itch.io

I totally understand how restrictive the palettes can be.  I'll pitch some ideas on how to handle that in #graphics-workshop. 🥧

A good start! Fun as-is, even if lacking flourishes. I'm looking forward to what you do with it, add to it, or what you do next!

1) Congrats on nailing the audio and visual aesthetic of this gameplay era.

2) I similarly struggled with figuring out what was going on, and had to rely on external documentation more than necessary. A few ideas, off the cuff, that might help with that:

• Make the apple and cherry pies visually unique when thrown.
• Color code, or otherwise add a constant visual identifier/ character trait to the rodents that indicate their preference.
• Communicate hitting with wrong pie more clearly as wrong pie some how.
• Maybe a missed opportunity to utilize pie flavors that correspond with B and A button names? A for Apple; B for... Blueberry? Blackberry? Berry? Bumbleberry? Banana Cream? (none are as iconic as cherry though)... (this is literally the only time I've envied a 3-button Genesis controller)

Anyway, *very* much enjoyed it!

The multiplayer games are always my favorite of the competition, and this one holds up with some quick and quirky combat.

Aesthetically, it feels like if Street Fighter 2010 were viewed through a Joust filter. A neat mix of eras.

I also saw y'all's dev story on twitter. Congrats on the accomplishment, and I look forward to what you do next!

I spent an afternoon praising this game's assets via DM with Nicolas. Not much to add to it, except that, like all wonderfully executed, tight-scoped games, it leaves me hungry for more. Also, y'all should try to license it to Adult Swim as a Metalocalypse tie-in.

Do they still pay for web-games? Do they still show Metalocalypse? Is my suggestion a decade out of date? 😅

Love the idea of the ultra-multiplayer aspect. Gives me some Outfoxies feels. Wish I were back in my dorm days so I could put it to use. Seems it'd be great at cons too. A short list of things that might help polish it up:

• A more detailed character select screen, maybe with portraits, stats, and a brief  gameplay description (so new players wouldn't need to see external documentation to play)
• A more informative and communicative HUD
• I'm not sure *if* the character designs are intended to be TF2-inspired, but they felt that way to me; if so, more original, maybe even wackier, character designs would help.
• Bots, bots, and more bots. 😉

Congrats on the accomplishment, btw. With or without updates, I'm sure it'll go in a lot of people's party boxes. 

Very polished and ultra-charming!

I was gonna write that the map layout for the demo could benefit from being (a lot) tighter, but it seems that others have already addressed that (and for the full game, the very open layout seems like it will be part of its appeal, especialluly if there's ample enough content and non-linearity in regards to accessing it.)

This is the only game my kid (4) played through (almost) entirely unassisted, btw.

I'm not sure if the game's intended for an early childhood/all-ages audience, but we enjoyed it on that level very much.

On one hand, the difficulty curve is *very* accessible, and the gameplay quite cute. But on the other, the titlescreen aesthetic feels more serious, and I was always expecting the overall mystery to take a suddenly dark turn.

That said, the only thing that caught me off guard as I was reading the word balloons to the kid was the shootout and that boss's dialog. The violence/gunplay of which seemed to come just far enough out of left field to feel uneasy, but not far enough to feel absurd or humorous (which that unease may very well have been the intention; in which case, it was successful). Even though it occurs within a book, it felt more violent/real/high stakes than, say, in CatMercs which revolves around a screen full of bullets (which I admit I didn't think twice about while playing with the same child 😅)

Anyway, I'm not writing persuasively one way or the other. Just leaving the account of our gameplay here to give you a look at how it went down.  We're both very much looking forward to the full version, btw. 

I'm super excited to have access to a 2-player minesweeper-like. I was going to write and suggest a reduced gameplay field in order to have larger cells (probably 16x16, though 12x12 could be done with some duplicated graphics in the nametable tiles, like in Honshogi: Naitou Kudan Shogi Hiden.) That'd give more space for recognizable tiles, would leave less deadspace on the screen, and would make the game easier to see and play from a couch.

Oh, and one thing we learned the hard way with HBC Phutball, is that, for hotseat multiplayer, there needs to be more drastic of a visual indicator for player change than just color change. We still need to go back and update Phutball with a more noticeable transition as well.

Even if not updated, this'll probably get some more play in our house though. ^^

I actually never played Puzzle Fighter, so the gameplay was totally new to me. ^^ I like it a lot, and have kept coming back to it. My main feedback is that the green and teal are really close in color, so can be a bit of a strain at time. Maybe choosing colors that also have more brightness contrast between them, or including a unique pattern for each color, could make it a little less reliant on hue recognition? Either way, you pulled this off well. Congrats!

Congrats! Executed well, with a subtle, yet cute, theme. The small playfield and large pieces makes for some occasionally uncomfortable play, but it feels like that's intentional. That said, your games are getting tighter and tighter, and I can't wait to see what you'll have next year. ^^

Thanks! Those are great suggestions. We'll keep them in mind as we work on the full version of the game. We definitely leaned on the low-stakes side for the co-op, wanting to keep the unicorn-side of gameplay very young kid friendly.  But, we *also* realized after play-testing that the unicorn side (in both co-op and solo play) needs more incentive/involvement, so it's for sure on our list of issues to address. ^^

I really enjoy this one, but also think an auto-scroll-less mode--or maybe even a hold B* to slow scroll with a little bar than runs out while you do and refills with time, or something--would be quite inviting.  -like the exact inverse of Excitebike's turbo/overheat meter.

*I just realized B is used for fastcelerate. ^^

I haven't made all the uppercase letters yet, but when I do, I'll gladly make it available. 😁

I love it! Charming and addictive. Excellent 1-bit pixel art on showcase here. I especially like the subtle animation for the water. 

Oh, and I wouldn't complain if the A button shot instead of start. 🙏

Start feels like such an unusual choice, is there a specific reason you opted for it to begin with?

Again, loved the game!

Oh, I just tested that (hold B). Did I miss that documentation somewhere, or did you find it through trial and error?

This plays extremely well.  The kid (4) and I played quite a lot of holes. It kept their attention the entire time (maybe 8 holes) and we only quit because of bedtime.

This is already going into our favorites everdrive folder, but I'd still love to see it updated with some music and sound. 😉

Simply stunning title screen.

I haven't gotten the hang of the controls yet, but each sitting I get a little further and a tad more competent. More importantly, I leave each taste determined to come back for more. 

I dunno if the mechanic or the theme came first, but you've absolutely nailed the feel of the game's eponymous hero. 😄

Congrats!

I'm glad to see these posted here after having my own am I stuck or am I missing something moment.

Theme is strongly incorporated in a fun way. The visuals didn't initially attract me, but the specific framing and movement of the character(s) shows unique charm, and overall the game has a Bird Week-like aesthetic to it, especially its backgrounds, which grew on me. 

Basically, playing it for the compo took me from passively interested to extremely interested in the game, and I'm excited for what you two grow it into, as well as what you follow it up with.

Love the visuals, as I've mentioned before. Will definitely be coming back to this one for future co-op. Also, rad screen effect to and from title screen. 

It could benefit from an additional mechanic or two though. Personally, I'd suggest:

• Something for a quick boost of speed (maybe once per wave or earned in another way); and
• Some type of collectible wave between enemy waves for some risk/reward (keep my ship close to guard the tanks or go get the coins/whatever).

You could even kill two birds with one stone and have items that spawn between waves to regenerate the boost.

Oh, and the only reason I knew there was a 2-player mode was from previous discord conversations. Combined with the fact that streamers seem to read Tarmac, the default stage setting, as part of the title/introduction text, restructuring to a more traditional title screen (1P/2P start followed by stage select) might help.

All that said, what's there is really well executed.

Extremely fun for new learners and casual players. The decision to just make the snake short instead of take a life or something makes the game very playable. It opens the game up to cooperative and assistive modes of gameplay, even if unintended originally.

The charm and style are excellent, especially in the portraits. It does what it does very well, even if what it does has been done often before. The decision to focus on polish over scale is a strong one, resulting in a solid and very enjoyable experience. 

I've been super excited for your work since you've started sharing progress on your other projects, am glad to see another one come to fruition, and eagerly looking forward to more. :D

A cute and charming start. Whether this continued or your next NES project, I'm looking forward to it.

I'd also love to see a digital implementation of your physical game, Ascension, btw. :)

I dig the themes and visuals. After digging into puzzlemaker myself, I can appreciate the deviations you've worked into the base engine. One of the biggest I would suggest (and I'd probably say this about every puzzle maker game, and thusly is more a criticism of the engine itself) is having a unique filled-hole metatile (in this case probably a mound of fresh dirt over the grave). I know puzzle maker re-uses the same code for clearing collectibles and clearing holes- so that's a hurdle, but I think the graves/boxes and holes just disappearing is visually jarring.

Oh, and I really dig your 8x8 font in this. Chunky, quirky, and still heavily themed. That's not an easy task. :D

Graveyard Dude was thematically more interesting, but this one seems to be a more interesting showcase of customizing puzzle maker. That said, I think having both in the compo may have harmed each other, as playing them back-to-back (well, within a short time frame of each other) was (just a bit) exhausting. 

This game (and its early stages in particular) sold me on puzzle maker, and its use case for making games with very simple goals for younger players, and I'm now using it to do the same for my own kid.

That said, the biggest potential for improvement here would be to use a different palette for the eggs and the stones. They're very similar in terms of both color and texture. I eventually saw that the outline distinguished them, but my kid—who felt more like the target audience—couldn't. Plus, it's a good habit to increase visual clarity of objectives.

Love it. I like the idea of having info carts like this and would definitely check out a follow up. Would like to see a passive mode where the entry changes automatically after a reasonable amount of time, something that could be left on idle in a room.

The compo game I keep wanting to come back to the most. I haven't played its most obvious inspiration, but have seen videos and I prefer Tactus' specific visual aesthetic to it.

Crazy adorable presentation. Could benefit from a bit clearer in-game feedback/instruction; but one I'd love to come back to when I have some like-minded folks available for multiplayer.

Has a strong aesthetic direction and sticks to it. It's definitely the most Superjail-esque NES title in existence. I also really enjoy the palette customization option, and the surprising fluidity of some of the sprites, such as the ant. Plus, manual and packaging are all excellent. 

By the way, twitch user (and previous year's compo contributor) Link_7777 has put in multiple long gameplay sessions for this. They helped a lot in terms of showcasing what the game's like for someone who's got it under control:

https://www.twitch.tv/link_7777/videos

An extremely polished game that makes me want to see more of it, but with a steep entry barrier that I don't think I'm going to be able/willing to overcome.

A few things that could help:

• Unique thruster animation for going in reverse. My first two attempts at playing it, I legitimately thought both up and down propelled the ship forward because jets were coming from the rear of the ship.
• Current mission coordinates displayed on the screen, as the first handful of plays, I was so engulfed in trying to get the hang of the controls that I forgot the destination. (and after having twice previously experienced the lock-up mentioned on discord where I couldn't exit the mission briefing-only restart it with select, I definitely was not looking forward to sitting through the mission briefing text again.)
• Some way to prevent the player from getting too far away from the first destination (?)

I don't think the controls (input) are as big of an obstacle as the consequences of losing control are. Like, it's way too easy to be flying around space all willy nilly within seconds of playing, and far too difficult to reach the destinations (in terms of regaining control, dealing with other enemies/distractions, and even just psychologically seeing the coordinates, how far away I am from the destination, and how quickly I'm getting even further away). Unfortunately, I think these hurdles are going to cause a lot of players to bail pretty quickly and miss out on most of the game.

That said, there are some very cool things in the game. The big old claw that grabs you and the asteroid shower were both rad, and I'm very much looking forward to either where you take this game, or what you do next. :D

It seems that CDBaby's policy for permission granting on individual videos requires action on the video creator's end instead of the artist's, but it is possible. Perhaps reaching out to the compo streamers with this info, and permission of course, could be a middle ground. https://support.cdbaby.com/hc/en-us/articles/209496166-Rights-and-permission-on-...

Aye. That's quite a bummer considering that your work is only a small portion of the multitude of games featured in these streams. Seems disingenuous to defend a decision that would garner you full monetization rights over these videos due to that.

https://m.twitch.tv/videos/1651732300 

https://www.twitch.tv/retrophiletv/video/1643627283

https://www.twitch.tv/karma_dragoness/video/1640878310

feel free to add any you find/do.

It looks like CDBaby *might* have made a monetization claim on a youtube stream of compo titles. (We had a similar problem with Project Blue through its soundtrack distributor). I would hope that's unwanted behavior, and if so, you might want to opt out of that feature: https://support.cdbaby.com/hc/en-us/articles/209494806

Game's awesome, btw!

I put this spreadsheet together to compile voting between multiple team members; am sharing in case it's helpful for anyone else. This sheet's set up for a team of 3, but can easily be adjusted for varying sizes. If anyone wants to use it, and wants me to change it for team sizes, just ask.
Team Judging Spreadsheet



One cool thing is that Sheets automatically updates references to different sheets/tabs within the file; so you can rename tabs with contributors' names and the formulas still update.

Thanks!