itch.io

I liked the main menu and the simple, hand-drawn look. The moving clock hands and falling rain were nice details, and the ticking clock followed by the creature sounds gives the scene a sense of something approaching.

The main difficulty I had was understanding how to survive. I found that left-click showed the window, right-click showed the clock, and Space returned me to the door labeled “HIDE.” I tried several runs with different combinations of watching the window, looking away, checking the clock, and trying to hide.

Each attempt ended with the eyes appearing, the monster sounds escalating, and then the death screen.

The page says the objective is to live until morning, so I understand the overall goal. What I couldn’t work out was how the hiding interaction works.

Does returning to the door activate it, or is there another input or timing requirement?

A clear visual change when hiding activates would help a lot. It would let me confirm that the game had registered what I was trying to do, then work on understanding when to do it.

At the moment, I couldn’t tell which of my decisions affected the outcome.

A short explanation before the first run, with the controls, how hiding works, and what clock time I’m trying to reach, would also help. Adding that information to the itch page would give players somewhere to check when they get stuck.

There’s a recognizable setup here with watching the window, tracking time, and responding to a threat. The part I most wanted was enough feedback to understand what I should change on my next attempt.

The rescue-team perspective was the part of this that interested me most. The Backrooms setting sits outside my usual interests, so I had a harder time getting fully absorbed, but I liked the idea of searching for the people still stuck in there and trying to bring them back.

It gives the exploration a purpose I could connect with.

The game looks great. The lighting, textures, and overall presentation capture the Backrooms look really well from what I’m familiar with. The body-camera treatment fits the rescue role, and the audio supported the atmosphere well throughout what I played.

I especially liked the movement. The regular walking pace felt comfortable, and seeing your hands come up into a running pose was a nice detail. It gave the movement a sense of physical presence, and moving through the environment felt good.

The writing on the walls was another touch I appreciated.

Putting hints, directions, and instructions into the environment suits the setting and gives you something to notice as you explore. I also thought the way you represented the people waiting to be rescued was an interesting visual choice.

For me, the rescue role is the part I’d be most interested in seeing developed further. The question of who is still missing, and having a reason to go looking for them, was what drew me into the premise.

It had that side-scrolling space-shooter feel, except you were a bird. I had fun with that one too, but it was definitely more difficult.

Shreshy clearly has a love for old-school arcade games that make you work for a good run.

I spent around 20–30 minutes doing runs, and my best was 8/9. I started out getting about three, then started reaching six pretty consistently after reading the controls. Getting from there to eight took some focused attempts, so there’s definitely a challenge here that kept me coming back.

The first thing I’d improve is the introduction. I had to go back to the page to understand the premise, controls, and objective. A quick explanation before the timer starts.

nine villagers sixty seconds dash through them to kill

Along with the movement and double-jump controls would help the first few attempts feel more purposeful.

The controls themselves were responsive, but the movement felt fairly neutral to me. I didn’t get much sense of the character’s weight, momentum, or personality while moving around. I’d like to feel more of the werewolf in the way it jumps, dashes, hits a target, and lands. More expressive poses and impact feedback could help with that while keeping the controls immediate.

I liked that the level itself was the main obstacle. Learning how to get around it became a big part of improving my score.

The trees were one place where I wanted more route options, though. Getting past one seemed to mean going over the top, even with space visually suggested around the trunk. Having high, middle, and low routes through parts of the map could give players more choices about target order and whether a difficult shortcut is worth attempting with the clock running.

The visuals have a cool style, although I honestly wouldn’t have recognized the character as a werewolf without reading the page. A more recognizable silhouette or some distinctly wolf-like movement could help communicate that during play. The music and sound effects worked well for me, and the mix felt appropriate throughout.

Getting so close to nine definitely gave me that urge to try again. I’d be interested in seeing that challenge developed further through more expressive movement and additional ways to navigate the level.

You’re very welcome! That second-floor limitation could explain why my second run was so much quieter. After that first death, I was still expecting him around every corner, so the atmosphere was definitely doing its job.

Giving him access to both floors sounds like a good next step. Even an occasional glimpse of him moving through an area I needed to reach would’ve made me reconsider where I was going and how quickly I wanted to get there.

Glad the feedback was helpful, and thanks for explaining what was happening behind the scenes!

No need to apologize! Game jams are all about making those tough decisions about what gets finished and what gets left on the table.

I know how quickly time disappears during a jam, especially when you’re trying to get several mechanics working together.

I think you’ve got an interesting concept here, and getting all those systems into a playable submission for your first jam is an accomplishment in itself.

Glad the feedback was useful, and I hope you keep working on it. I’d be interested to see how it develops!

The rainy walk into town gave me that early Silent Hill or Resident Evil feeling. I especially liked the first-person death sequence. Looking down, seeing blood on my hands, and then collapsing was more memorable to me than a cut to a game-over screen.

I had two very different experiences in the sewer. The first time, I stayed near where I woke up and the wolf found me pretty quickly. On my second run I grabbed the axe and took off. I was holding Shift almost the whole time because the regular walk felt so slow, but I kept letting go before blind corners. At one point a noise in my actual room made me jump. You definitely got me with the atmosphere there.

What I wanted was one more moment with the wolf while I was looking for the key.

I made it all the way to the exit that second time without seeing him in the maze. Even catching a glimpse of him crossing the corridor I was about to take would’ve made me stop and decide whether to risk it. I also spent that run carrying an axe I didn’t know how to use. A quick right-click parry prompt when I picked it up would’ve helped, especially since my first question was how to swing it.

One audio moment I’d revisit is the scream in the alley. It completely covered what my character was saying. I think letting him finish the line just before the scream would make the interruption hit harder and give me a second to realize it came from around the corner.

The town looked beautiful on high, and I appreciated having enough graphics options to get it running smoothly on my PC. Congrats on finishing your first jam!

Thanks for explaining the thinking behind it! The more deliberate hunt makes sense, and I wouldn’t necessarily want you to speed everything up. My biggest difficulty was getting enough visual information to make a deliberate approach, so a warning on the distance indicator sounds like a good way to address that while preserving the pace you intended.

Knowing you were using directional sound to help locate the hog at night also gives me more context for the audio. That’s where bringing the player’s footsteps down a little might help those threat cues stand out.

One clarification on the position-snapping issue: I was playing the browser version, and I haven’t compared it against a native build. I’ve wondered whether it might have been specific to that browser session or my setup rather than something that would happen across versions. I don’t have enough information to identify the cause, though. What I observed was that I would sometimes stop after walking for a while and then appear to snap backward several meters. Hopefully the browser context helps narrow it down.

And that’s useful context about the other ending. My reaction to the existential-horror side was based on the one I reached, so I can’t speak to how the other ending develops that idea.

I appreciate you taking the time to talk through the decisions behind it. The radar reversal was a thoughtful touch, and that ending music really did leave a strong impression!

I played through five nights and had a good time with this. Turning ordinary props into Halloween characters through their shadows is a strong idea, and the presentation feels built around it from the start.

The mirror was the standout mechanic for me. Having a placement affect both the original shadow and its reflection changes how you think about building the silhouette. Moving the mirror and adjusting where the shapes separate or overlap felt like a meaningful development of the puzzle, rather than just another object to place.

I especially liked the artwork. The room, props, silhouettes, and monster designs all fit the shadow-puppetry idea really well. It’s a very cohesive presentation, the sound supports it nicely, and I didn’t encounter any bugs or errors during the nights I played.

It’s also a strong use of the theme. There’s something very fitting about an ordinary household object becoming a monster through its shadow, and having the player construct that transformation makes it more than just a Halloween visual treatment.

The main limitation for me was sustained engagement. I enjoyed figuring out the shapes, but by the fifth night the process of selecting, positioning, and adjusting pieces was starting to feel repetitive to me. I stopped there, so I can’t speak to the final two nights or the ending. That’s more a description of where my interest tapered off than a complaint about the controls or execution.

For any future expansion, the mirror is the kind of addition I’d be most interested in: something that makes me reconsider how to build the shadow, rather than simply giving me another silhouette to match. That was where the mechanics were most interesting to me.

Overall, this felt imaginative, polished, and carefully put together. The core idea has a clear identity, and the visual presentation does a particularly good job of bringing it to life.

I played through to one of the endings. The hunter-becomes-hunted turn is a good foundation, and I liked how the nearest-hog distance indicator changes purpose once night falls. During the day I was using it to find a target; at night I was watching it to work out how close the threat was while searching for those yellow eyes.

The oversized REALITY HOG text also gives the narration a recognizable identity. There’s some personality in the rough, mixed visual style, and the music when the ending credits arrived was a particular highlight for me.

The biggest friction I had was during the daytime hunting. Sometimes I was close enough to spook a boar without having a clear enough view to line up a shot. Moving closer to see it better would make it run, so those moments felt more like struggling to get a usable sightline than figuring out a better approach.

I don’t think that necessarily needs faster movement or easier shooting. Clearer sightlines around some of the hunting positions, stronger visual separation between the boars and the environment, or a clearer warning that I’m approaching the distance where they’ll flee could make that part feel more deliberate.

The fixed walking pace and slower shot/reload rhythm also weren’t quite to my taste. I can see how that restraint could support tension, so I wouldn’t automatically suggest speeding everything up. For me, though, it made the stretches of searching more noticeable, especially when I was already having trouble getting a clear view of the target.

Audio-wise, I enjoyed the music more consistently than the effects. My own footsteps felt quite loud over time, and the shooting/reload effects didn’t feel as cohesive to me as the music did. I’d look at the relative levels first, especially during the nighttime section when I’m trying to locate a threat.

The shift into nighttime danger came through clearly, but the broader existential-horror angle didn’t land as strongly for me. I only reached one ending, so that’s specifically my reaction to the route I saw.

One possible bug: occasionally, after walking for a while and then stopping, my position seemed to snap backward by several meters. I couldn’t identify a consistent trigger, but it happened a few times during the browser playthrough.

Overall, the slower hunting style wasn’t entirely my thing, but there’s a clear idea here. The reversal at night and the way it changes how you use the distance indicator are the parts I’d preserve.

Thank you! It’s especially good to hear you could jump straight in without the tutorial. I wanted the fishing to be approachable so people could settle into the world and discover the spirits’ stories without getting stuck on the controls.

I’m glad the music and atmosphere drew you in, too. We were aiming for something quiet and a little eerie, but also somewhere you’d want to linger and see who you might meet. Thanks for spending some time by the water with us!

Thank you for sharing it with your friends! I’m really glad we connected through the jam too.

And I agree about the on-screen reminder. A small prompt after a missed cast would make the next step clearer without interrupting the atmosphere.

Hearing where someone hesitated is really useful, especially when it’s something I’ve stopped noticing from playing my own game so much.

Thank you! It’s especially good to hear you could jump straight in without the tutorial. I wanted the fishing to feel approachable so people could settle into the world and discover the spirits’ stories without getting stuck on the controls.

I’m glad the music and atmosphere drew you in, too. We were aiming for something quiet and a little eerie, but also welcoming enough that you’d want to stay by the water and see who you might meet. It means a lot to hear that came through!

I played the Windows build through to the ending, and this was a very polished, complete experience. I didn’t encounter any bugs during my playthrough, and the interactions consistently behaved the way I expected them to.

The strongest part for me is how directly the central mechanic supports the premise. You aren’t just finding a way through the house for yourself, you’re making sure your son can follow safely, and even the lantern you’re carrying can become a threat to him. That makes protecting him something you’re actively doing throughout the game rather than something the story only tells you about.

I also liked how the appliances, security systems, and HEARTH build on that idea. The house keeps finding different ways to interfere with the darkness you need, so the rooms develop the core mechanic rather than feeling like a series of unrelated obstacles.

The presentation is very clean. The visuals are crisp, the animation looks polished, and the audio fits the experience well. Having voiceovers alongside the story adds to that sense of completeness, and I was glad the story had a genuinely heartfelt payoff.

There’s quite a bit of narrative here, and it felt worth following through to the end.

The one addition I found myself wanting was controller support. I couldn’t find controller controls mapped in the build I played. The keyboard layout was straightforward, but with movement, switching lights, and advancing dialogue making up most of the interaction, being able to play the whole experience, including menus and dialogue—on a controller would be welcome.

I’ve only played through once, so I haven’t explored the time-trial side in depth yet, but the seeded houses and room-practice options look like a thoughtful foundation for repeat runs.

I honestly don’t have a major fix or extra mechanic to suggest here. The existing idea carries the game, the systems support it, and the story gives it an emotional reason to matter. This felt like a finished game rather than something I needed to make allowances for because it was made during a jam.

Very strong work from the team.

Thank you! this is really useful feedback.

I’ve actually played a little bit of Cult of the Lamb, but apparently not enough to even realize it had fishing, so that gives me a very specific reason to go back and study how they handle it.

And I agree with your point about the difficulty. The tension/alignment system is there, and I wanted the player to be actively doing something during the catch instead of just waiting for a result, but it definitely ended up being pretty forgiving.

Part of that was intentional because I really wanted people to be able to make it through the full game and experience the story. But I also would have liked to do another balancing pass and push the fishing a little further. Enough that the tension meter actually matters and a catch can genuinely be lost, without making it frustrating or turning the story into something players have to grind through.

That was one of the places where the 96-hour limit caught up with me a bit. The system was functional, but I didn’t have as much time as I wanted to tune the challenge.

So I think your criticism is completely fair. If I keep developing Angler’s Wake, making the fishing deeper and more skillful without losing the relaxed, reflective feel is definitely something I’d want to work on.

Thanks again for the thoughtful feedback, and for giving me another game mechanic to go study.

This was excellent. I ended up playing for around an hour and a half, which probably says more about the core loop than anything else I could write here.

The combat feels extremely good, especially on controller. Once I switched over, the simple move / dodge / attack layout felt fast and natural. The spider’s attacks are also very readable: I could learn the landing circle and charge telegraphs, dodge them intentionally, and then move back in during the recovery window to punish. That telegraph -> dodge -> punish rhythm is probably the strongest part of the game.

I also really liked the progression system. Having your performance during the night feed into upgrades gives you a reason to keep replaying, and there are enough meaningful stats to let you noticeably change the character over time. I eventually filled the upgrade grid after somewhere around 35–40 nights.

That’s also roughly where I felt like I had reached the end of what the game currently had to teach me.

After learning the spider’s attacks, acid, and the smaller spiders, later nights mostly seemed to remix or increase the pressure of mechanics I already understood. The combat was still fun, but I wasn’t having to develop a new strategy anymore. If this were expanded, I’d love to see later nights introduce attacks or combinations that force the player to reconsider habits they’ve already developed rather than primarily adding more of the existing threats.

The glasses mechanic especially feels like an opportunity for that. The opening sequence where everything is blurry until you find them is memorable, but once I recovered my glasses they were basically permanent for the rest of the fight.

I kept expecting the spider to eventually gain an attack that could knock them off again.

I think that could become a really interesting combat state. If getting hit by a particular well-telegraphed attack knocked your glasses somewhere nearby, suddenly you would have to decide whether to recover them immediately or survive temporarily with reduced visibility while the spider is still attacking. It would take something that’s currently mostly an opening ritual and integrate it directly into the combat loop.

A couple smaller things I noticed:

• The game plays wonderfully with a controller, but keyboard/menu navigation felt less complete. I couldn’t find a reliable keyboard/controller-style “back” action in some menus and occasionally had to reach for the mouse to click Back.

• A few of the centered notification boxes also felt slightly disconnected from the otherwise very cohesive visual language, and the flame effect after defeating the spider looked a little different stylistically from the rest of the effects.

Those are small criticisms, though. Visually this is one of the strongest jam games I’ve played so far. The lighting, fog, character work, combat effects, silhouettes, and overall nighttime atmosphere feel remarkably cohesive. The audio supports it really well too.

And the theme integration is excellent. This isn’t just a Halloween-looking game. The lantern, darkness, limited visibility, giant spider, surviving the night, and waiting for sunrise are all part of how the game actually works.

Really impressive work for the jam window. There is already enough here that I stopped thinking of it as “a jam prototype” pretty quickly and just started playing it as a game.

First off, congrats on finishing and submitting your first game jam! Especially with only about 22 hours available to work on it. There is a real game concept here, and I eventually figured out that I was using stealth to avoid the guards and trying to collect the souls from the children.

I had a very difficult time actually playing it consistently, though, and I think the biggest thing to focus on for a future project is making the game’s internal state clearer to the player.

The control layout was particularly difficult for me. Movement is A/D, stealth is X, and collecting a soul uses R. Since those actions often need to happen close together, my hand was constantly moving between keys that aren’t very comfortable to combine. R also competes with the finger I naturally use for D, which made moving right while preparing to interact especially awkward.

Something like A/D for movement with Space/E for your primary actions might be worth experimenting with.

Stealth was also hard to understand while playing. It seemed to have both a duration and some kind of cooldown, but I couldn’t find an indicator showing whether I was currently hidden, how much time I had left, or when the ability was ready again.

I ended up repeatedly pressing X just to determine what state the game was in. A simple meter, icon, character effect, or cooldown display would make that mechanic much easier to learn and use intentionally.

I ran into a similar readability problem when collecting souls. The R prompt can remain behind after a character moves away, so I wasn’t always sure whether I was supposed to interact with the character, the prompt, or the location where they had previously been. Keeping the prompt physically attached to the actual interaction target would make the mechanic much clearer.

I did manage to collect souls a couple of times, so I could see what the intended loop was, but it took me quite a while, and a couple readings of the instructions on the game page, to understand how everything fit together.

Ideally, the game itself should communicate enough that the page instructions are reinforcement rather than required reading.

I also encountered what seems like an audio bug. The music and sound effects fit the game pretty well when they were playing, but in multiple attempts the audio eventually stopped completely.

Conceptually, I like the idea of playing a supernatural character sneaking around at night collecting souls while avoiding guards. That gives the game a clear Halloween identity.

For a first jam, getting something submitted with movement, enemies, stealth, interactions, art, audio, a tutorial, and an objective is already a meaningful milestone. I think another pass focused specifically on player feedback and usability would make the underlying idea come through much more clearly.

Yeah, I think that repair mechanic would help a lot, and not just because it adds another system.

One thing I noticed while playing was that the transition between waves could be a little easy to miss. I’d get really locked into scanning for tentacles and clicking quickly, then suddenly nothing else would appear. It would take me a second to realize the wave had actually ended and then look down and notice the countdown.

So having something active to do between waves could solve two problems at once. It would clearly signal that the combat phase is over, give the player a short breather from the fast reaction gameplay, and still keep them engaged instead of just waiting for the next countdown.

It could also create a nice pacing rhythm: frantic defense → short repair/decision phase → back into danger.

That sea-mine tentacle idea sounds good too, because it would force the player to stop treating every target the same way and add a little more decision-making to the clicking.

Totally understandable that they didn’t make the 96-hour cut, though. It was a fast and furious timeframe for us all 😆.

Thank you! This is exactly the kind of reaction I was hoping the game might create.

The fact that the melancholy, the grief, and that feeling of missing someone came through means a lot to me, because that was really the heart of the project.

And yes, I would absolutely love to keep developing it. More story, more characters, more spirit encounters, more fishing, more variety in what you can catch, and more reasons to spend time in that world are all things I can see fitting naturally into a larger version of Angler’s Wake.

The 96-hour version really only gave us enough time to establish the core idea and prove out the feeling of it, so hearing “I wanted more” is probably one of the best things I could hear.

Thank you for playing it and for taking the time to write this. I’m really glad it connected with you.

This is a really solid, cohesive little survival game. The core interaction is immediately understandable, the tentacles are readable targets, and I especially liked how consistent the music and visual presentation felt with the creepy nighttime setting.

One technical thing I noticed was the attack audio. The visual slash/hit response feels nearly instantaneous when I click, but the metallic impact sound seems to arrive noticeably later, sometimes when the attack animation is nearly finished. Since this is such a fast reaction-based game, tightening that synchronization could make the combat feel even sharper.

I also think the hitboxes may be a little too forgiving. I could often click fairly far around a tentacle and still register a hit. That makes the game approachable, but it also removes some potential skill expression from a mechanic that is primarily about quickly acquiring targets.

The biggest opportunity for me is the difficulty/progression of the core loop. From what I could tell, higher difficulty mostly means dealing with more tentacles more quickly. That definitely increases pressure, but it doesn’t substantially change the decisions I’m making. Once I understood “find tentacle -> click tentacle,” I had basically understood the whole system.

I don’t think this necessarily needs a bunch more mechanics. Even one additional layer could take it considerably further: different tentacle behaviors, shrinking vulnerable areas, shorter attack windows, hazards you shouldn’t hit, camera movement requiring you to defend a larger space, or some kind of round/progression structure.

Right now it delivers one simple play style smoothly, and what’s here feels complete rather than broken or unfinished. I just found myself wanting the game to develop the idea one step further after teaching me the basic interaction.

The nighttime bedroom, child protagonist, and monster-coming-out-at-night concept are a particularly strong fit for the jam theme. Nice work getting a coherent experience together in the 96-hour window.

If you miss, you can press ‘backspace’, ‘right-click’, or ‘b’ on controller to reel back in and cast again.

Had a good time with this one!

Really liked the cable mechanic, especially the way it changes color as you approach the maximum distance. The movable connectors added some nice little puzzles without making things overly complicated.

The controls felt good throughout, and I didn’t run into any collision problems or bugs. The visuals and audio also worked nicely together.

The only issue I noticed was that some of the story text at the beginning and end advanced a little too quickly. I missed a few lines before I could finish reading them.

Otherwise, a really solid little game. I honestly wouldn’t have minded a few more levels. Nice work!

Hey, saw you had another jam game out and wanted to give it a try!

Really liked the look of this one. The colors, pixel art, and fonts all work well together, and the movement felt smooth throughout. Didn’t run into any collision issues or bugs.

I especially liked being able to bounce off enemies. That’s such a classic platformer mechanic, and the extra height from bouncing made it fun to use for clearing bigger gaps.

One thing I was curious about was the openings in some of the ceilings. I kept expecting to find a way up there, but never came across an ability that would let me reach them. Not sure if there’s something I missed or if they’re just part of the level design.

I also didn’t hear any audio during my playthrough, so that’s one area that could use some attention.

Overall, a nice little platformer. The foundation feels good, and I like the visual direction. Nice work!

Had a lot of fun with this one! Really like how quickly the mechanics click while still leaving plenty of room to experiment with different builds.

One of my favorite moments was discovering a combination where I could use the fishing hook to pull an anchor at the start of each round, then stack positional and charm bonuses on it.

Once I figured that out, I started thinking much more deliberately about what I was adding to the bag and how everything would work together.

I also really appreciate the freedom to end a round whenever you want. That push-your-luck decision, especially when you’re nearly at capacity, makes even a simple draw feel meaningful.

Definitely planning to come back for more runs. Curious to see what other combinations I can put together. Nice work!

I had a lot of fun with this one! The shipbuilding is simple to understand but offers a surprising amount of freedom to experiment.

I really liked being able to build, remove, and rearrange parts without much friction. Working within a scrap budget while deciding how to position engines, weapons, and crew made experimenting with different designs enjoyable.

I can imagine some pretty creative or highly optimized ships coming out of this system.

The controls were straightforward, and I appreciated how easy it was to understand the combat and upgrades. Everything felt approachable without needing much explanation, which made it easy to jump in and start having fun.

My biggest issue was the camera framing during flight.

I often felt like I was driving toward the edge of the screen without enough visibility of what was ahead. A wider view or more space in the direction of travel would make navigation feel better.

The pixel art is functional and readable, and I liked the little frog crew.

The visuals could use some polish, but they didn’t get in the way of enjoying the game. The audio worked well too.

Overall, a really enjoyable little shipbuilder.

I think you’ve got a solid foundation here, and I’d be interested to see how far the building and combat systems could be expanded. Nice work!

I really liked the atmosphere you’ve created here. The warm lighting, old furniture, and environmental details make the room feel believable, and hearing the fireplace before the visuals even finished loading was a nice touch.

I spent some time exploring the different interactions.

I could adjust the TV, tune the radio into several broadcasts, rotate the photographs, and match the grandfather clock to the pocket watch to trigger a chime.

The radio was probably my favorite part.

The old-fashioned broadcasts were interesting, especially the one discussing things that sounded surprisingly modern in such a vintage presentation.

Where I struggled was understanding how those discoveries connected. Matching the clocks produced a sound, but I couldn’t tell whether it changed anything. I also couldn’t find a meaningful result from adjusting the TV or rotating the pictures.

I got the impression there was a larger puzzle here, but I never found a clear path through it.

I also experienced some significant performance issues in the browser.

The initial load was lengthy, and turning on the radio caused the page to become unresponsive long enough for the browser to offer to terminate it.

It eventually recovered, but the interruptions made exploration less enjoyable.

Overall, I think the environment and audio are the strongest parts.

I’d love to see clearer feedback when a puzzle interaction succeeds, and a stronger sense of how the individual discoveries connect.

There’s a nice atmosphere here, and I think making the puzzle progression easier to recognize would help players appreciate what’s already been built.

I played through the tutorial and made two attempts at the main game. Overall, I thought the waveform matching was intuitive, the controls were responsive, and the interface was easy to work with.

I did run into what seems like a bug on one of the later signals, I believe the third-to-last task.

Both times, I could match the frequency and amplitude but couldn’t get the third slider to align the waveform. It looked like I needed to push it slightly beyond the available range.

I eventually ran out of time on both attempts.

The gameplay interface is well done, and the music and sound effects fit nicely.

Visually, though, the character portraits, photographic backgrounds, and equipment interface feel like they’re from different art styles.

I also found most of the puzzles fairly easy once I understood the controls. A little more variety or complexity as the game progresses could help keep things interesting.

Overall, a solid interpretation of the jam theme with an approachable core mechanic. I think addressing that waveform issue and building on the puzzle variety would go a long way. Nice work!

Hey, thanks for checking it out! Glad you enjoyed it, even if the retreat didn’t go quite as planned!

The croak and enemy indicators were fun systems to work on, so I’m glad those stood out.

And that’s interesting about the controls working properly in your Chromium-based launcher. Good to know, since I’ve had some mixed feedback on that.

Really appreciate you giving it a play and sharing your experience!

I completely understand where you’re coming from with the difficulty. I’ve wrestled with that quite a bit in my own jam games, especially trying to find that balance between making something challenging and making it rewarding.

It’s even harder in a jam because you basically get one chance to introduce players to the mechanics and get them invested.

And I actually agree with your concern about replaying the officers’ signals.

Part of the challenge is observing them, keeping up, and recording what they’re communicating. If players could replay every signal indefinitely, I think you’d lose some of that tension. It also makes sense within the interrogation scenario that the officers aren’t going to patiently repeat everything until you get it right.

One thing I’d clarify about my original feedback is that I didn’t necessarily find the puzzles themselves too difficult. They were time-consuming, and figuring out how to interact with the game took a while, but once I understood the system, everything was manageable. I actually enjoyed having to pull out scratch paper and build my own translation chart.

To me, that’s a sign that the game has engaged the player enough to put in some real effort.

I also thought your conversion sheet worked well. I wouldn’t necessarily change it. The biggest opportunity might be how you introduce players to using it.

What if the first interrogation always started with something simple, like NAME? That’s only four signals to recognize, and it makes sense as the first question an authority would ask.

You could use that first exchange as a sort of guided introduction.

Maybe the four incoming symbols are automatically recorded on the in-game paper, and when the player opens the conversion sheet, those particular symbols are highlighted. Then, when they need to respond, you could briefly demonstrate how holding the corresponding number keys produces a letter.

That way, players experience the entire process once:

• receive a signal
• translate it
• find the answer on their credentials
• transmit the response.

After that, you can gradually take away the assistance and let them work independently.

I also wonder if the difficulty could ramp up naturally through the interrogations. Start with a short question, then introduce longer messages and more complicated answers.

If you ever expanded the game to multiple encounters, you could even increase the starting difficulty of each encounter, so players feel like they’re becoming more proficient with the semaphore system.

I think that would preserve the challenge you’re going for while giving players a better opportunity to develop the skills needed to enjoy it.

As for the note-taking system, I really wouldn’t worry about players using actual paper. I thought that was part of the fun!

I wouldn’t necessarily replace it with something more automated, outside of perhaps using it to help teach that first exchange.

The more I think about it, the more I feel like the core mechanics are already in a good place.

I wouldn’t want you to simplify them so much that you lose what makes the game interesting. I think it’s more about helping players get that first successful interaction under their belt, then gradually asking more of them.

There’s a lot of potential here, and I appreciate you being so open to discussing the design!

This is one of the more unusual and interesting games I’ve played in the jam. I really wanted to figure it out, and I eventually managed to finish with one incorrect answer!

The semaphore mechanic is genuinely interesting. I don’t think I’ve used this much scratch paper for a game in years.

Once I understood how everything worked, I ended up developing a whole process for decoding the incoming messages, translating them into letters, converting my answers into key combinations, and then transmitting everything back.

I actually created my own reference chart of all 26 letters and their corresponding key combinations. Once I had that, the game became much more manageable, although still pretty time-consuming.

The biggest challenge for me was getting to that point.

I spent roughly 40 minutes just trying to understand the controls and how to construct a response before I felt like I was making any real progress. I eventually figured out that you have to hold combinations of number keys simultaneously until the green circle completes a rotation, release them, and repeat for each letter.

A clearer introduction to that process would make a huge difference.

I also tried using the in-game note-taking system, but drawing the symbols with the mouse was difficult for me, especially since I’m left-handed. I ended up using actual paper to copy each signal, translate it, and then write the corresponding key inputs underneath.

It worked, but it was quite a process!

The other major issue is how unforgiving the game can feel.

After spending several minutes decoding and transmitting a response, getting the entire question wrong because of a single mistake is pretty discouraging. When I missed one, I seriously considered whether I wanted to keep going, knowing I might have to restart the whole sequence.

I’d really like to see a way to replay incoming signals, along with some more forgiving feedback when transmitting answers. Even knowing whether a mistake came from the translation or the input would help players learn without removing the challenge.

Visually, I really like what you’ve done. The artwork has this painted, almost cut-paper storybook quality that gives the whole experience a distinct personality.

The setting and presentation fit the unusual mechanics nicely.

It took me around an hour and a half to finish, and I think a significant part of that was learning how to interact with the game rather than solving the actual questions.

Once I understood it, though, I found the process genuinely engaging.

There’s a really interesting game here. I think making it easier to learn and a little more forgiving would help more players experience what’s good about it without losing the depth that makes it unique.

Really glad I stuck with this one. Nice work!

Really enjoyed this one! It brought back memories of those late-PS1 and early-PS2 platformers like Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, and Ratchet & Clank.

I think you captured that style and feel pretty well.

The movement was solid throughout my playthrough. Jumping, double jumping, and navigating narrow platforms all felt good. I was particularly impressed with how well I could balance and maneuver across the narrow I-beams without feeling like I was fighting the controls.

I did run into one controller issue worth mentioning.

The listed controller mapping has B assigned to the tongue attack, but pressing B opened the pause menu instead, just like the Start button. The rest of the controller inputs seemed to work properly, although I ultimately found keyboard and mouse a little more comfortable.

The level design was probably my favorite part.

I rarely found myself lost or unsure where to go, but it also didn’t feel like I was being led around by obvious markers. There were several moments where reaching a new area or activating a signal naturally revealed more of the environment, and I’d suddenly notice another path or platform I hadn’t seen before.

That made exploration feel rewarding without needing a bunch of explicit directions.

The low-poly presentation also works well.

The environments, character, and overall atmosphere feel consistent with the era you’re going for.

For a first game, there’s a surprising amount here that works. The movement feels good, the levels encourage exploration, and the progression kept me moving forward without much frustration.

I had a good time with it. Nice work, and I’d be interested to see where you take this after the jam!

The raccoon stealing pies is a fun little premise, and I liked the idea of having to watch the warning signals while trying to get away with as many pies as possible.

The controls felt responsive throughout my playthrough. Moving between the lights, reaching up, grabbing a pie, and retreating when the warning appeared all worked reliably.

I also liked the little animation of the raccoon stretching up to reach the pies.

The biggest issue for me was that the gameplay became repetitive pretty quickly.

Once I understood the timing of the lights and when to retreat, there wasn’t much else to figure out. A little more variation in the timing or risk involved in grabbing pies could make the loop more engaging.

I also noticed what looks like a scoring bug.

The “Pies Eaten” counter stayed at 0 throughout my games, even though the results screen correctly showed that I’d collected 4 pies in one run and 6 in another.

It wasn’t clear whether I was supposed to do something additional to eat the pies or if the counter simply wasn’t updating.

One other observation.

The download included the Godot project files and multiple export formats all in the same folder. It ran fine, but packaging just the files needed for the player’s platform would make the download a little cleaner.

There’s a good starting point here, particularly with the warning-light mechanic and the raccoon’s animations. I think some additional gameplay variety and clearer scoring feedback would help bring out more of the charm in the idea.

Congrats on getting your first jam entry submitted!

I gave this a try, and I think there’s a starting point here, but it feels much more like an early prototype than a complete game.

I couldn’t find a clear objective, any meaningful interactions, or a gameplay loop beyond exploring the terrain.

The terrain itself has a certain visual charm. I like the simple low-poly approach, and I think there’s potential to build something around that environment.

My biggest suggestion would be to focus on giving the player one clear thing to do. Even something as simple as collecting objects, reaching a destination, or completing a small challenge would make a big difference.

From there, you could start connecting those interactions to the jam theme.

Everyone starts somewhere, and getting a project running and exported is part of learning the engine. Keep building on it!

I like the idea of using time travel to change events across different timelines. There’s definitely room for some interesting puzzles with that concept.

I had trouble finding much to engage with in the current build, though. I could move around, interact with Matthew, open the inventory, and switch between the past and present, but I wasn’t able to find any meaningful consequences or puzzles built around those interactions.

I think the biggest opportunity here is giving the player a clearer objective and something specific to change in one timeline that has a visible consequence in the other.

Even one small cause-and-effect puzzle would go a long way toward making the central mechanic feel worthwhile.

The visuals are pretty rough, the characters have a recognizable style but the environments could use more attention to make the different timelines feel distinct.

I also didn’t hear any audio during my playthrough. Even a handful of interaction sounds, or some ambient audio would help give the experience a little more life.

That said, getting a playable game together for your first jam is an accomplishment in itself. There’s a lot to learn just from getting movement, dialogue, inventory, and scene transitions working together.

I’d encourage you to keep building on it. The time-travel idea is worth exploring, and I think focusing on one complete, meaningful interaction between the timelines would be a good next step.

This one genuinely surprised me. The presentation is ridiculous in the best way, but underneath it there’s a really solid little multitasking game.

The strongest part for me was how well the audio supported the gameplay.

Once I started spending more time on the handheld game, I found myself relying on the traffic signal sounds to know when to switch back and pull the lever. That worked really well and made managing both activities feel like a skill I was actually developing.

The controls were another standout.

With this much switching between activities, I expected some input frustration, but everything felt responsive and reliable. When I made a mistake, it felt like I’d lost track of something rather than the game failing to register an input.

I also really liked the visual personality. It’s rough around the edges, but the hand-drawn look, exaggerated frog, and goofy presentation all fit together.

I wouldn’t necessarily want it cleaned up so much that it lost that charm.

I ended up playing several rounds because I kept wanting to improve my score. The core loop is simple, but it kept pulling me back in.

Really interesting execution of an unusual idea. Nice work!

Sounds like a good plan! You’ve already got a great eye for presentation, so I’m curious to see what you build as you get more comfortable with Godot. Keep at it!

Really impressive little game, especially for a first project!

The presentation is easily the standout for me. The stump, moss, tiny pathways, plants, and little creatures all feel like they belong in the same world.

Everything has this charming, almost miniature-diorama quality to it, and I really like how you’ve built the game around that environment.

I also thought the audio was very well done. The ambient sounds and little interaction effects fit naturally into the scene and help bring everything to life without being distracting.

Gameplay-wise, it’s a fairly simple point-and-click experience. You’re guiding this little creature around, activating switches, lighting things up, and figuring out how the different elements interact. The puzzles weren’t especially challenging, but I enjoyed working through them and seeing what each interaction would do.

I also liked how the signals were incorporated into the environment, from the electrical connections to the sound-based interactions with the little bug.

It gives the mechanics a nice connection to the jam theme.

For me, the biggest opportunity would be expanding on the puzzle design. The presentation is strong enough that I’d love to see more involved interactions and puzzles that really take advantage of this little world.

Overall, a charming experience with a surprisingly cohesive presentation.

For your first game, you’ve set a pretty high bar for yourself. Nicely done!

Interesting concept overall. I liked that this was basically a bundle of three different puzzle/minigame ideas instead of just one, which gave it some originality.

The frog-and-laser section, the Wi-Fi dog puzzle, and the mine rescue section all had clear concepts, and I had a decent enough time playing through them once.

None of the puzzles were especially difficult or deeply engaging for me, but the variety helped keep it moving.

The biggest weaknesses were presentation and polish. The visuals felt pretty rough, there didn’t seem to be any audio, and the character collision felt off in a way that made movement and object interaction a little awkward.

Still, I appreciated the attempt to build several different mechanics into one project. It has some interesting ideas, even if the execution felt a bit uneven.

Thanks for playing and for the feedback! Glad you enjoyed the visuals, sound, and especially the croak!

That’s a fair point about the level design. I think the earlier sections do a better job of giving you things to engage with, while some of the later areas ended up feeling a bit too empty. Definitely something I can learn from.

Appreciate you giving it a shot and sharing your thoughts!

Went back and finished it after the fixes! Everything worked this time.

Really enjoyed the Containment Hall sequence and getting to explore the Research Wing. The ending gave me a few more things to think about, especially with Vance and the Observer’s history.

Thanks again for jumping on those bugs so quickly. Looking forward to seeing where Chapter 3 takes things!