont' know if I was missing something but Ravana I just couldn't kill! Very cool Undertale inspiried game though. Also maybe I couldn't figure it out, but my inventory having two swords in it without a way to throw them away wasn't super great.

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan

Okay I really liked the mechanics behind this one. I felt like the board game is legit a simple board game I would play as a more casual strategy game. The graphics were really nice, and the AI difficulty felt right on. I was able to win, but just barely most of the time. So I did have to think things through. The theme felt more like a skin, which is understandable. My one complaint is turn transitions would have been nicer.

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen

That was such a complex puzzle game for a jam! I was impressed by the blue berry puzzle because there were so many "Almost" successes. Wonderful work all around. Also I thought I would have a nice picknick with the bear... that... did not happen. But overall, it was really nicely done.

Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus

The mechanics here are very solid, and the art is absolutly silly. Not my type of game, but still it's a decently made puzzle game.

Spielcomm: Origins by Bart

Looks like classic over scoping. Great attempt though! Hopefully next entry you'll be able to manage time better.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

So this one is weird for me and became a bit of a base line when rating others. The art seemed nicely done, but the platforming for me felt pretty one dimensional and despite trying for awhile I couldn't figure out how to control the mouse. I may change my rating on this one if I figure out how to control the mouse. Also if I'm being picky on the theme, Hades doesn't live in Tartarus. A fact I know only because I spent too much time on that wikipedia article.

The Third Day by Ghandpivot

Fun fact, if you run straight off a cliff on the starting screen, you get a server error message! Kind of hope all these are making it to GhandPivot. Also I'd pay legit money to see someone do a no damage speed run of this game. A really cool boss fight game with a bunch of stages, and switching weapons each stage is super fun, it never gets old and it's a bummer when it ends. I will say it's only "Vaugly" themed, because you could basically just reskin this to anything. But still, very fun.

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

Can't seem to progress past a certain level. I press the button to lower the spears, but I can't go over them while possessing the child. But still, a fantastic concent and well done. The idea of being a will o the wisp guiding a child just stuck with me super strongly.

Toilet Story by Micah_DS

For me what stands out is just how well done the graphics and semi 3d animation on this are done. The slide jump took a bit of practice to get the timing right, but once I got it down it felt super fluid. There were a bit too many enemies at points, but still loved it.

Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67

The grpahics on this one were amazing, but the pace of things felt off. Maybe slightly faster movement, then a longer field of view would have helped.

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal

Sending back to the start on wiping out is a little harsh since you get to spend less time focusing on lining up cool shots and become more worried with the obstacles. But I actually really enjoyed how you made the jump happen. Doing an actual jump would have thrown off whatever shot you were aiming, but the nice spin kept the shot consistent and fit the theme of extreme snow boarding.

Unicorn Rampage by Richerama

Okay this one was cute. It took me too long to try clicking the "bomb" button because I didn't read that it was you popping to destroy the guns. I was confused why the buildings blocked my bullets, then impressed by it when the guns arrived. Could ramp up in difficulty a little faster, but still a fun and simple entry.
 
Last edited:

ghandpivot

Member

Video 1:
Order of appearance:
Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
Invaders of Egypt by Jarfunkados
Toilet Story by Micah_DS
CROW by Terminator_pony
Hades vs Satan by Kburkhart84
Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
Blade of Redemption by Ezra
APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
Ravana by The M
Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
Gilgamesh by Ninety
Otter: Prologue -mytholgies- by Cantavanda
Prometheus Rising by Evanski
FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr. Magnus

Video 2:
Order of appearance:
The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, Bandman28
Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
Map of Legend by PugWizard101
CRUSH by Toque
Minitaur by Sirham
Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson
Mars god of war and sometimes internships by Mercerenies
The insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus

My Votes:
1. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
2. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
3. Ravana by The M
Rest:
4. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr. Magnus
5. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
6. The insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
7. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
8. Gilgamesh by Ninety
9. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
10. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
11. Mars god of war and sometimes internships by Mercerenies
12. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
13. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
14. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
15. CROW by Terminator_pony
16. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
17. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
18. CRUSH by Toque
19. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
20. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
21. Hades vs Satan by Kburkhart84
22. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
23. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
24. Otter: Prologue -mytholgies- by Cantavanda
25. Minitaur by Sirham
26. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
27. Invaders of Egypt by Jarfunkados
28. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
29. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, Bandman28
30. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
31. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
32. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson
 
Last edited:
Reserved! Good luck everyone! Hope y'all enjoy invaders of Egypt 😎

Top 3:
1. ULLR
2. RollDyce Kingdom
3. Will o Wisp


Best use of Theme: Insufferable Pan
Best Concept: Ullr
Best Presentation: Rolldyce Kingdom
Best Story: Mars God Of War
Best Devlog:

Honorary Awarad: Funniest Game: Mars God of War and Sometimes Internships

1. Ullr
2. Rolldyce Kingdom
3. Will o Wisp
4. Toilet Story
5. Gligamesh
6. Hat Wearing Children
7. Unicorn Rampage
->if i were to rate my game among everyone, i'd put it here.
8. Mars God Of War and Sometimes Internships
8.5 Typhons return (missed this one and not renumbering everything)
9. Map of Legend
10. Apollo
11. The Insufferable Pan
12. Lore Quest
13. The Third Day
14. Hades vs Satan
15. Babel
16. Crow
17. Half A Dozen Potatoes
18. Blade of Redemption
19. Far Outpost 42
20. Sleepy Gods
21. Minotaur
22. Spielcomm Origins
23. Crush
24. Secret of Tapiola
25. Chitdla
26. Murder on the Styx Express
27. Ravana *no matter what I do I can't get this game to work*
28. Gravity Bunny
29. Otter

"Gilgamesh"
fun game, good simple platforming mechanics. Short but effective I enjoyed the two minutes or so playing through it. Would love to see it expanded upon. Enjoyed the graphics and sounds as well.

"Murder on the styx express"
I really love the idea of this game and it's put together well, however I found the interface to be confusing, I wish there was a little more on-screen clarification, it made it difficult to understand what was going on.
The sprites were really funny, I do appreciate the minimalistic approach. However, after about 2 minutes of playing I got an error
"
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Other Event: User Defined 0
for object ui_InteractionButton:

Variable <unknown_object>.on_talk(100890, -2147483648) cannot be resolved.
at gml_Object_ui_InteractionButton_Other_10
############################################################################################
gml_Object_ui_InteractionButton_Other_10 (line -1)
gml_Object_ctrl_Area_Other_10 (line -1)
gml_Object_ctrl_Flow_Step_0 (line -1)
"

"Lore Quest"
This game looks great and the idea seemed cool, but it didn't appear to work for me. Whenever I clicked a card the game wouldn't let me do anything and whatever value it was supposed to be changing (like dealing damage) would happen infinitely. If i clicked end turn instead of a card it also froze. I tried about 5 times and clicked everywhere and could not get it working. No readme in the game jam game so I can't move forward playing this unfortunately. (but if you message me I would like to give it another chance!)

"Rolldyce Kingdom"
First impression: WOW! This looks and plays like a game you'd actually have to pay for. Everything is expertly done and I can tell the author has a lot of experience in game development. The mechanics are unique and interesting, and I'm very impressed this was done in 4 days. I imagine if this was a full-fledged game there would be more mechanics and things going on, and I think it actually has potential to be developed further. Great work!

"Invaders Of Egypt"
this is my game so no comment, just adding things as I go through the list.

"FarOutPost 42"
This game looks great, and plays smoothly as far as I can tell. It took me a minute to figure out how to build, and after about 10 minutes the game started to feel kind of slow to me, I do think it is wonderfully designed, but perhaps it's just not a genre I like to play. Great entry for the jam though! I would like to see gameplay from someone who gets far into it.

"Ravana"
This game appears to be missing from the GMC player files, I tried to download it from the other thread but my computer is giving me issues. At first it wouldn't run it and delete it (because its an .exe i guess) and now I can't even download the file. Will hopefully figure this out before voting ends. I want to play everyone's game!

"Babel"
Fun, simple, straightforward. I frequent arcades a lot so I play alternate versions of this quite often. My only complaint is since it's grid based it feels very rigid, if the blocks were smoother in their movement instead of being connected to the grid, i think it could feel better.

"Speilcomm Origins"
I applaud the attempt at making a 3d game in game maker - I was very confused though. My sword disappeared after having it for a few seconds, and at least 40-50 of the bombs spawned and started sliding across the floor like crazy. I placed bombs but wasn't sure how to detonate them or damage enemies.

"Toilet Story"
feels good, looks good, and I beat it although it only took about 2 minutes. Overall I think it's good and I would enjoy seeing this fleshed out into a full game, i think bosses could be really fun. Also top notch music selection!

"Sleepy Gods"
Interesting idea for a puzzle game and challenging to say the least! Did have a problem with the voice lines overlapping each other and so I had no idea what they were saying when I started.

"Mars God Of War and Sometimes Internships"
I have to admit I chuckled pretty good at the password thing when you log in, and the camera in the computer. The idea is neat and it seems to run well. I was having fun and I love the sense of humour but after I decrypted the message from minerva I had no idea how to login to the site and got lost. Cool game
*edit* went back and beat the game. Was really funny.

"Blade of Redemption"
Game looks really good and it plays smoothly. I like the graphics and I think overall it's very well done. The gameplay feels a little lacking though, as within 5 minutes i got to level 132, beat it multiple times and killed the dragon. You can just spam-press attack and gain levels very quickly by defeating bosses. No need to focus, or defend.

"Minotaur"
Funny premise and dodging the giant feet was entertaining - however then you just kinda run straight and it ends. Wish there was more content in the game but it's a good start for something

"Hat Wearing Children"
as a fan of hotline miami i really enjoyed playing this, unfortunately on the third level I got stuck in a wall and it wouldn't let me restart. I see you said the 360 no scopes are a bug, but I think they are really great and make the ai a lot more interesting. Would love to see a full fledged version of this.

"Unicorn Rampage"
The parallax scrolling looks fantastic and the gameplay is very smooth. I love the design and I think it's a very solid concept for a game jam game. Everything looks clean and professional, music is good, and the alternate pathing for the helicopters is great too.

"ULLR"
This may be the most fun i've had up to this point! Really great graphics, even the text is accurate to norse mythology and the feel. The idea of sledding and kickflipping on a shield is hilarious and I fully support it. Game has basic mechanics but is challenging to master. After five or six attempts I finally made it down the mountain and scored 107000 points! also HUGE bonus points for gamepad compatibility that works well, I loved it. great job!

"Gravity Bunny"
This is a game. Hitboxes are def off but I'm not sure if that's on purpose or not. Brutal and punishing as you have to go to the start when you die.

"Map of Legend".
really unique idea for a game and it insanely challenging sometimes to be quick enough to place the blocks. I loved it!

"The Will O Wisp"
Very cool idea and I enjoyed the puzzles - the control scheme is also great and the graphics fit the setting very nicely. good job!

"Hades Vs Satan"
runs smoothly and looks good, but i really wish it was bigger or fullscreen. It felt straining to focus on things that are so tiny.

"CRUSH"
looks good, runs good, but I wish there was more to the gameplay.

"Apollo"
looks good and plays well. I like the upgrades and the soundtrack and SFX were also good. My main gripe is that it was too easy - i found after you get multi shot you can just hold it down and kill everything, gaining back the life you lose no matter how many times you get hit. I did enjoy it and played to the last level. One big thing - if you go to the very top of the screen nothing hits you and you can fly through the level without playing.

"Secrets of Tapiola"
not really sure what to say here

"Chtilda"
Felt more like a story book simulator than a game, but it was very well done.

"The Insufferable Pan"
LOVE the animations and sprites, they are on point with the theme and fantastic. Sound effects are great too. Gameplay is good although i find far too often im falling off the side when I'm trying to jump. That got frustrating quickly.

"Crow"
Even after reading the directions I'm not totally sure what the end-goal of the game was. Gameplay seemed kind of slow but it didn't crash and ran well so that's a bonus!

"The Third Day"
Had a good laugh at the character sprite and concept, then got an error (spoiler below)

Game was fun but I guess you can't die? I was getting absolutely pounded by the end. Cool progression but needs to be fleshed out more.


___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object GMS:

SERVER ERROR:Action Logout cannot be executed when not logged in

Please note: This is a server-sided error message. To hide all GameMaker Server-errors, call gms_debug_hide_errors().
at gml_Script_XServer_error
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Script_XServer_error (line -1)
gml_Script_gms_step
gml_Object_GMS_Step_0

"Otter"
I guess this is a 💩💩💩💩post which I admire but I laughed harder at some of the more legit entries

"Half a Dozen Potatoes"
funny and cute but not much for gameplay - i would love to see it fleshed out more into a full game. Being a little more zoomed out could be nice too.

"Escape from Tartarus"
not sure what to say here.

"Prometheus Rising"
I love the old school doom feel, and for what it is it's done well - I'm just not big on "3d" games in game maker like this. For old school doom fans though, this is nice. Graphics are good and gameplay is smooth.

"Typhons Return"
Fun little game, good controls, enjoyed beating it. really nice art and style.
 
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REVIEWS
Best Use of Theme: The Insufferable Pan by @Pixel-Team

Best Concept: Ravana by @The M
Best Presentation: Rolldyce Kingdoms by @GameDevDan
Best Story: Cthildha by Jordan & Amber Thomas (@Mightyjor)
Best Devlog: Blade of Redemption by Ezra (@SoapSud39)

1. The Insufferable Pan by @Pixel-Team
2. Rolldyce Kingdoms by @GameDevDan
3. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping (@HeadlessOne)
4. Cthildha by Jordan & Amber Thomas (@Mightyjor)
5. Ravana by @The M
6. Blade of Redemption by Ezra (@SoapSud39)
7. Gilgamesh by @Ninety
8. Map of Legend by @PugWizard101
9. Escape from Tartarus by @Ericbomb
10. Prometheus Rising by @EvanSki
11. Toilet Story by @Micah_DS
12. Murder on the Styx Express by @Alice
13. FarOutPost 42 by @HayManMarc
14. Hades vs. Satan by @kburkhart84
15. Unicorn Rampage by @Richerama
16. Secrets of Tapiola by @Poizen
17. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by @Mr Magnus
18. Typhon's Return by @herostone67 and Royaku (don't know how to reference you sorry)
19. The Third Day by @ghandpivot
20. Ullr by @Siolfor the Jackal
21. Half a Dozen Potatoes by @Josh Chen and @bandman28
22. CROW by @Terminator_Pony
23. Invaders of Egypt by @Jarfunkados
24. Minitaur by @Sirham
25. CRUSH by @Toque
26. Spielcomm: Origins by @Bart
27. Lore Quest by @BraydeeJohnson
28. Sleepy Gods by @Mr Magnus
29. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy (@GuineaPig)
30. Hat Wearing Children by @Bearman_18
31. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by @Mercerenies
32. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by @Cantavanda

I don't really know what to comment for each entry, so I'll do my best ;)

- The Insufferable Pan by @Pixel-Team
Presentation is great, gameplay is innovative, smiles all around. Solid entry.

- Rolldyce Kingdoms by @GameDevDan
A good strategy game, very creative!

- The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping (@HeadlessOne)
Has an interesting concept, got stuck on level 7 because I kept dying from the spikes. Eventually I skipped the level altogether, but everything else is solid!

- Cthildha by Jordan & Amber Thomas (@Mightyjor)
Neat little story, movement feels a bit awkward around the planets (albeit I understand what you were trying to accomplish).

- Ravana by @The M
Love the concept! For some reason I was unable to kill Ravana so I had to stop there. Great aesthetic though!

- Blade of Redemption by Ezra (@SoapSud39)
Good story, solid gameplay. I felt it was a bit easy though.

- Gilgamesh by @Ninety
Art style is great, gameplay was smooth.

- Map of Legend by @PugWizard101
Cool concept, however it was hard to multitask trying to get the block beneath me as I was in mid-air.

- Escape from Tartarus by @Ericbomb
This one is different, I like it! Dialogue was great, gameplay was simple (not in a bad way though).

- Prometheus Rising by @EvanSki
Dig the DOOM concept! Using mana was a bit awkward at times but I eventually got the hang of it.

- Toilet Story by @Micah_DS
Nice 2.5D aesthetic, was a bit hard to aim given the 2D sprites on a 3D plane.

- Murder on the Styx Express by @Alice
Classic murder mystery, got a bit lost trying to figure everything out but I guess that's the whole "mystery" aspect of it.

(Meds making me sleepy, will continue comments tomorrow)
 
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Josh Chen

Member
Reviews

Top 5:

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
First thing that stood out to me was that the difficulty was just right, and that's so important for a jam game! There were lots of places where I got stuck but I managed to figure it all out without any hints, and the puzzles were actually really fun to solve.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Surprisingly well polished for a jam game, awesome job! The story and presentation were perfect, and the audio was especially well thought out.

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
Simple concept but super well polished and cleanly put together. I like the different weapons and the difficulty seemed great.

Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
This is an impressive little computer system you've made, and the game is pretty fun. Creative concept.

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
Super challenging but addicting! I didn't even make it past the second level but just getting there was exciting and annoying enough. Would've ranked it even higher if it used the theme.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Best Concept: Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
Best Presentation: The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Best Story: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  2. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  3. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  4. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  5. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  6. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  7. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  8. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  9. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  10. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  11. Ravana by The M
  12. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  13. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  14. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  15. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  16. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  17. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  18. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  19. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  20. CRUSH by Toque
  21. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  22. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  23. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  24. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  25. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  26. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  27. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  28. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson
  29. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  30. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  31. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda
  32. Minitaur by Sirham
 
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HeadlessOne

Member
Reviews

Top 3:

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas - Just a really well polished experience with a great story and cute little graphics.


Ravana by The M - Really liked the gameplay ideas here, the art is simple but cohesive.


Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan - very well polished board game.



Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
Best Concept: Ravana by The M
Best Presentation: Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
Best Story: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

Full ranking:

(i might update these as i get more time to re-play some of the games)
  1. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  2. Ravana by The M
  3. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  4. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  5. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  6. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  7. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  8. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  9. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  10. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  11. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  12. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  13. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  14. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  15. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  16. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  17. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb - interesting concept to have a purely audio experience,
  18. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  19. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc - cool game well implimented i would have scored it higher but i wasn't sure how it fit the theme.
  20. Toilet Story by Micah_DS - cool game well implimented i would have scored it higher but i wasn't sure where it fit the theme.
  21. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice - I got stuck pretty early on so i might revisit it but i like the story/ use of the theme.
  22. Map of Legend by PugWizard101 - an interesting concept for a game and your graphics were good.
  23. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus - the audio comentry was funny and enjoyed the puzzle mechanics,
  24. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18 - looked good but i marked it down abit because i couldn't see where you had implimented the theme
  25. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus - reminds me abit of an arcade game i remember playing... i didn't win an iphone this time eather :p. it all works really well... and your scores are tough tobeat.
  26. CRUSH by Toque - crushed it! I think the only thing that put me off this game abit was that there wasn't like a good strategic way to crush without getting hurt before i got there... which limited my crush-time.
  27. Minitaur by Sirham - hehe puns, i liked the simple graphics.
  28. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  29. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64 - I had a power bar but no powers for some reason? music was catch but i wasn't sure how it fit the theme and the gameplay loop quickly stagnated
  30. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart - A great attempt at 3d graphics but somehow i was able to get infinite bombs... and after 2-3 the enemys just stoped spawning for me
  31. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda - I think there are alot of inside jokes here that didn't quite land with me.
  32. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson - i had a bug where the first card you selected just infinitly repeated its action so i wasn't able to get much of a measure of this game sorry.
 
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GameDevDan

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

Reviews

Top 3:

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
Soothing and charming, with a cute story and well presented. I really like the idea behind this. I would prefer the controls to be a bit more free, getting gravity locked to planets makes it feel a bit clunky at times. But I enjoyed building my universe to the end of the story and little while beyond just seeing the different colours and patterns I could make for each planet. Nice work.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
The graphics are really fantastic as usual from Pixel-Team, and the concept is great too being able to control the rats. The controls are a bit weirdly positioned for me as a matter of personal preference I feel like the cursor keys could have duplicated the WASD behaviour as they don't seem to be used for anything else. As it is *everything* in the game is naturally controlled by the left hand making it hard to do 2 things at once. Also the punishment for failure in later levels is too harsh. I didn't reach the end because I rage quit on a level where you have to press about 5 switches as the rat, and if you fall off the bottom you have to start again from the beginning... this coupled with the slightly frustrating controls makes it hard to justify the time sink with so many other games to play! But - the only reason I am providing long & detailed criticism is because I believe the game could be very very good with just a few tweaks, and I would love to see it continued, expanded and improved after the jam.

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
Well-executed scrolling shooter, certainly kept me entertained for a while. I like the music, I like the variety of special weapons you unlock as you go along. The game is quite easy, but that's OK because it allows you to showcase those extra features as you progress through the levels. Possible suggestions for improvement both involve the mouse: 1. I never stop shooting, therefore you may as well make shooting automatic and not make players hold down the left mouse (which caused my hand to ache pretty quickly). 2. The mouse wheel to change weapon feels backwards to me (scroll down should be right, scroll up should left?)

Top 10 (all I have time for, sorry!)

  1. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  2. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  3. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  4. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  5. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  6. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  7. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  8. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  9. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  10. CRUSH by Toque

Comments:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64

Well-executed scrolling shooter, certainly kept me entertained for a while. I like the music, I like the variety of special weapons you unlock as you go along. The game is quite easy, but that's OK because it allows you to showcase those extra features as you progress through the levels. Possible suggestions for improvement both involve the mouse: 1. I never stop shooting, therefore you may as well make shooting automatic and not make players hold down the left mouse (which caused my hand to ache pretty quickly). 2. The mouse wheel to change weapon feels backwards to me (scroll down should be right, scroll up should left?)

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus

Simple but effective! Twice in a row you've entered this kind of simple-gameplay-online-highscore thing and they turn out really quite good even though there's not much to the mechanic. Reminds me of that tower bloxx game they used to have built into the old Nokia phones. The highscores are well done too, I like how you can see the line where previous players have gone.

CRUSH by Toque

Quite a short little highscore building game. It seems like you get roughly a similar score every time, because you're pretty much resigned to taking damage as you move left and right to crush the people. Funny idea though, I like the concept.

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

Soothing and charming, with a cute story and well presented. I really like the idea behind this. I would prefer the controls to be a bit more free, getting gravity locked to planets makes it feel a bit clunky at times. But I enjoyed building my universe to the end of the story and little while beyond just seeing the different colours and patterns I could make for each planet. Nice work.

Gilgamesh by Ninety

Nice graphics as usual, really dig the simplistic style and the weird separately-shaded triangle things you have going on in the background - feels very retro. The platforming engine feels a bit sticky at times, especially the wall jumps, but it's still fun to play and navigate through the levels. Stabbing straight through enemies is oddly satisfying (should I be worried?). I also like that it's quite short - not sure if that's by design or time constraints but I feel like you demonstrated enough of your abilities without dragging it out too much.

Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28

It's a bit like splatoon with potatoes holding incredibly ineffective weapons lol. Appreciate the effort put in, funny little game.

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18

I'll be honest, I cannot even make it out of the first room. I can't find a pixel-perfect sweet spot to shoot that first bad guy without being seen. I assume it's possible? but like, 15 or so attempts is too many... if it looked like a longer, more fleshed out game I would maybe persevere a bit longer but the Readme seems to suggest you've accepted you ran out of time to bring it to its full glory anyway! :)

Map of Legend by PugWizard101

I like the concept, but the controls of actually moving the stuff on the right hand side seem a little clunky and unresponsive a lot of the time. Takes a decent effort just to move the blocks. However the platforming on the left hand side is solid.

Prometheus Rising by Evanski

A pretty well crafted Doom-Clone-A-Majig. The 3D including the layouts, camera, textures, etc. is well executed for a GameMaker game. It's quite unforgiving and I could do with my mana lasting longer. A decent entry.

Ravana by The M

Won't play, antivirus doesn't like it, will retry at the end.

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen

Not usually a fan of point-and-click adventurey things but I quite liked this. A neat little self-contained adventure where each of the puzzles was interesting and well-thought through. The graphics and sound were great too, gave the game a nice atmosphere.

Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus

I like the effort that you put into recording the stuff for this and coming up with the mechanic and the puzzles... but again you've outdone your own work and I much prefer your *other* game in this jam to this one lol (despite this arguably taking more effort? not sure which one took you longer). Anyway, well done for making TWO things and BOTH of them being decent/competent entries!

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

The graphics are really fantastic as usual from Pixel-Team, and the concept is great too being able to control the rats. The controls are a bit weirdly positioned for me as a matter of personal preference I feel like the cursor keys could have duplicated the WASD behaviour as they don't seem to be used for anything else. As it is *everything* in the game is naturally controlled by the left hand making it hard to do 2 things at once. Also the punishment for failure in later levels is too harsh. I didn't reach the end because I rage quit on a level where you have to press about 5 switches as the rat, and if you fall off the bottom you have to start again from the beginning... this coupled with the slightly frustrating controls makes it hard to justify the time sink with so many other games to play! But - the only reason I am providing long & detailed criticism is because I believe the game could be very very good with just a few tweaks, and I would love to see it continued, expanded and improved after the jam.

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

I love the concept of the game and the character design (certainly on the kid anyway, the snails are a bit weird lol). I really think this has some legs as a project and could be going places. Sometimes the mouse control of guiding the kid where to go gets a bit "sticky". The level designs are clever and introduce mechanics in a strong and steady fashion.

Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67

I like the graphics and the parallax effect in the background. It feels a little unfinished/untested though as I don't really seem to be able to progress. The primary method of combating enemies is to hit back their feathers... but they fire them so frequently that usually they have fired another feather to block the one I deflected back... meaning the screen just fills up with more and more enemies.

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal

Neat graphics and animations and a funny concept. I suck at it though. I think for how fast the screen is moving, and being expected to concentrate on two things at once, the approach of obstacles should be even more obvious. Like an flashing "!" indicator that you can time your jumps to or something, rather than just a faint red light.

Unicorn Rampage by Richerama

Pretty humorous. I liked the concept, the animation and the parallax effect. Other than that a fairly straightforward scrolling shooter. It seemed to die at the end when I got game over and I had to CTRL+ALT+DEL to close it.
 
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herostone67

Member
This vote was partially done with google translate, so I apologize if there are any problems in my vocabulary and my english in general.

First place : Ravana (@The M):
I really like the mythology involved and the gameplay and I just enjoyed playing this game.

Second place : The Insufferable Pan (@Pixel-Team):
The graphics are very good, the gameplay sufficiently diversified and everyone can know that we are talking about mythology here (if this "everyone" has a minimum of culture)

Third place : Cthildha (@Mightyjor):
The game is calm and relaxing, especially as you progress through the story as you go.
Also, the physics are pretty well done and the graphics are enjoyable. The atmosphere of this game is very cool (with a pun and all I'm so funny)



Best use of Theme : The Insufferable Pan (@Pixel-Team)
Best Concept : Ravana (@The M)
Best Presentation : The Insufferable Pan (@Pixel-Team)
Best Story : Cthildha (@Mightyjor)

Honorary Awarad : The most enjoyable game I played (My opinion) : Gilgamesh (@Ninety)
I just like playing platformers in 8 bit like celeste or else, but I didn't find, except by the name, the mythology I wanted to find, so I put it here.

Just for ask something, did I really need to write all the games and their ranks (and to see if someone answer me) ?
 

Micah_DS

Member
Reviews

Top 3:

Ullr by @Siolfor the Jackal
Well.. I am ashamed of my score, especially after seeing what Alice got. She must've mastered arrow hopping to maintain her combo all the way or something.... but anyway, it's a really fun use of the theme. I had no idea there was such a cool god. It was a perfect choice for a game.

The only thing that felt a little odd to me was the intro story showing controls, while the menu also showed them. I would've thought it better to show only the story bits at that point, to give a more proper focus to the story, but maybe that's just me.

Aside from that, the game is totally dope. Simple controls, easy to pick up and play, but with a lot room for mastery, and the game really makes you want to improve your skills, because it gets all the more fun the better you get at it. It's really all about mastering combos, and the game has such a great combo system. It's what really skyrockets the skill ceiling as well as the level of fun, especially with the arrow hopping adding to a combo. Arrow hopping is basically like the manual in Tony Hawk, used to chain combos together. That's how I see it anyway. However you look at it, it's brilliant.

Of course, I like the art, as usual, and the design of Ullr himself, as well as the animations. Even falling and eating snow is a good time, because of the animation.
You really did it this time, man! Great stuff!
Secrets of Tapiola by @Poizen
My jaw dropped and my eyebrows went up in surprise when the bear got eaten by the lake monster... I was not expecting that at all. It was awesome.

Great art here. This is a very solid point & click game, with a variety of interesting mini puzzles to solve. The only thing I think it needed was a little more feedback to let the player know what was interactive, like an outline or highlight when mousing over something, but that's my only criticism. This was thoroughly enjoyable.
Blade of Redemption by @SoapSud39 (Ezra)
Is there a level cap at all or is this endless? I mean, I reached level 420, at which point I was wondering exactly how high I could get.

I can't say the game is all that challenging, but that's fine. The leveling up provided enough feeling of reward and progression to make it fun. Of course, I think the best thing about this game is the art and animations. Lovely stuff.
BTW, I went to the save location because I wanted to keep my old save but try a different class, and I opened the save file out of curiosity. I'm really glad I did. I got a chuckle from your words in there.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme : Ullr by @Siolfor the Jackal
Best Concept : Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by @Mr Magnus
Best Presentation : The Insufferable Pan by @Pixel-Team
Best Story : Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by @Mercerenies
Best Devlog : Spielcomm: Origins by @Bart

Full ranking:
  1. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  2. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  3. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  4. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  5. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  6. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  7. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  8. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  9. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  10. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  11. Ravana by The M
  12. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  13. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  14. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  15. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  16. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  17. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  18. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  19. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  20. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  21. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  22. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  23. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  24. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  25. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda
  26. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  27. CRUSH by Toque
  28. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  29. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  30. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  31. Minitaur by Sirham
  32. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

Comments:
APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
Pretty fun! The only criticisms I have are that when the cloudy background turns orange and red, you can no longer see shots well enough for fair gameplay, and the last level was also overkill. I had to hide out in one of the top corners to survive it. Lastly, a game that uses the mouse should avoid allowing the mouse to get too close to the edge of the window, to avoid the player accidentally moving too far and clicking outside of the game. A fix for that would be to clamp the mouse position within the game window, BUT obviously you don't want to do that without allowing the player to exit the game by another means other than the window's 'X' button, since the player would no longer be able to reach that. While people can alt-tab or alt-f4, not everyone knows that.

Anyway, the different abilities were fun, though I found myself defaulting to '2', Hermes's Caduceus, as it seemed the most useful.
All in all, it was enjoyable..

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
You're pretty good at coming up with minimal concepts that are also fun, and that is something to be very proud of. This game is addictive. I kind of sucked at it, but I still enjoyed it. The online functionality and showing where people got to is very cool. I'm also impressed how good the theme use is. How in the world did you come up with something so simple while also utilizing the theme so well? I applaud you, mister sir.

Since it's a pretty small game, and with a fair amount of 3rd-party assets, I almost feel like I shouldn't rank it as high as I am, but the concept is just so dang powerful to me that I feel it deserves it.

CROW by Terminator_Pony
Scored 159677. I could've gotten higher, but I wasn't exactly having a level of fun that made me want to continue playing.

On that note, this feels more like an interesting experiment than a game. Though it's mildly enjoyable for a time, it grows dull pretty quickly, at least, for me. The use of the theme is pretty cool though. If only the gameplay felt more rewarding. I think the overall slowness is what really puts a damper on the game. You move and turn so very slowly. I'm assuming you went that route in an attempt to make it more about strategy than action or twitch reactions, but whatever the case, it definitely needed some spicing up.

Even if the gameplay didn't really do it for me, I do admire the unique concept, and I think it's a great use of the theme.

CRUSH by Toque
A fun concept, playing as a giant!
It would've been nice to have some kind of control to dodge attacks. As it stands, it's a bit too much of a losing battle and skill is kind of removed because of it. Using the apple to restore some health adds a little bit of skill factor, but some kind of a block with the other hand would've gone a long way to improving the gameplay. Still, playing as a giant and smashing things is a good time, and I like the art, especially the giant.

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
It's a very nice, laid back experience. I do prefer some challenge in games, but it was cute, fairly well polished, and has a nice story. Honestly, I think I'm only ranking it as low as I am because I didn't find it super fun, but that's probably just due to my own preferences. It may not truly be lacking in fun factor, it's just not the kind of game I'd find all that fun in the first place. It's hard for me to rate games like this, sorry, I am trying.

Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
An interesting experiment. I think you managed to make the game give a sense of hopelessness which fits your concept, but I don't think it made for very satisfying gameplay, because there was no feeling of accomplishment - no meaningful challenge. There are plenty of ways to make a game give the player a sense of reward, overcoming various things, all while still making a very bleak and hopeless situation (see pretty much any horror game), so I'm viewing this game as having a concept that just didn't quite work out to make for proper gameplay.

But hey, it's a jam, no biggie. Experimental games are always a risk. Kudos for trying something a bit different.

FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
A really cool game. I had to fail a couple of times before I figured out how important getting miners out there right away was. If you don't make the right moves right off the bat, the game is extremely punishing and unforgiving, so that's unfortunate, but if you do start off right, the game plays well and it's very enjoyable.

So, I 'think' I beat it? I was doing great, had lots of units, and I heard a *ting* sound, but I was clicking with the mouse at the time and the next thing I know, I'm back at the menu. I feel like some message maybe came up that I accidentally skipped or something. I'm not really sure what happened, but I'm calling it a win. Whatever it was that happened, it's definitely a little oopsy, since the player should obviously never find themselves in a menu and wonder how they even got there, haha.
One other criticism is that when 'artifact found' messages appear, the game should pause. I never got a chance to give these messages a good read, because I had enemies to fight in the background.

I liked the amount of content. There were plenty of things to build and enough strategy to make it interesting. It's a more complex game, but not too complex - perfect! Honestly, when you said there was a lot to read, I was afraid, but it wasn't bad at all. Overall, it's a bit flawed, sure, but I thought it was good and I had fun playing it.

Gilgamesh by Ninety
Overall, I found it very enjoyable, though I did find the wall jump mechanic to be a bit off, like I had to press directions at a timing that didn't feel right or like it just didn't 'flow' properly with my movements, but it honestly wasn't bad at all, I just think Celeste spoiled me. The way that game gives you total control of your maneuvers and how it feels just right is impressive. But that's not a very fair standard to hold up to a jam game, and I think most other jam games I've played with wall jumps were more finnicky than yours, so maybe I should be praising it instead of criticizing.

Anyway, there's another thing which I can't say is a bad thing exactly, but once I discovered I could maintain height indefinitely with the attack, I may or may not have just attacked my way across the remaining areas, skipping the intended challenges below...

I enjoyed the art and animations the most. Great visual presentation and you've implemented my favorite style of tutorial as well, putting it right into the level, not stopping the player or forcing the player to read a ton of text. Love that. I can't say the game blew me away, but it was certainly fun to play and pleasant to look at. Well done.

Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
Since the jumping didn't consistently trigger, it made it a bit frustrating to play, since it didn't always jump when it should have, and dying is far too punishing, because it starts the entire game over. It would be much better to just start the current room over. When I died after going about 7 or so levels in, and I saw it started the entire game over, I admit I quit playing, because that was just such a loss and I felt it was a bit hopeless knowing I would lose literally all progress with just one mistake.

So I'd say the biggest issue is starting the entire game over, followed by the jumping not always triggering. So I can't say I enjoyed the gameplay much due to those things, but I do like the music and I really like the bunny and its animation. Very cute.

Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
Enemies often took too many hits to kill and they really needed to flash or give some kind of feedback to the player that they were taking damage. Especially when fighting the boss, I had no idea if I was hurting it or not because it seemed like it might have a specific point to hit. I'm honestly still not sure after beating it if it did have a certain weak spot along with invulnerable spots or not.

Aside from that, though lacking a bit on the polish, it's a fair use of the theme, and the story and gameplay were good enough to be enjoyable.

Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
It feels like it could use just a little more content, but it was still pretty fun. I really liked the art and the playfulness of it all. The guy with the white color seemed hardest to use because I had a hard time seeing attack spots. Aside from that, the game felt very polished, despite the lack of sound effects and simple win/lose screens. It was fun enough that I actually played it a second time. I ended up playing with each character at least two times.

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
I think the game is mostly hard because the gunsight is white and blends in to some of the background graphics, so it can easily be lost track of. Aside from that, the way the camera moves took some getting used to for me to move and shoot properly. The game is also kinda buggy, lacks theme usage, is a bit unfair with how quickly enemies see and fire at you, etc. - so I'm not going to be rating this all that high. There was even one point when I had literally one guy left to kill but firing flat out quit working for some reason. And, yes, I had ammo. I even switched guns, but nope, I could not fire a shot. Sucked cuz I had to let myself get killed and try all over again. This was on the 3rd level.

For what it's worth, I stuck with it, beating all 3 levels. Well, I 'think' I beat the game. It froze when I believe I had killed the last guy. I had to close the game in task manager.
For me, the bugs and lack of theme usage are what did this game in more than the somewhat intense difficulty. I almost liked the challenge, personally.

Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
Pretty fun, but perhaps a tad too difficult, because it seems hard to get enough power built up to properly take on the next wave. I reached wave 6, but that was as far as I could manage. I'd prefer it if it was one of those games where you keep all of your upgrades and try again, so you never lose anything, but that's just personal preference.
My final criticism is that it was a bit hard to control two opposing things at once. Giving a player multiple things to manage is fine, as long as you don't place them in a situation where they have to be looking in two opposing places at the same time, and with split controls. I've found that humans are creatures of focus - we are at our best when focused, and divided attention is where we fall apart. Games like RTS work well because they give the player more control over their situation, and there are always an array of auto-actions that the player can set in motion, and all those options ensure they aren't forced to focus their attention intensely on more than one thing at a time.
Anyway, sorry, the whole split focus thing is just something I've seen too many times, so it's become a bit of a pet peeve. Honestly, your game was still far more playable than others with the split focus issue.

The music slaps, and even though I felt the game was a bit too hard, it was very, very close to perfectly balanced, and - though my long rant about split focus may make you think I hated it, I actually still thought it was fun.

Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson
I see the game is largely incomplete, which is unfortunate, as it looks promising. I like that you can rotate the cards around, and I also like the design of the cards. Can't say much else, since I was unable to do anything after playing a card. I'd be interested in playing a post-jam version, if you ever get around to making this into what you initially intended it to be.

Map of Legend by PugWizard101
The game is a bit rough around the edges, but I really like the idea of moving things around the play area like that. It was a bit too long for the lack of variation in content though. I felt like I was doing much of the same thing in many levels. I also had a very hard time with jumps that were a single block high, where you bump your head on something immediately. I often could not time it right, so I fell and died. If you wanted to fix this, you could have made the player a little shorter, so you'd still see a jump arc. As it is now, you don't see the player move up or down at all in those cases, so you won't know when to move. That's a bit frustrating.

Anyway, the story was cute and the game does have a certain charm to it. I think my favorite aspect of this is the concept of taking things in and out of the world and moving them around to change the play field. I've seen a similar mechanic before, but not quite like this. Cool idea.

Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
Super unique concept, an imaginative use of the theme, funny, fun to mess around with the OS. I only wish the boss would've responded when I said stuff like, "I'll fight you for your position". I couldn't get a rise out of him no matter what I said. But anyway, it was really enjoyable.

One thing I'd say is a missed opportunity would be changing the Windows-like logo to 4 letters in the same window pattern. Specifically this:
G D
O S
Could be read as GODS or GD OS. Feel free to use that in your next version of the OS. :p

Minitaur by Sirham
MINItaur to MEGAtaur.
Not much of a game, with zero challenge, aside from the beginning bit, but a cute mini story, nonetheless.

Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
I got stuck multiple times. Thank goodness you gave a walkthrough in one of your posts or I would have never completed it unless I just brute forced combinations. I appreciate that you also revealed each step, not just everything at once, which allowed me to at least play most of the game properly.

The UI was a tad confusing at first, but not too bad. Lots of good bad humor in there. Loved that. The music choice gets a chef's kiss as well. I think I like the story and theme usage the most. Too bad you didn't get to polish it up more and complete it. It was pretty good, but there is potential for a much more charming point & click mystery here.

Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda
I laughed out loud, really hard. I loved it. And what an angelic voice.
Didn't use the theme well at all though....
The reason your theme use is bad is because the otter isn't a myth, he is real. People just don't know the whole story. The other part of the story somehow became its own thing that we call the Transformers. That's right, 'Autobot' originated from the otter's true name, OTTERBOT, and the real reason people have had trouble finding him is because they are unaware that he disguises himself as a Mercedes AMG G63 6X6.

Prometheus Rising by Evanski
Does it actually remember the difficulty after I set it? I played it on the easiest, then the hardest, but I'm not entirely sure it worked or not when I changed it, because going back in the menu, it's back to the easiest setting. I 'think' enemies took more hits or something after choosing the hardest mode, but I'm not sure. It felt like I had less ammo or something was harder, but only slightly. Maybe it really didn't change at all and I'm just imagining it though. Too bad, I was ready for a nice dooming experience.

Despite not offering me the extreme challenge I was in the mood for, it was a lot of fun. That said, yes, I am going to be knocking the game down a bit, since it consists of a notable amount of pre-existing assets and 3rd-party content. Hey, I'm just trying to be as fair as possible here. Anyway, I especially loved the secret rooms, and not just the spinning chair - I love secret areas in general. And the model of the dude from HHGTTG was a nice touch. Well done on scratching the ol' Doom itch.

Except no 3D Micah_DS.
Terrible.

Ravana by The M
The mouse movement didn't work well enough, since you'd often jump to a position in the room as soon as you transition, and this usually had me triggering a trap as soon as I entered a new room, and yes, I did full screen the game right at the start, as instructed. I guess it didn't work?
Another issue with the mouse being used for movement is that you can move really fast to zip straight through things without taking damage, since mouse position can jump large distances. Of course, there are ways to do collision checks so this isn't possible, but since that was not in place here, I admit I cheesed a lot of the traps.

Mouse movement critiques aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the battle mechanics and the lock picking. It seems like a straightforward, yet good use of the theme, so all is good there. It's unfortunate that the boss battle is bugged, but it didn't really put much of a damper on the experience for me. I quite enjoyed this.

BTW, this time around, your game was the only one out of the bunch that Kaspersky deleted. Have you considered using GMS2? I don't think AV ever has issues with GMS2 games, but maybe I'm wrong. In any case, this is not a problem with your game, it's just my AV being stupid with false positives, yet again.

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
It could just be that I was unable to find a good strategy, but it feels like there is a little too much luck involved to be able to form a proper strategy, so I found it a bit frustrating to play. I tried a number of approaches to the game, trying to find some way to outwit or outplay my opponents, yet I was only able to beat a couple of them. I'd say remove a little more randomness/luck and you'll have a pretty fantastic game here.

The presentation is nice, clean, and cheery, as usual. I love that. Despite it seeming to be a bit luck-heavy, the concept is actually quite fun and interesting. I've seen and played a few similar puzzle/strategy games, but none divided the playfield in this grouped way.

Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
After you so graciously created a sans music version at my request, I was able to play through without missing the humorous and informative voice lines. Much appreciated.

I actually enjoyed the puzzles a lot. A few of them gave me a very enjoyable challenge. The flashlight took a bit of time for me to figure out, functionality-wise, but aside from that, anything that puzzled me were the actual puzzles themselves, which is just how it should be.
I was able to beat every level. The last level sure looked intimidating, but it wasn't bad. The way I beat the last level was to count how many squares the most likely path took (7), which let me know how many squares the other gods would take. From there, it was pretty easy to solve the individual paths.

You may not have put much time into this, but I think you nailed what matters most - the puzzles. And the voiced lines are quite entertaining to me as well. I'll probably rank this a bit lower though, in my attempt to respect the entries that created their art, audio, etc., but don't think I did not enjoy it.

Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
As always, your game really stands out from the rest. It's very interesting and unique. Unfortunately it's also very, very rough and incomplete feeling. That would be fine if at least the main gameplay was complete enough to present a meaningful goal or a means to win, but it looks like the game didn't quite get that far, so it's not all that engaging. Still, there is an impressive amount of 3D modeling done, and the textureless style you end up going with has a certain charm to it which creates an almost mysterious and magical atmosphere to me. Or perhaps it's just nostalgia, since it does remind me of some old games I played as a kid. Anyway, I like it. I honestly wish I could say the same for the gameplay.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
I want you to know that I did play the post-jam version, and I was able to beat it, thanks to the great improvements you made. I thoroughly enjoyed it, though it is still slightly wonky with the jump, I found it much better. Allowing the use of arrow keys made the controls easier for me as well. So I'd say that the post-jam version is super good. Of course, I will be rating you on the jam version, not the post-jam one.

As you know, I've already covered pretty much all of the issues I had, via a gameplay video, so I'll just tell you the good things now:
It's clear you put a ton of work into this game, and it's fantastic on many fronts. The art and animation is stellar. The concept and theme use is super good. I enjoyed the whole story. The audio is great as well. In the end, this was just a case where pretty much one critical thing spoiled an otherwise incredible jam game. At least, for me. So I may be ranking this fairly low, but I want to be sure you know that I'm thoroughly impressed at the level of polish, even in the jam version, and your art and animation is at a level of a game that could be sold. I just don't know how you managed all of this in such a short amount of time. And your art and audio fit super well together. You certainly have my respect.

The Third Day by Ghandpivot
This would've been perfect for that boss fight theme we had a while back. I have a feeling that the theme use might not sit well with some people, for religious reasons, but hopefully people can remain chill. It was fun, just a little too much screen shaking and stuff going on in the end. Lastly, I'm not sure if you were going for this, but I found the laser beam sound effect to be hilarious. Summed up, I'd say you've created a fun and exciting battle.

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
Quitting the game throws an error:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Event0
for object o_mainContol:

Push :: Execution Error - Variable Index [11] out of range [10] - -1.mainMenu(100335,11)
at gml_Object_o_mainContol_Step_0
############################################################################################
gml_Object_o_mainContol_Step_0 (line -1)
But if there's any place you want your game to crash, it's when it's already closing, I guess? XD

So, on my first play, I beat all of the levels except 3, 6, and 10.
I did not understand how to get through the yellow force field on my first play, so I was unable to beat levels 3 and 6, and level 10 seemed too tedious to me at first because I did not get the bright idea to spread out the kid and the will o' wisp in a way that made the camera keep the spikes in view as I pressed buttons, so I could see which spikes were being affected by each button. Since I didn't figure that out the first time, I gave up, because it felt like I was pressing buttons randomly until I got lucky with a combination that opened up a path.

I found the movement and collisions to be a little clunky or unpolished feeling, but not bad. I got temporarily stuck in the edge of a yellow force field when possessing the kid, but I was able to worm my way back out from doing a couple enter/exits from the kid again.

Summed up, I think the art is fantastic. The start/menu screen is clean and looks good.. For the most part, the puzzles were interesting and engaging. It was mostly just the feel of the game that wasn't quite to where it needed to be, though it was close. All things considered, it was good game.

Toilet Story by Micah_DS
Mario: Toilet story? That's-a my queue! Heeeeeeere we gooooooo~!!
*sploosh!*
*iconic pipe entrance noise*

Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
It's a bit rough around the edges in many aspects, and the lack of audio definitely hurts the experience a bit, but it was still pretty enjoyable, and the boss looked cool.
The graphics were good overall, though it felt like a bit of a mashup of styles because some stuff had outlines while other stuff did not. The concept is a bit basic, but that's fine, and it's a good use of the theme.
In the end, it might not be super amazing, but I think you made an enjoyable little game, so I'd call this a success. Nice work.

Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
My score was 3024. Hmm, doesn't seem very high. Anyway, cute and funny concept. I'm surprised that the game doesn't feel frustrating with the floaty movement, because any other game I've played that had movement similar to this was annoying/frustrating to play. I thought movement always had to be tight to feel right, so you achieved something I wasn't sure was even possible.

Anyway, it's a pretty well polished game all-around, balanced well, with nice visuals, etc., complete with a boss. Nice!
 

The M

Member
Reviews

Top 3:

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
The game had some brilliant puzzles, a haunting atmosphere and high level of polish. The sound design was absolutely phenomenal and the presentation is clean. I struggled a bit with what to do with the bear skull as well as the axe (because the latter required targeting a very specific location on one particular tree), but I managed to solve it eventually.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
The game is just cool. There's a ton of content and while a few rooms do get a bit frustrating, the overall level of polish is really high. The graphics stand apart from the rest of the jam entries but the audio and game mechanics are both very well executed too. It's a little annoying to have to use WASD + space in a platformer, but I can live with that.

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
I find these board games really cool, and this one has some neat mechanics. I didn't understand the rule explanation at first and had to play a game before the rules started to make sense, and another game before I could make out any kind of strategy. I had not realized that the game was divided into 3x3 blocks and thought that any 2x2 region could be a castle and that finishing a row/column or block required complete control of the area and not just being the last one to place a token in it. I liked the different AIs. but at times it felt like they had lucky rolls but played poorly.

It was neat that the dragon had its own gimmick, but in the end it was super-frustrating because rolling a smoke meant losing a turn and opening up a position for the opponent, and that made the game even more dependent on luck. I also found it frustrating that the AI would sometimes clear smoke tiles when the obvious move (to me at least) would be to place a token instead.

The game looks amazing and I love that each opponent reacts differently to defeat.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
Best Concept: CROW by Terminator_Pony
Best Presentation: The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Best Story: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

Full ranking:

  1. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  2. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  3. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  4. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  5. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  6. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  7. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  8. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  9. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  10. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  11. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  12. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  13. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  14. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  15. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  16. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  17. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  18. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  19. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  20. CRUSH by Toque
  21. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  22. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  23. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  24. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  25. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  26. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  27. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  28. Minitaur by Sirham
  29. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  30. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  31. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson
  32. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

Comments:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64

The game started of a bit too slow for me, and the enemies didn't have too much to set each other apart. I was also very confused about the special powers that I had a bar of but nothing happened when I tried to use it. Then, after a few levels my interest rose and sank in waves as new items were introduced and the game got harder but still remained basically the same. The last two levels stood out as difficulty spikes where the sheer amount of bullets and the huge enemy health pools meant I took more damage than I healed when playing aggressively and I wouldn't have beaten them if it weren't for the medusa head. I liked how different the items felt and while I tried them all, I really liked the consistency of the bow and then the crazy overpoweredness of the medusa screen wipe.

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus

It's a straightforward challenge, but man, it's hard to not mess up! I'm glad you get more than one attempt, unless you mess up too much, apparently, which confused me at first when I got a sudden game over. The online leader board taunting me and mocking my low scores forced me to pull myself together and aim for the top. I didn't quite reach it, but I'll take it as a metaphor that the game's creator's score remained above all the players. It fits the game.

Blade of Redemption by Ezra

I really enjoyed smashing enemy faces left and right and growing to ridiculous levels. There was surprisingly many enemy types, which were fun to discover, although I found that the same strategy worked against all of them, namely to keep mashing attack until you won. I think the game is a little too shallow unfortunately, and I didn't experience much strategy.
The fact that FOCUS became practically useless once you'd passed 50% crit rate (and absolutely useless past 100%) meant that as the game progressed you had even less strategy to work with. I also think defending wasn't strong enough because while you could defend an enemy's focused attack, you'd end up having taken more damage from "skipping" a turn than if you'd just tanked it and kept attacking.

CROW by Terminator_Pony

I really like this concept of controlling mythological superstition among the soldiers looking for signs. At first I thought it would be impossible to keep track of the controls, but that turned out not to be an issue, thanks to the clear indications on the affected characters and the color effects. However, it was harder to see the effect on the battle and it didn't feel like I contributed much to either side winning, but rather just watched the battle play out. This was amplified by the fact that supporting one side largely meant flying in one direction and doing nothing.

CRUSH by Toque

It's an interesting game, but it confuses me a bit because you can't avoid taking damage since your range is shorter than that of the enemies. The presentation is great, and the giant is cool. I like the variety of enemies, though I would like to see some sort of wind-up before they attack to give you a chance to take them out first. Also, were I meant to punch the bombs or avoid them?

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

It's a really cool concept, executed well. The way you exponentially grow the number of sparks generated is super-satisfying and the story is sweet and a joy to follow. I kind of wish there was more to do in the game, and the pacing felt a little off at times as I was either waiting for enough sparks to progress, or waiting for the story to catch up to me before I purchased a bigger planet. Movement was interesting and a little annoying when planets sucked you in, but on the other hand it was fun to cruise between planets and jump from orbit to orbit.

Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb

It's a really cool concept to base the game around audio, but can help but feel like you've thrown away more than you've gained from it. Most importantly, I would really have liked subtitles: the game is all about dialogue and descriptions, and the voice, while mostly clear, isn't super-easy to follow, so text would have made the game more approachable. I also think that just as audio improves a game, so does visuals and there's so much more you could do than having a single, static image with text that doesn't correlate to the gameplay. A simple HUD or a reminder of the instructions would be fine. Or you could do something thematic and mesmerizing, in the vein of Tetris Effect.

FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc

I like the concept of building an increasingly complex base in space and defending it against waves of enemies. I think the UI was very well done and it was easy to tell what each building or ship did. The AI was also pretty good and felt reliable. I struggled to get going with the game, because while I built a shipyard, I didn't build a resource bay and I didn't realize the fighter ships could collect resources and deposit them at the main base segment either, so I had to wait for the collectors to fill up and slowly deposit their loads. I think speeding up the pace of progress would make it more fun and while I loved the flavor of artifact discoveries, I'd have liked some more tangible progression towards finding them to have a clearer goal. I've played strategy games with this control scheme before, but I still constantly messed up when I was trying to select, move and deselect units. I think most modern rts games let you move units with the right mouse button and select/deselect with the left. It made the hectic moments more intense for sure :D

Gilgamesh by Ninety

That's the floatiest jump I've ever witnessed and it's marvelous! Jokes aside, I liked how different yet tight the controls felt. Combat was very straightforward and worked well, feeling fair and just (for me who had the longer sword anyway) when I beat an enemy or got killed. While the art palette and environment is great, I missed a story or purpose to my adventure: killing baddies and dodging arrows is fine, but with nothing to show for it in the end it all came down as a bit anticlimactic. Oh, and I loved how you could "flutter" in air by attacking repeatedly! It felt bad-ass and could be used in tandem with the wall jump to climb walls you weren't meant to climb. It could be a cool mechanic for some later challenges, should you extend the game.

Gravity Bunny by Koopashy

The game it neat. I like the cutesy look and how you could choose if you wanted to take the harder path and collect the eggs or if you just wanted to go straight to the exit. Unfortunately, the game is incredibly punishing as it forces you to restart from the beginning if you die or fall off, and that just kills the pacing. After I realized that, I tried to go as far as I could while skipping any eggs that weren't on the way to the goal, but I eventually failed. I was surprised by how well the vertically moving blocks worked as they can be tricky to get right.

Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84

It's funny how it's title Hades vs. Satan but in reality it's Hades vs. Zeus. The gameplay is fine, I like the color palette and the player physics. I found it to be very hard to know if an enemy could be killed, because they didn't react to your attacks and if they could be killed they had a ton of hp, to the point where even the minigun-leveled fireball attack took several seconds of constant firing to take down a single foe. Most enemies didn't give you that kind of opportunity and it was better to just avoid them altogether (although the second level did introduce a few choke points and larger spaces where killing the enemies was the easier option). The upgrade was fun and I liked how it gave you an extra life.

Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28

It's a really cool concept but I have no idea how health work and it took me several minutes to even figure out how to attack. The different weapons were cool. I'm pretty sure that the homing skulls were OP, but I won with all of them, I think, including the orange which seemed to hit myself half of the time. I think the game needs a clearer indication of how much damage stuff deals to show that me spamming spears in the face of an idling grape-tato actually has some effect. Otherwise, I love the sleek look and capturing tiles were fun.

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18

Well, you had me prepared with that readme so I came in expecting the worst. It wasn't that bad, honestly. The first level was tough, with its many tight corridors. Getting a strong weapon early made it so much easier. Since the second level had vast sight lines it was much more suitable for your starting gun where you could out-range your enemies. Then there's the third, which, yeah, was rough! It's unfair that the mad hatters got the green guns but won't leave them for me! The first corner was a showstopper for most of the runs, since you basically had one chance to snipe the kid and hope that he missed in return. Otherwise, I kind of liked figuring out when to bait the enemies and when to charge in.

Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados

The first thing that came to mind when reading about all the upgrades was that balancing this game must be really hard. I didn't do too well the first time as I quickly ended up lacking the power to take on the hoards of enemies so the next time I focused on getting the damage and multi-shot up. It went better, but the arcs ended up being too fast, and spending too little time on the field, for me to react to them properly. I liked the variety of enemies, but some of them were tough for my poor brain to multi-task around! I don't know how much the health upgrades would give you, but to me they all seemed useless as I argued that if you needed more health, or healing, you were already doing too poorly to stand a chance and another life wouldn't help.

Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

The game looks like it's taken a fair bit of inspiration from Slay the Spire. It looks cool, but it also doesn't work unfortunately.

Map of Legend by PugWizard101

The game uses a clever mechanic, but the blocks don't center on the square the mouse is over, which leads to a lot of frustration when nothing happens as you click. This meant that some levels took a long time to beat and on a whole made the levels drag out. It was cool to see different worlds, though I wish they'd have introduced more new mechanic to keep the game varied. As it stood I felt like I had seen all the game had to offer after the first world, despite the latter containing some tricky challenges and neat bosses.

Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies

The UI works surprisingly well and I'm impressed by how many different programs you've added. The game has a lot of humor and I enjoyed trying to figure out its secrets. With that said, I wasn't very good at figuring out the secrets and never managed to decrypt Minerva's file. With no sounds other than the voice clips (which were great by the way), it got boring a bit faster than it otherwise would have.

Minitaur by Sirham

I liked the atmosphere and the stomping feet really made you feel tiny. However, the legs were surprisingly unpredictable, as they wasn't necessarily coming down in pairs and if a leg came down once I'd have expected the person to continue walking at the same pace, but instead the legs seemed to spawn randomly. This gave you very little chance to plan ahead or even react and it felt like victory was mostly down to luck. I liked the story, but having it being told after clearing the game meant the start of the game was very confusing.

Murder on the Styx Express by Alice

I assume you can't solve the murder mystery? Because I would very much like to! It's a very alluring title and I was fond of all the various notes you managed to collect over the course of the game. While there were a few interactions missing, the ones there were all spot on and greatly written. I like how there was not just a "no shipping" line when combining characters, but you even added an extra line when the main character was involved! Unfortunately, I had some trouble with the UI and felt like I knew what I wanted to do but had to find the right button to click in the right order to get the game to understand my intentions. I think it mostly came down to me trying to combine items in the log with each other, rather than combining the selected item with something. Maybe highlighting what was currently selected would help?

Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

Lol, love it!

Prometheus Rising by Evanski

The game is really cool and works well. I thoroughly enjoyed my time blasting enemies left and right, though I had a few issues with the game. For one, I could not read any text because it just blended in with the background (my screen is pretty dark). I also didn't figure out that I could spam-click to fire rapidly until half-way through the second to last level, making the encounters significantly harder in the beginning. The smoothness of the player movement felt great, though I got a tad motion sick when turning around too much. I managed to figure out that there were secret areas and how to spot them, and it felt awesome whenever I found one (was there a purpose to the chair or was it just an Easter egg?).

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan

I find these board games really cool, and this one has some neat mechanics. I didn't understand the rule explanation at first and had to play a game before the rules started to make sense, and another game before I could make out any kind of strategy. I had not realized that the game was divided into 3x3 blocks and thought that any 2x2 region could be a castle and that finishing a row/column or block required complete control of the area and not just being the last one to place a token in it. I liked the different AIs. but at times it felt like they had lucky rolls but played poorly.

It was neat that the dragon had its own gimmick, but in the end it was super-frustrating because rolling a smoke meant losing a turn and opening up a position for the opponent, and that made the game even more dependent on luck. I also found it frustrating that the AI would sometimes clear smoke tiles when the obvious move (to me at least) would be to place a token instead.

The game looks amazing and I love that each opponent reacts differently to defeat.

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen

The game had some brilliant puzzles, a haunting atmosphere and high level of polish. The sound design was absolutely phenomenal and the presentation is clean. I struggled a bit with what to do with the bear skull as well as the axe (because the latter required targeting a very specific location on one particular tree), but I managed to solve it eventually.

Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus

I got sleepy from playing this. Not because I was bored but because it's theme was very well delivered. I chuckled at the "There's a solution but I'll be darned if I rememeber it" line because it's so relatable! The puzzles are surprisingly well made and some were pretty devious (I had the most trouble clearing the checker grid level). The items were interesting and well implemented, though it took me some time to first see what the flashlight was and then figure out how it worked. The one thing I'd have liked to know was which direction the gods were moving in. It was obvious for the most part, but sometimes I had to start for a second just to see where they were headed.

Spielcomm: Origins by Bart

The arena battle looks cool, with awesome music to set the mood. I love the way the sword swings as you move around, even though it's a somewhat dizzying way to fight. I got promptly disarmed by the knight I tried to decapitate and I have no idea where the sword went. I ended up dying.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

The game is just cool. There's a ton of content and while a few rooms do get a bit frustrating, the overall level of polish is really high. The graphics stand apart from the rest of the jam entries but the audio and game mechanics are both very well executed too. It's a little annoying to have to use WASD + space in a platformer, but I can live with that.

The Third Day by Ghandpivot

My first attempt ended in disaster as I stood on the wrong side of Satan and the recoil from the gun immediately pushed me off the edge and into the abyss (resulting in an error message by the way). I had to try again!

I love the way the battle escalates! When I got a sniper I thought that would be the heaviest caliber I'd get, but I really should have seen the friggin' grenade launcher coming. The music sync was subtle at first but during the climax with brinestone and lasers it felt genuinely awesome, even though I had my ass kicked bad. I kind of wish the fire rate was just a little faster for most of the weapons, because shooting is fun and not shooting is less fun, but that's a nitpick. I'd also like to see a little more impact from the shots so I know they register. The animations were wicked, and I particularly love the slimes!

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

On one hand the lack of an ending was disappointing, but on the other, the child was called an offering when it got stabbed by spikes so I'm not sure I'd have liked the ending. I think the puzzles were clever, especially when they involved guiding the child from afar. They way you could move through walls allowed you to literally think outside the box at times. That said, there were a few puzzles that were just too big, where beating a level was more of a long walk than a puzzle. The aesthetics were great.

Toilet Story by Micah_DS

Darn, I wanted more! The fluidity and the speed of sliding everywhere was thrilling and really satisfying when you pulled off some great stunts. The music does wonders to raise the stakes and increase the intensity. Combat was decent, but depth perception was tricky, especially when trying to dodge enemy attacks and I often just blasted past the enemies instead.

Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67

It's a neat game that doesn't overstay its welcome. Having your main attack reflect enemy projectile was a novel and creative mechanic and it worked well here. The graphics are nice, and I love the stylized clouds. I feel like Typhon's head doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the graphics, but it's a big, cool sprite so I don't really care. The way bullets and enemies popped in and out of existence was a bit rough, but on the other hand I really liked the effects on the enemies when they got hit.

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal

Two things kept me from really enjoying the game: first, that you couldn't jump while charging an arrow, and second, that failing a single jump lead to a restart. I constantly tried doing the former and ended up suffering from the latter. The game is cool, going downhill at breakneck speed is thrilling, and it feels great hitting a row of targets with a single arrow. That seemed to be a mistake though, because new targets wouldn't spawn fast enough to keep the combo going if you took down the previous set too fast. As a result, you were somewhat punished for playing well.

Unicorn Rampage by Richerama

The game is crazy. I love the aesthetics, and how destructive the unicorn is. The gameplay is good, but I wish there were more enemy patterns because the two helicopter patterns and the occasional turret isn't enough to make the game varied and eventually I began wondering where the dragon was. Maybe it had run late? When it did show up it was a fierce opponent, suitable to its massive appearance. I think the boss battle was well balanced, with the helicopters spawning in to give you some much-needed health regen. I kind of miss dragon fire though, and unicorn rainbows.
 
i couldn't play all the games , i won't have time i'ts already the 20th
(i apologise for my bad english)

top 3
1 : Ravana by @The M
2 : Invader od egypt by @Jarfunkados
3 : The Insufferable Pan by @Pixel-Team


THE ON TOPICS GAMES : (that i tested)
Ravana (@The M ) = 19/20 (so original and amazing the grafics are so charming and i'm very sad that the final boss bugg when you kill him WOW love this gameplay so much, the mouse use at his full potential)
Invaders of Egypt ( @Jarfunkados ) = 18/20 (finally someone make egiptian mythology! the game have an original and cool gamplay, univers and ressources, very cool but so hard alone)
The Insufferable Pan ( @Pixel-Team ) = 16/20 (I'm not sure if Arès is called "Hermes" or it's that Hermes got the Arès Outfit, also pan's hit box is litterally a stick but the grafics are soo good )
Hades VS Satan ( @kburkhart84 ) = 15/20 (cool classic platformer withe extra chistian mythologie)
CRUSH ( @Toque ) = 15/20 (i really like the idea of controlling the myhtological green giant that must self defense aigainst heroes, sadly we must get hurt when killing humans so we can't get a very high score)
The Third Day @ghandpivot : = 15/20 (i was surprised that jesus can't die, but it was very fun, the score management is original and HOW DO YOU MAKE AN ONLINE RANKING!?)
Blade of Redemption @SoapSud39 = 12/20 (i'ts too easy, and when the game ask me to kill the lvl 100 dragon i taught there will be a kind of event... but it was fun and the grafics,charadesine and music are kinda cool)
Half a dozen patatoe ( @Josh Chen ) = 13/20 (i like a lot this funny concept)
Minitaure ( @Sirham ) = 5/20 (the game had a cute concept but it's... huh... i can't blame you if you have too much work, but for a game with very low time to do it's still ok)
Escape from Tartarus! ( @Ericbomb ) = i cant vote the voice is too hoarse for the frenchy guy that i am, so i don't to understand)

ALL THE OFF TOPICS : (that i tested)
Rolldyce Kingdoms ( @GameDevDan ) = 18/20 (this game is amazing but... where is mythologie? anyway... i will continue to play after the jam, Gg)
"Prometheus" rising ( @EvanSki ) = 16/20 (The theme is only in the name of the game, but deamn this doom like is very impressive but it's too haaard TwT)
Hat Wearing Children ( @Bearman_18 ) = 14/20 ( i'ts a good game with an original univers, it's uncommun but pretty cool a video game with nerf guns!)
Spielcomm: Origins ( @Bart ) = 6/20 (there is Roma, but no trace of mythology, the game is not finished at all, (we cant't really die, attack or finish the bomb collection) but deamn gg for the 3d, you must work so much on it i't very impressive, hope you continue this 3d or other 3d project)

Cantavanda's entry = wtf/20 (i have several question... 1: what is wrong with you? 2: What the f#ck? 3: Why?)

6/gameplay
5/debug & AI
4/originality & concept
3/difficulty management
2/graphics & sounds
(no more than 10/20 if it's off topic, the theme is important)
 
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Alice

Darts addict
Forum Staff
Moderator
Alice's Reviews

I really enjoyed this batch of entries - the games were really varied both in gameplay mechanics and use of theme, and lots of the times the use of theme was deeper than just slapping certain aesthetics on whichever gameplay mechanics the entrant is comfortable with. With that in mind, I paid more attention to the theme when ranking entries (the fact that I was the one who chose the theme might or might not have played the part as well).

Well done, everyone (you too, Cantavanda)!

Top 3:

Ullr by @Siolfor the Jackal
So, I got this score. Is it good?
I find it to be most fun Siolfor's GMC Jam entry to date, and I checked. Trying to hit the targets while avoiding obstacles was already fun enough as-is, but then I figured out the trick to keep the score multiplier going. My biggest complaint would be that there is no highest combo meter at the end of the run. This is such a relevant statistic in this game.

Secrets of Tapiola by @Poizen
I like the different references to Finnish mythology (though I had to read Readme to properly understand them) and how they play out together. Without prior knowledge about the Finnish mythology some steps to advance felt a little random, but I never really felt stuck. It does a great job as a homage to Rusty Lake games, with how surreal and sometimes horror-esque it is.

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas (@Mightyjor), Amber Thomas
A little incremental game with a cute story. The gameplay is simple, but serves the story well. Having a subtitles to match the voiceover would be great, but it's one of the rare instances where I found the voice to be perfectly clear - I could understand each sentence with ease. I hoped at least one game would use the Cthulhu mythos for this Jam and I was not disappointed.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Secrets of Tapiola by @Poizen
Best Concept: Ullr by @Siolfor the Jackal
Best Presentation: The Insufferable Pan by @Pixel-Team
Best Story: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas (@Mightyjor), Amber Thomas

Full ranking:

  1. Ullr by @Siolfor the Jackal
  2. Secrets of Tapiola by @Poizen
  3. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas (@Mightyjor), Amber Thomas
  4. The Insufferable Pan by @Pixel-Team
  5. The Third Day by @ghandpivot
  6. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by @Mercerenies
  7. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping (@HeadlessOne, Kyoubear & @LamafromSpace)
  8. Ravana by @The M
  9. Invaders Of Egypt by @Jarfunkados
  10. CROW by @Terminator_Pony
  11. APOLLO by @CardinalCoder64
  12. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by @Mr Magnus
  13. Rolldyce Kingdoms by @GameDevDan
  14. Unicorn Rampage by @Richerama
  15. Hades vs. Satan by @kburkhart84
  16. Blade of Redemption by Ezra (@SoapSud39)
  17. Escape from Tartarus by @Ericbomb
  18. Typhon's Return by @🌌Royaku🌋 and @herostone67
  19. Gilgamesh by @Ninety
  20. FarOutPost 42 by @HayManMarc
  21. Prometheus Rising by @EvanSki
  22. Minitaur by @Sirham
  23. Toilet Story by @Micah_DS
  24. CRUSH by @Toque
  25. Sleepy Gods by @Mr Magnus
  26. Half a Dozen Potatoes by @Josh Chen, @bandman28
  27. Spielcomm: Origins by @Bart
  28. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by @Cantavanda
  29. Map of Legend by @PugWizard101
  30. Gravity Bunny by @Koopashy
  31. Hat Wearing Children by @Bearman_18
  32. Lore Quest by @BraydeeJohnson

Comments:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64

A nice bullet hell entry, haven't found much problems with gameplay mechanics, but I feel each powerup could use an explanation. Levels 1-5 were walk in a park compared to more challenging 6 and brutal 7 (still managed to complete them all, though in level 7 I needed to begrudgingly keep using the Medusa Head powerup). I'd have preferred more variety in enemies behaviours, though - right now all levels just use the same set of enemies that was introduced in level 1. A boss fight would be nice as well.

The audiovisuals were cool, though just like in gameplay, I'd have preferred more variety in enemies appearance as well (rather than just recolors). The core gameplay mechanics aren't particularly mythology-inspired and I don't see any backstory explaining why Apollo went on a journey in the first place. However, the powerups are very clearly mythology-inspired, so props for these.

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus

Despite the very simple mechanics, the gameplay was quite enjoyable and kept me playing for several rounds. Having online scoreboards and personal stats also helps. One suggestion: it would be nice if the game not only tracked the tower height, but also the number of rooms stacked (rewarding not botching the floors early on). Also, maybe show the non-repeated entries in the top towers built?

Graphics are simple, but serve their purpose. The font is readable, the background changes as the tower gets higher, it really doesn't need more. I liked the music well enough to keep playing until it looped. The gameplay is clearly inspired by a myth.

Blade of Redemption by Ezra

It looked like it could become a fun turn-based game. Unfortunately, the game quickly devolved into spamming the Attack button; the enemies weren't nearly challenging enough to use any other strategy (I played as Chevalier by the way). I'd prefer stronger enemies - at least strong enough so that they don't die after 2-3 attacks and it's actually essential to use Defend action after the enemy Focused - and maybe a few more options (some strengths and weaknesses, like status effects or elements). Of course, with stronger enemies the progression should be made faster.
Somehow, I kept going until level 100 to get the brownie point; stopped afterwards, since there wasn't really any point continuing, brownie or otherwise.

Graphics are nice and cute; there is not much going on in battle backgrounds, but little animations and monster portraits sufficiently make up for it (esp. Kappa). Music seems nice, but with the attack-spam tactic it changes way too often (another reason to have fewer longer battles with stronger enemies); a separate boss music would be nice, but probably redundant unless the short battles issue is addressed. The story and monster designs have nice amount of silliness to it. The theme use mostly boils down to various mythological references; they aren't really tied together (you could remove any non-boss enemy without affecting the rest of the game) but I still appreciate taking inspirations from different sources.

CROW by Terminator_Pony

Quite an interesting entry, and with very thematic framing, too. Switching sides and balancing the tide of war to keep it going for as long as possible sounds just like the kind of thing various mythological gods would do. I find it interesting how just steering, let alone flying in a specific direction affects how the fight progresses. Myself, I mostly focused on collecting corpses and boosting whichever side was losing; managed to get 10k units of glory in the process. I know there's attack and heal option, too, but spamming attack won't do because double-tap S is for healing; I think I'd prefer if clearing corpses, attacking and healing were three different buttons.

The graphics were simple, but mostly functional; I'd have preferred if the corpses were more distinct from the living fighters (maybe darker or something?). Not a fan of GM standard font; it just takes a few minutes to add a font and add draw_set_font(...) call at the start. The music isn't what one would typically associate with a battlefield, but I find it surprisingly fitting for the premise of the game, with the goddess of war seemingly detached from fighters struggle. And it's custom made, so well done!

CRUSH by Toque

The gameplay is pretty simple and short; I'm afraid there are not enough apples to sustain any longer playthrough, especially since the timing and place of specific units and items seems not to be randomised at all. Other than that, it's another one of these silly entries by Toque (nothing wrong with silliness, mind).

The graphics are simple, but mostly work well enough; the knights and archers look a bit out of place with their black outlines compared to the rest of the game. Music is alright. Not sure which mythological giant it is specifically, but mythology had plenty of giants, I guess?

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

A little incremental game with a cute story. The gameplay is simple, but serves the story well. The movement being seemingly tied to gravity (?) was a little unwieldy. I would have preferred if it was softened a bit (I dunno, by halving the gravity acceleration?) to make it easier for the player to control.

Other than that, the graphics are pretty sweet - nice use of combinatorics to make very varied randomly generated planets. The audio was fitting, too. Having a subtitles to match the voiceover would be great, but it's one of the rare instances where I found the voice to be perfectly clear - I could understand each sentence with ease. That, coupled with the variety of emotions conveyed, makes it quite possibly the most professional voice acting I've heard in a Jam game. I hoped at least one game would use the Cthulhu mythos for this Jam and I was not disappointed.

Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb

Not suitable for hard of hearing or hard of English listening. u_u'
I appreciate the idea of making the game fully blind-accessible - and I think you're on a good track generally - but making the game pretty much voiceover-only without any subtitles makes the game heavily dependent on how well audio explains the situation. And the audio... could be clearer, to say the least. This kind of low and heavily reverbated voice might be great to convey the idea of some underworld shadow, but it doesn't make comprehension any easier (especially the reverb). It got to the point where I only vaguely understood some story segments, and others were completely lost on me. I'm not sure if I'd understand what each attack does, either, if not for them being conveniently described in the Readme.

Other than that, the gameplay was fairly simple, though also a little unclear about what was going on unless one kept specifically asking. Maybe the game could announce whenever a change of status changes (e.g. from full health to heavily wounded and the like), to give a better idea about how much damage has been inflicted. In battles, I've found myself alternating between the Drain and Spear, as their effectiveness increase with each use. I've found the ending actually pretty brilliant - especially with how it was foreshadowed with the stories before - though there was this very real and very alarming possibility that if not for the text in the middle, I wouldn't even realise I'm stuck in the loop in the first place (because how hard it is to discern the voiceover sometimes).

Overall, I appreciate the general idea, but I'd also prefer if there were some vision-friendly subtitles and/or indicators. I'm pretty sure when it comes to blind-accessible games, people who play/make lots of them can provide more useful feedback about this than us simple Jammers.

FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc

I appreciate the strategic gameplay - especially since this genre seems to be not represented as frequently as some others. However, the gameplay felt quite clunky, especially with left to select/move and right to deselect. Personally I'd prefer something like left-drag to select/deselect (the latter if no units are within selection) and right-click to move, as strategic games usually do. Also, I think the AI could be tweaked a bit - e.g. the collectors could spend their idle time unloading the resources or following the miners expecting they'll harvest from asteroid soon.
It seems like the size of enemy waves increases with the number of own defender ships, as some kind of implementation of rubberband difficulty? If so, I don't like it at all, since the unaware player would likely keep building more defender ships, and get larger and larger enemy waves in return. That's how I failed on my first major playthrough; when I focused on resource collecting and artillery stations, I fared much better.
I wanted to build a Great Artillery Wall, but alas the game cut me short after finding the artifact. Would be nice to have a freeplay mode afterwards; there's special fun to be had when expanding the base to the ludicrous size to the point no defenders are needed, because artillery turrets can take pirates down from anywhere.

Audiovisuals were nice and fitting, even if I spent most of the game all zoomed out (the artifact reveal message sound was a tad loud, though). Theme use seems to be focused on/loosely related to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy lore? Don't know, by some strange occurrence I haven't actually seen that (though I still recognise the significance of 42 number thanks to cultural osmosis).

Gilgamesh by Ninety

I love how it's possible to use sword-flight to skip enemies altogether and allow a 100% pacifist run; it's not often when a sword turns out to be a tool to avoid killing.
The platforming felt nice and responsive, but there aren't many gameplay elements overall.

Nice audiovisuals; quite reminescent of Igor in a way. It seems the story - which was supposed to cover different parts of Gilgamesh legend - didn't really make it into the game. Thus, the game pretty much ended up being themed in name only.

Gravity Bunny by Koopashy

Going back to the first level after any death is... harsh.
Other than that, it's quite a silly and floaty platformer. Thankfully, each level individually is pretty easy, so I managed to eventually complete all 10 levels with all 10 egg baskets (though that egg basket near the flag was a little unfair). There is still some clunkiness, like the bunny getting stuck inside the moving platform, or this constantly ongoing hopp-ish animation (though it adds a certain surreal touch).

The graphics are inconsistent - blocky pixelated terrain and flag contrasts with the hi-res bunny and eggs basket (though eggs basket itself looks like it comes from a badly cut JPG, with white borders and all). The music and sound effects are decent enough, though the jump sound is quite loud compared to the music. I just hope you made or have a license to all the content here (not that I particularly suspect you of doing that, but lots of devs tend to forget about adding proper credits, especially during the Jams). Theme use is alright, though mostly aesthetic.

Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84

It's a fairly generic platformer, but still has enough variety of enemies, obstacles and powerups to keep me entertained. There was even a boss battle at the end, though I haven't found it very challenging. The powerup + extra health mechanic is nice in general, but I feel there's too much contrast between how overpowered the rapid shot is compared to the regular shot, making the latter feel so weak in comparison; maybe having two stages of health and upgrade could help with that (so you e.g. collect 10 coins to get 1 spare health + 1.4x shooting speed, and another 10 while powered up to get 2 spare health + 2x shooting speed)? As it is now, I feel that too many coins are "wasted" from purely gameplay standpoint being collected and spent in bulks of 10 without adding any extra powerup. Also, I'd prefer more feedback on hits, like e.g. enemies blinking, so that I know they received damage.

For what it's worth, I've found the pixel graphics reasonably good-looking, so nice job on that front. I enjoyed the music, and sound effects were pretty fitting, too. I like how the game doesn't treat Hades the underworld god as a villain; not sure why Zeus would stop Hades, but then again, he didn't strike me as a particularly good person in the first place. Too bad there was no actual battle against Satan.

Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28

The game really could have explained itself. In particular, what's the point of accumulating land and what are conditions of attack (you need to stand on a tile with your weapon symbol). I spent first four rounds being clueless how to activate the weapon. Winning the game is pretty simple after that, though for some reason when playing as a sun deity I kept shooting myself in the face for some reason? Also, I'd have liked more visible incentive to conquer territories. Also, maybe to make conquering territories harder (e.g. standing on a tile for 3 seconds or so without other potatoes standing there) to make the conquest more significant?

The graphics and overall feel is nice, though maybe the weapon symbols could be darker to stand out more? Some visual feedback about when the weapon is ready to launch would go the long way, allowing the player to intuitively associate weapon symbols with "weapon active" and other tiles with "weapon inactive". The music isn't bad, but the loop is short and gets monotonous very quickly. No sound effects to speak of. The use of theme is sort of there, inspiring different weapons and such, though I feel APOLLO makes its weapons more distinct. If I were to associate specific potatoes with different gods, I'd imagine: Poseidon with Trident; Dionysus with grapes; Apollo (or Helios?) with Sun; Ares with spear; Hades with bident; Zeus with lightning. If I got these right, then I guess the weapons are thematic enough, at least?

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18

Phew, I defeated the hat wearing children. It took me much longer than I'd like have.
The mechanics are pretty janky. I'd often get stuck when moving around (not to the point where I couldn't move, but generally making the movement more "jagged", which in this kind of game is critical). Moving camera doesn't help with aiming, either. Once I ran out of darts, I couldn't shoot anymore even after collecting some later (and even after switching weapons afterwards). Finally, at one point I got a game freeze in level 3 when I was trying to sneak up to the top-right moving enemy from the right side, near the edge of screen.
I liked the variety of weapons at least. Also, it seems that collecting guns along with hands of enemies from City Scuttler is still present here. ;)
It's not that the gameplay concept itself is bad - I think it could be very fun if polished - but so far various flaws add unnecessary difficulty to what would likely be a reasonably challenging game on its own.

The graphics were fine, I especially liked the rotating children and guns (though I feel the green machine gun looks a bit too much like regular gun from the side; nowhere as intimidating as it should). Sadly there was no music, but at least there were some shooting sound effects. No apparent use of theme (apparently there was meant to be one, but Bearman had no time to incorporate it?).

Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados

576660, 7916 kills, 18th wave. Not bad, I'd say, though at some point having swarms of dragonflies from the one side and chains of shrine gates from another was too much.
While the game may appear a bit sloppy at first, I actually enjoyed it quite a lot. There is a good variety of enemies (though I'd prefer if the shrine gates were a wee bit slower) and the game provides good upgrade options. Trying to coordinate two different eyes is a little tricky, but I coordinate my eyes every day and manage somehow.
It would be nice if the upgrade menu was keyboard-controlled just like the game is (instead of or aside from the mouse control) but I can understand it can be time consuming for menu like this. Also, for some reason once I get hit, the superweapon charging bar disappears (by the way, the superweapon saved me quite a lot in later waves when I was running out of lives and then got +3).

The graphics are generally good, except the hyper-pixelated sun, moon and the middle barrier (twilight zone?) were completely out of place compared to higher resolution eyes and enemies. Sound effects are decent, the music is actually pretty good - it's long and enjoyable enough that I didn't grow tired of it even after defeating 18 waves. The theme use is very much present in both the eyes and the enemies, well done.

Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

I tried drawing defense and attack cards, but they just kept increasing player defense or decreasing monster HP indefinitely.
End turn doesn't seem to do anything.
Overall, I'm afraid the game doesn't work at all. >.<
The individual graphic elements are nice, but the different elements having a different upscaling factor was pretty jarring. Audio was nonexistent.

Map of Legend by PugWizard101

The concept is interesting, but with the glitchy blocks placing and so many levels it overstayed its welcome. The game could really use some quality of life features, e.g. showing the block would-be position on the gameplay area (not just at the map) or showing block over unplaceable tiles to better see where is the target position of the block. As it is now, the game feels too clunky and doesn't tap into the puzzle potential the concept might give (maybe because it underuses existing features, or maybe it needs another feature to make things more interesting?). The boss battles were an interesting variation, I guess?

The audiovisuals are simple, but work well enough. I don't see much any reference to pre-established mythologies, just a vague idea of some in-universe legend?

Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies

Quite an interesting office & click adventure. It's actually pretty impressive how you managed to emulate all these kinds of office programs, complete with windows moving around and stuff. I imagine most of work here was spent on programming the UI. My main issue would be that sometimes it was hard to tell when I needed to continue the office work to advance, especially when waiting for login (also, the encryption code was so sneaky I spent a good few minutes before finding it). Also, it irk me a little how I can't scroll through the Start menu. This weird dreamworld theme was executed pretty well; the only thing that was missing was a timer that changes to a random time every minute.
Somehow, I really liked that "thank you for playing" message at the end.

The graphics were a little sloppy, but it was deliberate kind of sloppy; also, the Stapley was totally adorable when they didn't try to keep me in the nightmare. Unfortunately, there is no Music in the Music folder; even a few tracks from Eric Matyas would suffice. Voiceover was pretty well done; not as professional quality as Cthilda, but still more comprehensible than Escape from Tartarus (I needed to increase the volume for Minerva message, though). Lots of mythological references sprinkled throughout the game; technically similar story could have been told without involving the Roman pantheon, but it would be quite different and lack the absurdity of a god of war being an intern at the law firm.

Minitaur by Sirham

Unfortunately, there's not much to this game to keep me playing. The tombstones are adorable, but there is no survival time tracked nor any highscore afterwards.
Only after seeing Evan playthrough I realised I actually need to go to the rightmost side of the screen. You could have communicated this part better (maybe add a starting room where the player can go right unhindered, or add a right-pointing arrow?).
Other than that, the game overall mood and message makes me think of a mini-sized "Getting Over It", with emphasis on mini-sized. I.e. how the minitaur had to try many times before reaching the other side and finally breaking free of the curse (the mini curse, not the taur curse). Also, lots of the time Short and to the point.

Graphics were pretty inconsistent, especially the highly detailed background vs the pixel-arty minitaur and oversized legs vs completely single-colour terrain. Music felt chaotic, but somehow worked. Theme use sort of works in that it features a minotaur, though the story about being cursed to be small and growing up could apply to anyone (and I don't recall it being applied to minotaur specifically). Then again, not every character would give such a pun opportunity.

Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

The original content makes it so much better than the previous game. Honest.
Also, I looked up mythological otters and found Ótr. I didn't even have to look far.
There's not much game here, but I still appreciate the efforts.

Prometheus Rising by Evanski

An alright first person shooter, though it felt clunky at times for some reason. I can't quite put my finger on why, though. Having different weapons and types of enemies was somewhat nice. One annoying thing, however: when I picked up a mana for a higher-level weapon, it switched to that weapon, but once I ran out I didn't go to any of the previous weapons. As a result in floor 3 I would e.g. grab a purple mana, run out quickly and then I had to scroll back to orange while trying not to get killed by enemies.

The graphics are fine, but I'd much prefer if the rooms and props were more varied. Maybe some regular doors could have different signs or them, or different rooms would have different coloured walls or floors... something that would make different rooms easier to tell apart from one another. Audio is alright. If not for the title and the ending bit, I wouldn't really see a connection to the theme. ^^' It seems a good portion of pre-Jam preparations were made in advance, which isn't really a bad thing (I use Jamstarter pack myself), but it does make the feat not quite as impressive compared to doing main work in the Jam timeframe.
Also, the spinning chair room was nice.

Ravana by The M

I liked the gameplay, the Undertale-ish battles were especially fun; though I wish the final boss had more health - maybe even have some disarming ability, so that the player needs to pick up the weapon and aim for green circles again before continuing the attacks? As it is now, once you pick up the weapon you might as well forget about the green circles, unless you really need to replenish health or something. Also, it would be nice to have an option to drop an equipment, especially since I picked up two swords along the way, making one of these a dead weight (unless there's some dual wielding I don't know about; dual wielding would be actually pretty cool). Maybe have weapons separate from the consumables, and when trying to pick another sword there would be a message like "There is a sword, but you already have one"?
Also, sometimes all that mouse jumping between rooms or after a fight/challenge would make me run into a trap.

The graphics were simple, but functional, and different areas had enough variety to them. The audio was fine as well. The overall aesthetics and labyrinth-based gameplay are very much inspired by the Ramayana epic, so well done incorporating the theme. ^^
(if only the last boss fight didn't have this ambiguous state of inconclusion after taking down boss HP; apparently it's fixed in post-Jam version, I just rewarded myself with the GIF of an ending)

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan

Out of these classic Dan's randomised board/dice games, I've found this one the most enjoyable so far. While there's a random factor of having only specific fields available, the game still is mostly strategic (especially at the later stage where the players are able to place their subjects freely most of their turns) - and if anything the randomness means the players need to weigh their chances and adapt to the situation at board.
The smoked cells were a nice variation, wish they and their combinations were introduced earlier. I particularly liked how the dragon wasted his movement on the smoked cells instead of picking a free available one. I would have preferred if the dice rolling was sped up somewhat; the relaxingly slow gameplay speed doesn't work well with the Jam games mass reviewing.
At any rate, I wouldn't mind a similar game with online matches, maybe also more maps and mechanics as well.

The graphics are pleasing to the eye; I particularly liked how the opponents changed expression as the battle progressed (it would have been totally awesome if players could set their idle/winning/losing portraits themselves for online matches, but that would also require significant moderating efforts to prevent images of questionable nature). Music worked well enough with the game. Not seeing much of the theme here, which I find particularly odd considering how in the devlog you remarked how well this theme works for your idea; is it about the kingdoms conquest thing...?

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen

Completed it, great work! I like the different references to Finnish mythology (though I had to read Readme to properly understand them) and how they play out together. Without prior knowledge about the Finnish mythology some steps to advance felt a little random, but I never really felt stuck. It does a great job as a homage to Rusty Lake games, with how surreal and sometimes horror-esque it is.

I liked the graphics, they were simple but well-drawn. The audio was fitting as well. The game very clearly follows the theme throughout all these Finnish mythology references.

Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus

I've seen puzzles where it's required to enter specific tiles a certain number of times, and also puzzles where characters are controlled by placed signs, but I don't remember seeing the combination of both. I first played this game sleep-deprived at night and only completed the first 6 levels. Then later I managed to complete level 7-9, but level 10 was too much (the narrator speaking of having no idea how to solve it wasn't encouraging, either). It would be nice if the run didn't immediately go to pre-restart state once a god falls off/reaches a bed too soon, but rather it stayed for a bit so that I could see what kind of conditions weren't met.

The graphics are nicely chosen and somehow work well together, though the flashlight is hard to recognise. The music is fitting, and the voiceover is a nice touch, but it's very low volume and sometimes it's hard to tell at the first listening what is being spoken; please have mercy and add subtitles to your voiceovers. u_u'
The theme use is very vague, in that it doesn't refer to any specific mythology, just sleeping gods in general.

Spielcomm: Origins by Bart

Quite glitchy in an adorable way. Towards the end of my playthrough I walked around outside of the arena and spammed snake-like chains of bombs with 8/5 on the counter (never decreasing). By then I also sent some enemy fighters sliding around at relatively high speed (higher than their usual walking speed) and I've found the caesar (?) disappeared (were they abducted by UFO?).
Not sure if it's the proper way to play the game, but it sure felt like a proper way to have fun. According to Readme the battle cannot be completed anyway.

The graphics were simplistic (at least compared to the three mice game), but still functional, and I really liked the red sky in the battle mode; I've found it well fitting with the rest of the game. The music was quite cool as well (and also custom-made). I'm just a little disappointed I couldn't grab a dinner before entering the time machine; it's a poor idea to enter a battle on an empty stomach (though maybe entering a battle while full isn't a good idea, either?). The theme use is a little sketchy (in that the game creates its own mythology rather than being inspired by known mythologies), but it's still a nice ancient origins story.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

I'm sorry to say, the platforming here is quite an insufferable pain. The jumping of ledges in particular felt non-responsive a lot, to the point where I just deliberately jumped standing rather than walking left/right, to make sure I won't be doomed once again by ledge unresponsiveness (it didn't always work). Also, I feel like the hitbox is a tad too narrow compared to the sprite, which sometimes makes the character fall off despite visually appearing to land on a block. Sometimes the Pan would get briefly stuck in a jumping animation despite being on a block (especially the moving one). That, and it takes unnecessarily long to play the flute (I had to look it up on Pat's Jam Discussion post because playing flute didn't seem to do anything).
The gameplay mechanics are nicely varied and the charm mechanics are a nice idea as well; would be even nicer with other creatures (though it's sad how they end up heartbroken in the end). It's mostly the platforming mechanics that needs quite a lot of polish.

The audiovisuals are great as always, I'm actually impressed with how you managed to create all this content and still find time to make the actual gameplay part (though that would explain the janky mechanics...). The mythological story is clearly there, and it drives the important gameplay mechanic, so well done on that front. The original story is loosely interpreted - in particular, Hades had Zeus' approval when kidnapping Persephone - but those are details. And there are many parts of ancient mythologies that are better not recreated faithfully.

The Third Day by Ghandpivot

Quite an interesting boss battle platformer, enjoyable enough for me to complete it a few times. I found it odd how I don't seem to have any health tracked despite taking damage, but then I realised hitting Satan increased my score and getting Jesus hit decreased it; neither is affected by the damage, but I find it pretty fitting with two immortals duking it out. Also, this take on scoring allowed the game to synchronise with the music to an extent. The synchronisation felt imperfect at times - I don't know the implementation details; I'm guessing maybe the musical beat might trigger starting the attack instead of matching the punch? On the other hand, the devil-beams in the last phase matched the music perfectly.

I experienced two glitches: first, when I fall off the cliff, the game crashes. Second, at some point I got two different types of devil stacked at the same time which allowed me to rack up a score of 4050 (the large devil was a perfect target for bazooka, and the platforms protected against the fireballs); I didn't submit the score, my fair-game score is good as-is, anyway. Also, the game could have telegraphed some information better. E.g. when Satan is about to teleport, it could show the location to avoid being hit by teleporting devil. Maybe even show the direction Satan teleported to and/or couple it with teleportation SFX panned to whichever side the devil teleported to (one of Castlevania games did it to great effect, maybe other Castlevania games as well)?

The graphics work well enough; I particularly like the smug devil and all kinds of related animations, they really make the game feel more alive. Music is greatly integrated into the game, even despite imperfect synchronisation. The theme use is mostly aesthetic, but I like how it being the fight between Jesus and Satan explains why neither of them dies no matter how much damage they take (not sure if it was the intended idea or not).

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

An action puzzles of sort, mostly based around what I call "topology manipulation", i.e. making certain areas available from other areas, very often involving some kinds of switches. There was still a nice extra puzzle element in the form of the wisp "leading" the child or the timed challenges, and the number of puzzles was about right for the gameplay variety (I wasn't especially fond of the last level, though). Unfortunately, there seems to be no ending, so I didn't find out what the "offering" was needed for.

The graphics and animations were nicely done, though I'm not a fan of the popup when the child dies. The music is fitting enough. Nice job integrating the will o' wisp theme into the gameplay.

Toilet Story by Micah_DS

Pretty short run and gun game. Fun to play for a bit, but with this 3D perspective I was sometimes anxious when jumping between blocks of different depths (will I be able to land where I should?)., and it made avoiding unicorn bullets tricky as well. I couldn't shoot backwards, so I just skipped past the last unicorn. Kinda fun overall, though I feel adding the 3rd dimension here makes things more confusing than enjoyable.

The graphics are good, the music is hype, but unfortunately there aren't any sound effects. The use of theme is... symbolic, whether we talk about MYTHOLOGIES or TOILET STORY.

Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67

A simple side-scrolling shooter gameplay, with a nice mechanic of reflecting bullets. The game is varied enough for its short playtime, featuring a simple boss battle at the end. Though I'd have liked if the boss battle had more to it - maybe shooting more bullets, or a special slam attack? As it is now, depleting Typhon's 10 HP drags on a bit, without much excitement or challenge.

Graphics are cute; I find harpies especially endearing somehow. However, there seems to be an issue with clouds spawning, because of which they appear suddenly instead of seamlessly appearing from the edge of the screen. Unfortunately, there is no sound whatsoever. The game is clearly themed after Greek mythology and the snakes as well as harpies fit the Typhon (isn't Hermes caduceus supposed to have two snakes, though)?

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal

So, I got this score. Is it good?
I find it to be most fun Siolfor's GMC Jam entry to date, and I checked. Trying to hit the targets while avoiding obstacles was already fun enough as-is, but then I figured out the trick to keep the score multiplier going. My biggest complaint would be that there is no highest combo meter at the end of the run. This is such a relevant statistic in this game.

The graphics and audio come together very well. I really like how the gameplay incorporates various aspects of the mythological Ullr; if only the online hiscore system was added, the competition aspect of the god would be completed. ^^

Unicorn Rampage by Richerama

Yay, I am the bestest!
The bullet helly gameplay was alright. The bullets tilted in the unicorn direction and the bombs nicely complement each other. I would prefer if the game gave more sense of progression - first, how far the player is on the way to encountering the dragon, second, how many more hearts are needed for max health powerup, and finally, the status of the current powerup, both whether the temporary bonus is active and what's the level of the permanent powerup. One thing I noticed is how flying into buildings allows me to hide from the dragon bullets, which might break balance a little?

Audiovisual were alright, though the music got repetitive after a while (nevertheless, I appreciate how you made the music yourself). Use of theme mostly aesthetic, though those are still very relevant aesthetics.
 

Poizen

Member
I gave the most weight to fun gameplay, original/creative/experimental concepts, and a well-integrated theme.

Reviews

Top 3:

Ravana by The M
Mouse controls in a game like this is such a unique and neat idea. It works so well. The battles and lockpicking are fun (they kinda remind me of Undertale). I really like this game.

I was confused at the end because the boss refused to die. Though they did say he was semi-immortal. Or it might be a bug.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
This kinda reminds me of SNES and Sega Genesis era platformers. The difficulty and tricky platforming is one reason. There were some frustrating (and confusing) parts but overall it's a fun game and it's not too long. Good graphics and music. Good theme usage.

Here are some gripes I wrote down in the moment:
- The controls were a little weird for me (doing everything with your left hand). It would be great if arrow keys worked in addition to WASD.
- When you get to the first rat part it's kinda difficult to figure out. I saw someone else mention it earlier and I still had trouble.
- The character's hitbox is a bit unforgiving. I fell to my death a few times when I thought I would land on the platform.
- Oh man, that one button stays active and allows you to screw yourself over. That's so mean!

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
Clever concept. Simple but cool. I dig the small touch with the different languages in the game over screen.

The change of the pace really trips you up. Both while going up and when you crash back down. But I got on the list so I'm happy.

And someone has already tried to hack the highscore board. You love to see it.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Best Concept: Ravana by The M
Best Presentation: The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Best Story: The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

Full ranking:

  1. Ravana by The M
  2. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  3. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  4. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  5. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  6. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  7. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  8. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  9. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  10. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  11. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  12. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  13. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  14. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  15. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  16. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  17. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  18. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  19. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  20. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  21. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  22. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  23. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  24. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  25. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  26. CRUSH by Toque
  27. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  28. Minitaur by Sirham
  29. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  30. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  31. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda
  32. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

Comments:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64

It's a neat shmup. All the levels feel kinda samey but the new weapons make it interesting enough to continue playing.

Man, the game seems very easy until the last level. It's super generous with the extra health and you don't have to worry too much about dodging projectiles. But the last level is just nuts. Oh wait, scratch that. That was the second to last level. The last level is too much for me.

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus

Clever concept. Simple but cool. I dig the small touch with the different languages in the game over screen.

The change of the pace really trips you up. Both while going up and when you crash back down. But I got on the list so I'm happy.

And someone has already tried to hack the highscore board. You love to see it.

Blade of Redemption by Ezra

The fights don't require much thought. You can just spam the attack button and grind away, then move to the next area. The bosses seem to be the best for grinding because you'll gain multiple levels even if they're way lower level than you (I guess the exp requirement doesn't scale?).

I like that there's a big variety of enemies.

CROW by Terminator_Pony

I like the original choice of mythology (never heard of it before) and that it's explained in the game and that it directly ties into the gameplay.

The gameplay itself is pretty difficult to understand. There are so many buttons to remember too.

CRUSH by Toque

A little tower defense game. It's hard to get very far. It doesn't seem like there's any strat to not take constant damage and soon die. My highscore was 199.

I'm unsure which mythology the game references. I guess it's just mythological giants in general.

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

Cute story. Talented narrator. Controls feel a little awkward. I don't understand why you have to tap the buttons.

"I hope you enjoy that 38 Quadrillion possibilities of randomly generated planets in this game!" I guess this is a meme but for a second I wanted to believe that's the actual number of different combinations.

Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb

This is an interesting concept. I haven't come across an audio-only game before (in the jam at least). My first thought though is that I wish it was also accessible to the hearing impaired (like with closed captions), especially when it would be simple to make it so. Though idk if it would in a way undermine the point the game is making (like if there's text is it just a regular text adventure then).

It's a hard game. You have to focus on the narration and remember the game state in your head. There are no strict number stats to go by. I had to constantly look at the readme to check what the attacks are.

About the narration: While I could understand it, it's not the most clear (I think because it's been modulated) and sometimes it's partially drowned out by the sound effects. So I missed some words here and there.

FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc

Original space mythos is a cool take on the theme.

I really appreciate that you can view the help screen in the middle of the game (even though it doesn't pause the game).

I got bit of an excruciatingly slow start because I built two platforms right away. So I was out of money and the cargo ship doesn't unload until much later when it's full. (It really behooves you to build a miner ship at the start.)

The artifact thing was somewhat confusing. The first time the popup showed up I was like "Ok, so the game is over? The goal was to just play until you randomly stumble upon the artifact? Oh wait, the game continues." Then artifacts kept popping up and it didn't seem to affect the gameplay so I assumed it was just for flavor. Then one time an artifact shows up and I'm in the middle of combat so I have to dismiss it but it ends the game?? It was something about a pizza.

Okay, I replayed the game and I assume the popups signify progress. When you've built one of every platform you win? Or when you've built X number of things you win? And the last artifact is the one mentioned in the help screen. Alright. Still feels very abrupt how the game ends.

Gilgamesh by Ninety

A solid simple platformer. Nice color palette.

Gravity Bunny by Koopashy

I see it's the mythology of the Easter bunny.

It's pretty punishing when the whole game is restarted when you die.

Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84

The room transitions don't seem to show up in fullscreen mode. The screen is just black for a second.

I shoot impressive fireballs but they don't do anything to those hedgehogs?

The game's got a good amount of challenge. The upgrade mechanic adds a good reason to collect the coins.

Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28

Could use a little readme.txt. It took me a bit to figure out what's going on, that you can only attack when you're standing in a hexagon with a symbol on it. It's also hard to tell when you're hitting someone or getting hit.

I like the art, it looks clean.

The theme use felt a little superficial.

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18

I had a blast playing the game. You can tell it's very unfinished but the core mechanic is solid as heck. It was hard but I beat the game.

It says in the readme that the story was left out, and it would interesting to know what it would have been. Because I can envision how some kind of a mythology of the playground would be a clever take on the theme.

Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados

So it's a Space Invaders kind of game. There are some upgrades which is always a good system to add a feeling of depth and progression in a game where the mechanics are otherwise pretty simple.

I had a really hard time trying to focus while playing two characters at once. Kinda seems like an unnecessary complication. My best was getting to wave 4.

Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

So there's no game. But it's a promising looking start. I would have loved to play a deck builder.

Map of Legend by PugWizard101

It's a really cool concept. Moving the blocks feels a little janky though, which doesn't bother me except when you have to move a block fast. Another thing that could use work is how some parts require almost pixel perfect jumps or you'll hit a spike. Maybe a smaller hitbox for the character and/or the possibility to do smaller jumps.

The difficulty curve is a bit inconsistent. Some levels are super trivial to beat.

The story felt kinda random.

Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies

The computer UI is pretty impressive. There's so much stuff there.

I'm a little torn about the typing "minigame" to advance story because on one hand it's boring but on the other hand it's a perfect simulation of a crappy data entry job.

Could use some ambient office sounds playing in the background.

Minitaur by Sirham

There's not much going on here besides the pun.

Murder on the Styx Express by Alice

At first I was worried a murder mystery would have so many interactions that it's overwhelming, but there are seemingly so few possible interactions I'm confused. I only managed to make one (obvious) connection and now I'm stumped.

Ok, I looked up the solution and beat the game. I guess the solution was just unintuitive.

Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

Another great short film.

Prometheus Rising by Evanski

Due to my poor reading comprehension I didn't realize you can switch between the fireball colors. So I kept running out of mana and I had to resort to running around the level a few times collecting potions before trying for real (because mana doesn't reset on death for some reason).

The game feels a little too much like Doom. Like it kinda lacks its own identity.

Ravana by The M

Mouse controls in a game like this is such a unique and neat idea. It works so well. The battles and lockpicking are fun (they kinda remind me of Undertale). I really like this game.

I was confused at the end because the boss refused to die. Though they did say he was semi-immortal. Or it might be a bug.

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan

Graphics look very sleek. Easy to look at.

It's a neat concept. Simple little board game. I do wish there was a button to skip the transitions. A single game takes a considerable amount of time.

The theme doesn't really come through, though I can see how mythology and medieval times are somewhat related.

Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus

I wish the instructions were written in the readme. I think I missed the part where every square has to be lit up, but I suspect that's what's required since it's not accepting my solutions.

I appreciate the level select, but it's kind of a hassle to use it to skip a level when you're stuck. You have to reopen the game, wait for the intro, forget which level you were on, click the wrong one, and then repeat the process.

Spielcomm: Origins by Bart

The intro until the colosseum battle felt confusing. So Spielcomm is what ancient Romans called their battles, and there's a modern Spielcomm LARP event where the main character is going, and then he travels back in time for some reason?

The normal movement is extremely slow. I don't see any reason why the faster speed isn't the default. The gameplay is very clunky in general. You can place infinite bombs on the floor and that's pretty much all there is to it.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

This kinda reminds me of SNES and Sega Genesis era platformers. The difficulty and tricky platforming is one reason. There were some frustrating (and confusing) parts but overall it's a fun game and it's not too long. Good graphics and music. Good theme usage.

Here are some gripes I wrote down in the moment:
- The controls were a little weird for me (doing everything with your left hand). It would be great if arrow keys worked in addition to WASD.
- When you get to the first rat part it's kinda difficult to figure out. I saw someone else mention it earlier and I still had trouble.
- The character's hitbox is a bit unforgiving. I fell to my death a few times when I thought I would land on the platform.
- Oh man, that one button stays active and allows you to screw yourself over. That's so mean!

The Third Day by Ghandpivot

I didn't realize until there was a highscore list on the screen that the game is about getting a highscore. And you can't die, you just lose points. I ended up with 2194 points.

It's an alright bullet hell type of game. There are multiple phases to the fight and various hazards to dodge, which is cool. Avoiding the lasers was really difficult.

I don't remember my Bible stories super well but I assume the game's events refer to when Jesus went to hell after his crucifixion and "the third day" refers to his resurrection. So the theme checks out. I have to dock some points for the anachronistic weaponry though lol.

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

Great atmosphere. Nice puzzle mechanics.

Level 7 was kind of a non-puzzle though, you just walk through it. And it's easy to die in that one if you get stuck in a corner. And it demonstrates an annoying issue where dying shows a dialog box that messes with the fullscreen mode.

The last puzzle went totally over my head.

The exit button doesn't work. Or you could say it works but it displays an error in the process.

Toilet Story by Micah_DS

The game looks very cool, but the perspective is messing me up. The second level took me countless of attempts. Oh, and that's it. I still would have liked to see some more level layouts.

Good music.

Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67

The game is pretty easy after you realize you can mostly forget about bouncing projectiles back and just whack them with your stick.

No sounds. :(

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal

It's really easy to mess up and eat snow. And an easy mistake to make is to shoot straight up. But eventually I got the hang of it and got to the bottom of the mountain. I wish I had thought to screenshot my score.

It left me wanting a little bit more. Like more variety in things to shoot at and jump over.

Unicorn Rampage by Richerama

A chill game overall. It felt a bit unchallenging tbh and right when I was starting to think it's dragging on too much the boss showed up. I liked the boss fight and I liked that there was an end.
 

Richerama

Member
Reviews

Top 3:

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Great presentation and animations. Clever puzzles made possible by the idea of using the rats. Even made use of the theme well to tell a story so ticks all boxes for me. There were some frustrations like how long it took to take control over a rat and one annoying hole i kept falling down but overall really impressive.

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
I really liked this. The artwork is amazing, the puzzles are clever and not too challenging or frustrating. Was just really enjoyable to play through.

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
Bit basic as a game but good presentation and the way the story and voice over draw you in make this much more of an experience. Short and sweet, which is perfect for a jam game.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Best Concept: Ravana by The M
Best Presentation: The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Best Story: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  2. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  3. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  4. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  5. Ravana by The M
  6. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  7. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  8. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  9. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  10. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  11. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  12. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  13. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  14. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  15. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  16. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  17. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  18. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  19. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  20. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  21. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  22. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  23. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  24. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  25. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  26. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  27. CRUSH by Toque
  28. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  29. Minitaur by Sirham
  30. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda
  31. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson
  32. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
 

dadio

Potato Overlord
GMC Elder
dAdIoS vOaTz...
Apologies for the short sharp comments. Had barely any time to play all these. Grats for entering something! Makes you better than me!

Top 3:

1. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
2. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
3. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Cthildha
Best Concept: Cthildha
Best Presentation: Rolldyce Kingdoms
Best Story: Cthildha
Best Devlog: N/A

Full ranking:

1. Cthildha
2. Babel
3. The Insufferable Pan

4. Rolldyce Kingdoms
5. Escape From Tartarus
6. Secrets of Tapiola

Comments:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64

Vertical shooter. Decent enough, but nothing really new here. Good work

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus

Timing/tower builder. Very nice! It's amazing how something so simple + online high scores can achieve. Great sound and music. Creative Theme use! loved this one!


Blade of Redemption
by Ezra

Turn based fighter...... basic.... not so exciting...

CROW by Terminator_Pony

Errr... flying around above a battle. Note sure what I was doing.

CRUSH by Toque

A green giant punching down the attackers. Was ok!

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

Very cool. Planet creating sim. Polished presentation. Neat concept. great music / sound / narration. Great work!

Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb

Interesting. Not quite sure what I was doing... but happy to see/hear a game like this in the Jam! Unique!


FarOutPost 42
by HayManMarc

Decent space building game. Was ok!

Gilgamesh by Ninety

Stylish low res retro pixel platformer. Solid music and sound. Liked it!

Gravity Bunny by Koopashy

Very simple bunny platformer. Had music and sounds.

Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84

Ultra low res platformer/shooter. Decent consistent pixel art and good music/sound. Nice work!

Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28

Hmmm. Simple game. Best so far, liked the clean vector art visuals. Overall presentation rocks. Nice music. Bonus points for potatoes! Lol!

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18

Kids with sticky guns... um.... don't see the Theme at all.... difficult? Um. Yep.

Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados

Horizontal space invaders with upgrades. Hmmm. Was ok.

Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

No sound at all? No idea what I was doing.... card based tactical thing? Seemed broken.

Map of Legend by PugWizard101

Interesting... I kinda dug this.

Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies

Interesting. Windows sim. Looks like quite a bit of work put in here... I couldn't endure it long enough to find out why (or the punchline?) tho lol!

Minitaur by Sirham

Very short simple low res retro platoformer. Was alright.

Murder on the Styx Express by Alice

Detective em up. Interesting. I always find Alices games... intriguing on the one hand... but they don't usually catch my attention/keep me engaged as much as I would think. Hmmm. Nice work here tho!

Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

Fantastic! Lol! Well... *actually* I have a SRS comment here... I remember the original version of this "joke game". And I dug it then (and I still dig it now) but here's the thing... the new copyright restrictions suck. They just about destroy these types of comedic/meme games. Just my 2 cents. Cheers!

Prometheus Rising by Evanski

Retro style 3D Doom clone. Very basic, dull repeitive gameplay. But props for making a 3D thing. Haven't seen this kinda thing for quite a long time!

Ravana by The M

Weird control scheme here.... unintuitive... I usually like these ultra low res black and white things but... controls weren't great and not much to it. Was ok.

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan

Really nice pro presentation as always. Love seeing "boardgame/dice" type games in the Jam. Cool stuff all round. *But* it's so luck heavy... and not many strategic choices/options, so the gameplay isn't so interesting. Gorgoeus looking and sounding tho!


Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen

Weird, moody point and click puzzler. I liked it. Don't see much of this kind of thing in Jams. Couldn't solve much. Nice job!


Sleepy Gods
by Mr Magnus

Very simple puzzle arrow/direction change game. Odd photo visuals. Voiceover. Not really my cup of tea.

Spielcomm: Origins by Bart

Slow paced 3D odd walking sim type game. Was ok I guess. Not much to do. Too much wide open, empty space. Props for trying 3D tho!

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

Very well presented platformer. Great art and music and sound. Nice job!


The Third Day
by Ghandpivot

Errr... very simple side on shooter with 1 enemy. Crashes out if you fall off. Expected more from you Ghandpivot! (At least you entered something tho, better than me lol!)

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

Decent puzzly kinda top downish button pusher/swapping game. Decent visuals and sounds. Nice job. Bit boring for me. Layouts could hav ebeen more interesting/tighter.

Toilet Story by Micah_DS

I really liked the side on 3D visuals. Decent music. Sounds would have been appreciated. Pity it just ends before really doing anything lol. Very short! No theme.

Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67

Ummm.... very big pixel game... scrolling shooter. No sound at all?! Bad collisions... er....

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal

Skiing/archery game. Pretty neat! Nice weird combination.

Unicorn Rampage by Richerama

Lol. Sidescrolling shooter with a unicorn. I liked the tone/colors/presentation. Coulda been really funny but not enough to the game at all. Repetitive.
 
Last edited:
Reviews

Top 3:

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
This really good! Art is awesome and the puzzles are just difficult enough to make you think.

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
Was very satisfying once I got the hang of it. Jumping felt very forgiving (which I appreciate). Very amused with the arrows interaction with the player - nice attention to detail!

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
I wasn't sure of this one at first, but once I figured out the powerups it was very fun. Music, art, and everything inbetween fits great.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
Best Concept: Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
Best Presentation: APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
Best Story: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

Full ranking:

  1. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  2. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  3. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  4. Ravana by The M
  5. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  6. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  7. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  8. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  9. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  10. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  11. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  12. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  13. CRUSH by Toque
  14. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  15. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  16. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  17. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  18. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  19. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  20. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  21. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda
  22. Minitaur by Sirham
  23. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  24. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  25. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  26. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  27. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  28. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  29. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  30. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  31. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  32. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

Comments:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64

I wasn't sure of this one at first, but once I figured out the powerups it was very fun. Music, art, and everything inbetween fits great.

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus

Leaderboards are really cool, super casual and doesn't overcomplicate.

Blade of Redemption by Ezra

The five enemy battles felt a tad too easy. Even attacking lower level enemies I was leveling up after every enemy - restoring my hp. Game definitely has some charm to it!

CRUSH by Toque

Fairly difficult, but I suppose if it wasn't the giant would be alive today.

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

Relaxing! Really enjoy the orbit effects, but creating a planet seems to eliminate momentum. Story+Presentation is awesome!

Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb

Pretty neat! Had a little difficulty understanding some words, but good overall.

FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc

Always like to see a jam RTS! Moving defenders felt cumbersome, and I would've preferred if they just moved like the other ships. Looked for a way to pause but ended up beating it before I needed to quit anyway.

Gilgamesh by Ninety

Wall jumping didn't feel intuitive to me. Otherwise smooth and looked nice, but I wasn't able to get very far.

Gravity Bunny by Koopashy

I love the rabbit animation, but I had a lot of trouble with the movement.

Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84

I didn't get very far, shooting enemies didn't do anything.

Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28

Such cute potatoes! Shooting was a little confusing, but I think I figured it out. More information + ability to mute would've been nice.

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18

Looks cool, frustrating to play. Can't believe I stuck through it, but there is some satisfaction in wiping the map.

Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados

A bit hard for my taste, only got to wave three, but I can't say there's much wrong with it. I would've preferred the option for 'i' and 'k' over up/down arrows - would keep hands level and either thumb could hit the space bar. Speaking of the spacebar, I don't think it ever filled? But maybe that's a late game thing.

Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

Stat points go to infinity. Looks pretty though.

Map of Legend by PugWizard101

This started out a guaranteed top 3 in my mind. Loved the concept, gameplay felt smooth, puzzles where interesting. Then I started facing problems. First off, the alignment of the grid is off from the mouse xy, but the mouse needs to be in the same box to register placement. At times, boxes would also fill with two tiles with no way to separate them. With later levels, the grid shows multiple places you can put blocks, but you actually can't. Level progression was also a bit strange to me. Level 24 was impossible to me (is it supposed to be a frame perfect jump on the bottom row?), and level 28 was a single click without having to place the block. I skipped lvl 24 with the save file since I really wanted to see more. I think if you took the best 20 out of 30 levels, and sorted them a bit more by difficulty this would be a really solid game.

Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies

I'm assuming any login password would work, but I like to think Bars was the answer. I couldn't figure out the encrypted file, but it was fun up until then.

Minitaur by Sirham

Tombstones and avoiding the feet was cool. Not sure why, but I kind of like the unusual dimensions of the window.

Murder on the Styx Express by Alice

While I do like trains and mystery, I found the gameplay confusing. Moving the stygian clue to the stygian mystery had me stumped for a bit, since no other items had been usable until then.

Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

Three Otter thumbs up. Definitely a lot of effort in this.

Prometheus Rising by Evanski

I made it through a few floors, but kept finding myself without ammo or something. Shooting just felt a little strange.

Ravana by The M

I enjoy the lock picking and battles. Great style and very accessible.

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan

Smooth graphics and gameplay. Not too difficult to figure out! Well done.

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen

This really good! Art is awesome and the puzzles are just difficult enough to make you think.

Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus

This is hard. But very satisfying to finally solve. Level resets quick so it can be hard to track what's going wrong. Game also crashes if you go to the level selector and then back to the main menu.

Spielcomm: Origins by Bart

3D woo! Made me a little nauseous.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

I love the look but I had some issues playing it. Often felt like jumping wasn't triggering right with either character. Frequently had issues with the rat getting stuck in walls, not moving with platforms, etc

The Third Day by Ghandpivot

Well, that was something else. The longer it went, the better it god got. I will take this portrayal as canon.

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

Not a fan of the pop-up dialogues or luring sound fx, but overall pretty good! It would've been nice for the last level to be able to move the camera.

Toilet Story by Micah_DS

Got me all excited and then I couldn't get past z+x

Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67

Looks nice, I think audio would have helped. Using enter in the menu and space in the game is a little cumbersome to me, but it's not a big deal.

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal

Was very satisfying once I got the hang of it. Jumping felt very forgiving (which I appreciate). Very amused with the arrows interaction with the player - nice attention to detail!

Unicorn Rampage by Richerama

It feels good to be the bestest. Love the style! The health regeneration mechanic is cool, and I like that it happens during the boss too.
 

Roldy

Member
Reviews

Top 3:

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan


The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping


APOLLO by CardinalCoder64



Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Best Concept: Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
Best Presentation: Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
Best Story: The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  2. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  3. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  4. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  5. CRUSH by Toque
  6. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  7. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  8. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  9. Ravana by The M
  10. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  11. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  12. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  13. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  14. Minitaur by Sirham
  15. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  16. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  17. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  18. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  19. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  20. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  21. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  22. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  23. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  24. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  25. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  26. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  27. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson
  28. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  29. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  30. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  31. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  32. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  33. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

Comments:

 
Top 3:

1.) Ullr by @Siolfor the Jackal
Had a lot of fun with this one, and it got more fun as I got better at it. Cool use of the theme too.

2.) Babel dsfiohwioefhiosd by @Mr Magnus
Had a lot of fun with this one, too. Appreciated the extremely simple but fun game design and the chill music. Very "flow" type game.

3.)The insufferable Pan by @Pixel-Team
The jumping felt a little off to me....I swear it was eating inputs on me even on flat ground sometimes somehow, but this was the most "complete" and professional feeling game in the jam to me. Best art, too. Pretty fun overall. Felt a bit like Prince of Persia, which I'm sure it was at least partly inspired by with the spike sneaking, hahah. Cool game.

Honorable Mentions:
I also appreciated @HayManMarc and @GameDevDan's entries for trying slower paced genres. I'm not sure games where you have to learn rules before playing "work" especially well for jams, but it's still cool to see them entered, and they both seemed well made! I had fun with @Bearman_18's Nerf Gun game too. =)

I loved the weird-ass aesthetic in @Jarfunkados' Invaders of Egypt. I'll look at that one a bit more later, I think! Very nostalgic feeling, like a lost Windows 95 game, hahah.
Edit: Ah, really liked the aesthetic in Magnus' Sleepy Gods, too. Good job, Magnus. You make my list twice this time, hahah! =)

Cool jam. Good work, everyone!
 

Mr Magnus

Viking King
Reviews

A lot of the comments are a bit on the shorter side due to me having pretty much no time to properly think these trough. I'll maybe to a second take later today, but probably not. If you have questions just shoot them my way.

Well done everyone, there were a lot of amazing games this time around.

Top 3:

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
Adorable. Absolutely wonderful. Great concept, great execution, great narration, just all around great. Even once the myth had ended I found immense satisfaction just floating around, building interstellar highways out of small planets and letting Cthilda just follow the planetary paths aimlessly, bound to the random motion created by gravity.

Also, curse you for actually being a team that got top spot in my rankings, now I'll have to adapt my prize to actually account for the fact there are two of you. :p

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
I object. That God is clearly the god of snowboarding, not skiing. It's hard to argue that a shield is a ski, not a snowboard. I'd also make a pass for sledding.

Well done. A very simple, very addictive high scoring game. I admit I had a good laugh when I realized you can trip over your own arrows. This is a well polished, well scored, well executed game. Sure, it's a simple concept, but that's all that it needs to be. The best entries are those that have a simple enough gameplay loop but have that loop polished to such a degree that you sort of stop noticing the lack of complexity.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
It turns out if you go in to the pause screen as the screen fades out when you die the game sometimes crashes. Neat!

Beautiful game with very intersting mechanics and charmingly witty conversations. It's a bit rough mechanically, I didn't always feel "in control" of Pan and a lot of the missed jumps felt out of my control which is never a great feeling even if it was fully my fault. If the game feels stiff that kind of overshadows my own incompetence. I've been paying attention to your post jam development and it seems like you are aware of most of the issues already and are fixing them, so I wish you all the best.

Also, rm_level_hard_1 is very aptly named.


Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
Best Concept: Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
Best Presentation: Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
Best Story: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
Best Devlog: Spielcomm: Origins by Bart

Full ranking:

  1. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  2. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  3. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  4. Ravana by The M
  5. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  6. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  7. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  8. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  9. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  10. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  11. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  12. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  13. CRUSH by Toque
  14. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  15. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  16. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  17. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  18. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  19. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  20. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  21. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  22. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  23. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  24. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  25. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  26. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  27. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda
  28. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  29. Minitaur by Sirham
  30. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  31. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

Comments:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64

A very respectable idea. I would have appriciated a better indication how long each level was, as the gameplay loop did get a bit stale after a while. Additionally I found out that if you miss an enemy (as in he leaves the bottom of the screen) you may very well not be able to finish the level. Beyond that a scrolling shooter is always a good time.

Blade of Redemption by Ezra

So, there is this thing in game design called "first order optimal strategy". It's a term used when there is a single easy to pull off strategy that never the less so powerful that the arguably better but harder to execute strategies don't seem worth the effort to the player.

This game kind of faces that issue. I found that the best way of playing the game was to pick whatever expedition is closest to you in level, and mashing "attack" over and over again until you win. When you're about 15 levels stronger than any of the three bosses, go do the weakest boss and repeat the strategy of spamming attack until the boss is dead. Most of the time they would be., and in the other cases you could try again and kill them on the second go around. This strategy got me well up until level 140 when I finally decided to call it quits.

The game is well putand very lovely looking, but I'd suggest you rebalance it a bit so that the player is more incentivized to find an engaging strategy instead of just attacking until everything is dead. Well done however.

CROW by Terminator_Pony

It's a very, very interesting concept. It's not a very engaging game, but I respect it for what it is. However I do wish that there was a bit more here, as circling over the battlefield watching my favored side win (or lose if I decided they weren't my favored side any more) didn't really hold the attention long enough.

CRUSH by Toque

Avoiding damage in this is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. However this is a lovely crushing game that does what it wants fairly well. I'd really only wish for more options provided to the player to solve the problems the large army that often can't be killed without getting very hurt brings.

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

Adorable. Absolutely wonderful. Great concept, great execution, great narration, just all around great. Even once the myth had ended I found immense satisfaction just floating around, building interstellar highways out of small planets and letting Cthilda just follow the planetary paths aimlessly, bound to the random motion created by gravity.

Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb

A generally well executed audio game. You may have wanted to work a bit on seperating the voice lines. I had a bit of trouble following the narrator when he would give an instruction but then without pause go right in to the next instruction without allowing me time to process what he said.

The visuals, well, did not apply given that this isn't a game intended to be seen.

However the game itself isn't bad. It's a bit repetitive and could have used a bit more variety as it mostly boiled down to "Enemy appeared, kill it with these three tools. Repeat a few times", but for an experimental concept and just getting an audio game halfway decent in such a short amount of time I give you a lot of leeway on that. I did have fun with this even if it was a bit unorthodox.

FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc

As much as I like these sorts of games I found that this one is very unwieldly. The collection ships only ever came back when they were full, which slowed the game down immensly as I had to sit around waiting until they were done. Because I could only control the defenders I found myself wishing that I had something to do as my miner and collectors did all the work and I occationally chased down enemy ships. Every ship I lost was a very tedious experience as I couldn't collect enough ore to replace it in any sensible fashion without setting myself back to a few more minutes of waiting around.

This has all the potential to be a fun base building sort of game, but its pacing needs tightening up a bit.

Gilgamesh by Ninety

No Enkidu. 0/10.

That aside, this is a really neat little platformer. I tried to not abuse the unintended "fly" mechanic too much, but it was a hard ask given how funny it was. The ambience was chill and matched perfectly, and while it was a bit rough mechanically (I kept sticking to walls without meaning to) it does what it wanted to do.

Gravity Bunny by Koopashy

It's fairly difficult to spot where the hitboxes of everything is, making estimating jumps rather hard. This isn't aided by the fact that restarting the game from the beginning upon death generally is a very punishing mechanic. Generally you'd only want to restart the level in games like this. However it is a valiant attempt and I hope to see you participating in future jams.

Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84

Why is the game window so small?

So, the good news is that despite your ferverous protesting in various streams this actually is very passable pixel art, and a very passable platformer. It's perfectly servicable for a game jam, and I swear I have some old gameboy cartridges that have way worse presentation than this, and that is despite the fact they only had three shades of puke-green to chose from. On the platforming front I only found a single bug: if you're in a 1-block high spot you can jump in to the wall above you and get teleported to the top. I used that fact to my advantage a couple of times to make the game a bit easier on myself.

Now, you could have telegraphed a bit better that collecting more coins than 10 is just for the score and not any practical purpose, and that the hell turtles are not immortal, just very very bulky. Some enemy and turret placement was a bit unfairly placed leading to some unexpected and unpreventable deaths, but nothing that was hard to avoid once you were aware they were there. Beyond that this is in no way a bad entry. Well done.

Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28

This is a very good looking game, but sadly I found the gameplay a bit lacking. Attacking was a bit inconsistent and so I really just went around painting the floor until the AI had gotten most of the way there to kill each other. What however I didn't really get an answer to is how painting the floor affected anything. It seemed that it was always the last one standing that won, and I really didn't see the benefit of painting the floor my color.

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18

Aiming is very rough. While I enjoy the idea it's very unforgiving. It is not bad, but it has a lot of rough edges that need to be sanded away for this to properly work for me.



Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados

My hand-eye coordination is not good enough for controlling two of these at a time. Maybe if I had someone to play with to take one half of it.

It's a bit rough around the edges. It's a rock solid idea, but it needs a few layers of polish. I quite enjoyed my time with it, and the audio was a good fit.

Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

Sadly didn't work. Playing cards simply locked the game in to applying there effects forever, ending my turn didn't cause my enemy to do anything other than stare at me like I had issued a grave insult to them.



Map of Legend by PugWizard101

You've messed up the coordinate system a bit. If you lock the grid based on a different point than the point that the mouse position is operating after then you'll get the effect of the block appearing locked to the wrong grid area. This wouldn't be a problem except for the levels in which the solution requires you to quickly move a block from one spot to the other very accuratly while moving your character. In those situations you do not want the block to go to the wrong spots because you happened to go to the qrong quadrant of the destination square.

It makes an otherwise good idea fall because the execution is so rough.

But it *is* a good idea. With some polish and tight controls this could be a decently fun game.

Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies

Very funny, the voice acting was a nice touch, and filled with tiny little easter eggs that made it a breeze to get trough. I don't have a whole lot ot say other than I generally liked it.

Minitaur by Sirham

That first level man. Why do you hate me?

Funny concept, but you could have executed on it in a more entertaining way. It felt far too random if you got over or not. If a foot appeared more or less directly overhead there was no direction you could go to avoid it.

Murder on the Styx Express by Alice

Obviously you had a lot less time than this really deserves, but what is here is great. It suffers a bit from the age old point-and-click problem of "when you're stuck try using everything with everything", but that's more an issue with the genre than the game itself. The writing is witty and charming, and filled with jokes that are just corny enough that I love them. It's rough, but it's something that's well done.

Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

Love it. Absolutely hilarious. I very much enjoy the effort you undertook in replacing everything with "copyright free" editions. It's a joke game, naturally, but it works.

Prometheus Rising by Evanski

A very solid Doom-like FPS. I got lost a couple of times, so a mini map wouldn't have hurt. That being said it functioned well, it was a competent 3D entry, it fit the theme well, and I had fun with it. I realize that the whole idea of "secret doors" is that they are secret, but the moss texture was a bit hard to spot at times. Well done.

Ravana by The M

A very interesting game, a very interesting game indeed. Aside from the character jerking about a bit when transitioning between rooms and the final boss refusing to die and instead just turning shivering a bit this is a very well put together game. It doesn't overstay its welcome, the gimmick is easy to grasp and utilize, and the soundtrack is banging.



Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan

I'm going to level with you: you get automatic points just because I am the *exact* demographic for this type of game.

However, even if this wasn't the exact type of game I love you're still scoring high simply for the level of polish on display. This is a wonderfully crafted game with charming visuals, great gamefeel, a whimsy presentation, and good audio to match. The board game itself, while simple, does exactly what it sets out to do and does it well. If anything has to be critisized I have to put a question mark on how well this really fits the theme. I'd not be sure I'd be able to match it to this specific jam out of a lineup of random jam games knowing that one of them is supposed to feature "mythologies".

That being said you can be very proud of this game. It's a real treat.

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen

Cute. Very cute.

A charming little puzzle game that managed to hold my interest suprisingly well. I never felt stuck, it was usually fairly clear what was my next step, and even if I have no idea what was happening I at least could enjoy the mystic ambiance. There isn't a whole lot I'd complain about other than why the poor bear had to face such injustice, being eaten and all.

Well done.

Spielcomm: Origins by Bart

I have nothing but massive respect for you for trying 3D. You've done much better than I could ever have done for GM. However there was a distinct lack of polish here to the point I wasn't sure what I was doing. I walked around collecting bombs, avoiding spearmen flipping around, and a creepy eye staring at me. When I did die it... just kept on going. There is an arena fighter in here somewhere, but it needs a few nails to get to the house.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

It turns out if you go in to the pause screen as the screen fades out when you die the game sometimes crashes. Neat!

Beautiful game with very intersting mechanics and charmingly witty conversations. It's a bit rough mechanically, I didn't always feel "in control" of Pan and a lot of the missed jumps felt out of my control which is never a great feeling even if it was fully my fault. If the game feels stiff that kind of overshadows my own incompetence. I've been paying attention to your post jam development and it seems like you are aware of most of the issues already and are fixing them, so I wish you all the best.

Also, rm_level_hard_1 is very aptly named.


The Third Day by Ghandpivot

You may want to double check your networking a little bit. A lot of server related errors. Additionally I somehow feel like I've missed this bit of the New Testament. Is this supply side Jesus?

A very fun shooter. Good music and fun boss pattern design that is quite engaging to play and very challenging to encounter. Online highscores are always a great touch albeit a bit rough.

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

A clever idea. A tiny bit clunky but I enjoyed it. It's a little simple but that's not a fault in of itself.

Toilet Story by Micah_DS

this 2.5D style is quite hard to pull off well, so well done in making it look as good as it does. The perspective however causes it to be quite hard to judge depth accuratly, I often found myself throwing myself to my doom because I thought that the floor was closer or further away than it really was. It's also fairly punishing in the health department. At some point I realized I had a higher success rate with running away and dodging enemy fire than I had in trying to fight back and kill them. The less time I spent in their presence the better.

Music is a bid loud, but it's jiving anyhow.

Well done.

Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67

Protip: if you keep to the bottom of the screen at all times, you can avoid all the birds and most of the snakes. After that all you have to do is pummel the boss until they die.

adorable art, charming - if simple - gameplay, and all around lovely amount of effort. The font is a bit hard to read, so I suggest trying to clear it up a little. Pixel fonts can become a bit blurry at this resolution.

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal

I object. That God is clearly the god of snowboarding, not skiing. It's hard to argue that a shield is a ski, not a snowboard. I'd also make a pass for sledding.

Well done. A very simple, very addictive high scoring game. I admit I had a good laugh when I realized you can trip over your own arrows. This is a well polished, well scored, well executed game. Sure, it's a simple concept, but that's all that it needs to be. The best entries are those that have a simple enough gameplay loop but have that loop polished to such a degree that you sort of stop noticing the lack of complexity.

Unicorn Rampage by Richerama

This game is absolutely adorable. However I found that it's not very challenging. After I got over my initial wave of "aww, I'm a pooping unicorn" I realized that I was an immortal pooping unicorn. The gameplay really needed to get more difficult or varied sooner as I quickly got in to a comfortable rhythm of shooting helicopters and dropping bombs on building turrets with only a hit reaching me every couple of minutes. If this game has an ending I would have appriciated an indicator to see how far along I am. If it doesn't have an ending and is just shoot until you die then you need to make dying a potential threat for anyone playing even remotely competently.

Cute presentation, good mechanics, needed a bit more spice.
 
Voting Post

Top 3:

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
Quite a simple but addicting little game.

+ Easy to play, hard to master.
+ Online high scores make it something more, something to conquer.
+ Great sound effects. They really have a satisfying click.
+ Great integration of theme into gameplay.

- The way it stops every couple of stacks to change view really messes with any good rhythm I have. Even if it waited a few more stacks before moving, that would still be preferable.
- I mean, it's not much to look at. Some slightly nicer sprites and backgrounds would do wonders.

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
A reasonably well-rounded entry. Well done! A fun little possession puzzle game.

+ Possession and guidance worked pretty well and kept things nice and simple.
+ Great puzzle designs. Many were very easy to solve, but a couple had that brief moment of thought needed before the "Aha!" moment.
+ Very nice sprites and backgrounds.
+ Good sound design(Good choice of sound resources) really added to the atmosphere, worked well with your art and theme.

- The built in pop up messages are not overly recommended for much besides debugging, but being a jam makes it understandable. That said, I was playing(happily) in fullscreen, and it was quite frustrating to have the game alt-tab itself to show the pop up message that I died. I know I died, I was there.
- The very unceremonious end was a bit deflating. You had a good length of levels, but to be just kicked to the menu was a shame. Even just a screen with a "Hey, you did it! You got the kid through the maze and sacrificed him or whatever!" would have done wonders.

FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
I'm not generally into resource or management type games, but by the end I was getting right into this. Would be potentially interested in a larger version of this game.

+ Simple gameplay that you can just get right into. Most of it take cares of itself, so you only have to concentrate on your fighters and base management.
+ Controls well for the most part.
+ Great presentation all round. Great choice in sprites, backgrounds, and audio.
+ The AI seemed simple and on task, no issues there.

- I was just getting into it when I found the macguffin and it ended!
- I think the controls could use modifying. Maybe right click to move and left clicking an empty space to deselect(Which I think is the standard?).
- My only issue with controlling my fighters was having to tell them constantly to readjust when an enemy is moving. If you could target the enemy and they auto-chase, that would have been excellent.
- Speaking of controlling the fighters, the little delay when they change destination was a wee bit annoying. Especially since no other ships seemed to behave like this.

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
Best Concept: Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
Best Presentation: Toilet Story by Micah_DS
Best Story: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
Best Devlog: ...

Full ranking:

  1. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  2. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  3. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  4. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  5. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  6. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  7. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  8. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  9. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  10. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  11. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  12. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  13. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  14. CRUSH by Toque
  15. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  16. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  17. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  18. Ravana by The M
  19. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  20. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  21. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  22. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  23. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  24. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  25. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  26. Minitaur by Sirham
  27. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  28. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  29. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  30. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  31. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda
  32. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

Comments:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64

Solid scrolling shooting with some good presentation.

+ Even though you used the mouse to control movement, it still mostly controlled ok.
+ Good variety of power ups(Though Medusa head felt OP)
+ Nice level length(and amount of levels)
+ Good enemy pattern variety.
+ I really liked the music(You didn't have any credits besides "by CardinalCoder64" so I'd like to assume you did).

- I just really don't like controlling my character with the mouse.
- The hitbox felt too wide for this sort of game, especially in the later levels.
- Some better visual variety in enemies would have been nice(Understandable using palette swaps for a jam though)
- That last level was just a mess of bullets. I did manage to complete it, but only by cheesing it(I sat in the top right corner of the screen where I almost never got hit. Then waited until the final screen and Medusa'd everyone to death).

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus

Quite a simple but addicting little game.

+ Easy to play, hard to master.
+ Online high scores make it something more, something to conquer.
+ Great sound effects. They really have a satisfying click.
+ Great integration of theme into gameplay.

- The way it stops every couple of stacks to change view really messes with any good rhythm I have. Even if it waited a few more stacks before moving, that would still be preferable.
- I mean, it's not much to look at. Some slightly nicer sprites and backgrounds would do wonders.

Blade of Redemption by Ezra

Cute turn-based RPG with some good variety of monsters!

+ Great sprites(Though that is the creepiest manticore I have ever seen holy 💩💩💩💩)
+ Enjoyed the music, especially the battle music.
+ Nice clear objective
+ Simple but effective battle effects
+ Great presentation, that intro especially was neat.

- Ultimately, this ends up being Grind: The Game. I picked the speedy crit character, which meant that the focus option seemed quite pointless. I'm guaranteed more crits, so wasting a turn charging for a crit seems silly. So in the end it's just a spam attack game. As long as you're fighting things weaker than you. And that's really it, you just grind weaker monsters until you're strong enough to grind the bigger ones. I did manage to get the brownie points, but it was through rapid attack clicking. This could have been a really great entry if the battles had some more strategy in them instead of just being about who can hit hardest the quickest.

CROW by Terminator_Pony

It's nice to see some Celtic mythology represented in this jam.
My first playthrough I didn't fully grasp what I was supposed to do, but I ended up demolishing the reds so I guess I did ok. Second playthrough I understood it a bit better and kept stuff going, but it was starting to drag on a bit.

+ A S D menu choices were a fun and interesting way to lay it out.
+ Story and the implementation into gameplay was good.
+ Simple controls.
+ Really loved the music, at least, the instrumentation and mood.

- Simple gameplay, but a confusing premise/goal. It took me awhile to understand that I was trying to prolong the battle and just be a dick.
- As much as loved the music, it was too short and repetitive.
- Of all the fonts freely available online, and you stick with the default... I think almost any other font(especially one that doesn't blur at that resolution) would have made a marked improvement.
- The weird sprites for the soldiers really threw me, like, I have no idea what they are supposed to be and then they suddenly have hands!

CRUSH by Toque

Maybe this guy needs to team up with T'kemsa!

+ Great simple concept
+ Nice simple controls
+ I liked the variety in enemies. Even though it boils down to melee and ranged, you still visually have to prioritise based on which is more dangerous which is great.
+ Great sprites, the giant especially looked great here.
+ The sound effects really helped make the crushing all the more satisfying.

- Feels like you're doomed to fail pretty quickly. I saw one apple spawn and it only restored a fraction of health. No others spawned in my subsequent playthroughs either.
- I think you really could have used a secondary action of some sort(offensive or defensive) to balance out the fact that you have to move towards enemies to crush them, but they will always get a few hits in first at the very least. That and there's not much in the way of a healing mechanism, so you're pretty screwed pretty quickly.

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

A well-made interactive narrative. Cthildha certainly has it easier than her sister, Cthylla...

+ Great presentation!
+ The art was really nice.
+ The audio was well balanced, which is important given how central the audio is here.
+ The narration was lovely.

- I really disliked the controls, or more specifically, how you moved around. Felt unnatural and I spent most of the time mashing two buttons in the vague direction I wanted to get anywhere.
- I mean, this is a nice idea, but I'm not sure I'd call this a game so much.

Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb

An interesting idea but needs some better design and implementation. I appreciate the effort in attempting to make something for visually impaired gamers, but there are some issues overall that bring it down a bit.

+ Pretty easy to play. Just press arrows.
+ Fully voiced is neat, and the little bits of story in-between are interesting.

- I don't know why you put so much reverb on the voice, especially since it's important dialogue. I know I suggested some reverb but this is way more than you had when I said it sounded good.
- That reverb on top of overlapping sound effects from battle makes it easy to mishear or miss information during a battle.
- The sound effects were often way louder than the voice over. For an audio-only game, it's extremely important to manage levels and overlap.
- One thing that really bothered me was the lack of feedback about my character. Cool my max HP and spear attack have increased? How healthy am I? How much damage am I doing? Eventually I just got into the habit of smashing spacebar and alternative left and right arrows until I died.
- On one hand I think the restriction on reusing abilities is a neat anti-spam method, but on the other hand it just changed my spam to two alternating keys when I got bored.

On the fence about this last bit of feedback, so I'm not categorising it as a + or -
But I'm unsure about the seemingly never ending gameplay. I think it fit well narratively but it's not something that's usually much fun.

FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc

I'm not generally into resource or management type games, but by the end I was getting right into this. Would be potentially interested in a larger version of this game.

+ Simple gameplay that you can just get right into. Most of it take cares of itself, so you only have to concentrate on your fighters and base management.
+ Controls well for the most part.
+ Great presentation all round. Great choice in sprites, backgrounds, and audio.
+ The AI seemed simple and on task, no issues there.

- I was just getting into it when I found the macguffin and it ended!
- I think the controls could use modifying. Maybe right click to move and left clicking an empty space to deselect(Which I think is the standard?).
- My only issue with controlling my fighters was having to tell them constantly to readjust when an enemy is moving. If you could target the enemy and they auto-chase, that would have been excellent.
- Speaking of controlling the fighters, the little delay when they change destination was a wee bit annoying. Especially since no other ships seemed to behave like this.

Gilgamesh by Ninety

That certainly was a platformer. A very well made one.

+ Platforming was solid.
+ Good sprites.
+ Short and sweet.

- I personally found the controls awkward since I use my left hand for arrow keys.
- This really is just a platformer. It doesn't really do much that any other platformer doesn't do, even the link to the theme is arbitrary.

Gravity Bunny by Koopashy

I was totally not expecting an Easter Bunny game haha!

+ For the most part, the platforming works ok. Could use some refining but I didn't encounter any big issues which is great!
+ Good variety of levels with varying difficulty. But not too hard.
+ Short length with an ending is perfect for a jam like this.

- The art is a bit not good... and looks inconsistent. And the bunny sprites animated strangely. The animation speed was just reduced when not moving which was weird.
- The collision boxes could use some refinement. Make the player one a bit smaller so that when you hit the spike, it actually looks like you're touching it when you die.
- Moving platforms can be tough, but they feel much better when the player moves with them horizontally as well.
- I died once towards the end of the game and it restarted the whole thing which is a wee bit brutal. Restarting the level would probably feel more fair, or incorporate a lives system maybe?

Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84

Mixing mythologies is fun. Interesting to see you attempt something outside your comfort zone(art wise at least).

+ Platforming was fine, no big issues there.
+ Level and game length were great for a jam.
+ Final boss and an ending is nice to have.
+ Good variety of enemies and hazards.
+ Gamepad support is nice and works well.

- Enemies have too much health. No one wants to pump 1000 fireballs into something unless you shoot 1000 fireballs per second.
- I feel like this would have been much better with some variable jumping, though it still works fine without it.
- Collecting emblems to upgrade is neat, except that the upgrade is just an extra life. I feel like more could have been done with this.
- The final boss is a bit annoying and a bit easy at the same time. Not sure if this is intended behaviour, but since you can't variable jump to aim your attacks at the weakpoint better, I just mashed jump in the middle of the screen so I would hit the block to force me to stay roughly in the right aiming range I needed.

Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28

"Figure it out" How polite.

+ Art was clean.

- That's it, really. A little bit more effort to explain how to play, even in a readme would have been nice. It took me a while to figure out how to actually shoot and due to the lack of any feedback, sometimes I wasn't even sure if I even was shooting. I still won my first game just by running around a bunch.

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18

Best described as an exercise in frustration.

+ There was an ending.

- Obvious first thing is the OP enemy aiming. I have no idea how you have 4 days of a jam and not realise "Oh jeez, these guys snap aim pretty quick". Every encounter I had to be perfect and lucky. Especially since the bullets rarely travel straight for you.
- The perspective and high walls made some parts really difficult to see what you were doing or where the path/doorway actually was.
- The starting weapon is no good, only seems to have an advantage of the shotgun(Which itself seems to be the worst weapon somehow)
- Not only are the enemies good at snap aiming you, they can see you before you see them, so you have to be like those awful CS players and just pre-fire everywhere.
- The last level was probably the most frustrating if only because the first two enemies have those turrets, meaning you have two guys who are not going to potentially drop a better weapon.

Also, lerping direction can work, you just need to do a few more extra steps to make sure it lerps the right direction(and maybe do it slower)

Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados

Not a type of game I expected to see, but an interesting concept. Would be pretty cool with some better balancing.

+ The split attention styled gameplay is quite clever. These games however are tough to balance.
+ Consistent art style.
+ XP and upgrades are bread and butter for this type of gameplay.
+ Music was an interesting blend of styles that suited the game well.

- The upgrade stuff only really works if you get enough XP consistently to try different methods, but here you are locked into really low XP the first few rounds so you're either forced to not upgrade, or to upgrade the one thing in your budget.
- The font used was really unpleasant to look at, looked deformed and not in a cool way.
- Minor nitpick, but I went to hit the quit button sooo many times by mistake. I'd have recommended making that button less prominent.

Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

Unplayable, unfortunately.

Map of Legend by PugWizard101

Well, I managed to beat it. An interesting idea but there are several issues that severly hold this back. Also, I'm not seeing much in relation to the theme unless you're counting the random bosses? Something to more clearly explain the link there would have been a nice addition.

+ The idea itself was interesting.
+ The little cutscenes between certain areas were a nice way to briefly break up the game.
+ The boss fights were an interesting addition to make things feel slightly more fresh after a handful of the levels.

- This is a big one because it's related to the main mechanic of your game. But clicking and moving the blocks was a glitchy experience. It feels like the offset for checking where the mouse is was broken or in a very small part of the box. It made some of the more precise areas later excrutiating to deal with.
- The difficulty between levels was just so random, with no sense of progression. Some seemed to have very specific solutions in mind, while other looked like that didn't matter.
- I feel like this game was way too long. There were too many levels. Lots of levels isn't necessarily a bad thing, but with the random difficulty and the lack of new features to spice up later levels, it just felt like I was doing the same few things over and over.
- That music was not all that pleasant to listen to, but thankfully it could be muted.

Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies

This is probably the weirdest way I've seen the god of war incorporated into anything.

+ Impressive computer in a computer!
+ I have to say, I loved how happy Mars looks. It's so very clearly his first day.
+ Very funny.
+ The voice overs were a great touch.

- Too much data entry.
- Some more sound effects to break the silence would have been nice.

I think some other "mini-games" besides data-entry could have been an interesting way to break up the segments, but it looks like you already did so much here.

Minitaur by Sirham

Ahh, this started off sort of interesting but kind of deflated after there. Alas, that's game jams for you. I know I've been in the same situation where I delivered something barebones just to submit. Having something to submit is still impressive regardless.

+ First section was an interesting gameplay idea.
+ Sprites were simple but nice.
+ The gravestones were a really nice touch.

- After the first interesting part, the rest is just walking and jumping to reveal some text and then you get big and it ends. I guess I just expected something else with the way it started.

Murder on the Styx Express by Alice

This was a wonderful idea in theory, and the selection of characters was quite a nice selection from across different mythologies.

+ The concept of a murder mystery on a train in the underworld involving multiple mythological beings from different regions is inspired for sure.
+ Fun dialogue, you really have a knack for nice dialogue.
+ I really liked the simplified layout with the train carriages at the top, and scene interactables on the left.

- The placeholder wasn't that bad, but clearly placeholder in some cases. That said, it's still very consistent and readable!
- Being incomplete is a real let down.
- The solution to cure Jörmungandr(and the method of doing so) was really obtuse, and it stumped me for at least 20 minutes before I found your hint post. What I think really broke that for me was at the start of the game it's made pretty clear that you can't interact with Medusa at all, so it didn't even cross my mind that she'd be integral to the cure.. I don't think I fully understood the difference between the two methods of interacting with Medusa before then, the profile part threw me a little. Thinking along the lines of "Oh well if she didn't have time to complete the interactions for Medusa here, then Medusa is off the table for the rest of the game". That was really frustrating when I read the tip 😅

Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

The credits were by far the nicest part. Great font choice and layout there, and that music was very nice(I think the credits said it was Chopin? either way, it was quite nice).
I've heard far worse vocal covers of the Final Fantasy prologue and of that Rick Astley song, so good job there.
As for the rest of the game... Your type of humour... it's insufferable.

Prometheus Rising by Evanski

Damn, this was a solid experience. I don't even like Doom but I had fun with this. I first beat it on Normal, then on Nightmare and had no trouble either time though.
I know you had the framework already built, but this feels like one of the better 3D jam entries we've gotten in awhile. It feels good to play and is a complete game for once.

+ Controls really well. I especially enjoyed zooming around with Shift in fights.
+ Maps were nice and short. Felt rewarding finding the secrets. Yes, even *that* one.
+ Artwork was well chosed, it all fit very well.
+ Some great audio choices too.
+ The secret door texture is just the right amount of subtle. I missed one or two on my first playthrough.

- Even on the hardest difficulty, this was way too easy.
- The weapons(fire?) needed some beefier sound effects. It didn't sound like they were even making noise most of the time. That really cuts down on the badarse-ness of using them.
- Some better weapon variety would be nice. Blue seemed the most useless, as it shot so slow and was so inaccurate.
- The menu text maybe blends a bit too much with the dark background.

I would loved to have rated this higher, maybe with some less pre-made and free assets.

Ravana by The M

Interesting idea, and well made.

+ The fights were engaging, albeit spammy.
+ Lockpicking was neat. I usually hate lockpicking mini-games.
+ Art was simple, but well presented.
+ Great sounds and music choice.
+ I really liked the less obvious choice of myth here.

- Ugh the mouse controlling was so annoying. Especially entering a room and because your position is not relative to where you enter, you could just automatically be on a trap or enemy. I also have my mouse sensitvity up quite high, so this was a nightmare to control until I turned it down a few notches.
- My first fight was very confusing. I tried attacking and nothing happened, then I started standing in the green zones which prompted me to pick an item. I thought it was telling me to use right click to attack and that did nothing so I was even more confused. Luckily it didn't take me too long to figure it out. But after that it seemed sort of pointless? Like, once you've picked your weapon, you never seem to be in the situation where you'd need to change it or even use an item. A good reason to switch weapons mid-combat would have been really cool.
- After my silly confusion, fights ended up being a bit spammy. With the only limit being my click speed, enemies went down super fast.
- Inventory was so small. One slot is basically reserved for weapons, and you need to more for the gems so you can open the door. I guess not a big deal, I was just hoarding items because I didn't need to use them.
- Boss bugged out I think. I tried multiple times and multiple things but it looks like it's proper bugged. An unfortunate oversight...

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan

A well presented board game. Not sure I have played much like it before which is neat.

+ Nice clean art style.
+ Simple gameplay. doesn't take much to understand.

- Personally, I'm not a fan of this mix of RNG and strategy. Dice games seem so reliant on luck which can take the fun out of the strategy part. It also feels like the second half of the game, the dice stop matter much.
- The easiest guy to beat ended up being the last one. The gimmick with the fog made it so the CPU would more often use his tokens to unlock that more than I needed to.

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen

A well put together point and click adventure. Almost had me stumped once or twice(pun intended).

+ Great consistent visuals.
+ The couple of mini-game puzzles were nice and unique to each other(Oh and the brief directions at the top were very handy. Good idea).
+ The actual solutions weren't too crazy enough to figure out what to do after a good think about it.
+ Controlled well.

- Sometimes it wasn't clear what you could and couldn't interact with. The two parts that held me up at first were putting the berries on the stump, and chopping down the other tree(It's the only tree I didn't try chopping down at first...). I guess that was really my only problem here.

Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus

I watched Evanski play most of this before I got around to it, but that didn't help me remember any solutions.

+ A reasonably unique puzzle game, not too difficult to understand.
+ Voice over stuff was fun.
+ Despite how rushed this game feels, I still had a good time getting stumped and figuring out the solutions.

- The map resetting when you are wrong is a bit annoying, because sometimes I couldn't see why it wasn't working, especially later levels with multiple gods. Waiting on the fail state would give a good opportunity to see your work, and figure out where you went wrong. As it currently is, I get a glimpse of the issue and then chip away randomly until it works.
- Items weren't explained well(if at all), like the flashlight.
- Your voice audio is very quiet. I'm probably going to write a little note about audio normalisation in a different section, because this happens regularly with jam games 😅

Spielcomm: Origins by Bart

I think it's neat you're still doing 3D for the jams, but it doesn't seem like you're progressing at all in the gameplay parts...

+ 3D is cool, and I enjoy the expanding Spielcomm narrative

- Nothing really works. You can't do anything with the sword, and the bombs just sit there(or slide away if you're moving).
- I personally feel like the movement is too slow as well(even with Shift), so just walking to the arena only to find that there's nothing to do is a bit disheartening.
- I'm not sure if something was supposed to happen after you pick up the sword, but nothing did. Also, my second or third attempt, the sword just straight up disappeared when I picked it up.

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

Another great Psygnos- I mean Pixel-team game.

+ Great sprites and backgrounds.
+ Great music and sfx too.
+ Gamepad support is rad.
+ The rat charming mechanic is great. The actually controlling of the rat reminds me of an old NES game I can't quite remember the name of.
+ I think I almost missed the *true* ending. It occured to me last minute to attempt to serenade Persephone heh.

+ The platforming was quite frustrating at times. I think due to the odd walk cycle, you weren't always sure where you were in relation to the edge of a block. So this really needed some good coyote time. (That one level, yeah, you know the one. I blitzed half of it no problem, but Pan fell through the moving block and no coyote time meant he had no jump to save him since the one jump wasn't enough to get back up)
+ As neat as the flute mechanic was, after the first couple of times it was annoying to have to hit the button so much to charm a rat.
+ Minor nitpick, but unless you had plans you changed last minute, there's no reason to have separate buttons for flute and rat disconnection. So why not use the same button for each?

The Third Day by Ghandpivot

Jesus with guns. A bit uninspired, but definitely on theme as probably the biggest mythology out there.

+ The music sync was kind of neat.
+ Variety of weapons for each stage of the fight was interesting.
+ Decent length game for a jam.
+ Some of the effects were actual a bit nice.
+ No health but instead a score penalty is a neat way to avoid balancing the boss.

- Seriously, a crash from falling off at the start? How does that even happen?
- The art is just not great to look at, the animations themselves aren't too bad though.
- Whilst I appreciated the variety in weapons, none of them felt good to use, especially the sniper.
- The screenshake was way too intense, especially for a game where you're trying to aim. It made the only fun weapon(machine gun) borderline unwieldy.
- That last boss section was just spam basically.

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

A reasonably well-rounded entry. Well done! A fun little possession puzzle game.

+ Possession and guidance worked pretty well and kept things nice and simple.
+ Great puzzle designs. Many were very easy to solve, but a couple had that brief moment of thought needed before the "Aha!" moment.
+ Very nice sprites and backgrounds.
+ Good sound design(Good choice of sound resources) really added to the atmosphere, worked well with your art and theme.

- The built in pop up messages are not overly recommended for much besides debugging, but being a jam makes it understandable. That said, I was playing(happily) in fullscreen, and it was quite frustrating to have the game alt-tab itself to show the pop up message that I died. I know I died, I was there.
- The very unceremonious end was a bit deflating. You had a good length of levels, but to be just kicked to the menu was a shame. Even just a screen with a "Hey, you did it! You got the kid through the maze and sacrificed him or whatever!" would have done wonders.

Toilet Story by Micah_DS

Given the name, I don't think I want to know how we got here haha.
I'd totally play a game in this style fully fleshed out, dude.

+ I really liked this 3D + 2D sprites thing.
+ Controlled well but I would have preferred to swap slide and shoot(definitely would have preferred WASD controls though). Also, I think this would work great with a gamepad.
+ Great sprites.
+ Rad music(Though I love how hard you commited to the toilet theme with that rhythm guitar tone :p Hit me up and I'll give you some real guitar, at least for those chuggs :D )

- The lack of sound effects hurts a little.
- You don't really give you much room to fight! Move too much and you fall off. My recommendation would be more wider, safer areas to fight in, and save the narrow passages for more platformer-specific sections.
- More variety of enemies would have been neat.
- You have a slide, why not some more platforming parts that take advantage?

Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67

Simple and somewhat unique.

+ Nice sprites. The boss head looked quite good.
+ Simple gameplay.

- Hitboxes seemed a bit unclear. Sometimes it looked like a projectile was going to miss me overhead but I still got hit.
- A bit too simple and easy in the end. The boss fight was me sitting in one spot reflecting back projectiles.
- No sounds or feedback of any kind really make these feel a bit flat.

Unicorn Rampage by Richerama

Cute unicorn shooter. Got 3014!

+ Controlled well enough. At first I found the rotation and shooting a bit odd but in the end I dug it.
+ Really cute sprites and nice background art.
+ The idea of upgrade rewards for killing enemies was neat, but would have been nicer if there were more or different levels of it(At least for the firing).

- Something like this could have really benefitted from some more enemies or patterns. Good enough for a jam I suppose, but I was left wanting more.
- Helicopters go behind the buildings. I go in front of the buildings. They still hit me? That's a bit weird, no?
- During the dragon fight, I was up at the top of the screen and it started firing, I was waiting for a break so I could move back down safely, but it did not stop firing at all.
 

Rookrid

Member
Was almost too late with my voting so I only played 3 games.

Top 3:

InvadersOfEgypt by Jarfunkados

Fun challenging concept you don't really see too often. Upgrades were fun to mess with and the music is a banger too.

Hades VS Satan by Kburkhart84

Neat platformer. It was scary getting hit and losing my emblems since I just want to shoot fast all the time LOL. Main gripe has to do with the boss, they didn't seem to ever die and the jank lightning hitboxes were kind of annoying.

CRUSH by Toque

Love the villain vs hero concept, just wish it was less difficult.
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
Didn't have much time to write proper reviews for all the games, sorry, but I did manage to play and rank them. :)
  1. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
    Man, this was BRILLIANT. I loved the concept, I loved the narration, and I had a BLAST playing it. Very chill, and fun, and deserves to win!


  2. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
    As expected from Dan, another polished and well rounded entry. At first I hated the RNG of it all, but after a few games I realised there is actually a strategy to playing, and that the AI do all play differently... I ended up being quite addicted to playing it!


  3. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
    I loved the art on this one and the concept and story were excellent. Another generally polished entry that was fun to play and challenging without being unfair.



  4. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  5. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus
  6. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  7. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  8. Ravana by The M
  9. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  10. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  11. Prometheus Rising by Evanski
  12. Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados
  13. Unicorn Rampage by Richerama
  14. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  15. Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84
  16. APOLLO by CardinalCoder64
  17. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  18. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  19. Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18
  20. Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67
  21. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  22. CRUSH by Toque
  23. Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus
  24. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  25. CROW by Terminator_Pony
  26. Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda
  27. Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb
  28. Map of Legend by PugWizard101
  29. Spielcomm: Origins by Bart
  30. Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28
  31. Gravity Bunny by Koopashy
  32. Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson
  33. Minitaur by Sirham


EDIT: Updated. I posted an unfinished list... 😅
 
Last edited:

Yozoraki

Member
Reviews

Scraping in my votes over time, forgive me. I've been too busy lately to spend as much time as I do usually for reviews, so I've only got real basic comments for everyone this time. Only a top 15 this time too just to save me the struggle that is ordering a bunch of great games that are great for completely different reasons. I'll be back to participating and full reviews next jam when I have more time :)

Top 3:

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
Superb game overall. I especially love the use of the lore and integrating it into the puzzles. Game looks and sounds great. The detail and animations for the puzzle transitions worked great. A perfect little point and click

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
This game rocks, even with no specific goal I just felt compelled to play it. All the animations are great and the layout and gameplay is really well designed. Music and visuals are all spot on, great job.

Ravana by The M
Super unique gameplay, while it doesn't work perfectly sometimes I could see this being expanded on in so many ways. Great use of theme. Consistent gameplay across different tasks (battles, locks, traps) is really nice. Definitely consider further development on a game with this gameplay

Best ofs:

Best use of Theme: Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
Best Concept: Ravana by The M
Best Presentation: Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
Best Story: Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

Full ranking:

  1. Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen
  2. Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal
  3. Ravana by The M
  4. The Third Day by Ghandpivot
  5. Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies
  6. Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas
  7. FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc
  8. Gilgamesh by Ninety
  9. The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team
  10. Blade of Redemption by Ezra
  11. The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping
  12. Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan
  13. Murder on the Styx Express by Alice
  14. Toilet Story by Micah_DS
  15. Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus

Comments:

APOLLO by CardinalCoder64

Movement and shooting feels satisfying, but the levels are much too long without any significant changes to gameplay and enemy hits don't do much. The powers are cool, and feel great to use. My hand is cramping a little from playing so probably just fire automatically. Visuals and audio were both good

Babel: ACLTBMDGIDOHH by Mr Magnus

I've played a game like this before, but the well integrated high score leaderboard brings it together nicely. I had to tear myself away, but in less busier times for me I may have been there for hours

Blade of Redemption by Ezra

Gameplay is fast, and leveling up is fun. Game balance isn't great but that is a big ask for a jam game. Love the visuals and story

CROW by Terminator_Pony

Not really a game and more of a war simulator, but it's a cool. I really like the melancholic scifi vibes of it, instead of the more obvious explosions/action war choice. I'd say lean into it more as a sim instead of a game.

CRUSH by Toque

Hectic but pure fun. Super satisfying to just punch up a bunch of annoying little people. Great jam game

Cthildha by Jordan Thomas, Amber Thomas

A perfect jam game, fun little experience and the voice over was a nice touch. Great job

Escape from Tartarus by Ericbomb

Audio-only rogue-like is a pretty high concept idea, I'm inspired to try making my own audio only game some day. Worked really well

FarOutPost 42 by HayManMarc

That help screen is very daunting, but its super easy and intuitive to play. I thought it was great, various options to consider but not overcomplicated like these types of games often get. Visuals and audio are both good too. Great job

Gilgamesh by Ninety

Great platformer, controls well, good level design. I've got nothing nuance to add. great job

Gravity Bunny by Koopashy

Platforming feels pretty good, but the hitboxes make it difficult to play. Especially the triangle spikes being recognised as squares. Nothing super original, but a cool solid little platformer. I look forward to seeing your progress as a developer if you enter the next jam!

Hades vs. Satan by kburkhart84

Didn't get through it all, but I liked what I saw. The pixel art works really well. Pretty brutal, but I liked the coin mechanic

Half a Dozen Potatoes by Josh Chen, bandman28

Couldn't click to attack, but I still had fun running around splatoon-style colouring tiles

Hat Wearing Children by Bearman_18

Hotline miami but a little janky and extremely hard, I did enjoy what I played though. I was terrible at hotline miami too so I knew going in that I had no chance. Mouse to camera movement made me a little queezy. +all the stuff you mentioned in the readme, enemy AI is hard so I always avoid it in gamedev. Love the nerf visuals especially the machine gun guy

Invaders Of Egypt by Jarfunkados

Got major old school flash game vibes, like a game I would've sunk a bunch of time into as a kid. Playing it as two player would be cool, it'd probably need a bit more depth combat wise to keep people interested. The inconsistency in the pixel sizes brings the decent pixel art down a lot, definitely consider that in future games. Overall fun little upgrader game, good job

Lore Quest by Braydee Johnson

Seems to be busted, couldn't get anything to work in the battle screen. I love these card based battle games though, and just looking at the game I know I would have enjoyed it.

Map of Legend by PugWizard101

Little janky and the mouse alignment was a bit off, but it's a cool concept. Got difficult real fast.

Mars God Of War And Sometimes Internships by Mercerenies

Loved this. The gags were great and I totally fell for all of them. The details in the amount of useable programs etc was really impressive and it was really charming overall

Minitaur by Sirham

Long resolution is a cool idea, I would love to have seen it expanded on more

Murder on the Styx Express by Alice

Very jam game execution, great idea and I can see a great game through all the missing bits. Cool vibe, I love the UI based mystery moving along the train and gathering new information/quests as items to use in conversation.

Otter: Prologue -mythologies- by Cantavanda

Wasn't the game on top of my list for hopeful sequels, but I can't say it didn't improve on the last. I expect greatness if it becomes a trilogy

Prometheus Rising by Evanski

Hard to judge this one, because I've never played original doom/wolfenstein so I've got no comparison. Runs pretty smooth for me. It's pretty janky but in an old timey way that feels good. Visuals and audio are spot on.

Ravana by The M

Super unique gameplay, while it doesn't work perfectly sometimes I could see this being expanded on in so many ways. Great use of theme. Consistent gameplay across different tasks (battles, locks, traps) is really nice. Definitely consider further development on a game with this gameplay

Rolldyce Kingdoms by GameDevDan

Interesting board game idea, the UI, visuals, sound are all great. I played a few rounds and didn't ever figure out any real strategies. I would have loved to see more new mechanics like the fog, that was cool

Secrets of Tapiola by Poizen

Superb game overall. I especially love the use of the lore and integrating it into the puzzles. Game looks and sounds great. The detail and animations for the puzzle transitions worked great. A perfect little point and click

Sleepy Gods by Mr Magnus

Some decent puzzles and mechanics here, I found the mix match of assets charming. Some UI stuff could be added/improved to help with puzzle solving, but the try and see style worked well enough

Spielcomm: Origins by Bart

Super janky, but in a fun way. I did not fare well in the battles

The Insufferable Pan by Pixel-Team

Game looks great! Some levels are a bit too long for my liking. Platforming needs coyote time, and without it resets on death can feel too punishing. Gameplay is torn between puzzle and platforming, I would say focus on the puzzling and remove death stuff. Overall, super polished and I loved the animations especially

The Third Day by Ghandpivot

So much more to this game than it seems at first, basically a darksouls style boss. Game jam execution here is excellent, especially the no death and it just lowers the score. High score leaderboard is a great addition. Variety of attacks for both you and the enemy, so you're always on your toes. Some unnavoidable attacks but well designed overall, and the music and timing brought it all together.

The Will o' Wisp by Bearly Co-oping

High enough level puzzle mechanics to be enjoyable. Some backtracking in puzzles brought it down a bit, remember to consider player failure as well. Overall good job

Toilet Story by Micah_DS

Cool presentation and feels great to move about. I'd rework the unicorns because they are incredibly difficult and bring down the fast action pace of the game, which is where it shines. Make them one shot kill and bigger targets

Typhon's Return by Royaku and Herostone67

Visuals are cool even if a little incosistent, the boss and win screen were especially great. The reflecting projectiles instead of firing them style is cool too. The reflect move is a little slow though so sometimes you can get hit in the reload.

Ullr by Siolfor the Jackal

This game rocks, even with no specific goal I just felt compelled to play it. All the animations are great and the layout and gameplay is really well designed. Music and visuals are all spot on, great job.

Unicorn Rampage by Richerama

Good theme and audio. Visually very cool but I would put some more visual cues on the bullets. I died getting hit by the same bullet three times as it went through me so you might wanna make them destroy on hit. Feels good to fly around, got that flappy bird appeal.
 
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