(godot's C# integration is extremely clean, I highly recommend it as a seasoned dev >:)

You cooked wonders with this little auto-battler! It was pretty satisfying to navigate stages and mix/match lineups to discover all of the effects. Definitely keep cooking this, as I'd love to play a more polished version!

• The game hooked me for a pretty solid amount of time start-to-finish in a similar way to how Super Auto Pets does, so that's a big plus!
• I thought you did a good job with the ambience -- sounds for an early mockup are pretty good, music lines up with stage progression and bosses. Also really enjoy the pixel art style you've adopted for this, even if its an early proto-stage (the characters look great imo!) -- makes me curious to know what they'll all sound like in the end product >:)
• Tooltips with numbers and an improved discovery system for synergies could be great UX improvements for knowing what effects the characters have and can buy!
• You should add a settings menu in, so the player can adjust window / sound settings! It was a pretty tiny window for me...
• I'm not super sure how well-balanced the character abilities are, as I found I was able to first-try clear the game via a frontline of fluffy warriors + Mio and Ame + Botan, and Calli right at the end (wishing Kaela had her stuff up 😭)... they had a ridiculous amount of sustain, but the fact that I had a very hard time deducing how (no concept for health pool size, attack damage / range, etc, since those numbers are hidden from the player except via bars) means that I wonder if there might be room for improvement in giving visible indicators / numbers to the player, if even on tooltip hover-over?
  • -> visible numbers for health, damage, stats do matter a lot, as this is a numbers-go-up sort of game! it satisfies the neuron...
• What is the blue bar that increments for the idols? Is it some kind of ability charge bar? I noticed health pools would go up, but I couldn't exactly tell why / if it correlated... do you think something like a multi-page tutorial "deck" from a main menu could help get the player up to speed?
• I did encounter only one bug during shop mode, which may have to do with how you're handling indexing in the "player hand"...
  • when I sold an idol and bought another, for that round only they would end up in the same slot as another idol, instead of the empty one... rendering that slot unselectable both here in shop, and in the battle phase (surprising! luckily scraped out both fights) -- which then reset to their normal order and became usable again the next shop/battle phase. odd!
• I do wonder how you intend to expand on the stage progression and overall experience to make it more replayable! At the moment, I feel like I could play it a few more times to experiment with the different phases; but it does become pretty easy to rotate builds in later stages with the "economy" stacked up of existing idols you've bought...
  • and to me, there's something missing in the game core... something that exists somewhere in the following two observations:
  • 1) an ever-increasing difficulty curve that matches the potential builds one can divest (you don't see this in e.g. Super Auto Pets, because it is ranked multiplayer combat about finding the most broken build, so that challenge ramps up by itself; and if you fall behind, you lose... this is where a ton of the fun is for those players! it is likely possible to algorithmically scale the enemy pool for a stage (in health/damage output for enemies) to mimic that in this PvE context, based on current idol hand stats...)
  • 2) some system or means to ramp up the scaling potential and increase the potential mixes & matches for synergies beyond the idol traits -- this could be a misguided observation, but I do wonder what exactly is missing here... food for thought, at least!

Beyond the blast of feedback for you here to take or pick apart or reject as you'd like, I had a blast playing it! Thank you very much for submitting to the bakery 🙇‍♂️

This was a lively little action platformer, as the ol' Fubu-sen... I really enjoyed hopping around, the movement system is pretty fluid and responsive! I cleared most levels by going as high up as I could, and then left 😂

• I do like how large the levels are, they're not so big that they're devoid (as there are enemies and seemingly sukonbu in need of help everywhere) and the design is quite varied! If you wanted, you could be deeper with flavor and enviro design for various areas, things for the player to uncover and be rewarded for...
• I like that there are thus technically multiple ways to clear a level and that you might not see everything in one go unless you're meticulous about it -- I enjoyed mastering her move ability and going straight up the side of the castle, completely ignoring everything inside LOL
• The use of little buffs (and HP regen) for saving the sukonbu scattered around levels was a healthy reward for seeking them out, I liked that a lot (and it saved me a couple times)
• Going into the Kurokami fight was pretty tough! I'm a Souls player so I was never upset at it, but it took me a few tries -- switching between rushing with a sword + knocking her around and using tons of Gun™... the latter won in the end. I also enjoyed the variety and "phase 2"-iness of her ability set as her health got lower!
• There is not much I-framing for the player to recover from, if an intentional design choice -- this was especially apparent going toe-to-toe with Kurokami, as she would clear half of my health before I dashed away... feels normal for a challenging platformer though!
• Noticed a bug at the very end where stage + boss clear times were 0.00 seconds, not sure if intentional LOL

Beyond that, I could definitely imagine a longer-form progression of levels and potentially the need to unlock Fubuki's skillset through levels (movement, abilities, possibly more weapons?), possibly even uncovering a deeper story hidden between the lines, to ease the player into the experience and/or set a steady pace of progression into its depths. Thank you gang for submitting to the bakery! 🙇‍♂️

These were pretty solid puzzles, I've gotta say! Had a blast solving through them. I adore Prism Magic, so it added a sweet instrumental touch as I worked my way out too.

• I do agree that adding some quality-of-life items like settings would be a great plus! Giving some SFX and anims some love would also do pretty solid, if you wanted to improve on this.
• Otherwise, I could picture a sleuth of ever-more challenging puzzles like this, with who-knows-how-many different items I have to leverage! Very much a fan of the multiple mechanics piece, as challenging as that might be to design from your (dev's) perspective.

Thank you for submitting! 🙇‍♂️

A straightforward 3D "platformer" type made in Godot, with a clear goal: cleanse everything infected with corruption. Think it accomplishes the premise, so that's good -- and I'm glad you enjoyed the process!
- I like the intro cutscene! There's no dialogue or sound so it's a bit odd and deadening, but it reads like a silent film and is at least quite easy to understand... especially like the X/twt clip with Mumei saying to tell Fauna that she "sent her the gun, she'll handle it" LOL
- The player TPS controller is functional and clean, but it feels quite stiff due to the camera being locked to the model's forward axis! Leveraging inertia or `smooth_damp` in camera movement and player model rotation could help to alleviate some of that stiffness, as would using sorts of acceleration / deceleration values (albeit tuned to be more "snappier" than "floaty") to let the player glide around  the wonderful forests and plains as Fauna
- The little gun SFX and the two music tracks used for the normal stages and the boss stage are alright choices! Think they do well to capture some of the vibe you were aiming for on each (especially the boss, that was pretty good music choice)
- Given that it gives platformer vibes, if that's what you were aiming for, you could do better with levels by expanding them and providing some decent challenge to get Fauna into certain spots for cleansing! You could then use that to do some enviro storytelling, cool level design, hidden lore, maybe random dialogues with static NPCs, etc... things for the player to feast on and "discover" for themselves, and boost fun/engagement factor!
- Gawr throwing physics-based tridents at me was actually really funny... I found it pretty fun to dance around her stage and keep blasting! Her movement pattern was pretty simple and static though, it would've been more of a challenge if she was moving around and/or switching up what she did with other abilities if she had any
- I was hoping for a more satisfying win screen after that intense battle! A little detail, but a pleasant UX thought

Take with grain of salt as always, but hoping those are some helpful thoughts for how you could build upon and expand your skillset here... beyond that, thank you for submitting and contributing to the bakery! 🙇‍♂️

A quick and simple experience, not the craziest thing for a rapid-fire game for how long you had to do it!
- There's no sounds or ambient music, so that's one way you could up the immersion factor... this would help sink the player in a bit and feel more at ease, wanting to spend more time appreciating the scenery or the goal
- The progression was very quick to grasp (eat the larger fishes with the bait) and the underlying goal (at least through the self-ascribed environmental storytelling I'm giving myself) is to clear the bloodied corrupted pond by clearing the fishes -- though the core is very simple... it is very easy to become bored with! You could take that core in a lot of directions by asking the player "why would they do this", and then exploring out along the creative game design paths asking that question multiple times takes you down 😌
- I did notice the XP and level indicators in the upper left, but I couldn't tell what they're for or what they do (if anything atm!)
- I can get behind the pixelated style! I think you could do a lot with that, especially if you build out more of a longer-term game progression spanning multiple levels or objectives.

With more time, I could imagine you having a more robust, possibly replayable experience here for the enterprising player to enjoy... but be proud that you did this with the time you had, and thank you for coming and being part of it -- hope you will be able to spend more time with us from the get-go next time! 🙇‍♂️

I knew in my heart of hearts that, once I saw Emico's multi-part animation parody of papers please, that it would come to life as a fan game... and here we are, a prototype done in Godot no less 😌🙏 -- this is awesome for a two-week span of development!

- I think you all did really well to nail the look and feel of the original game! the sounds present, the menu music, the newspapers and intro cutscene, and the atmosphere gives me all of it very goodly

- the card and book hitboxes are a little finicky at times! I find good success grabbing at the center of cards, but the full box would be easier on UX! (though I do know drag-drop is hard enough to implement in 2D for some reason LOL)

- I would've expected the book to stay open for popping some discrepancies that are likely just not yet implemented, but it closes when the inspect tool is brought open... not sure if bug or intentional atm! was hard to call out gooba on her wonderfully crafted ID 😂

- wonder if you'll add more of the discrepancy types! e.g. putting faces on ID cards, etc

- I noticed after some time that the background audio would stop after its long runtime, instead of looping on the audio player... wondering if that's a bug?

- possible mild bug (or just unimplemented lines) on 14/09/1999 with guard kronii, whom I saw was there for a split second before walking away

- I did experience a pretty interesting bug on 15/09/1999 (the day after I let Ina through), where time passed but nobody actually walked up to the gate (= the time I spent writing all this), and then once the day ended, I was stuck on a black screen... I either reached the end, or must've been smitten by the yagoo 😔

all around, heck yeah... I would love to see this continue to be built out and then shared with the broader community! happy to lend Godot or programming expertise if you ever find something really tricky to do -- thank you for participating and baking this delectable cake! 🙇‍♂️

Hey, appreciate you dropping by with honesty and this really sweet project! Given that HoloArc is not a proper jam game, I will unfortunately have to disqualify it... much as I definitely feel what you're getting at and looking to accomplish! 🙇‍♂️

BUT, that doesn't mean you're out of luck! You should absolutely (and please) share the game project in our server via the #promo channel and express your hopes for it, as quite a few devs & creatives keep eyes around the server and are always on the lookout for cool new projects -- which may be a source of potential teammates for you too. Games don't have to be jam entries to get the visibility you're seeking... there are eyes everywhere! (it caught mine at least... which I hope will come to be valuable for you 😉)

Thank you! The multiplayer component is not being developed right now, as I have to run HoloJam + am focused on larger game projects (notably Holospark). I would like to finish the 1v1 duel mechanic I set out to build, so you'll see a blog post update come from this page when that eventually happens. Hope that makes sense! 🙇‍♂️

thank you for making this, this is pretty fun to play! I haven't completed the game yet, but have spent some sweet hours w/ it to experience the majority of core features -- so here are my initial thoughts (ctx: I run HoloJam):

<this was done 2024-07-15, on release day>

- I dig the wide variety of choices in the soundfonts and themes frfr, it's a visual fun feature but I appreciate this sort of attention to detail and customization

- that is a sweet and lofty premise... ayo? I will be the first takodachi to win lets GO 😤

- the controls are uncommon, but simple to learn and also remappable! glad you left the defaults in the game description, but I would also recommend introducing the player to them the first time the game opens, if they're unfamiliar / if you launch on Steam for accessibility!

- I really adore the classic nature of this battle system, it feels good and rewarding when you do attacks right + pretty punishing when you mess up or overextend... early on it is pretty simple and there's not much strategy, but as you progress, it gets more involved and you begin to require strategizing to survive (affinities and debuffs both). reminds me a lot of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, and does well to honor that base -- the battle core does not differentiate itself as much in core gameplay except in the Lexicon (which is a nifty multi-run enabler for skills) and the distinct matchups of enemies + how to defeat them, but it is still fun regardless!

- I do wish there was a way to more easily view the status effects of an enemy as you uncover their weaknesses / strengths... unless it's here somewhere and I'm crazy LOL

- menu navigation is effective, but the input feels a bit long! i.e. not very snappy, which impacts how quickly you can navigate the UI (expected to be pretty quick for this style of game)

- the map navigation is pretty clean, I like its procedural nature. I do think there could be more of + more varied tiles that the player can trigger or avoid, to increase the sense of tension (not necessarily difficulty) the player should get when navigating these dungeons!

- the bosses between levels are a good touch! I like the base setup where each boss can have some cool mechanics and even require the player to move around the arena -> would like to see more in this direction!

- I like that the floors get increasingly crazy w/ progress, but I did feel during tanking / after defeating enemies (once you overcome the power jump), the loop became as simple as nav'ing the dungeon for loot and then going on to the next... combines with the interactive environment point above, could be something there to multiply the engagement factor

- the enemy power jump between levels is noticeable! you'd best be prepared to step up or steadily grind it out until you're powerful enough to continue LOL (even with limited tools/skills to do so early on, I enjoyed this)

- the shop items are varied, and feel pretty balanced to use -> does take a bit to build up currency to unlock the more powerful items, but thought the ramp-up in earning was balanced to justify the power scale and thus felt good

- I also dig the character development when not running Abyssal, thought it was a good idea because the game's progression is more accessible to less-hardcore players

in short, fun quirky takodachi dungeon action! will definitely playing until I complete the game using different tako types 🙇‍♂️

better be there >:D

A decent base for a hybrid roguelite-style game! It is decently heavy and unoptimized, as initial UE projects tend to be... could instantly tell it was a UE game with an asset pack when you first showed clips of it LOL; for better or for worse (both!). It's good that you built some mechanics on top of the JRPG template so it wasn't just a straight-pull! I also enjoyed the multiple endings that you weaved into the spec. I also liked seeing that you got engagement on social media for it, as naturally folks were impressed by its looks!

I do enjoy the camera system! I also like combat system base, since it harkens to classics -- but that also works against you, because the formula for doing so and for playing as characters is pretty battle-tested... was having a similar discussion w/ Sel about a related game concept! What this means is, as a player here after a few combats and run-arounds, I was starting to lose that initial wow factor; since naturally the game is missing distinctive elements that are able to differentiate a game like this from its peers. (as you think about this, one great note in this direction I got in other discussions was, "you can't rely solely on the characters anymore!"... sound advice!) 

Not that that's an issue of course, if you're able to build a unique experience that stands out from the other JRPG types! That does require some sort of gameplay mechanic that I think is missing... fortunately I think there is plenty you could do to design that. The others covered the range of bugs I saw, didn't try too hard to break it 😉

Having this third-person walkable element in a similar style to Granblue Fantasy is a great start, and I can definitely see the potential to build out a unique progression that lets you scaffold on top of the saturated "play with characters" base otherwise... I'm glad you were able to push through and cook this up in time! Thank you for submitting 🙇‍♂️

Cute and clean take on our gremlin! A classic formula that reminds me of my old days playing the likes of Banjo-Kazooie and friends. Took me a second to figure out you could run with right-click, would be good to have a prompt somewhere for that... simple as it is, I love how silly she looks when she runs too!

Some of the rock hitboxes are a little odd (I managed to clip inside of a rock and then burst out of it like a certain moai kyun, which was sick). I found you could use the dirt part of the dirt-grass terrain and the rock mesh chunks after-break to gain some sweet movement tech! I did dig the little tune, and Shiori's rather funky note to Nerissa about the new entries and the MocoJohn. Beyond that though, I was wishing for more from a gameplay perspective after some time chasing down rocks... I feel like there is a good amount you could do to amp up the player factor!

I also really liked the movement control, I thought it was snappy and responsive, and gives the player a bit of a skill curve if they're looking to optimize their moves. Could definitely picture you building a whole series of levels about chasing the Advent gang down with this base! In all, a solid effort for a staple level concept and core -- thank you for submitting! 🙇‍♂️

Huh... this was something else... in a fantastic way, of course! Turning "rolling back the clock like all those Baldur's Gate saves" into a core game mechanic, while needing to figure out the timing and ways to make loads of money (and also getting a significant lecture the first time through from Ame, who knows full well you can just roll back the clock after taking in her MIT Series lecture on all her intel (how long did she spend here in true time wtf)) -- is just such a cool concept for a game!

• I really appreciate the fluidity of the pixel animations, thought they were swell!
• The casino-goers, though few, were fun to interact with! I do wish there were more of them, and more I could see roam around.
• I get that Hitman-style vibe during just the mission enter screen where you get the immersive briefing docs and details, which hints to me that Zecret Mission could well become a multi-part series if it continued on
• The audio work -- mixing, design, composition, and atmosphere -- is just superb for the theme. I strongly appreciate Cecilia's ability to VA and even perform a clip of a cover (where's the full OST, come on ayo), as the licks and the core swing motif super-added to the immersion and was extremely catching to listen to!
• I quite liked the boss fight semantics, but I do echo the same concerns the others captured. It is fun to see time battles, though!

The others covered a variety of bugs, and I induced a number of them myself with rapid last-hour roulette rollbacks, breaking UIs and smashing engineers' dreams of stable features (worth noting this was in web build)... including the following extras:

• I managed to break the roulette UIs so chips would still show money on them even though they were cashed/invalid
• During the sus calculation across multiple roulette table results (I'd have to dnSpy to confirm this), it seems to evaluate whether the player broke through the sus meter at each turn -- so even if your net sus meter was below the threshold of 100, if you spiked over it with an intermediate result, you will get trapped in the Ring of Ikemen Clock Butlers (am I the only one who sees Daaku in all of these?)
• While doing this rapid rollback, I did go and bet 400k on Adam Saddler for the second ("final", since the third was bugged to occur past midnight) race -- but didn't see that cash out to me at all... this was after a few times rapidly going between the states for that, unsure if there's a event trigger or future that I'm breaking under the hood LOL
• The first time I reached the 11:59 moment without being in the boss room, I listened on in horror as I heard the `AudioSource.Play` calls spool in real time, and the rapid cacophony of audio sources briefly turned the audio to a Junji Ito-level of ambience and static... before going back to normal as those sources finished out (are those pooled?) and the wails of the damned faded away into the background...

I would be stoked to see this morph and evolve into a broader storyline, possibly even tracing Zeta's origins in this alternate timeline. I'm wondering what other core elements you could use / add over time to spool up the gameplay -- different tools you can select and bring to the mission are one thing, side objectives that net meaningful rewards beyond points (whether in-mission or beyond) could be another.

Thank you for submitting, gang! 🙇‍♂️

A good little builder game type! I'm a fan of these, so I enjoyed doing diabolical things to watch the funny number go up. LOL

I agree with the notes on scaling, that's a critical part of the fun factor! Rewarding the player with new mechanics, new ways to challenge their ever-growing funny numbers, and new funny numbers tend to be the largest engagers, so I feel like you have a solid base for doing that. The central flat green field upon which we build could take some biome-level TLC and become this gorgeous place that your mass of pemaloes detonate and turn into rock (rock) factories.

A crazy idea I got while playing this is, what if you could control the pemaloes you amass pikmin-style, and leverage them as a resource towards larger unlocks? 😱-- but enough of that, I had a great time with this. Thank you for submitting! 🙇‍♂️

Oh to help Shion brew wild concoctions with equally wild ingredients... I'm glad we could help you take your first step on the delicious spiral of game dev!

Even though it is simple, I appreciated the ambience and audio to keep me sane. It took me a second to nail down all of the triple-combos, but they're a great litmus test of the player's holo-fan knowledge!

From this base, I do think you could take this in different directions to spice up the player experience -- have Shion (or the cauldron) react to when you're doing good or bad, have there be multiple days of different sorts of combinations, have the combos contribute as active wanderers in the room that you can click on and interact with, and so on.

But again for a first game, I thought it was good. Thank you for submitting! 🙇‍♂️

Ah... the peaceful life of a little ol' shopkeep, oh how I could retire like this 😌

This was wonderful! There's a ton of polish here, and so much detail in the little things you can do... the items you can give (if you can pinpoint all of the refs right now from memory, you're an instant OG) to all the cute and often suspicious mascot NPCs, the interesting sense of story progression, and even that sudden but sweet twist! I just had an absolute ball with that, that was a lot of fun for what it is.

I do think there are some little fixes and adjustments that could be made to enhance the quaint dialogues, and naturally some expansion of folks we see and things that can happen to add that delectable spritz. I think it would be a great idea to incorporate additional "world-shaping" through some means of controlling and growing the shop's available items over time (whether via currency or maybe even over multiple runs, to find how to unlock them! that or just who you see changes over time) -- I just adore the news clips' ability to portray a little world directly affected by what we sell, and the cheeky smiles it left me with as the days progressed is a great capture.

With those extra cherries, I would absolutely encourage you to take this to holo Indie and even put a price for it! I have good faith they would accept it >:) -- thank you for submitting! 🙇‍♂️

Quite a fun little excursion through Fauna's dungeon (dilemma)! I thought this was an interesting take on the classic progression formula, with your gorgeous art style to boot. Having different classes is a good concept to yield options for the player, which influences how they'll ultimately play.

In my opinion, the core RNG element is two-faced: on one hand, it relies on the outcome of the chaotic universe sampling a fun next ability for me to use and thus can be tricky to strategize around or get rerolls (which I would love to see more of a feature built around the way Fauna has it, to reduce some of that out-of-control flow), which means extra care has to be given to the player experience -- but on the other hand, it is a pretty unique experience that does have some strategy to it based on the class you play, drawing from the wonders of RPG elements and an interactive experience much in the way that tabletop games can often be; and I appreciate the huge potential this game has as a base demonstrator, as a result!

I think you could take this in many directions and ultimately flesh it out with all the content Fauna and us all could only imagine, since you have something meaningful here to iterate on! Would be curious to see if you do... thank you for submitting! 🙇‍♂️

Quite cozy! I did like the Animal Crossing-style ease of losing track of cohesive thought and letting life become fishin' for a good while! I dig the cute pixel art, and the pretty deep blend of mixes for the different 'dachis that you can discover... reminds me of those alchemy games where you collect elements and then blend them together. A good base for a hybrid-cute/horror type!

Fish quantity definitely comes to mind, when coming back up. Could imagine an upgrade system that would help alleviate that as the player gathers more ingredients over time, some sort of scaling could be good. The primary difficulty in the game lies in the player's ability to go deeper with the same parameters (anchor size, level design, and depth sink/return rate)... I'm wondering how else you could spice that up!

Beyond that, can definitely picture where you could go with this! More lakes or bodies of water, deeper (fathom gauge doko), more varied biomes, more 'dachis, maybe more things to mix, possibly even a "shop" of sorts to "sell" the 'dachis or byproducts of the deep... could even do some subtle worldbuilding with the eldritch buildup or deeper progression! Thank you for submitting 🙇‍♂️

Happy you were able to complete your first project, and it's a pretty fun and sweet little pachinko-like that would make Omarun proud! I do agree that there should be more dynamic elements or chaos injected into the fold, so that it's harder to exploit specific angles! I couldn't exactly tell if the different suites had different hitboxes, but would be a good touch!

Would love to know where the progression would go if you had more time to finish it -- things to spend the points on maybe? Thank you for taking the time and submitting! 🙇‍♂️

You know, all those years of minesweeper finally coming in clutch... ain't no way we're gonna let Usada Corp duds ruin this crop! Not at no cost, anyway. This was a good game! Clean, simple, cel-shaded, Pekora with her terrifying eyes knowing what she did to the poor harvest.

There were a couple of hiccups with the actual interaction, and the controls did take me a second to figure out from the menu, but I appreciated the pretty solid rule page booklet and the throw in! Am I the only one who found the higher difficulty ones easier, or did I just lock in after a bunch of games...? I really liked the Nousagi mechanic, gave just a bit of guessing leeway for the hard stuff (o7, poor thing...). Good work, thank you for submitting! 🙇‍♂️