Amazing that you could fit all this into the pico-8!
While I was playing it I definitely felt the wolf-3d and doom energy that inspired this, it made me feel like a little girl again playing them for the first time. (Also reminded me in tone of the lesser known Nitemare 3D, but Trial of the Sorcerer is a much smoother gameplay experience). The descriptions are sparing but very atmospheric.
Very cool game, easily one of the best pico-8 games out there.
Finally beat this game! Must have tried it a hundred times slowly refining my tactics. learning how the different moves work, and for a long time I could only get to 7. Those hoppers absolutely wreck me, I still can't figure out how they work.
Fascinating and fast paced game. And even with the lo-fi aesthetic, very cute looking.
Some game spoilers ahead:
Strong defensive play is very important, guarding against unnecessary damage, and learning how to use the various powerups to their best effect. I still have not found a consistently helpful use for suplex, unless I'm missing something, so I use it as a time-wasting move. Using stairs takes priority over being hit, thankfully. Bomb flowers are nice to come across,
Luck is a component for sure, but unavoidable in this genre.
Thank you for making this game!
Gorgeous game. The effort you put in really shows, controls and looks beautiful.
I would love if you could release a .p8 file so I can save it to my emulated games folder, but I understand if not. I've just noticed there is a p8 file included in the zip, please disregard this message.
Thanks so much for making this game!
Fabulous effort on this, I rarely see p8 games that are this in depth. Haven't beaten it yet, but I enjoy the creativity on display here a lot. RPG elements and quicktime elements work together to make tactics satisfying. Looking forward to spending some time beating this, only made it out of the tunnel so far.
Thanks for making it!
Very unconventional gameplay (stars being projectiles, hp, and jumping assists - I love it, it's weird in the best way), pretty to look at and very professional feeling physics. A lot of platformers aren't satisfying, but the precision in this one feels fair, and the tutorial stage helps a lot.
Snail-chan is adorable, everything about this game feels like a vintage SNES or possibly Sega Saturn title in the best way.
The 3d maze component handles very professionally. I love the story, it's very sweet to take the role of an escaping alien evading hostile humans, but I've always had an affinity for the xeno perspective. The pixel art is very handsome, too.
This game is surprisingly involved, as well. I encourage anyone who's a fan of crawler games with sympathetic monster stories (like Arcana for the SNES) to give this a try.
Scandinavian Tamagotchi!
The art style's very nice, the mood is fun, variable dialogue, and I had a good time getting to know all the different forest critters and cryptids. It's a must for anyone with even passing interest in Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian etc folklore, some extremely cool stuff in here.
I played it about six times over, to get different endings, and I enjoyed myself a lot. Don't want to put spoilers in the comments, but I was darkly amused by one of the endings that's more Jungle Book in nature, but with an outcome I would more realistically expect.
Thank you for making this game!
I'm glad this game exists, and I wish there were more RPG-like games like it; I think the demo is a masterclass in player agency.
I do recommend it if you're even the slightest bit interested in dystopian worldbuilding. Probably one of the most involved games on the GBC, it rewards you for talking to / trying to investigate just about everything that looks interesting.
The tone of it is not lighthearted, at least not to me. I found it emotionally heavy, but authentic, not cynical or hateful.
Thank you for making it!
Compelling. Very artistically pleasing and smooth running game, it has that quality where you want to keep going and trying new things, which I love.
However I think the tutorial should be even more dumbed down, or maybe the help screen should include tips on the (coins?) and other objects, because I do not understand the assignment.
I get the lose conditions, but what do you do with the coins and gems? Do they just take up space until you finish or is there somewhere to put them? Maybe the help tab should have a bit more information for people unfamiliar with the genre.
YOU CAN MERGE BLOODSTACKS. LMAO. Okay I think I get it more now.
My all time favorite indie game, and it's so simple! There's something about the immediate streamlined tactical play that scratches my brain-itch so well. There's a big luck component, but that's true of a lot of dungeon crawler games like this. Art is great in a minimalist way but it might not work for everyone.
Thanks for porting this over to the gameboy, I would not have had an opportunity to play it without your hard work.
Thoroughly loved this game. LOTS of heart and humor, stylish graphics, and smooth platforming that scales steadily in difficulty (for me at least). Plenty of competence and style on display here.
Delia's quest to find their pig moves at a brisk, sensible pace, I never felt bored of the back and forth. This is everything I enjoy from the indie gaming scene, and from gameboy roms in particular. I really struggle to find any constructive criticism at all, perhaps the invincibility frames when you take damage could last half a second longer, to get clear of the enemy you hit?
And the King's advisor really is wet all the time, huh.
I don't really know or care much about the artist featured here, but the creator of the game clearly does, and their love shines through this odd, unique little gem for the gameboy. I felt very peaceful playing through it, observing the different concepts and appreciating the lovely pixel art and cute transitions between rooms.
Give it a try, it's obvious how much care and attention was put into this, even in the demo.
Had a lot of fun with this game, very handsomely presented, and enough worldbuilding hints & cute dialogue to keep me curious. I love the miniature aesthetic and the endgame gameboy credits. And the implication that the wise sage is just one of the same creatures behind a bunch of impressive looking twigs and vines.
Hitpoints might improve the difficulty of the game, and if anything there was a bit too much backtracking. Maybe in the two first seed planting areas, you can keep going toward the corresponding left or right and drop down at the beginning of the level segment? I could be wrong though.
Thanks for making this!
The ambience outside the gore and jumpscares is great, I am not a personal fan of jumpscares in the liminal genre. I would have liked slightly increased running speed and fewer written messages on the walls (not none, just...fewer?) It moves and plays very smoothly, and the sound effects of buzzing lights and footsteps are perfect.
Wonderful work! Very comedic tone but with serious emotional heartstring tugging, too, and the sprites are gorgeous and have professional polish to them. The mini movie blurbs were delightful.
Sometimes I find games based around 'real jobs' a little tedious, but I didn't mind this one, as the flow of the plot felt natural around the chores required of the job.
Fingers crossed we get a full version eventually.
Very cute game, I enjoyed playing it.
I ultimately chose to assassinate the Ur city leader, partly because I felt the Machines had a capacity for change (even seemed to be sapience-developing in real time) and deserved their shot at the planet to see how they do. There was just enough story to keep me satisfied with solving the villagers' problems and some of them were very pathos-inducing.
I also enjoyed the atmosphere overall.
Thank you for making it!
Clever platformer, amazing to think it was made so quickly. Does a lot of impressive quality of life tweaks, like the music changing when the mood changes, and has a few interesting puzzles that took more than a minute for me to work out. All wrapped up in a sweet little story.
The only other puzzle platforming game I can remember offhand that was similar to this is Battle for Volcano Island for the gameboy advance, so it's kinda impressive to see this mechanic executed with GB hardware.
Thanks for making it, I had fun.
Bounced hard off the "you're doing the pronouns thing" quote, and didn't continue. I meet enough of those types in real life, and I don't need them in my fiction unless I get the chance to tell them to pound sand.
There is probably room for a debate on 'escapist fiction' versus awareness messaging, but I so rarely find games that just let me exist without reservation, it gets tiresome to continually exist, even in fiction, as political.
Just my two cents.
What a sweet game. I particularly liked Death (lots of little references there!), and the sprite art in general was spooky and fun. I looked out of every window multiple times, never could trigger a jumpscare though. The cat being unceremoniously adopted was a nice touch.
I'm glad there was no chess minigame with Death, because I said I play it, but I am not that good at it
