Allotments and their Hazardous Environments by Chaser
Took me a while to figure out I need to perform plot actions from the above-square (unweeding, seeding and watering). Once I figured it out, making all plots happy and planting plants everywhere there was a cinch. Seems like the mutant plants wouldn't come afterwards, either, so I'll consider that a good ending (even if the blue plants will turn into stems after the growth animation).
Other than that, the gameplay was a bit clunky, in particular the way the farmer would stand still for a bit after an action before moving, and how I couldn't move diagonally. Also, the aforementioned problem with trying to unweed the plants from spots other than the top square - I lost quite a bit time there, but at least I got to fight some mutated weed things. For some reason, pressing Esc to quite won't work.
The audiovisuals worked pretty well, I liked the growing plants animations in particular. The tutorial also did a good job of introducing how the game works (except for squares yadda yadda).
Overall, a nice concept, but after you unweed all plots it's pretty much a win. The game is a little clunky/buggy too (or should I say weedy)?
Baby! Don't Touch That! by Mercerenies
That was actually pretty fun! I like how varied different hazards were, not only in terms of aesthetics but also behaviour (those sneaky plants...). I also liked how the game rewarded accuracy, though it would be extra nice if the cake took combo bonus into account as well (e.g. instead of being flat 1000 it would be 100 x combo + 900). Speaking of powerups, I never got Milk Bottle - not sure if it appears at some point or it was something never implemented/dummied out that still kept a mention in the Readme.
Some things that could improve the overall gameplay - I'd suggest giving some visual indication of how far the child's hand reach - it might not even be a plain circle, but instead a background decoration that doubles as range indicator (e.g. a carpet in the Home Office, or a crater in the Great Fiery Pits of Death). Also, the game could use some auditory feedback for hitting, missing, getting and losing powerup - there could also be some kind of ticking just before the powerup runs out, to indicate to the player it's time to get more conservative with the attack range. There are other things that could use SFX, but those four stand out the most.
The graphics are on the silly side and some might probably get tweaked, but overall the artstyle feels mostly coherent (I like the little detail like the animated baby in the title screen). The music is nice enough (though from external source). No sound effects sadly, and as I mentioned earlier, some auditory feedback could really improve the gameplay experience.
An enjoyable hi-scorer type game overall, well done. ^^
Cowpoke by Splitfish, Bubblegum Walrus
I did it! I completed the game! But damn, did it take a while... >.<
I really like the concept here - kind of like QWOP, except simpler and properly playable. Or like
The Frootinis in one dimension. Plus, it's a pretty funny take on the cowboy walk.
Unfortunately, the game is very unforgiving - there's only one level but a long one (and every time you die, you go back to the main menu/tutorial instead of back into the game), so you need to do
lots of easy-to-tricky precise steps, which is very exhausting and very frustrating when you need to go back to start - not to mention a poorly timed wind when a leg was placed in a narrow space can send you back all the way to the start.
I like the audiovisuals a lot, many various background elements to make the game a lot more varied, proper animation when stepping on things, and also well chosen SFX and music.
Overall, I really enjoy the concept, but I was a cactus needle's length away from ragequitting sometimes. ^^'
Da Twittening by dadio
It is definitely one of the Jam entries ever made.
Dangerous Environments by Poizen
I saved all the doggos!
That was a pretty entertaining puzzle game, though at times it entered the precision platforming territory; would have preferred more leeway sometimes to focus on the puzzles part. One thing to note: for some reason, I kept mixing up the jump key with the take/drop key (more often taking/dropping things instead of jumping than the other way round). I wonder if maybe making jump key in a distinct area (e.g. space bar) or alongside arrow keys altogether would make it easier to get things right.
Other than that, I really like how carrying blocks and dogs added extra weight, which added an extra depth to figuring out how to get the blocks/dogs to the correct place.
No particular complaints about the audiovisuals, they worked well in the game. I especially liked the happy bark when picking up a dog and a sad whine when dropping it.
Overall, a pretty clever puzzle game with quite a few well-designed puzzles. Well done! ^^
Darkness by Twintertainment
I completed 3 levels and then I got game over screen. Does it mean I completed all levels?
The gameplay concept was pretty nice, wouldn't mind seeing it expanded upon. The game still could be polished - e.g. if you run out of HP, allow the player to restart the last level instead of having a game over screen that, apparently, can only be left by closing the game.
The graphics were pretty basic; I'd prefer if they focused on some dark mood (the levels were pretty bright in the end). I liked the tentacle-grab effect at least.
Overall, I like the general idea here, but it looks like it'd need some more time and polish to truly shine.
Everything Kills Me by Tete-chin
That's another game this Jam that has victory (?) screen with "Game over" text. I'm confused. ^^'
The gameplay felt pretty clunky; maybe it's in part due to long animations (especially in case of the fireballs), or maybe hard to determine hitboxes. I don't know, it doesn't feel as satisfying as side-scrolling beat 'em ups can be? Sometimes enemies hits wouldn't connect or they'd get stuck near a grass patch exposing themselves to my attacks (which I actually consider to be a beneficial thing in the context of Jam reviewing, but still). There didn't seem to be much in terms of variety - as far as I can tell, each enemy (including boss) had this melee attack thing, and the only variation of the player attack was the fireball.
The graphics were really nice, but apparently taken from elsewhere; I appreciate the coherent look at least. The musics and sound effects are fine (nice that music changes during important battle, at least).
Overall, I appreciate the effort, but the gameplay mechanics could really use some tweaking and polish (especially hitboxes and attacks).
Froggie Splash by BlueHost.gr
Kind of like Frogger, except with the witch's minion twist and also relatively easier travel. Though I'm not too fond of how a really long time can pass before any plank appears on a top or a bottom row again, making the river effectively impassable for a while. Now, the frog is quicker than the minion, so there's still plenty of room to dodge, but it can be pretty annoying - especially contrasted with much easier flowers across the road or trivial flowers on the same lawn as the castle.
In the end, I got 20 flowers; along the way, I didn't notice any increase in difficulty. I didn't aim for over 100 to see if I can actually get a hi-score, that would be a bit much... Personally, I would have preferred a game with fixed amount of flowers to collect - with each subsequent flower being slightly more challenging to obtain - and some ending.
The graphics are fine, though the terrain feels flat - would be nice to see some grains on the asphalt or grass blades on the lawn. Nice music - I especially liked the transition from regular to hurry mode - but no sound effects, sadly. ^^'
Overall, nice to play for a little bit, but with no apparent end, leaderboard filled with people having 100 points (which would take super-long to obtain even in a perfect run) and unchanging difficulty, it becomes more like a chore after an extended time. >.<
Handy Hob by SoapSud39 (and sister)
Nice puzzle game, and the interactions between specific adventurers and traps were pretty interesting, though sometimes I felt the difficulty was pretty uneven (as in, a relatively tricky levels were followed by relatively easier ones).
As fun the puzzles were and there was quite a lot of visual feedback, there are still some quality of life features I'd like to see. One would be saving progress, allowing level selection and showing which level is the current one (for the extra feeling of progress). The other would be redoing the input scheme; rather than left-click to place/rotate, right-click to remove and Ctrl+left-click to link I'd instead suggest:
- left-click on an empty tile to place a device, left-click on a device to rotate it (the way it is now)
- left-drag-and-drop on a device to move it to a different cell, or move it outside (or on the left menu) altogether to remove it
- right-drag-and-drop on a device to link it to another device
That way you could keep your user interface entirely keyboard-free. Also, it would be nice if a game indicated that the given trap/sensor isn't linked to anything and is effectively useless (e.g. using a redder version of a sprite, or showing a warning sign), so the player remembers to link traps properly.
The graphics were really nice and consistent. The music was fine for a bit, but grew monotonous after a while and doesn't quite fit the feel of the game. ^^' No sound effects spotted, except for an occasional groan (I wonder what were exact conditions to trigger it). The story bits were nice, but I'd have preferred something more than a white-on-black text after completion (especially given the nice intro). ^^'
Overall pretty enjoyable puzzle, though it could use some UX polish, especially in terns of saving progress and placing/linking devices.
Hazard A Guess? by sixonekevin
I kinda like this variation on the usual memory game. The fact that you need to wait for three turns before revealing the same card again is actually pretty clever, as it prevents both reusing the card immediately after finding its match, as well as spamming the same start to avoid hazards altogether. One tricky aspect is how you don't have any urgency to make valid guesses as quickly as possible (except for the final score), which leads to a strategy that eventually become a guaranteed flawless victory - if you memorise locations of five different hazard tiles, then you can reliably match any subsequent hazard tile with a different known hazard tile (admittedly, it took me a few tries to pull it off properly). Other than that, I liked the variety of card effects.
Also, I noticed I was often getting the exact same sequence of cards on restarts (yet not always!), so maybe something's wrong with the way the cards are randomised...?
The graphics and animations were nice enough, same with music and sound effects. ^^
Overall, a nice spin on the classic memory game, though you can reach a flawless winning tactic pretty early on.
Hazard Henry by Evanski
Oh hey, it takes place in the same setting as Magnetika, doesn't it?
The initial instructions were a lot to take in, but I still got a grasp of what I need to do. Was wondering if I need to do something with boiler sometimes, but it turned out it was just... kinda there. Didn't even spew fireballs or have a special death on interaction.
The gameplay is fine and varied enough for a start, but the game just goes on indefinitely and there's no increase in difficulty, so once the player finds the rhythm it becomes pretty repetitive. I made it to over 300 seconds before deliberately dying, because it didn't seem like anything new would happen, and I didn't feel like waiting until 1000 seconds or so to see if the left-side zero in the timer will finally change. >.<
(also, I feel the short window to pass the magnetic poles and seemingly longer window when they're on leads to lots of downtime, which wears down the fun further)
Graphics are generally fine and consistent; would have liked some more varied background (some grains or so), but otherwise they work well (admittedly, while the boiler doesn't seem to do anything special in game, it does serve as a nice decoration). The game has proper sound effects (which also allow to get in the rhythm with the magnetic poles. No background music (aside from jingles here and there), but I think it works in this factory-like setting, especially with other sounds.
Overall, not a bad concept, but the game's charm quickly wears off and long waiting for the lightning bolts to subside doesn't help it. ^^'
HAZARHOUSE by Fernando Gonzalez
It's a nice base gameplay concept, but it lacks something that would make it actually challenging (rather than a chore of sorts, moving the danger boxes to their respective areas); it's kind of like having a bread without the rest of the sandwich. ^^'
(there are oil spots, but they only serve as a minor annoyance, not as an actual challenge)
I wonder if the base concept could be reimagined with extra gameplay elements; or maybe it could work better in another genre altogether (e.g. a grid-based puzzle like Sokoban)?
No complaints about graphics - they seem to be nicely made, and I like the variety of hazard-containing boxes. The music works fine here. There are a bunch of sound effects (I counted lifting, placing and backwards going warning), though would be nice to have some more (e.g. machine's noise when driving).
Overall, a nice base for a game, but it needs some more challenge to it.
Leonard & Co's Magical Apothecary and Other Oddities by Cloaked Games, Joseph Ellis, Adrien Weathers
Such a wasted opportunity to call one of devs "Croaked Games". u_u
That was an interesting memorisation game - managed to get all the 12 potions right on the third try (on the first one I lost in the level where two types of mushrooms were introduced, and on the second I just stupidly lost on the first level)! Though I must admit, trying to remember all these things while having the dialogue in the middle can get pretty hectic. ^^'
If I actually were to pick my reward, I'd get one (1) sandwich. It has a pretty solid utility, and knowing things everything on not-Amazon costs $26 or more, rendering the $25 gift card unusable.
The audiovisuals were nice, I enjoyed the story as well. Overall, pretty neat and funny game, but sneakily introducing different types of mushrooms was mean. ^^'
Max's Mutant Cleanup Service by Mavvy
Nice idea, though I feel there could have been more interesting things done with mechanics. In particular, the suck-only robots didn't feel like they added much variety to the game, because I was primarily using the suction mode anyway.
Maybe the user input could use tweaking - e.g. instead of using Space for sucking/shooting enemies and E to switch mode, the game could instead two different buttons? (e.g. Z/J for sucking and X/K for shooting)
I also considered left mouse button and right mouse button until I remembered this game doesn't use mouse in the first place.
The audiovisuals are nice, and also I liked the little bits of dialogue; they were pretty useful for guiding through the gameplay mechanics as well.
Overall, a nice little game, but doesn't offer much challenge in its current form.
Maze of Madness by jdGames
A decent maze game, though the corridors are pretty long - so there is not much exciting stuff happening most of the time - and the movement scheme is needlessly tricky (especially with the way the mouse bounces off the wall). >.<
Graphics are fine if pretty tiny (neat light effects, though), music is fitting, I'm glad I didn't need to hear the dying shriek too much throughout my playthrough. ^^'
Overall it's fine, if a little rough around the edges (especially the movement part).
Pacifica by Little Penguin Studio
Pretty neat mechanics, though I'd have liked them expanded upon a little more. Since I could complete all levels up to the boss without sonic wave, I completely forgot that's an option too - as a rule of thumb a control should be introduced when it's handy/necessary, but I understand it's not easy when all controls are in the README file. ^^'
Other than that, it was nice to swim around (I pretty much moved virtually all the time because that's how satisfying and well-controled movement felt) and trying to outsmart the blowfish
if you didn't realise you can deflect their bullets with sound wave. The collisions didn't feel especially punishing, either.
The graphics were generally nice, though I'd have liked some more variety in the background. The music was cool and gave a sense of urgency, but I feel having it randomised sort of dampened its effect (you don't feel the connection between the track and the location if the track changes all the time). I was kinda amused by the "bonk" sound when losing (though hearing it more and more wore off my appreciation for the sound
). Would be nice to get a proper ending instead of the game abruptly finishing.
Overall, a nice little action-y game.
Phone Controlled Minigolf: EXTREME EDITION by Mr Magnus, matharoo
Tried to play around for a bit, but eventually gave up on the super-sloped part where you need to enter the hole from above (it was hole 8). I tried using the mobile phone, but the ability to play was severely compromised by not being able to use south direction, as it was treated as a "refresh" gesture; maybe some form of
preventDefault was needed? At any rate, the mouse movement wasn't fun at all, especially with how complex the courses were. Probably would have been better if there was a separate NEWS input for launching the ball, or alternatively a "swipe anywhere" variation, instead of requiring the player to grab a tiny, tiny ball to perform moves with that (in some cases - especially the slope - in quick succession). u_u'
Graphics weren't super-great, but they did the job well enough. The lava could probably benefit from
@Gizmo199's
non-repeating tiling shader. The music and sound effects were fine too; I appreciate how the intro voice acting is clear (clearer than the Sleeping Gods intro from Jam 42 ^^').
Overall, an interesting concept, but the mobile controls are compromised by the scroll-reload and the mouse controls require way too much precision (and are still too finicky).
POP by Relic
This one was pretty cool, if a little finicky to control. Would be nice to get some exact indication of how much gas is left in the balloon - technically there's size, but it's still difficult to gauge (especially since the gas runs out when the balloon is about quarter-to-half its original size).
I really appreciate online leaderboards for the quickest times. That said, it would be really great if the game remembered the player name between playthroughs, I just beat the record on map 2 as "Player2356" because I restarted the game. >.<
The graphics work well for this kind of game; maybe there could be some slight variety in the background, but even now it looks pretty fine. The sound effects are fitting, if maybe the balloon farting noise can get a little annoying over time (maybe it could be a little quieter compared to the rest?). ^^' No complaints about the choice of soundtrack.
Overall, pretty nice and original concept, with reasonable amount of polish as well. ^^
Rapid Metal by Micah_DS
The gameplay felt pretty intense, with the quickly moving player ship and super-fast bullets. Though scooting around with high speeds was also pretty cool in its own right; I just needed to make sure to carefully take down the evil pyramids, and not to get too lost. Would have liked some more variety in enemies, and maybe a bigger level (or multiple levels) to properly showcase them.
The graphics had a nice aesthetic to them, but felt a bit dizzying. Would have like the terrain to be more varied as well (e.g. different ground or wall colours, or maybe even different symbols); aside from aesthetics, it could also make it easier to find my way around the mini-maze. Nice choice of music and SFX. ^^
Overall, a neat 3D entry, though I feel with this much speed and bright lights it might be a bit too intense. ^^'
Ratty Revenge by Firehammer Games
Is Firehammer Games a new ACME? Also, this game felt significantly easier than the clown game and the E.T. game, which I'm sure lots of reviewers will appreciate. ^^
The basic gameplay worked fine, though most levels posed no trouble; I wonder if maybe some of the early levels could be skipped or otherwise merged (e.g. only one level to introduce both player-aimed and fast rockets, and only one level to introduce player-aimed and random anvils). Only towards the end I felt the need to use jump sometimes (instead of avoiding the hazards).
The foreground elements graphics were fine (though I feel like the spike/rocket dispensers were supposed to be mice but there was no time to make their sprites). However, the backgrounds had too high contrast - it led to poor readability of text in the menu itself and drawing focus away from core gameplay elements in the game proper. In general, I feel like the colours could have been balanced better (I guess the Hades vs Satan game benefited from a limited palette back then). As for the audio - the soundtrack is fine on its own, but for this game I feel something more hectic/jumpier would better fit the chaotic dodging of mouses' devices.
Overall, a nice dodger game though it could have audiovisuals (especially graphics) balanced better.
Stop Cleaning My Floors! by Team Lawnchair
It appears they want to cut the costs so much that they hire sludge-requiring mutants to save up on hiring humans. ^^
Anyway, it's an interesting concept, but I feel the gameplay could use some tweaking. Right now it seems the mutants can proceed even without the sludge (at least to some extent), which puts less pressure on the player to perform well. At the same time, the robots appearing from just near the exit are annoying, because then you need to sign them down as soon as they appear; maybe if they were spawned from other spots and the exit - thus not targeting the exit sludge instantly - and there were multiple spawn points for them, the game could punish disturbing lack of sludge more harshly while also having the player move around instead of camping at the cleanining robot only spawn spot?
...ah, only now I noticed that there's a time limit. Still, the gameplay at the moment is a tad too simplistic - just place some sludge along the path, and then camp around the exit to swat the newly appearing cleanup robots.
The graphics are simple, but work well enough. No complaints about audio, either.
Overall, a cool idea, but could be expanded upon to make it more challenging.
Sure, Nobil by Prrz, SaraTonen
It's a pretty fun shooter, with decent variety of weapons and enemies. With having to account for amunition, it feels a little more precise than one mindless zombies mowdown, which might work well enough for story mode but I guess it can get pretty tiring in the endless survival mode. Also, for a really limited supply of grenades, they barely seem to have any damage or range; I'd have expect some big ol' explosion that makes a bunch of zombies drop like flies. Maybe it would break the balance to an extent, but it would be so satisfying! I like how you need to hide in a fridge to protect yourself from radiation - I'm 99% sure it's an Indiana Jones reference.
Graphics are nice, but it seems lots of them (backgrounds and zombies in particular - the lack of outlines around zombies is especially noticeable) come from premade assets. Music and SFX are fitting.
Overall, a nice zombie shooter (even if there's plenty of zombie shooters on the market already...). ^^
Three Nights at Walmart by Bearman_18, Reality Check
Sooo, this aged poorly...
It took me a bit to get the hang of the controls and the hazards I really really shouldn't walk into - including the teal pipis stuff which upon closer inspection (of devlog) turns out to be wet floors. However, once I got familiar with controls and the core gameplay mechanics, I found the entry to be actually pretty fun. I just wish I wouldn't need to juggle the equipment so much (apparently, the UX is improved quite a bit in the post-Jam version). I think three nights are just enough to get familiar with what the game has to offer without overstaying its welcome. For some reason, even if the game says I completed it, pressing Enter doesn't seem to do anything. ^^'
The graphics are fine, there is quite a variety of them as well. No complaints about audio either - I particularly appreciate the announcer's messages and taunts.
Overall, a neat shooter with quite a few hazards, though UX could be improved a bit. ^^
Tw@tter by Siolfor the Jackal
Nice and short goofy entry. I feel like it's a reference of something, but I can't put my finger on it...
Having solve every problem with money was a nice touch, and so was the specific instance of it, i.e. bribing policemen. I feel like having to drive away as fast as possible while bribing policemen along the way (among other things) would make for a nice game in its own right.
It's surprising to see Siolfor making pixel art graphics! Well, they didn't look too bad at least. The music is rad as usual (especially the car escape one). ^^ The growls at the start where very metal too.
On vaguely related note, it seems like quite a few people linked Twitter with the Hazardous Environment (including Mightyjor, who didn't submit an entry in the end). That's quite telling in its own right, though I'm not sure what it's telling exactly...
Unqualified Bomb Defusal Service by The M
While it has some ideas that could make for interesting puzzles, I feel like having everything so obscured while often giving the player so little time to figure things out makes things more frustrating than they need to be. In the end, I basically brute-forced the last two levels, because I didn't feel like delving into the complexities of power boxes and capacitors and such. Maybe if the game didn't rely on the tiny X-ray window too much (instead revealing larger parts of bomb circuits), or maybe if the X-ray window was bigger, it wouldn't feel as bad? Alternatively, if there was more time to defuse things.
Graphics work well enough for their purpose, they're clean and readable (cables mess notwithstanding). Music and SFX are nice.
Overall, I feel like there's a premise for a nice puzzle here, but with this mix of complexity, obscurity and time limits it sometimes feel like brute-forcing is the easier option. ^^'
UnTagged by GameDevDan, Nana
The entry claimed to be unfinished, but I've found it actually has a proper gameplay, an ability to die to the Pink Paint Roller of Doom and then submit own score.
In the end I scored high enough to potentially take second place on the hiscore table. Not aiming for the first place, because it would take ages before I'd accumulate score like that.
The graphics are fine, though I feel like - despite the main menu graphics and the game title suggesting graffiti aesthetic - the ingame graphics make me think more of a crayon drawing (or maybe water paint?). I dunno, I feel like no self-respecting graffiti artist would leave so much unpainted spots within the picture outline - they seem pretty dedicated to flood-filling their pictures properly. There is no audio, sadly.
Overall, the menu graphics made me expect more than the game actually had to offer. ^^' It's a good effort still.
UP by Toque
Oh, Toque's house caught fire, too! Totally like Leon Skum's things!
The gameplay was alright, but nothing too exceptional. The cutscenes were nicely made, though with the single-colour background it feels like they took all the budget.
Overall, it's similar to other Toque's games - rought around the edges, maybe, but still has its unique charm. ^^
