The concept is common but this game changes it little bit by REALLY starting with nothing. I think player could have different color at the start. (It was hard for me to realize where i am)

Lol it was a bit of a grind, but I managed to purchase 3 levels - level 2 was hard so i never saw the third haha. Very well put together!

Fun game! Definitely tough, but it reminds me of those old Flash upgrade games where you had to upgrade everything including the menu. I loved those! Good work.

I like the concept - especially how the game is totally unplayable right at the beginning and you need to buy even the most primitive of graphics. The farming for money quickly becomes tedious though, and I didn't much like replaying the first level even after buying the second one. It felt like a long time to make any progress.
The way the level gradually transforms and becomes legible is fun to watch though.

almost got turned off by the graphics but the gameplay makes up for it

Good concept, would play more of this. One thing i would change is the start price for moving, it was a bit grindy getting it to 40 coins.

@pedromgdo The start price for moving right is 20. Are you talking about the left movement or did my was my purchasable tool tip not clear? Just wondering for next time I do something similar :)

@nachtwitch That was one of the things I was afraid of going with an upgrading game system. Glad the gameplay was able to provide enough

@thevideogamester my bad, you're right, tried it again and well, i was pressing the wrong key to move at the start...

@crunchykingcobra I wish I had some more time. I was able to implement a quick play token system that you get but if I was to change one thing it would be to implement it sooner for sure. Its about half way and is just past the point where I think most people will be stopping.

@stefanie-leitch Thank you! I will openly admit that is where I got my inspiration for this entry. Used to play similar games on occasion.

@patvanmackelberg I was hoping to have a few more levels to kind of have a better difficulty curve. But I ran out of time to work unfortunately. Thanks for the feedback! I am glad it at least feels put together. I was worried the last few hours that it wouldn't come together. Kind of built the easiest and hardest levels first then was trying to fill in the middle.

@iozsaygi If it wasn't for the themes idea of nothing I absolutely would have gone that direction. Thank you for playing! Let me know if there is anything else you notice!

@thevideogamester

That's fair. If I'd unlocked something like that a bit earlier I would've kept playing for sure.

@pedromgdo No problem. I was a bit worried that would happen. Didn't have much time for a full tutorial and so I made due with text which if I know anything about game design is text is the worst way to convey information. lol! I also wanted to add AWSD but forgot until after I had finished. Let me know if you have any other issues or questions!

First steps is Amaizing :smile: Godlike theme interpretation ;)

Fun concept! I really liked the upgrading but after about 50 plays it got a little monotonous. I was hoping one of the upgrade would have been like "double coins" or something to push you on in the late game

@igoreshka Thank you!

@adam-konig The late game could have used some more balancing. That was the second thing on my list of things I wish I had more time to do. The quick play coin upgrade helps but a lot of the end game items are a bit to expensive. Thank you for playing!

Really cool concept! It unfortunately got really repetitive with and grindy. Perhaps some multiplier to help with racking up them sweet coins later in the game would have helped.

Cool concept, like others have mentioned though, it does feel grindy after a little while. Maybe lowering the cost of the upgrades or packaging increasing the changes one upgrade make would have helped!

Interesting concept, decent execution given the time restriction :)

Great use of the theme! I love progression-focused games, so this is one of my favourites so far. There seems to be an audio bug in there somewhere, possibly related to the quick reset coins. I ended up with the music stacking on top of itself, even back in the menus.

@pixelmonkey Ah that actually makes sense. I didn't catch that one. But when I read your comment I know exactly what I missed lol. Forgot to add the fade for that reset unlike the others. Thanks for playing!

@ruby-interactive-games Thank you for playing! I think it turned out alright but there is still so much more I wish I would have had time to do. But that's the life of a dev I guess ;)

@gagouman For sure. The balancing is a bit off especially for the last few upgrades. Next time I am going to alot more time for balancing now that I have kind of a baseline.

@binarysystem That actually was in the plans. I got so far as adding the sounds pitch changing but unfortunately didn't get to the multiplier or enemies adding coins to the total. Thanks for playing!

It took me *forever* to realise the player even existed (I just kept pressing play and staring at the number go up), but maybe that's part of the fun. I love the concept, really taking the theme to the max. The flavor text is a very nice touch for the atmosphere, and the decision-making with upgrades is great. I'd have preferred some randomness to the levels so that it's less grindy but I enjoyed it nevertheless!

This was a lot of fun to play. I just wanted to keep playing to see how many more "gameplay elements" I could purchase. I wonder how far it goes...

Brilliant! I couldn't understand what was going on in the beginning and nearly stopped playing because of that, but then I realized that I was not understanding because you wanted me to and not because the game was bad, and I should buy stuff in the store to make things clearer. It just blew my mind. Good job

Nice, fun game. Would have liked it if it had saved my progress.

Nicely done, had fun playing it ( and may come back to it to finish :) )

@aileron It was part of the original scope but I had to choose between that and sleep and tbh I love sleep a bit to much. Glad you enjoyed it!

@geoff-nagy I think I was around 30-40 upgrades total. Wanted to add some more such as backgrounds, new pickups/coins, and music tiers. Sadly they didn't make the cut. Actually most of the background code is in the game but not unlockable due to a bug I couldn't squash in time.

@hcursino Glad you enjoyed it :) Was a bit worried about people thinking that with the upgrade route I took. Still some disadvantages as I suspect the full art will be seen by few if any due to my lack of time with balancing.

@tte-olaf Agreed. I wish I had the time. But I figured that most people would only play once so better to focus on a playable product.After this is all over I may revisit it for a few upgrades like that.

@okkolobr Glad you enjoyed it! Let me know if you finish! The third level is the hardest but also very fun if you complete it.

Had some trouble in the beginning but i got a hang of it. Lovely game and cool idea! I love the fact that the game slowly builds up and becomes better and better. It feets the theme of LD perfectly. Goodjob!

@appoxgames Glad you enjoyed it! That was an initial worry I had but I guess most of us here are better at working through initial bad impressions to get to the meat of a game. Bit of a relief that the responses have been generally positive.

That's a really fun game, and an awesome way to tackle the theme! I really like both the concept and the execution! What did you use to make it?

@sozey Gamemaker Studio 2. I find its good for this kind of rapid production. Thanks for playing!

Cool concept, but pretty tough and grindy. I was craving a "grace period" for jumps to make it feel a little more responsive. The progression kept me playing quite a while, though. :D

@joe-williamson I actually started to add coyote time. Unfortunately its been years since I have made a platformer and I couldn't get it to work with the way I had to do movement code with this project. It is one of the upgrades I am going to be making once the event is fully concluded. Thanks for playing!

It was a really fun concept, but I think the game was a little bit of a grind.

Great idea for this theme. I love this type of meta-level "start with nothing" and all game elements need to be upgraded. High level upgrades cost too many coins and I have to beat the level again and again with very similar experience.

I really like the upgrade system here, everything feels about perfectly spaced, though sometimes like, say, getting a new sound effect and then not even encountering what you got can feel a little disappointing. Still, i really appreciate how all-in this goes on the "Start with Nothing" concept. Great work!

nice concept and great style

This is the best game I've ever played. It fits the theme perfectly.

Major props for taking the theme to the EXTREME! I thought the 40 price tag for Controls was a bit high. Otherwise I really enjoyed it!

damn, got to lvl 3 several times but only manged to do the double bird jump once i was soooo close to complete it i think...... omg that jump is to cruel T_T i would have continued and complete it but i upgraded the player upgrade that costs 0 coins, and the game crashed sadly, so no way that im doing all that again. ill give you 5 star for the theme for this. realy realy gj. :dog: :dog: :dog: :dog: :dog: :dog: :dog: :dog: :dog: :dog:

This was very interesting to play, especially in the beginning when every little change had major gameplay implications. It reminded me quite a bit of the "Upgrade Complete" flash games I played back in the day.

At some point the BGM (which I believe was made with Abundant Music, right? ^^) started playing over itself without ever stopping again which made it unlistenable but until then it was very enjoyable.

I wonder how far you could take this project if you had more time. It's already super impressive that you got so much gameplay out of such a short dev time. Congratulations!

@bip I did run out of time for the endgame balancing. Next time I am going to set aside more time for that stuff for sure.

@cirno The two main things I would change are for sure the balancing and introducing the quick play coins a bit earlier. I have found most people stop just before then.

@shugor Thanks for playing! If I had the time I probably would have moved some of the upgrade sounds around for sure. I think for example the enemy death sound is the first and I think I would move it so it was after player death and the coin sound if I was to redo this.

@alphapolygon Thanks! Appreciate you taking the time to play :)

@mantou Thank you for the kind words. Glad you enjoyed it!

@scott-steffes I think that is mostly a problem with how easy it is to miss things in the upgrade system. The first upgrade for movement is much cheaper. The one to go left is 40. But many people missed the fact they already bought the ability to move right so in the future I will have to design my store so its much clearer. Thanks for playing!

@lombax Ah I must have an extra upgrade in there that shouldn't exist. I thought I had tested them all. Ye the double bird jump is pretty hard. I wanted to have more levels so that the curve wasn't so steep but ran out of time. So basically that level would have been the hardest one after much more time to build up your skills. Thanks for the rating and for the time you spent playing!

@yaen Thanks I appreciate that. I think the BGM issue is linked with the quick play coins. Forgot to stop/check if the music was already playing for that case. It was abundant music yes. I have no talent for music but that program was pretty impressive. Just noticed I forgot to update my info to show that so I am doing that right now. I love old flash games and I will openly admit that's where I get a lot of inspiration for all my game jam games. Thanks for playing!

@thevideogamester yeah Abundant music is awesome. Very powerful composition tool. It's interesting how easy it is to identify its musical style though if you already know the program :)

I'm glad that we're in agreement that the flash game era was an amazing time for innovation in games. It feels like whenever someone tells me about their new game idea, I can send them a link to a flash game that did this or something similar years ago, haha :D

@yaen Honestly some of the most interesting and unique games I have played have been flash games. At some point I would love to do an in-depth analysis to find why it had such a strong culture of quirky and unique experiences. Harder to find things like that now. I have some theories as to why but need to actually see if any of them are valid.

perfectly fit tho the theme, i was always looking forward for new stock in the shop.
really funny concept

@manimal Thank you! Appreciate you taking the time to give it a play. I enjoyed putting it together so its nice to see people generally enjoy it aside from a few issues I will have to fix after this is all over.

I thought I can finish the game but I have been playing for so long and there is still more and more to buy! got some decent graphics now! :D never got past the double bird jump in level 3. This was so addictive I had a hard time closing the game.

@stickygames Thanks for playing! Ye the double bird jump is the hardest spot in the game. There are two strategies to it. You can bounce from one to the other or hit both at once giving you a massive jump boost. If you do the first its difficult timing wise but you have a lot longer to dodge the fire ball. If you do the second clearing the gap is simple but you have just enough time to dodge the fireball. Since the plan was a rage game it may be my favorite bit of design for the game. The plan was for upgrades to make it easier eventually but that got scrapped due to time crunch. Glad you enjoyed it!

Way too much grind imo! I think I would multiply all the coins values by like, 10 I think :)

I got up to level 2, that's as far as I made it. Maybe there would be a better way to tweak the game so it wasn't as repetitive...

@jezzamon Sadly I ran out of time while I was balancing which is why the second half seems less balanced. I did have plans for coin combos but only got the higher pitch sound in. As for the repetitive that is mostly because my system to handle that, quickplay coins, is introduced just after the point most people stop playing. When I do a fixed version after this is all over that will be one of the major fixes as well as a few extra levels. Thanks for playing! This being the first time I have done a solo jam or a jam less than a week has been interesting so I will for sure in the future set aside more time for balancing.

That's a clever spin on the theme! Idea is executed very well too. The only thing I'd like to comment on, is that progression is too slow, and the game becomes very repetitive

@quadape That is one thing I plan on fixing after this all is over when I do my post-mortem build. Next time I will be putting more time aside for balancing as well.

Cool concept, with theme interpretation really nice!
But it's some unclear how to even play and get scores (money) ;D Because you can't recognize your character (as I got later should be also bought ;D).
Maybe you need to do some very basic tutorial (although... maybe not, is's indeed feature of game ;D)

General very good idea and fun game!
(Also liked world destroying by fire ;P)