Thanks for playing! Always happy to add a little extra creepiness to the world.
Squeezebotjam
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Impressive showing! It had a really good vibe overall, it reminded me of Gex 64 era of 3D platformers and all the little mini-games they'd throw in for variety. You should be super proud. Good use of existing assets, though maybe a little bit too much reuse to be said to have been made exclusively for the jam.
The carnival shooter and jumping puzzle were very easy to pick up. That drone game and its inverted pitch control drove me mad and was the only one I couldn't complete. Locking out controls during animations of blocks turning in the pipe-mania mini-game was a little irritating and the analog stick to select which blocks to turn was wildly sensitive. In the end the long turn around time in-between runs caused me to turn it off before completion, that and the inverted drone controls (I was playing on controller which may have been making it harder).
For an unfinished jam game it's got a lot of neat ideas in the mix. I played through to the end (60 points). I planted seeds, watered them and refilled my watering can, but I couldn't figure out what the other colored spheres on the plants were for or how to interact with them differently.
I really like the idea of having to leave your weapon to charge just out of reach.
It's honestly incredible to see how good mode7 graphics can look with a modern engine, I'm super inspired by the look you've pulled off. The turtle ship is wonderful, there's a solid little gameplay loop and the sound effects emphasize exactly what they need to. Great job!
If you explore more behaviours in your AI it may make for more interesting exchanges of weapons fire, I'd look into basic boids like movement as a start. The music can get a bit harsh, especially with instrument samples that are more square than sin in so many layers. It could probably be improved by removing layers. Maybe consider separating the palm tree from the island so you can swim past it.
Good mechanics, a nice minimalistic spin on infinite runners. Every time the mutation occurred I'd die because there wasn't enough time to understand what the rules were of what I'd just changed into, sometimes I'd die instantly from a jump I initiated before the change. That said I ended up memorizing the sequence just so I could get farther.
Perhaps give some kind of warning as to what mechanic is coming next, maybe slow down gameplay for dramatic effect but also to give players enough time to adapt to the new controls?
Well that was a difficult struggle. I like the aesthetic and I really enjoy these kind of strategy/commander type of games but I had a lot of trouble even surviving in this one.
I didn't realize you could scroll the screen until I read comments to that point. Most of the game is pretty opaque, so even though I did better some round than others I'm not really sure why. Perhaps expose more of the variables under the hood in the UI?
Really pretty 2D sprites, solid trance background music. It reminded me of the hacking minigame in the Sly Cooper games.
If you focus on smaller upgrades (i.e. more upgrades with less effect for less) you could dripfeed a sense of accomplishment, maybe change the UI to a meter filling up instead of the counter to help give that sense of anticipation?
That's a really nice puzzle-platformer for a couple of days! I think the bridge building mechanic in the first level alone could be used to make some pretty interesting puzzles.
It's strengths don't really lie in its platformer elements, I'd nix things like the tiny platforms in level 3. I had replay that level after falling into the water several times and the music helped keep me lucid till completion. That level's music has a very nice countermelody.
I always appreciate a little text adventure, the interaction with the mirror was my favourite part.
The safe puzzle took me several tries to figure out the numbers had to be entered without spaces.
I've never used the Quest engine, it seems specific to Zork style IF. Have you ever tried Inkle's Ink script? It's so flexible and can get infinitely complex if you have the aspirations for it.
I really enjoyed this pleasant little happy thing.
The emergent goals are taught so well in this! The little hints the bugs tell you at the end of every conversation to help with more avenues of exploration are a great combo with the "complete the whole set" screen. Really masterfully done.
I will never grow tired of eating the sun.
Very nice look. The mutation idea is fun.
More juice would help player action feel impactful on the world and could dramatically improve the gameplay experience i.e. screen/enemy flash on enemy hit, particle fx, screen shake, hit/death sfx, motion trails, adaptive music (e.g. more intense when you're close to death)
Great look, the colour palette is really nice and clean. I enjoy the pacing of it all.
I enjoyed a few playthroughs, but I never felt like I was getting better in any capacity, which is a tricky design problem for these kind of games. I kept getting losing vision in one eye which was pretty debilitating in comparison to some of the other mutations.
I enjoy the slingshotting, it's got a nice arc, and the aiming is intuitive. The audio feedback is just enough to make it satisfying when you nail those alien things in the face.
I parked myself under the lever so I could always pull it. Adding more elements to encourage the player to move around the basket could give it some added chaos that could be quite fun.
I enjoy the ideas in this one. All the bunnies you're wading through by the end of a round is an amusing sight, and the giant bunny was very satisfying to see.
The pickup logic seemed to only work when I approached an object from a particular side, which made the controls feel really inconsistent and complicated the process in a way that felt unresponsive instead of chaotic.
It's really good! The artists on the team should be super proud for creating such a compelling look in so short a time.
I found in later stages the amount of enemies combined with the slow speed of eating meant just slowly whittling them off from a distance was the safest bet and ultimately always led to higher scores. Enemy variations that herd player movement or encourage one target over another might help. Seeing what mutations have dropped before attempting to eat them would also be useful in baiting the player into a crowd of enemies.
I really enjoyed this one. Played it a bunch of times to see more dialog and learn about the cursed forest inhabited by cosmic beings. Some of those transformations are pretty horrifying looking.
You don't get to say much before you turn into a tree, it'd be nice to have maybe a bit more time to dig into the story before resetting.
The objectives you posted here really help give the game more purpose. Implementing those into the game would be a wonderful motivator for exploring every nook and cranny of the story.