It feels very stylish and well made, and I like the overall idea!
The win and fail states felt a bit unclear (how many Grems can you let through? how many deadbeats need to pass for you to win?), making the end sometimes feel a bit abrupt. Also, the timer seemed a bit short to me: by the time I really got into a groove, it would already be over.
Other than that though, I really can’t find anything to fault. I really enjoyed the game and found it quite charming.
Unfortunately I don’t think I’m the correct audience for these types of games, but I can at least say that it did feel well made.
There is one thing I would highly urge you to do, should you make a similar game for another jam: please include some way of skipping past levels. There was a pretty massive difficulty spike in one of the rooms (my deaths jumped from just a few to over a hundred), and while I did eventually push through it, I was also very close to just quitting.
And even if you think its fine that some people will get stuck, there is another big reason to do so: in the very next room, I got stuck in a wall while dashing. As far as I could tell, there was no way to recover from this except to start over. If not a skip option, consider at least including a way of reloading the current level.
Still, from what I played it was enjoyable (albeit a bit too difficult for me personally)!
A really cool concept! I liked the inclusion of the merch display in your room, I think this could be quite interesting to expand on should you continue to work on the game (e.g. have an actual room to move around in, and starting the purchasing minigame from a simulated PC).
Two minor things to note: first, the tutorial text was a bit difficult to read, since it was rather small and squished up into the corner of the screen. Secondly, and more importantly, the UI displaying the time and purchased merch was overlapping with the grid of buyable items for me, making the bottom row only partially visible.
Really enjoyed it, it reminded me of DDLC. Though I probably wouldn’t have gone for the secret ending(s) if it were any more tedious.
Other than some of the already recommended fixes, maybe an interesting way around this issue would be to lean more into the Tamagochi inspiration and have some secondary activities (e.g. feeding the Otomo) that also provide stat points. If they increase the bars slower than events, but are more predictable, then you are introducing a risk-vs-reward element while also providing a bit of gameplay variety.
But really, any way of making it so you don’t have to memorize (or write down) all answers to get a specific ending would be appreciated. And even without that, I liked it a lot!
Super clever idea, and executed very well! I love the minimalist design and the subtle jokes/references that come with it. Overall the game just really stands out with its uniqueness.
Some small UX related things could still be improved, such as the disappearing hints others have mentioned. Another one would be a lack of indications if the blocks you placed fulfill all conditions, such as a colored outline. Or, to combine it Alphros idea, maybe have a dynamic list of conditions in colored text (red/green) that appear when they are fulfilled or violated?
Also, one thing that I think has more to do with itch than your game: for me the game didn’t take up the whole window and some stuff overlapped weirdly. Would it be possible to enable the fullscreen button in the itch settings (as that might be a workaround)?
Anyway, all of those are really just nitpicks. To keep it short, the game is great and I had a lot fun playing it. Good job!
I was looking forward to seeing this finished, and you absolutely delivered! For how little time we had, there is a lot of stuff packed in here, and all of it works. I love the idea of the angst meter, and all the collab abilities are also well thought out and fun to use. All the little touches, like the character cut-ins and the mission report, add a lot of charm.
Really, I would be reaching to find anything to critique (other than obvious things outside the scope of the jam, like “add more content” or “create more custom assets”), but if I had to, the controls could probably be tweaked to be a bit more intuitive. I can’t give you a concrete example off the top of my head, but from memory I feel like most of the tactics games I played required fewer clicks to perform basic actions, like moving and attacking.
I’d love to see you continue work on this, it’s been my favorite game so far. Great job!
Really liked it overall! The ambiance feels great and it was a lot of fun to play.
Like was already mentioned, the hit feedback does feel like the next thing you should add if you continue to work on this (which I would love to see). This might also help with figuring out which beat/melody note an orb corresponds to, which I occasionally found a bit confusing (could also just be a skill issue). Although it might just be that the game desynched for me, as I always got a few more notes after the music had already stopped completely (unless that was intentional?).
I was really impressed with the presentation, it almost feels ready to release as is! Most of the issues come in the form of gameplay and balance issues, as is expected for a jam game with limited playtesting opportunities.
All of the things I noticed have already been mentioned by others, but I’d still still like to point out what I feel was the biggest issue: Biboo felt very difficult/imprecise to control. I think this largely comes down acceleration and (more importantly) deceleration being much too high for a game focused on precisely positioning yourself, both to hit enemies and dodge incoming attacks. The fact that you can’t move left while shooting right (unless I missed something) is also something that I personally didn’t like.
The idea of a corruption bar filling up, instead of a health bar ticking down, was also really interesting. I can see the risk-vs-reward mechanic here having a lot of potential for expansion (such as having an altered moveset at high corruption, including a different ultimate).
Really enjoyed the game, short and sweet! The puzzles were well designed, and I could easily imagine this being expanded into a full game.
The only thing I didn’t really get was the reason for the switching limit. I instinctively kept switching back and forth to see what is on the other side, only to lose due to too many switches, causing a reset. Seeing as figuring out the space is so integral to the puzzles, I’d personally get rid of the limit, or at least add an option to peek at the other side without switching. But ultimately, that didn’t detract from the experience much. Good job!
Thanks! Just fyi, you can also press spacebar to throw follower/tokens. I does even say so in the tutorial, but I’m aware that the big wall of text is probably a bit overwhelming and difficult to parse (would have definitely liked to do this differently, had I had more time).
Oh, and speaking of: you can bring up the tutorial again from the pause menu, which you can get to by pressing escape. Which I just now noticed I never even mentioned existed, so thanks of reminding me, I’ll add that to the controls in the description.
If you move around the level, are there other fans (Otomos, Takos, Pebbles and Jailbirds)? You don’t actually start with any followers, you first have to convert other fans for them to become followers.
To do this, you walk over the blue tokens to pick them up, then select them with your mouse wheel or the 4 key (the icon in the bottom right, showing you how many tokens you have, becomes a bit bigger once selected) and throw them at whoever you want to convert (it takes 10 tokens for the small ones and you get 5 for every collectible). And once they’re converted, you move the target circle over them while holding right click, then they will follow you.
Otherwise, if there really are no fans roaming the level, then it would indeed seem to be a bug.
Overall I quite liked it, it felt really charming. There were a number of smaller things, most of which others have already pointed out, but there was one issue in particular that I do feel the need to mention: I really didn’t like how the camera worked. It was rather slow to catch up to the player, and it went in the exact opposite direction than I thought it should. By which I mean: if the player is going right, it should be even further right, putting the player at the left of the screen. If the player is falling, it should be below it, putting the player at the top of the screen. This way you’d have less blind jumps and enemies surprising you from off-screen, which feels unfair rather than simply difficult.
I think changing this wouldn’t be all that difficult, but would significantly increase enjoyment (for me at least).
Liked it a lot! One thing that could be interesting to explore, should you continue to work on this: currently it feels like there is little reason for Gigi to be there, as she basically just works as a replacement for a cursor, indicating where you want to place things. The easiest thing would of course be to just cut her, but I think there is also a lot of potential to go in the opposite direction and instead expand on what the player character can do (e.g. active participation elements). Would love to see a fully featured factory game down the line!
Very charming! Some potential areas for improvement: maybe add some thematic visuals around the level, such as a barrier of dense forest, rather than just having the border be gray. And while there is nothing wrong with idle games, I do think having the choice of at least some active participation would go a long way. For example, some items that can be bought/generated/collected, which help with the saplings needs. Or the option to pick saplings up and drag them closer to the things that help with their needs, if not directly assign them.
Speaking of moving things: I found that it was possible to accidentally place trees in such a way (e.g. directly next to a cliff) that saplings would be boxed in upon spawning and unable to move. There really should be some way to move or destroy objects after they have been placed.
Still, for the limited time we had, I think it turned out quite well! I also liked some of the small touches, such as the randomly generated sapling names. Good job!
A lot of fun, but also very challenging! I'm not sure if that was the intention (I guess it might have been, seeing as the respawn time was very short, which I very much appreciated), but do consider that the average player usually won't be as skillful as the person who created it.
Also, there were a few times that I ran into a bug where Gloom got stuck in some kind of rolling animation, which prevented you from doing anything and couldn't be recovered from even with a reset or level skip, which meant that you had no choice but to restart the game.
Overall it had great atmosphere and interesting mechanics, it just needs some more polish (as is the case with jam games).
The wait option simply skips your turn. You're right, it would've probably made more sense to make it a defense option, and honestly that wouldn't even have been hard to implement with the system I had in place. I simply didn't think of it, as there was just too much to keep track of while racing to finish the game. Thank you for the comment!
Definitely one of the most unique ideas! I'm not sure if you were actually supposed to guess the last few missing word, or if there were hints that I missed, but I got it in the end. The time loop mechanic with multiple playthroughs was also a nice touch (and something you could easily expand upon, should you make this a full game). Great job!
One of my favorites so far! Unlike most fishing games, it's neither too stressful nor boring, and it has a nice relaxing atmosphere fitting of an Ina game. And it feels like there is a lot of room for expansion if you wish to continue working on the game. One thing you could try: maybe have an (upgradeable) meter that represents your fishing line (how far you can go down), and instead of hitting a wall making you return immediately, each collision would reduce your meter, allowing you some leeway to make mistakes. You could also combine it with what kshut said and allow you to catch more than two fish, but give it a downside as well (such as making each fish making your meter go down faster, or to make collisions more punishing), introducing an element of risk versus reward. It would be cool if you could also sell fish and then buy stuff from a shop, or to have the Takos you craft give you some kind of abilities). Really fun and promising game overall!
I liked it! The movement feels good, though it would probably be more satisfying if you could punch without letting go of the sprint button. I see a lot of potential for fun platforming movement to be added, like airdash punches, downwards punch (stomp) attacks, maybe even a grappling hook using her tail. If you keep working on it, I could see this becoming a fun retro 3D platformer! One other small thing: maybe consider removing player collision on the rock pieces after you break them, as it can feel a bit janky getting stuck on them.
Ah, I see someone else had that idea as well! I really like you take on it, and the art and UI are especially great. The only thing I'd change at the moment are the abilities. It feels like there are too few damage dealing options for the player, sometimes you get unlucky and don't damage the enemy at all for many turns, making the battles drag on a bit. Other than that it's great!
Challenging but fun! The mechanics were a bit hard to grasp in the beginning (I feel like the tutorials would have been better as text, rather than images), but fun to master. I liked that you could use the slow motion to line yourself up with a platform, then cancel the momentum. I'm curious if that was the intended solution for certain sections, as it seems difficult to get past them without (in which case I would teach the mechanic more explicitly).
Executed really well in every way, and most importantly: it was fun to play! If you do continue working on it, I hope you really go all in on items synergies (such as having items that affect the ones you use after, adding strategy to the order you pick them). My only issue with the game: I didn't like the staticy background noise and would much rather have had a music track playing in the background (maybe a dramatic, crunchy chiptune track?).
I really liked the visuals and found the game quite imaginative. However, I do think the mechanics slightly interfere with each other. Most prominently, the idea of rooms changing when you leave them is really neat, but then this gets undermined by the fact that loosing health when leaving a room heavily discourages any sort of experimentation. I think tuning your mechanics to instead emphasize trial and error would both be more enjoyable, and also work quite well with the idea of an amnesiac Mumei.
Really well done in every way! The only thing I can think to critique is visual clarity. Having 5 upcoming hands, all largely white, displayed so close to each other, makes understanding what's going on at a glance quite difficult. I think it would still be plenty challenging even if you made each gesture and rule set more visually apparent, such as by displaying fewer upcoming hands, spacing them further apart, and/or darkening them slightly as you move towards the back. Also, unless there is a specific reason as to why you picked Miko and Aki (maybe I'm missing the reference here?), I'd pick holomems with more contrasting color schemes for the other two hands. Still, A+!
Thank you for commenting. I'm aware of the bug, it's actually one of my biggest regrets that I couldn't fix it in time, as it is essentially game breaking. As far as you can even consider what I made a game that is. I always intended it to be more of a sandbox, though you are probably right that for a game jam, something with a clear objective would have made more sense.
Not quite roles, but I did originally intend to have both physical and gameplay related characteristics changed through breeding, and get increasingly crazy with each subsequent generation (to the point where you'd have weird, lovecraftian baerats with spider legs running around, and things like that). So for example, one baerat might be very speedy, causing it to pick up more cheese, but also making it burn through its hunger bar faster. But yeah, I had to cut like 90% of what I planned. Not sure yet if I'll pick it up again. Thanks for the comment!
I liked it, it felt charming and appropriately scoped for a jam like this. The gameplay could probably use the most improvement. I assume the "chaos" part was meant to be the franticness of trying to collect the taiyaki? While I do think that element is there, it could be a lot more pronounced, both in the (de)buffs like was already said (I honestly didn't notice them at first) and just in general.
I think this would mostly just involve ramping up the speed and frequency of taiyaki a lot more (start leisurely, end with insanity). But there are a bunch of other things you could do as well, like having a bar that fills up with each taiyaki that unleashes a "fever mode" (or elite mode maybe?) where tons of taiyaki shoot at once of a short period and you don't loose any hearts if you miss them. Really, anything to amp up the chaos factor would be a plus. But still, really solid game overall.
