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I take back my harsh phrasing. "Within the rules" is the operative phrase here. I also like how you said fun is on the chopping block, NOT art skills. I'll take a step back and reconsider what a Game Jam should be. The ones I did in college were in person, and the skillsets were pretty 50/50 art and code, so making a team was expected. They also had comparable skill levels, so nobody blew anyone out of the water. This Jam by comparison has a pretty huge skill level spectrum, so I get whiplash from people sharing their first game ever and then to this one, which looks incredible and the polish blew me away.

I know my stance is weak, and I was in a worse mood last night. I totally see what you are saying! All I have left is this: what do we tell teams like mine? When a prize is on the line, and one team makes original art that takes time and thus they can't make as much, but another team uses ready made assets that they get to spawn in with, how can we compete? The prize is the sticking point for me... I have been a solo programmer before and I see why assets serve a role and shouldn't be banned. I suppose in the end, if I was hosting my own jam, I would include a rule saying that the art must be original. Since that rule is not present here, I will yield.

Oh and "hand-drawn" was poor phrasing on my part. Although my game featured actual paint-on-canvas assets that my artist scanned in, what I meant to say was created by a human, within the span of the jam. The game I reviewed just before this one had like really rough MS paint sprites and I found that infinitely more charming than these super polished assets.

Thank you for forcing me to clarify my point with your response!

Haha no worries! It WAS a wolf sheep. I see the catch-22 you got stuck in if that was supposed to be a surprise for the player to discover, BUT if I send the "sheep" to the eye I get punished without any indication why. In retrospect, I shouldn't have tried the fake sheep knowing what it was. BUT it was the closest one and again, idk why but moving the sheep were crazy slow for me. So I picked the closest one.

Thanks for replying! "Good boy ending" totally makes sense when you explain it, but it wasn't clear while playing. I also like having a level intended to make you fail from being overwhelmed. The mix of both was what caught me off guard. Too many good ideas!

My artist made a whole asset for screws screwing in for press and hold input, but we ran out of time! As I am sure is the case for most of the games here, the final product falls short of our initial aims.

In wolf town, it seemed like the count went UP when I brought a sheep to the zone. That was confusing, and then it seemed like I was softlocked. I then went to the main game and nothing seemed to work. My assumption was that the game would be played like this: break a tree to fix the fence if needed, then lead sheep to the eye thing until the number reaches zero. And maybe that is correct and I encountered a bug! If you have any advice or hints I'd be happy to try again. Idk if it will let me update my rating...

I should clarify: it is completely reasonable for a solo programmer to use art assets for projects! But my game, and many others has entirely original art, made in just a week. So it would feel unfair for projects like this to win the money prize. I hope this doesn't seem unreasonable.

I think we need a category for "soul" in a game. As someone who doesn't play games like this in my free time, I STILL got the 3rd highest score. It became a dull waiting game of seeing which would happen first: would I be able to get OVER 100% crit chance, or would I die to the bowling balls that are instantly sent out by the wizards as soon as they spawn? I say "soul" because I just got done reviewing a dozen broken hand-drawn-art-filled games and they were at least unique! By contrast, this submission feels like a game that already exists, assembled with assets that were made outside the jam window.

There is too little here to honestly rate compared to other submissions. I do love the premise, and I hope you add to this on your YT channel.

I found the gameplay to be a bit clunky at first. But like others, it took a few tries to understand it completely. Your crushed the retro aesthetic! These next notes aren't things wrong with the game, just improvements that I'd like to see: the "guard" for both hazards is effectively the same thing: drop what you are holding, or crouch, which is the same input. This made the hazards feel too homogenous to me, and they blurred together. I think it would have been better to have the lights out REQUIRE you to hold something. That way, you would need to make sure you were never too far away from something to hold. Also, I never saw the spooky hand, as I was lucky enough to be near the exit when I finished. Great job!

I am glad a commenter mentioned the knocking over the broom aspect. If you are like me and struggled to find the next move, it is to ride the whole broom handle up, jump up to the can, and roll into that too!
Anyway, this game is gorgeous! In classic Game Jam style, there are a few kinks that, once rounded out, would make for something truly special.

Fun, clever idea. The player is way too zippy. I thought it was a nice touch that having the wrong color only bounced the ball back, instead of taking health away. I barely got to level two where I see that things got more interesting! Please tighten up the player controls and maybe be more forgiving with the lives. Good stuff otherwise!

So many great ideas. I am sure it is clear what to focus on to improve. My first priority would be making it obvious that UP is jump, I almost missed out on all the fun you had planned because I got stuck instantly when space didn't jump!

The incredible art is held back by brutal difficulty. I gave it what I considered a reasonable effort but still barely made it past the first spiky section. When working on this, did you have dev checkpoints, or were you good enough to start from the beginning each time? Some minimum sound effects and music would have gone a long way too.

Charming! I wish more games had this contained of a scope and executed on it as well as you did here. I read the instructions and thought spacing out P L A Y was a weird way to do it until I noticed :)

Stellar small game. I was happy to play a game with such few flaws. I was also happy to see that things didn't just get harder with time, new things got added! I ran into a small bug where I died during a speed up, and then gameplay was permanently sped up. When I got another speed up, it seemed to be double speed! Before finally returning to normal. Very charming bug

Very very impressive! The VIBE of the game is incredible. Unlike a lot of other submissions, this one doesn't have a ton of obvious room for improvement. I mostly have questions. Is the difficulty random? I hope so, because I found myself worried an interaction might be long but then it wasn't. That relief was extremely relatable to social anxiety. Also, is the dorm level intentionally long, and then it kicks you out? I was finally getting good and pet the dog, but then it ended! Again, stellar work. I wish you both the best on future games!

The art is fantastic. It is a shame that it gets held back by some visual bugs. I also wish the tutorial made more sense. I found myself confused and stuck. That , paired with how slow the sheep move forced me to stop playing earlier than the art deserved. If anyone can reply with what I might be missing, I will give it another shot!

Level 4 took me so long I had to bail out for level 5... Great job, fun puzzles! Others have noted the room for improvement in the movement, and I second them

Another order up, yup, cosmic slop again! Having played Plate Up, I knew what to expect. And for such a simple game made in a short time, you did a great job with the game loop. Others have said what should be improved first, and I echo that. Great job!

Solid job. I found myself wishing I had a pen and paper to draw it out!

I was unable to get past the first section, it seemed like there was never a safe window to get out of that first room. Great job on your first game!

Phenomenal! I was blown away to see 30 levels, but each one was a subtle evolution of the theme. My favorite that I have reviewed so far!

I like the level of polish, and the juice of all the elements moving around. Is it fair to say it was too easy? I could just sit and not much would happen... So I tried to get all the hats! I had the headphones for quicker anxiety recovery, and the hard had for quicker stamina regen, and one other. What were all the possible hats? Nice job!

The game looks pretty nice. What I need, more than graphics, is feedback. What is my health? What is the enemy's health? When I level up a stat, what was it before? Revealing more info to the player would be my immediate priority, if I were the dev. Good job, otherwise!

This game exemplifies "Something simple, done well," which is a good goal for a game jam! I personally found the difficulty to be too stagnant. I got bored before it became too much to handle! Great job altogether

High score: 44. For a first game it is stellar! Died the first time because I thought WASD would work for movement, but the description did specify arrow keys. Music also didn't seem to loop. Nice job!

Tough and tight, but I gave it many attempts before I gave up. There is potential here, keep polishing it.

Tough and tight, but I gave it many attempts before I gave up. There is potential here, keep polishing it.

Others have noted the weaknesses. I liked the art direction, and the idea the boss was going for. With just a few tweaks this would go from rough to solid! Please give me a boss health bar!

You are a legend

Hey, great demo! I am a huge fan of Pikmin so I know what you are going for. 1/2 for zooming didn't work for me, but I didn't need it. The pathfinding was buggy, but they eventually found their way. I am excited to see more!

Bruh the zoom! I can't even see the obstacles before I jump.

Cool setup and idea, but I couldn't manage to consistently land my attacks...

Idk WASD didn't work for me, I was just jousting across the zone, lol

Very fun concept. Very easy to soft lock yourself...

Couldn't get up to the knives...

Cute and silly. I fell through the floor...

I couldn't get too far and the double jump was a secret! Solid pixel art.