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GangMaker Game! er, wait GameMaker Gang!! Maybe my next GameMaker game should be a gang maker game called GangMaker? (sorry had to). Thanks again for the incredibly thoughtful comment! You have a real knack for blending valuable critiques with genuine kind words that makes it easy to accept the criticism. I really appreciate the effort you put into this comment.

Uncanny valley was the vibe I was aiming for so glad that came through to you. It was the only possible aesthetic that could make my terrible artwork somewhat presentable lol. Focus on drawing fundamentals is a great call and this jam has made it clear that I need to level up bit. Starting with shapes is a great piece of advice and I plan to follow it. Hopefully the next GoedWare Jam there will be some visible improvement :)

I had a blast making stupid sounds at like 3am on the day of submission, so its nice to hear you enjoyed them too. The ending seems to be confusing to everybody, I didn't do a great job of communicating my ideas. Its all a bit too messy and abstract. I'll put a paragraph at the bottom that I've been copy pasting that hopefully shows what I was thinking a bit more clearly.

Thank you again for the kind words and sound advice! I plan to work on my art fundamentals (starting with shapes) next. Every jam I get a little bit closer to an artistic identity, like you said, and I'm really enjoying the process. The GoedWare Jams/Community are the best. Hopefully see ya again in the next one :)

P.S.
So I actually made my scene in the dumbest way possible lmao. There are 17 different scene objects. Each object just plays its sprite and then on Animation End it spawns the next object and deletes itself. Each sprite I made one frame at a time in GIMP and then exported as individual pngs. So there's no sequences, or movement code or anything else like that. Just playing the sprite that I hand animated in GIMP lol. It helped for managing the audio because I could just go through each object one at a time without getting jumbled up. For your audio issues it may be that your sounds are set to Mono instead of Stereo? GameMaker default sets them as Mono for some reason, and I have to manually switch every single sound I import to be Stereo (there's got to be a better way but idk it).

Re: the ending. The irl sketch is supposed to be a marionette/puppet kind of thing that has been ripped apart from the strings. The idea is that the main character has finally reached a point where he can't pretend to be someone else any more and the opening of the curtain was showing him kind of escaping. The parents coming to talk to him are 5 seconds too late, as he has already made his mind up. I don't think I did a great job of showing this in the cutscene lol.

If you make that complete Dick Storm project, I'll be the first to buy it! Big fan of the Storm cinematic universe. And maybe not a Grammy then, but an EGOT, Mr. Storm is a true Renaissance Man after all.

Really cool artstyle and nice dramatic scene, cool entry!! I liked how we didn't see the player's face until the very end after her mother has died and the deep emotion of the scene is revealed in her expression. The twist about the government executing her to prevent some kind of plague was a really interesting one and does a great job setting up a game world. I wish there had been a bit more urgency (both in character action and cinematography) in the early parts of the cutscene. There's quite a bit of time where the camera is slowly panning or when the mushrooms are fading in/out that makes it feel like the situation isn't very urgent. It feels like the characters has all the time in the world, and that she is kind of meandering through the forest. This felt at odds with the idea that her mothers life is on the line, and I think maybe some more quick cuts, maybe a montage of the mushrooms instead of fading them in one at a time, some things like this would help show the character's motivation a little bit better. That is just my opinion though, and that being said I really enjoyed your project! There are lots of beautiful moments like when the omen butterfly soars across screen. The moving backgrounds was a nice detail and helped with the overall immersion. Music fits well and is pleasant to listen to. Overall, you nailed the visuals on this entry, and the twist at the end made for a really cool take on the theme. Great entry, and keep up the good work!!

This was a really enjoyable watch, great entry! I really liked how you handled the theme. Many entries I've seen explicitly say/show "5 seconds too late" in the scene which I find a bit immersion-breaking, but I really liked the subtle twist with the wizard NPC popping out just a few seconds too late. It was a cool choice to have the audience (but not the wizard) be aware of the hero's fate. There are some great sfx like the player jump at beginning, wizard pulling out sword, slime emerging. But there are also a few places where I wish sfx had been added like player footsteps (in house, on grass) and maybe some kind of button mashing sfx for when Dude chooses to play Car Stealer 5 instead of adventure. The visuals do a solid job of conveying the story but don't stand out as particularly interesting or stylish; I think there is room for improvement there. The story itself was funny and I enjoyed how there were 3 distinct characters with different motivations and personalities, not an easy thing for a 3 day jam. Fun watch, keep up the good work!!

This was a really fun watch, awesome cutscene!! I was surprised how invested I felt in the lil robot guy's endeavors. The snow scene with the limping animation really made me root for him. And the desert scene where he's crawling and the dialogue becomes single words/short phrases (in contrast to the full sentences he is speaking when in a more comfortable environment) was a really good little detail that helped give the robot a lot of personality. As did the line where he says "I'm late. I'm always late." or something like that, really helped show him as a kind of goofy/klutzy (but charming) character in such a short period of time. The scene at the end with the dog was cute and it felt like the perfect starting point for an alternate universe Pikmin type of game. The only critique I can really think of is that there could have been more sfx throughout the scene (footsteps when walking though different terrain, space rockets, etc) to help emphasize certain moments. The music was a great fit though and really worked well in the long hike scene and the final scene. Great effort for a 3 day jam, keep up the good work!

aha thank you!! uncanny valley was the vibe I was going for. I definitely need to improve my art ability, I think that will be my goal after this jam: lots of art practice!

thank you for watching and the helpful comment!! It could definitely use more polish I agree. I tried to not use any text(besides what is written on the note) but there were certainly things I could have done to make the story more coherent. Thanks again!

Too bad the scene didn't meet the length requirement, but props for still submitting something! Pretty impressive scene for only 3 hours of work, would be cool to see what you could accomplish with more time. The perspective switching was pretty cool and using the countdown timer of a pedestrian street walk sign was an interesting take on the theme. Some ambient background noise of cars driving by, birds chirping, etc would help with the overall immersion. I was kind of confused on what was actually happening, but reading your description on the itch page I think it was a great take on the theme. Keep it up!!

Thanks for watching, appreciate the kind words! I definitely could have done a better job of explaining the story.

Pretty fun watch that doesn't take itself too seriously, and gorgeous art on top! Great work team!! Really dig the evil character and hero portraits. The way the enemy's eyes pop against the dark hair/hooded silhouette is amazing and the level of detail in the character's hair is really impressive. The color choices are also absolutely on point. One critique is that the grass at the end when the hero walks into the evil lair felt a little out of place stylistically and like an asset that was added in last minute. The ending scene with the voice acting and animation of the enemy sprite worked great. Music was great and the sfx helped with immersion overall (dragon sounds at end in particular). I thought the story was fun and had a couple nice comedic moments like the super close up to brush teeth or the coffee dance, but I found myself wishing the scene deviated even more from the kind of generic hero has to stop bad wizard guy from summoning dragon trope. Some more context to why the evil wizard was being evil or what was at stake for the hero to save would take it to the next level imo. That being said, I really enjoyed my viewings, and think you all have a project to be proud of. The art especially rocks! Keep it up everybody!!

Thanks for watching and the thoughtful comment, I appreciate it! I think you're spot on that it needed more room to breathe. I actually had a second note writing scene where the main character writes "Dear Mom and Dad," before crumpling the paper up and tossing it, but ran out of time and had to cut it. Letting the final shot linger for longer is a good call too.

Also I've been copy pasting the following from other comments to help explain the ending:

Re: the ending. The irl sketch is supposed to be a marionette/puppet kind of thing that has been ripped apart from the strings. The idea is that the main character has finally reached a point where he can't pretend to be someone else any more and the opening of the curtain was showing him kind of escaping. The parents coming to talk to him are 5 seconds too late, as he has already made his mind up. I don't think I did a great job of showing this in the cutscene lol.

Ohhh that makes sense, I guess it worked perfectly because it made me feel the same sort of disorientation and panic. Really cool you made that with your guitar, creative stuff!

Awesome entry, I very much enjoyed watching it! The opening scene where the alarm sfx is synched to the cut to black and the character runs through the hallway one pose at a time is excellent. Such a smart way to "animate" the character given the limited time frame of the jam and is a great example of cinematography. The sound design in general is on point and makes the scene very immersive. Your artstyle is super charming and I was very impressed with your ability to convey emotion through a few wrinkle lines in the characters brow. Black and white in the dream/nightmare sequence and then switching to color in the irl part at the end was a cool touch too. The only critique is that I think you ended the cutscene 5 seconds too late (ha ha). You did such an awesome job of conveying the story/mood without any text or dialogue, and I felt that the ending text kind of betrayed the subtlety of your earlier storytelling. But that is a minor nitpick on an otherwise stellar entry. Keep up the great work!!

Thanks for the kind words, glad to hear you liked the visuals and sound!

(copied from another comment

Re: the ending. The irl sketch is supposed to be a marionette/puppet kind of thing that has been ripped apart from the strings. The idea is that the main character has finally reached a point where he can't pretend to be someone else any more and the opening of the curtain was showing him kind of escaping. The parents coming to talk to him are 5 seconds too late, as he has already made his mind up. I don't think I did a great job of showing this in the cutscene lol.

Funny scene lol, cool entry!! I really liked the transition to the battle scene between the bacteria and the immune system, it was a funny twist and a quite different take on the theme. I liked the style of the opening scene, all the 3d models look good, and the 2d sprite for the character's faces was a cool touch. I wish there had been a bit of opening dialogue to help introduce the characters and maybe show the sandwich falling to the floor to give the viewer some context of the situation. The sound design for the military scene was great and really sold the idea of combat well. The opening sandwich scene would benefit from a similar level of care towards sound design. Another area for improvement would be to have the special weapon look a bit more epic than just a rotating white square, as it is supposed to be the grand finale of the scene. That being said, I really enjoyed watching your cutscene, keep up the good work!

lol it was a bit too confusing and abstract I think. Glad you liked the art and sound, thanks for watching!

 I really dig the artstyle on your entry, the sheriff has lots of personality in his facial gestures and it makes the whole thing charming. The first scene has a great level of background detail that I wish the was also present in the later scenes. The spaghetti scene feels so full of life with all the props in the background and when compared to the last scene where it is just the characters and a table in an empty room there is a noticeable difference. Props for making your own music, the intro track is really good. I didn't understand the nails-on-chalkboard screeching notes after the lady gets shot, I found the sound at this point to be very grating and a bit out of place. Cool cinematography to show the camera from the sheriffs perspective after the lady gets shot as he looks down at himself and takes in the gravity of the scene and assesses what to do. Overall, I enjoyed the action packed storyline and unique aesthetic. It was a fun watch, keep up the good work!

Thanks for watching!!

(copy and pasted from another comment)

Re: the ending. The irl sketch is supposed to be a marionette/puppet kind of thing that has been ripped apart from the strings. The idea is that the main character has finally reached a point where he can't pretend to be someone else any more and the opening of the curtain was showing him kind of escaping. The parents coming to talk to him are 5 seconds too late, as he has already made his mind up. I don't think I did a great job of showing this in the cutscene lol.

     Very enjoyable watch, would be a great intro to a new Dick Storm adventure! The realistic environment + 2d hand drawn sprite artstyle is striking as always. Everything looks great; monster design is neat and Mr. Storm's run animation was fun. The music is awesome and the sfx are well-done. The candle scene with the camera cuts and different wind sounds worked really well. The screenshake and overall earthquake effect when he is first in the house I also thought was very well-done.

     Dialogue was a good read and the text message style presentation of it is immersive and unobtrusive. A small nitpick for a 3 day jam, but I do think the font could fit the scene's vibe better. I liked the cut to black to end the scene after hitting the tree, but I think the actual moment of the crash could have been a bit more epic. The scene where the monster first spawns is this awesome moment with lots of screen shake, explosion particles, etc and it works really well as a high tension moment. I think the crash scene could benefit from the same treatment. Maybe some particle effects, more sfx, screen flashing white, etc right before the cut to black could help sell the drama more. That being said there are many times throughout the scene where the level of polish and detail stands out for some special moments. The tree particles and rumble when the car speeds off and scrapes the tree line and the part where the monster leaps down from the air and lands with a thud and cloud of particles were a couple stand out examples to me.

     Overall, this was a very fun watch and a great way to set the story for a game. It immediately puts you into the action and shows enough of our hero's personality to get you invested in the outcome. The artstyle and sound design is on point. We need a Dick Storm 2 hour feature film, it would win a Grammy.  Awesome entry, and keep up the great work!!

Thanks for the kind words, I very much appreciate it. Glad you liked the mixed media attempt.  I had a lot of fun experimenting with it and I think there's a lot of room for improvement with some extra polish like you said.

I made all the sounds in the very early morning hours of submission day and felt like an absolute madman doing so lol. Cool to hear you appreciated the effort. The cinematography is definitely odd. I think I leaned to far into the indie film artsy fartsy realm and lost out on a more cohesive plot development. This did result in a pretty unique look, but I don't think the lack of story clarity was worth the trade off. I wonder if adding things like walls (like you said in the first paragraph) would help bring more reality to the overall presentation and bridge that gap a little better. Something to consider going forward.

I'm really glad to hear you've enjoyed my last couple entries. Without trying to sound too pretentious, I've been trying to make stuff that is more self-expressive and its cool to hear positive feedback on that. I will definitely keep grinding, I'm having a blast making stuff and GoedWare Jams/Community is as good as any I've come across on itch. I think learning some art fundamentals might make a good new endeavor.

Thanks again for the comment, and can't wait to see what Dick Storm is up to this time!!!

This was a really fun watch, awesome entry! Could see it working very well as an opening cutscene. The story has good pacing, giving each plot point enough time to breath without repeating itself of dwelling too long. The twist of the asteroid being 5 seconds further away than they thought due to the effects of space on light/time was super cool and a great take on the theme. The art style works and has a nice consistent minimalist vibe throughout. The voice acting was a nice touch. Like another comment said the dialogue presentation could be improved. It feels a bit rushed, and the font/colors/presentation don't really fit the rest of the cutscene. But it was still good to have subtitles. I also appreciated the slight screenshake when pressing the volume keys, fun detail. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for the detailed feedback and great comment, I appreciate it. More variety of sfx would be nice, I agree, its just kind of the bare minimum as is. Art is a big weakness of mine, so I tried the irl picture with badly hand-drawn 2d animation combo to try and mitigate my lack of skill lol. I agree it doesn't work all the time, its definitely an odd look. The only part I'm super happy how it turned out was the opening the door scene.

Re: the ending. The irl sketch is supposed to be a marionette/puppet kind of thing that has been ripped apart from the strings. The idea is that the main character has finally reached a point where he can't pretend to be someone else any more and the opening of the curtain was showing him kind of escaping. The parents coming to talk to him are 5 seconds too late, as he has already made his mind up. I don't think I did a great job of showing this in the cutscene lol.

The main areas of improvement I would suggest is to improve the optimization so that the scene does not lag and stutter so much, and maybe to have a more clear story progression as opposed to just shots of the scenery. Good entry though!!

Pretty fun little platformer level, great job! I really enjoyed the challenge of timing jumps and the obstacles felt like they had the right amount of difficulty. It was challenging enough and not too punishing, and the multiple hit health bar was a good design choice. Perhaps the hitbox of the spikes could be a tad smaller. The flashing character sprite after getting hit + i-frames was also a good addition. Sound/music would help improve the atmosphere. The art style is pretty neat, and you did a good job sticking to a consistent color palatte, pixel size, and style. The cohesive visuals help the overall experience a lot. The ending could fade to black or something to make it a bit more clear that the game is over, I found myself waiting for something to happen for a little while after it ended. I enjoyed my time playing your game, but it's too bad you didn't realize it was a cutscene only jam xD. Fun entry, and keep up the good work making games!!

It's a cutscene, not a game. It would not be a very fun game xD. And this is the Cutscene Jam btw. Glad you got a laugh out of it, thanks for watching :)

What an awesome entry, such a fun watch. The stop motion action figure style is rad as hell and the overall world has a pretty cool alternate reality Toy Story vibe going on. The overall aesthetic really worked for me, and I found the t-posing to be in service of it. I think the stiff movements of the characters fit the world better than smooth animations would have. The voice acting is a great touch and I found myself laughing on more than one occasion. The part where the guy t-poses up the stairs while yelling was hilarious. As fun as the voice acting was, it was a little hard to understand every word at certain parts, and I think having subtitles at the bottom would have gone a long way. Cool entry, keep up the good work!

Dude, wtf this is awesome!!! I still have a lot of entries to watch, but I suspect this will be easily one of my favorites from the jam, I loved every second. I have never seen an art style like that before, its iconic. The repeated lines technique for shading looks incredible and your balance of lines/empty space is stellar. The visuals hooked me on the very first frame and kept me glued to the screen for the entire scene. Sound design is equally well-done. The car engine rumble is great. The part at the restaurant with the background conversations felt very realistic and immersive. How did you go about creating the audio for that part? The story was decently emotional and I felt invested in the characters. I think one area of improvement in the overall story would be to show a reason for why she is unable to make the date on time. Maybe you could show her getting stuck in traffic or something like that. Overall, I am absolutely in love with this art style and think you have an excellent overall entry. Keep it up!!

Absolutely beautiful art, easy 5/5 for me! The hand-drawn look is super unique and lovely to look at. The font choice and limited color palette are both great fits for the overall aesthetic. I thought it was a cool choice to have the first part of the scene silent and then add somber music to the last part when facing the reality of the situation. Maybe some kind of rising, deafening, ringing in the ears sort of sound could have been a nice addition as a transition between the two halves to really show the pressure of the situation. I think some of the dialogue was a little heavy-handed but the overall story is a heartfelt one. The opening animation where the cut wrists blossom into flowers is absolutely gorgeous and a genuinely touching moment. Really great entry, congrats on the submission!!

Absolutely loved the sound design in this one! The squishy carpet footsteps, muffled rain, and crackling of the fire place set the scene perfectly and feel very realistic. 5/5 for audio imo. The visuals are solid, although the overall environment/props feel a bit generic. There were some cool camera angles and cinematography choices too, the zoom in on the fireplace was a really nice shot and looked super cool. As the other comment said, it could be a bit more optimized as the file size is quite large and the cutscene suffers from lag/stuttering quite a bit (I'm not familiar with Unreal Engine so not sure how feasible that would be. I'm not sure if I missed key scenes due to the shuttering, but I couldn't really understand the theme application. That being said, congrats on the submission, and amazing job with the audio! Keep up the good work!!

Lol glad it made you laugh. The visual glitch on the camera should only occur if you try to pan with the arrow keys and is only there to prove real-time rendering. Hopefully it didn't interfere with your overall experience too much. Thanks for watching!

Absolutely incredible game in such a short time frame, insane work from the team, you should all be very proud of yourselves! It's gotta be my favorite in the whole jam. Everything is super polished; the vignette, the snow particles blowing in the wind, the unique sfx for each interaction, etc. So many little details that add up to an amazing scene. Easily 5/5 on presentation. The music is also a bop and doesn't get old after the last 20 minutes of playing (I'm going back to finish the game after this comment, its so fun xD). The gameplay loop is great. Clicker + TD + solo combat vs the penguins, there is always something do to and the management of everything is quite engaging. And the automating stuff to upgrade other stuff is always fun as hell. Idk I don't really have any criticisms. Incredible entry, has the quality off a game made in 2 weeks not 2 days, great job team!!

edit: I thought of a criticism, keyboard shortcuts for the build and upgrade buttons would be better than having to click them with mouse. Very minor thing

yeah the cookie spawning could be improved a lot, thanks for playing!!

Pretty cool game, smooth movement and well-polished experience, nice job! The psuedo 3d perspective is really neat and an impressive feat in a 2d engine like GameMaker. It gives the game a really unique feel (especially when combined with the slightly trippy background) but can have make for some frustrating gaming moments as it is really difficult to tell when you can still shoot the enemy and when you will lose a life. The boss fight was a super cool addition and a very welcome surprise. The sfx and music fit the overall vibe well. I think having some sort of mechanic to prevent the player from just holding down the shoot button would have been a good design choice. For example, an overheating mechanic that requires the player to stop shooting for a bit to cool down or else they get locked out of shooting completely for a few seconds. That being said, your game has a very unique aesthetic paired with smooth movement and a cool boss fight. I dig it. Good entry, and keep up the good work!

Because I worked out if on it for basically a day and I'm not that good at gamedev lol. There is a 2 second grace period where the cookies wont hurt you after spawning to try and mitigate it, but definitely not an ideal fix. Noted about the collision detection. Score board would be nice too, I'll have to figure out how to do so one of these days. Thanks for playing!

Pretty cool game, snow ball fight puzzler is a great take on the theme, nice entry! The level where you had to get the right angle for the snow ball to build up enough momentum and jump over the trees was really clever design, and the way the ball grows in size as it goes was the cherry on top. Very cool moment. The levels overall had a satisfying difficulty curve, but some of the ending ones felt too hard. It could be a skill issue but they felt more frustrating then clever to solve (as opposed to that early jump level which felt great to solve even if it took multiple attempts to get it). I also found it odd that the ground pound skill didn't drop the snowball straight down but instead at like a 15 degree angle to the right, felt a little weird to control. The voice acting is a nice touch and the background music adds to the vibe.  Overall, I had a fun time with my play through. The concept and theming is on point, and the core puzzle gameplay is engaging. Snowball upgrades after each level was a nice touch and the halfpipe level was stellar. Keep up the good work!

appreciate the kind words :) thanks for playing!

Really cool concept, and the drawing mechanic works well. Having left and right mouse button act separately, almost as if the player is controlling unique left and right hands was a good choice. It's pretty satisfying to scribble around the screen, and has a pretty neat etch-a-sketch vibe going on. The intro letter was a great way to set up the lore but there definitely needs to be some kind of gameplay intro/tutorial and some more player visual feedback. Am I supposed to use both left/right ribbon in a symmetrical manner? Can I draw the ribbon however I want as long as I hit the specified vertices? Do I get a higher score by using the least amount of ribbon as possible? Some clarification on these game mechanics would go a long way in the overall experience. It could also use some sfx, background music, and some Christmas-y visual flair. That being said, I think you have a truly wonderful prototype here and there is some real potential in the drawing mechanic. As a GameMaker noob (a little over 1 year experience), I'm super impressed at the unique mechanic you were able to develop in just one day. Kudos! I had fun messing around with your game, and if you do continue developing it, I would be curious to see where it ends up. Keep up the good work!!

edit: You should check out this jam game called SEW-Tastic https://mech-mind-games.itch.io/sew-tastic with a somewhat similar sort of core mechanic to maybe get some inspiration for your own game, if you want

thank you for the kind words, glad to hear you enjoyed it

Really fun clicker game, I enjoyed my playthrough a lot. The power progression feels really smooth and there is a good balance between having to click in the early game to buying enough elves for your passive income to take over in the late game. At one point I was getting 9.4 Trillion/second and started having integer overflow errors and getting into the negatives for total money lol. The core clicker gameplay is pretty addicting but the presentation of the game leaves a lot to be desired. Variation in the click sfx, some background music, and cleaner/prettier UI would help take it to the next level. The snow particles falling in the background were a good touch of juice and more things like that would be great. That being said, I found the core game loop super engaging. Cool entry and keep up the good work!!

thank you for playing and the kind words!!