itch.io

Only three puzzles in, still stuck on the frozen pizza one, but I love this game so far. I'll give a more detailed review once I finish the full game.

Fun little game, I liked the customization you get out of the skill tree, but I wish I had a bit more sway over the build, as skill points are rather uncommon and the monetary upgrades are much more linear.

The Tic-Tac-Them Toes mission seems broken, I have several instances of dice lining up with the same value and the effect not triggering, I can't quite figure out what I'm doing wrong. I'm not using spice pieces if that affects anything, but otherwise I don't really have a clue. Does anyone have any idea what's happening?

utterly phenomenal. i will be attempting to replicate this game in real life by any means possible. please do not try to contact me.

Thanks for the thanks, and appreciating my appreciation.

Don't worry, even if you are American it's not easy

Very fun little game, here are my thoughts:

I love the messages on censorship in media. It's definitely overt, but there's still some slightly more subtle ideas that aren't bashing you over the head, like the Gerome painting being included, and the ideas that public works with nudity would be considered very adult. The minimal artstyle brings to mind the notions of "old internet," which fits into the notion of censorship being an outdated concept. A lot of censorship in media is involved with forms of art that are more crude than the paintings here, so seeing these paintings censored in a similar manner is a helpful juxtaposition. 

The quiz is the only "gameplay" that this offers, which isn't necessarily a bad thing for a creative work of this nature, but it was a bit annoying having to do the game from the start when I got a question wrong, which of course makes sense in terms of it being a highly flawed form of age verification. I really liked the bathroom bit, a personal grudge for me is the restriction of basic human needs and liberties such as relieving oneself, there should be no amount of anything restricting basic bodily functions. 

I definitely think this work is a necessary piece in the modern day, censorship is an idea that I have recently been thinking about, and it's nice to see I'm not the only one considering the issue. I look forward to future work.

Pretty cool, here are my thoughts:

The graphics were pretty cool, simplicity always helps for game jam projects, but doesn't easily translate to quality, which is what happened here. The lore isn't really all that present in the dialogue, some more worldbuilding would have been interesting. Around the second-to-last player, the dialogue started ending as soon as the text finished appearing in the box, making it impossible to read. 

The gameplay was pretty fun, I liked that the enemies choices for stickers would affect your future rewards, and them choosing second added tension over victory. Multiplication stickers are of course the best, I didn't like the x2 against one type -3 against another because they were so situational. Not being able to pick the order stickers trigger was a bit tricky, it was a bit unsatisfying that they weren't used optimally. I also didn't know how to feel about the stickers covering up the card, it got hard to tell what the value and suit was. It was never really impossible per se, and I think that that effect is intentional, but I think the mechanic would benefit by making it either more or less prevalent, either ensuring the card is always readable or that more stickers will guarantee a card's base value becomes incomprehensible.

Overall, an excellent game jam entry. Seeing the other comments, I wish my Spanish was good enough that I could write this review in it, but that's unrelated. Looking forward to future work.

I know that's not what people are playing this for, but here's some comments on the gameplay (solution spoilers):

Playing this in isolation to the other games in the jam was interesting, I really had to go by vibes alone for the solutions, which led to some annoying moments, like with the bridges, stumps, pots, and trees in the town, as it was clear one of the two was off, but there was no real way to tell what the right answer was. I did end up playing one of the other games for some of the others, which led to me finding some answers I really couldn't have otherwise, namely the chair in the piano room, pots in the one building, and the mirror in the starting room. Those were the only ones I really cheated for,  I found the others naturally. 

I do feel the wording was a bit ambiguous, going in blind I was confused as to what exactly I was supposed to be looking for. I figured it out eventually (obviously) but just saying "props" doesn't communicate that. "Maps" was also faulty wording, again I did figure out what you meant but there was some ambiguity when it was first used.

The casual dialogue works for the style, I feel that my dislike of it probably comes down to matters of taste. I'm not sure about the plot, the flippant angel was fine but the "death" part was sort of a clash in tone in terms of the stakes, although that might just be a pastiche of isekai tropes that didn't fully land with me. I think a better "punishment" would just be having to stay a woman forever, which would both be funny and make more sense for the game, as I feel a better ending would be making that choice for yourself instead of it being made for you (being fully cisgendered I really am not the proper authority on this). The hint system was funny, I went through it after using it once just to see what the dialogue options were, I like having to degrade yourself in order to get a hint, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn't just the same choices over and over.

Overall, honestly a pretty neat puzzle game, I feel a little work to lower the barrier for entry would go a long way, but making it in the RPG maker system is really just a limitation of the game jam format. I did play with the sound off, so I can't comment at all on that, but it's clear the effort that went into this game in the other areas. I can understand giving up on the forest as a boring environment, but I think some kind of more dramatic removal (like burning it down) would show more that you weren't avoiding it for reasons of laziness. I can't really comment on the transgender parts, but I suppose I appreciate this game confirming my sexuality for me given my utter disinterest for those elements. I look forward to more work in the future.

Very interesting demo, here's some thoughts that didn't go into the feedback survey: 

I need some kind of way to tell what classes do what, and the stats of those characters, so I can better counter them. I also would like a little more detail on the progress of my rooms; I never really knew why any room was gaining money or souls over the other, or what made a floor successful.

 Will definitely be checking back to see how this game progresses.

Fun, cute, short, sweet. Love the art and small puzzles, if the only thing about a game you can say is that you want more of it, that's a game that's doing something right.

This game is certainly above others I've seen from itch, here are my thoughts:

Player onboarding was rather quick, as someone familiar with the rules of Yacht and Balatro I picked it up rather fast. It took me a few rounds to work out what the difference between white and red dice were, and how many turns I had to meet the score limit, but I picked it up rather quickly.

The theming and art are top notch, the style is inspired and definitely is worth the effort put into it. A note on the animations, I'd appreciate some more transitional animations, each one is so fluid that it becomes jarring when it snaps to the next one (such as the idle pose to reactions on winning), if this was changed  it would definitely push it into perfection. A specific nitpick, the policeman boss's right bicep vanishes during the flexing animation. I did really like the background for the devil shifting and reflecting the theme of the boss, it's a really fun choice.

The gameplay isn't the most original, being two familiar games taken together, which definitely works for making a functional "new" idea, but I wish it gave me something I haven't seen before. The relic per row idea is a bit of a novelty, but I rarely got any more than 5 relics, so there wasn't much there. I do feel the wolf boss is a bit unfair, it's rather punishing and there are no easy workarounds. Some relics don't seem to work like they should, the ladder relics don't activate unless they're in a specific scoring place, and the Uno card one doesn't seem to do anything at all. Working out the balancing for the item system and adding more variety would be my priority.

I really love the legs this project has. It's not perfect, but has a lot of room for growth. Fleshing out the story just a teeny bit more would go a lot further with all the style present, but I really would recommend rounding out the mechanics more. I'll definitely be following this one as development progresses.

I love the complex choices you can make even with no understanding of politics. This is a very interesting simulation, I can see this being used in an educational setting. I played on medium, with my first attempt I scored 38% on election with 63% on re-election, with a 61 in unity and a 100 in credibility, I don't have any reference as to whether or not this is a good score, but it feels good to me. Looking forward to seeing more work in the future.

This was a really fun game. I loved discovering the hidden characters and maximizing synergy. The character design and flavor text goes a really long way. Discovering the Dream was awesome, he and Starman made it practically impossible to lose. There was sort of no strategy once I had those two and Necromancer, and I honestly could have phased him out if I just got them enough strength. I was disappointed by the ending, I really didn't like the lack of a conclusion. I wish there was a catalogue that showed where and when characters and items showed up, that could also provide hints on secret characters. I don't know how I feel about the item pool limitations, I understanding unlocking more as time goes on but certain items (like the ball and chain) are never outclassed by later items but are still removed. All in all, an incredible game jam entry, looking forward to more work in the future.

Not a big magic guy, but this seems fun, I'll try it on my friends who are into that. How do you input a guess for a mana type?

Thanks for your thoughtful reply, I'll be sure to give it another look when it's further along in development.

This is a very interesting game. Firstly, the style is top-notch, especially for a game-jam entry, I like the movable windows, it would be interesting to have more of them or a mechanical reason to move others besides the flip window. Speaking of that, I feel the flipping mechanic is honestly more tedium than anything, there's no penalty for wiggling away until you get what you want. Damage is sometimes unavoidable, I feel like this could be negated with either a shield option given at the start or some kind of "retreat" action that moves you in the opposite direction that you are facing. 

There's a lot of mechanical depth in such a one-dimensional battlefield, I am impressed by the need to plan each and every action carefully, and glad that friendly fire can be exploited. One bug I did notice was that enemy intent was sometimes contradictory, the square they highlighted for movement was opposite of where they actually moved. I see other people had problems with the perks, I only ever used backstab, and it worked fine. 

All in all, a really solid entry, there's certainly a few weakpoints, but definitely a game that stands out from the rest of the pack. Solid work, and I'll look forward to more from you in the future.

The vagueness of this game is an interesting principle. On one hand, the lack of solid validation adds a great deal of tension, the unsure nature of the runes is predictably troubling. I did feel that my success in the game did actually come down to brute force, as opposed to actually reading the runes correctly, given that the runes fell the same way on each day, indicating a "correct" answer. The main problem comes from the broad interpretations, this is again definitely the point of the game, but I just didn't enjoy the constant cross-referencing of the symbol meanings and the rules. This is being rather harsh on a game jam entry, I know you're not depending on my validation, but I really did like the atmosphere and principles of the game, with a very creative interpretation of the prompt. I'll definitely look forward to seeing more work in the future.

probably that one

I think the theming of this game is a lot of fun, but I have some problems. The scaling of this game was way too fast, the endgame challenges were trivial, the only hard ones were clicking a certain number or waiting for the corruption to fill. Speaking of corruption, I literally never had the bar fill up until I was required to do so. Clicking is almost always trivial, to the point that spending pastries on multipliers for it was a waste. The staff powers could be navigated better,  I didn't figure out I even had them until a while later. I ascended far too quickly, often having a production rate that made each goal trivial, which meant all the lore sort of flashed by at once. I beat the game without ever seeing the merchant or void events, and only one echo ever showing up, so this must be adjusted. This seems like harsh criticism, but I'd rather be honest about my experience. Beyond the theming, I don't know what this game is doing to be unique with all the other idle games on here, the gameplay is vastly similar to Cookie Clicker. Give me a reason to play this game over that one.

Fun enough game, the secret burgers aren't all that fun to collect given the lack of feedback, I do like there are thins to explore and discover. The original puzzles were neat, I enjoyed the logically interesting ones like "12 unique layers" more than the mathematical ones like the salad puzzle. Can you add an update that allows you to kill the dog?

I appreciate it, but I still feel the earliest enemies summon too many units to handle, and other things like defeating an enemy already entrenched in your base are very difficult in terms of negating damage. I could be the only person that thinks this way, but we'll see. Best of luck with future progress.

I really want to explore more of this game, but the balancing is wack, getting any more than 3 fights in is nigh impossible. I'll give it another try once something changes.

Tried some of the demo, seems fun, but during level 3 there was one less box than was required to beat it, making it impossible to progress.

Fun enough game, the puzzle to open the left half of the tv cabinet made me smile. I got stuck the longest on the final part to open the door, I thought the stove would have to do something more than just being a hint thematically. I also think what you have to do with the water bottle the first time is a bit obtuse, I stumbled into it eventually but I don't think it really makes sense. I really liked the theming of the rare flower and the passage of time, that added a lot despite the simplicity. Good work, I'm looking forward to more from you in the future.

This is a really neat game. The aesthetics are top notch, I love the goofy enemies that are cute enough to be fun to look at but not too cute to feel bad about killing. Heavily limiting what squares one can paint at any given time leads to excellent strategy, setting up squares several moves in advance while avoiding the erasure of traps already set. The slug-like blobs are a key addition to keep the pressure on, if they weren't there to erase paint the game would become rapidly too easy. Speaking of difficulty, while I did feel pressure as some enemies came within striking distance, I made it about 50 rounds without ever taking damage before I quit, although erring on the side of ease is probably best for a game jam entry. If you wanted to expand this at all, having some sort of roguelike pick-from-3 upgrade system seems fun to work with, or maybe some bosses to deal with. A superb entry, huge props to you. Shlorptastic.

I hope my feedback was helpful, and definitely excited to see where this game goes.

I completely agree on the side of erring to be too easy, I understand getting nuanced game balance correct for a short game jam isn't always feasible. Looking forward to future work!

Also, bug noticed: when a robber was killed by two traps at once (happened with double door-cans) I was penalized twice.

Played to completion, here are my thoughts:

I did enjoy the game, but after a certain point the robbers stood no chance. My biggest issue was killing too many, which was toned down once I phased out marbles and double-canned doors. Frogs and Super Ninjas were the most dangerous for this reason, skipping reasonable traps only to be hit with the full brunt of my defenses once unmasked, I didn't really know how to deal with this. Only once did a robber ever reach me, I never felt a need for the treehouse and later school upgrades, even if they were cool. I think some motivation for these robbers would be interesting; beyond the ostensible draw of valuables, why would so many people be willing to enter such a lethal house? It took me a while to figure out how the cameras worked, at first I thought the symbols just meant that they were recorded, not indicating a photo opportunity. The story was funny, I do like the intentional abandonment of a child to the mercy of a veritable army of thieves. 

I thought it was lots of fun, I had no problems with the build, unlike what other people are experiencing. I always love alternative worlds which don't take themselves seriously, where being the "guy who eats various meats and also everything else" is a respected position. I am tempted to eat and fight with everything that enters my inventory, despite the valuable nature and obvious danger associated with consuming a metal weapon. The frantic inventory management is a bit not to my taste, I would love a way to pause walking for a moment to deal with an influx of items, but I guess if that's not what you're going for in terms of gameplay it might just be a problem of preference. I did feel that this was unfair for the valuable enemies at the end of a run, I lost out on a lot of stuff I wanted after the boss fights because I had mere seconds before the guy left, and if I tried to switch to slowing down I speed up first, making the problem much worse. Managing large items was also a pain, as I couldn't bump out multiple smaller things, only one obstruction at a time. I feel the money balancing is way off, one run in the forest grinding pixies into dust and selling it to the baker gave me a ludicrous sum, when up to that point anything I would've wanted to buy was far out of my price range. I did enjoy heartily the experimenting with crafting, where you can see if an item would just be destroyed as opposed to becoming something useful. I think some kind of "stomach view" would be a cool add, I sometimes had a hard time telling what effects I was benefitting from, and since eating is such a huge mechanic having a screen showing the effects of what you're currently digesting would be both useful and amusing. On the subject of eating, I definitely want some kind of visual indicator for when something is going to be swallowed, as to manage more tightly how much time I have left until I can jam more rat meat in my craw. I do love the simplicity of controls, getting to only use the mouse really is easy to learn. The worldbuilding is again excellent, irreverently bashing whimsical beasts to death then looting their entire corpse for a taxidermist is great fun. Very excited to see how this develops.

A big fan of this game. The formatting is excellent, with the main website ostensibly following the ubiquitous arbitrary design of most websites, with the actual content being far from traditional. I was a fan more of the puzzles outside of all the color levels (which WERE fun, don't get me wrong), and I imagine I wasn't the only one tired of all the mental math and number/letter substitution required for the end bit. The story was fine enough, keeping it vague and mysterious with a handful of easter eggs is straight down the middle for ARGs. Picking up on the fact that "management" was what was trapped inside the perimeter was an interesting realization I did like how the website was self-contained, a restriction that stretched the boundaries of clue-hiding. I disliked when text from the antagonistic force would fade in and out during puzzles, it was fun to see more dialogue in a way that reflected the "otherness" of the antagonists, but it was deeply distracting when trying to focus. I only interacted with the hint system twice, once at the start after I already understood unity to see how it worked, and once for the "true name" bit in a moment of weakness; I feel the system could be a little less direct, but adding iteratively stronger hints for every aspect of the puzzles does seem like a big ask. I did want to side with the antagonists (who were most likely correct), but there's really no option to besides quitting play, and that's no fun. Definitely looking forward to more from you, and would be eager to be given the opportunity to playtest future work.

Coulda sworn I tried that, I did figure it was just a me problem when nobody else in these comments mentioned it. Neat game

Seems like it would be fun, can't start controlling any drones.

Also having UI problems, can't figure out how to roll either.

Fun little jaunt. It's one of those games where if you rely on intuition you can get pretty far, but run the risk of getting stuck on a level for an eternity. I can tell there's definitely things I missed, but can't tell how to get them. Maybe I'll figure it out some other time.

yeah that makes sense

Decent amount of stuff. I'm an on-and-off completionist, not having a way to figure out what endings I had was a deterrent to that, but I sense that wasn't the point of the game. I like that you can iteratively figure out just about everything involving the situation, and the van is a decent way to give each route a snappy finish. I also like the clues in the dialogue that point to other endings. Text adventures with actual visuals aren't too common, but I do like this a lot more than other text adventures.  I do like the best and true ending, escaping alive with hope for the future. Good work.

Clear inspiration from Inscryption, but you've been the first that I've experienced to take it in such a radical new direction. Solid work, certainly potential for further development, should you feel it appealing.

I feel bad for the narrator who is trying so hard to help me, but I just keep failing. Fun even though I won.