Play the game in fullscreen at itch.io

What a great story! I really loved the cutscenes :heartbeat:

Phenomenal art, and the puzzles were really fun! I'd love to see this fleshed out into a bigger project. Good luck!

Amazing game! Some would even say, the best! ;) <3

Wow, amazing art. Gameplay is fun, and everything feels polished

This is SO good. The graphics pulled me in, and then once I clocked the gameplay I realized it was basically Picross Story Mode. I'm super impressed by all of it and could absolutely see this as a puzzle-a-day mobile game (perhaps with a story told over time) that I think people would love. Really, really well done.

i like how you added that little bit of story inbetween the puzzles.

Yo, the intro cutscene immediately sucked me in - your art is great! This is an incredible amount of work for a compo entry.

Building up each piece as you progress though the levels was satisfying.

I ended up getting stuck after getting the snake piece and couldn't progress. It would be nice to be able to cheat with a level select just for the jam, because I really would like to see the rest of the cutscenes and other levels.

Great job!

Really impressed with the graphics, the game felt super immersive. A small nitpick might be that there could be some feedback or some highlight for the numbers on the side of the grid represents how close you are to meeting the cell fill requirements for the respective row or column, besides when you reach or exceed the target. Super fun game all-round, nice work!

Hi! just amazing, will keep playing.

As someone who is _terrible_ at puzzle games, the gorgeous art and cute story kept me going through a couple that I really struggled with. But I rescued Klara! There was funny, there was heartwarming, and it was all told in such a unique (and extremely polished) way. No notes, well fucking done! :tada:

Thank you so much for the wonderful and encouraging comments! I'm still exhausted from the compo, but was so uplifted by the kind words.

@mrwarranty I'm glad you liked the game! I love Picross, so I'm happy you made that comparison. Thank you for the encouragement

@andrewkennedy Thank you for the feedback! You're right that the game needs some kind of help system. For now, I've uploaded puzzle solutions to the description. I hope that will help players that get stuck.

@inidal-dev That's a good idea, thank you! It's great getting suggestions on how to improve the readability of the puzzles. It's the kind of things that I find so hard to come up with myself, so I really appreciate it.

@bloodyaugust You're very kind! Sorry if I made the puzzles a bit to hard, and thanks for the patience! I'm very glad you liked the game and that you got through all the puzzles in the end :heart:

I've added solutions to the description of the game to help future players.

This is great! The dialog was a little... tired, i guess. But the art is beautiful. I had a great time with the puzzles. Normally I don't play so many levels them I'm rating games lmao

Wow, this is my favorite game of the jam so far! Incredible art, the figures on the puzzle pieces is a great touch. Sound effects are so utterly perfect. Cozy but challenging and fun!

Great art, great mood, the puzzles were interesting and not too difficult!
I also liked how the story evolved, very wholesome and well narrated.

Super storytelling game ! really love the mood here, the puzzles are simple yet entertaining, and I love the summoning animation. Really enjoyed it !

A new take on the Japanese puzzle. I like it!

Wow, this art is amazing, especially the cutscenes! The puzzles are nice and chill, which fits the mood set by the design and the music. Extra points for the mouth-sound-effects. Loved it!

You are really great! The game turned out great!

Wow I loved this! The art the music the story it all meshed so well together! The way the pieces fit together was great! For my liking it could have been a little bit harder but you made more than up for it with the story and the characters. That they fit together perfectly in the end and that the button said go home really pulled at my heartstrings. Really really great job, thank you for this experience!

I absolutely adore your art design and thoroughly enjoy the story you've brought to life. (I also have a strong desire to write stories in games, but unfortunately, my other team members have strictly put a stop to it since I tend to be quite verbose:D)
As a fan of puzzle games, I can tell that you've meticulously crafted your puzzles, striking a balance that's challenging yet maintains a sense of ease and fun. It's no easy feat, and I truly appreciate all the effort you've put into it. You deserve attention.

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If you have the time and energy, would you mind taking a look at my friends' games (not mine)? They've helped me a lot in the past, and I'd like to return the favor. Here's the link:[https://ldj.am/$385805](https://ldj.am/$385805)

Great art！The puzzles are not difficult but need some thinking.Just The story is simple but lovely!Good job

@tamara188 I find writing dialogue really difficult so I see what you mean.
I guess it's not surprising, since it's something I don't really practice outside of the occasional game jam.
I think it would be a thing for me to try and improve on for the future, thanks for bringing it up.
And thank you for playing and leaving a nice comment!

@srslie @ghettobastler Haha, I felt a bit silly recording the sound effects, but I'm glad they landed right with you :smile:

@domenixius Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate it. I was very flattered and encouraged by your comment. I'm glad you enjoyed the game!

@drgcandle Thanks a lot! I get what you mean, it's very easy to get carried away and write too much :laughing: .
I think that I get especially rambly when I'm short on time for some reason. Writing shorter takes longer for me I guess :P
I hope you will be able to find a nice balance with your team mates, where you get to tell the stories you want :)
Oh, and I'll have a look at the game you linked! It's very nice of you to promote the game your friends made.

Absolutely brilliant game. The art is great, the sounds and story are adorable and overall vibe is very well put together and very stylish. The puzzles might have been a bit easy, but I like the fact that it doesn't take too long to figure out, pretty intuitive.

Super game. Really great realisation in such a short time. Also very humorous and the sound effects were great :D
I also find the difficulty level very balanced.

Oh I adore this one.

Everything from the graphics to audio felt very nice and polished, especially for compo.
Usually my brain gets tired after two or three of this kind of puzzles, but thankfully it never reached the level of complexity where I just tune out and quit.

Also, I really like how the final puzzle has the group of friends form a solid block, fits thematically, even if it was due to time constrains.

Really cool effect for the main menu! I played a few levels myself and watched whole playthrough on Tobugis's stream. That's such an impressive entry for compo! I love all the cutscenes, and music, and art is fantastic. Also it's nice how I can try fitting the characters on the board however long I want to, with no punishment for wrong placement.
I noticed there is an opportunity to "cheat" the placement, not sure if that should be allowed by code?


As you can see, these two overlap.

Overall, that was such a good entry and I am happy I got to learn about it ^^

Art is really great, the summoning animation especially make the cutscenes dynamic. The game overall feels really complete and polished. Great mouth made sound effects, it does the job. While I didn't find the puzzle mechanic to be amazingly fun, it's still pleasing and relaxing, which is easely good enough for a compo game.

I have nothing to say, everything was perfect !

Wow, thank you all so much for the nice comments!

@kanity Thank you! Nice to hear you caught the game on stream. I had a great time watching Bu and Togis play it :smile: I see what you mean regarding the overlapping squares, thanks for pointing it out! I wasn't sure what to do but I decided to allow them, since I think it helps make it easier to move pieced around. I don't think it can be used to cheat ny of the puzzles, so I figured it was good to allow it as a temporary state. I see now that it might be a bit confusing and perhaps there should have been a better visual indication. Thanks for the feedback!

@pierre-cilluffo haha, that's amazing, thank you! :laughing:

Strongly great puzzle game with a really well-balanced difficulty (removing the red demon made me laugh a lot :laughing: ). Enough number of levels to taste the whole concept but nerver boring.

A perfect mood, art and music, Plus with cutscenes too :scream: ... CUTSCENES for a compo!!!

This isn't the first time I've tried your games. I would love to know your artistic stack, The style with solid fills, do you use a purely vector-based software and for animation as well?

Thank you @aune! That's very kind!
Haha, I'm glad you liked the super clumsy way I got rid of the demon :P I didn't want too many characters in the puzzles at once. :laughing:

Regarding the art, I made my own little drawing tool a few years ago. I think it was for LD 50.
I built the tool quick and dirty just as a proof of concept, but I liked working with it so much that I have kept using it since.

It's very simple and it works by generating polygon meshes. So each stroke I make when painting gets triangulated and rendered using opengl.
There are hardly any features in the tool, but that means I don't spend too much time worrying about details. I'm restricted to using a small palette and only flat shaded shapes.

Also, the tool is built so that I can draw stuff directly in the game while it is running. Being able to see things in context is great, and I don't have to fuzz around with exporting files between different applications.


Recently, I've added the option to use a texture on the sprites. So the first thing I did this jam was paint a full sheet of granulating watercolor, photographed it and used that as the texture. I think it helps make the flat shapes a bit softer, and ties everything together a bit. But again, it's super limited. I can only have a single texture, and it's applied to everything.

I love the textures and dithering you use for your drawings by the way! It's such a cool (and inspiring) style.

Thanks @vidarn for all this explanation.

A creator developing their own custom tool for creation is truly inspiring. Drawing inside a game is definitely the perfect feature. You skip all the pipeline from screenshot to Photoshop to PNG to engine resources, then to the game to test your resources; that's really smart.

I agree about the use of grainy texture. It aids in understanding the scene, even if for now, I can't perfectly explain why. I would say it's like a clue for the eye


Thanks for the dithering, we thought it added to the dirtiness of the game ambiance.

Thanks @vidarn for all this explanation.

A creator developing their own custom tool for creation is truly inspiring. Drawing inside a game is definitely the perfect feature. You skip all the pipeline from screenshot to Photoshop to PNG to engine resources, then to the game to test your resources; that's really smart.

I agree about the use of grainy texture. It aids in understanding the scene, even if for now, I can't perfectly explain why. I would say it's like a clue for the eye


Thanks for the dithering, we thought it added to the dirtiness of the game ambiance.

Thanks @vidarn for all this explanation.

A creator developing their own custom tool for creation is truly inspiring. Drawing inside a game is definitely the perfect feature. You skip all the pipeline from screenshot to Photoshop to PNG to engine resources, then to the game to test your resources; that's really smart.

I agree about the use of grainy texture. It aids in understanding the scene, even if for now, I can't perfectly explain why. I would say it's like a clue for the eye


Thanks for the dithering, we thought it added to the dirtiness of the game ambiance.

Love this! Super cute, loved the graphics and the sound effects. Really great entry!