MACHINE. WAKE UP.

Very fun and long experience. The progression and power ups were welle designed and impplemented, and the feedbacks are very satisfying. Great job.

This is f*great. Red jam fountain and reflection makes this crazy good. Check out my game :)

The only problem I had was with the jumping, especially when it was wall jumping, but for the rest, DAMN this was a lot of fun. The core mechanic reminded me of the Ultrakill coin, and each scenario is refreshing with the addition of mechanics. I really liked.

@adhemar I'm glad somebody picked up on the Ultrakill inspiration, one of my favorite games at the moment.

@rufson Thanks for the feedback man :D Will make sure to add your game to the list.

@julien-darras Thanks man, I tried to put a bit of time into tweaking variables to make feedback feel fluid, so I'm glad you appreciated it.

Just such an amazing looking game, all the effects and graphics make it feel so punchy to play. The blood effects are amazing and funny, great progression as well through the game

@albyk Thank you, glad you liked it :D

Uhh... it was amazing! I enjoyed it all the way.. Graphics looking fine as hell! An awesome game you created.
It kinda gave me Hotline Miami Vibes but in a good way :heart:

@lucy-lu thanks! I really enjoyed your game as well :D

its soooo good obviously graphics and animations look 100% polished but mechanics are great as well.. those headshots, akimbo pistols, breaking glass all are very enjoyable. I'll look forward to see more from you

Really cool gameplay and mood! I love the music and the "Huh!" sfx of the character when he jumps!
I don't think i completely understood the core mechanic

Really well done!

@dangribanovsky Thank you! Really appreciate it. :D

@bomb-x Thank you for the feedback :D

Looks pretty badass.

@roelosaurus Haha thanks :D

Pretty graphics, the lighting and particles are also well done. Reminds of those browser-games I used to play when I was young

Great game

What a badass stuff I just experienced lol! Congratz on a great project! Very enjoyable :)

I am impressed by the game, it is amazingly done, the atmosphere, the gameplay, the feedback, the powerups, the length of it, the music and SE, the original take with the theme the tutorial.

Terrific work there, well played.
The only downside i had was that it took me some time to understand the powerup system, but it was fine..
Also can we kill the boss? he's so fucking tanky lol

This game was a lot of fun to play. Great graphics! Good job!

Bloody retro pixels, well I'm in! The moment the music kicked in was magic, but I feel the music was not very fitting (was expecting more doom-like). Dying takes you back quite a bit though, that might be a bit off-putting. The gore and dismemberment are gorgeous, and controls are smooth - an excellent emotional release game! Great job.

@zet Thanks! Glad you picked up on the mix of modern pixel art and nostalgic flash game aesthetic I was going for :smile:

@varundevs Thanks!

@happ Thanks for playing :)

@magic-mike Thanks for the great feedback! Glad you enjoyed it.

I might release a post jam update tomorrow to balance the boss, but my strategy is to aim for the head and run to a safe place to heal. Once you get the final powerup your core is immune to damage from the walls, so feel free to spam it inside those crate holes. :sweat_smile:

Can't believe you don't have more ratings/feedback yet. Interesting core ejections mechanic, and so many other mechanics as well. Awesome gamefeel. Solid art/visual effects. Excellent work! The only real issue I had was I had a difficult time reading the text in the top left, so it was hard for me to know when to eject the core sometimes. Not sure if this had something to do with the scaling or the shaders you used or some interaction or if it's just intended behavior. Anyway, other than that, I had a blast.

@polymathld Appreciate the feedback! Another way to tell the stability of your core is too see how much fire is emitting from the core itself. :thumbsup:

Reminds me of superhot a bit, shooting enemies is very fun, got some cinematic kills and headshots, graphics fit the mood of the game, and the level design is really something else. After getting immune to ground equip I jumped of some building and my guy never landed or died.

Realy nice made game. And very polished. Only small detail i had, was a lot of jittering of the player. But the game makes a lot of fun

@digitaldude555 Thanks! The immune to ground powerup is actually for the core eject, so when the core hits the ground it doesn't get damaged.

@devundead Thanks for the feedback, I tried getting the player as smooth as possible but it is quite hard with a pixel perfect camera setup.

awesome ! very nice weapon handling and effects! got stuck at the end of the containers and always fell down into the water. will try again later there must be a way :) good job on this one!

@truedat you can shoot the glass :D

I really enjoyed it, super smooth and satisfying gameplay with pleasing pixel art, a perfect action combo, great job overall congrats!

Just wow, i really love it

@mlkvr Thank you!

@mehdi-sabki Thanks, appreciate it :)

A very polish game with amazing details and vfx. Sometimes the camera jitters a little bit when moving. I think the overheating core is pretty interesting but I figured I can just spam shift to toss my core out so it wouldn't overheated. Maybe make the enemy target your core when it's tossed out so player needs to manage the risks? Overall, it's 10/10 good game. Well done :))

This game is amazing. All the graphics and everything is just really really cool.

It is an amazing game, I bet it is one of the best in ld49

Awesome entry! I really liked pixel art with proper pixel rotation. The audio is nice as well. Had a lot of fun playing it, great job! :grin:

This is nice i like the gamefeel but i'm not sure that I correctly understood the overheat mechanic, seems more like a constrain than something fun. Still the grusome look and the nonstop action made me really have a good time. Nice work !

Thumping good music - perfect with the feel of the game!
I must admit I really struggled with the wall-jumping, but otherwise really polished game!
Hilarious amounts of blood :p

@daivyishere I actually like that idea of yours that enemies should target the core, but i’d like to save it for a new enemy type i plan to add in future updates that are more intelligent and understand what the core is. I like to think of the Hazzies as pretty braindead I guess lol.

@preda Thank you so much :D

@alexyam Thats really great to hear, thanks for the kind words :)

@stefan-jovanovic Thank you for playing :D

@namnam Thanks for the feedback, I think in a future update I will attempt to explain the core better in the tutorial. :slight_smile:

@jane-wei I was originally going to lower the blood spawn rates but there was basically zero performance impacts and was pretty funny to see an entire area covered in red from just a few enemies. I decided to add a slider in the settings just in case though hahaha. Thanks for playing :D

I really like this game. The experience is fun and fluid. This platform style with mouse point and shoot are really cool, reminds me of Abuse. And i really digged that game.

The pixelated graphics are particularly nice, creating a nice ambience.

My only complain is that there isn't enough blood.

Excellent job on this entry.

Very cool. I did get stuck due to the long distance between checkpoints, but it does seem like it's just barely doable if I was better at games.

@derek-volker I've never played Abuse, I'll have to give it a try. Thanks for playing :)

@senevri There is one fairly long stretch between the autofire checkpoint and the next one, so I might add a new powerup somewhere between there in a post-jam update :D

I'm very torn on this game. On one hand, it looks, feels and sounds GREAT. And I mean REALLY, REALLY GREAT. The game feel is crunchy as hell and the mechanics all gel well together. The bullet reflect mechanic is one of the best things in this. The inspirations from My Friend Pedro are clear, and that game is awesome.

On the other hand... well, I really, really don't like the level design. Usually that's not something that bothers me, but there were some bits in which the player has to fall down in a complete leap of faith because the camera doesn't reach that low, and some others where I got stuck or didn't know where to go. That was really frustrating.

Still, that didn't ruin the game by any stretch, but it did sour it nonetheless. It's a great game with a big flaw - and considering it's a jam, that still makes for a damn good experience.

@MasterProject Thanks for the feedback :) I agree that those leaps of faith are annoying and i’m currently working on a post jam update that fixes these issues, along with flattening parts of the occasionally confusing layout to make it more apparent that moving right is 9 out of 10 times the correct strategy. Glad you enjoyed the other aspects and really appreciate the detailed feedback.

Really liked the game a lot as well as all the post processing the glows on all the effects really added a lot. nice work

@elbidev Thanks!

A very cool and fun game. It's great to parkour and kill enemies while jumping. Good job

IS realy cool game oveeall , i like audio and graphics

@kenforest Thank you, i’m glad you enjoyed :)

@as-you-like-101 Thank you :)

Really stunning, especially visually, and also a lot of fun to experiment with gameplay elements like shooting the core. What bothered me a bit was constantly having to press shift all the time to heal myself, I don't think that part added much to the experience and distracted me from the excellent shooter gameplay. Also, wall jumping could have been a bit smoother. But that's just nitpicking af course, considering you made this in 48 hours. All in all, a very impressive effort!

This is awesome! The shooting is very satisfying. Movement feels good. The ambience and music create great mood for the game.

I see the idea behind exposing the core, although it doesn't strike me as a great idea. Basically what I ended up doing was spamming shift to eject and reinsert the core inside the machine. It felt way too repetitive. If there was some mechanic boosting the player to eject the core, that would make the game epic! :slight_smile:

In the second level I fell under the level and was unable to get back. It felt very weird. :slight_frown:

Your game was very fun to play and I would love to see what this could be, should you invest more time into it. :thumbsup:

This feels like it has a very old-school design aesthetic, from a day and age where developers kind of just implemented whatever "kool" mechanics they thought of without being quite as concerned with a narrow cohesive vision. Not a good or a bad thing, just a vibe!

That last boss sure was tanky, I honestly thought it was invincible at first. All the other ones were basically balloons full of blood, maybe that's why they took many less shots to kill xD

@future-labs-unlimited Thanks for the feedback! I'm working on a post-jam update and one of the values i've tweaked is the base core healing speed to avoid the shift spam.

Hey thanks for the super in-depth feedbacl :D I'm glad you enjoyed most aspects of the game, and I do agree that the core can be annoying which is why in the post-jam update I've added a faster core heal speed as well as a "core grapple" powerup to add a bit of extra usage to the core (as well as getting some super cool airborne kills). As with the bug with falling out of the second level, could I ask how it happened? Did it occur when you respawned after a death, because currently my only guess is one of the checkpoints triggered strangely. Thanks again for the awesome feedback :smile:

@sprotex That reply above was meant for you sorry :)

@ddrkirbyisq Thanks for playing! You are correct as my development strategy throughout making this game was basically "It would feel badass if I could do X to kill Y". Cheers for the review :)

I have to agree with pretty much everything said here! The graphics, effects and sounds fit so well together, everything felt polished in a weird, edgy way. The level from autofire onwards was a way too long stretch without checkpoints, walking all the way to where you died got somewhat tiring. Didn't get further than that though, once I got to the place where there's five-ish guys in a cluster, the game got super slow and laggy until it just stopped responding.

Overall a really, really nice game, definitely one of my favourites so far. Bonus points for **not** just rotating the character's arms' sprites when aiming, nothing looks uglier than rotated pixel graphics :wink: If you ever decide to expand on this and release a full game, I'm going to buy it without hesitation!

Oh and one tiny issue, the HUD was scrambled and unreadable on my screen. Thought that it was part of the unstable theme until I saw your screenshots, I'm guessing it's because of playing on a 4K resolution?

@junr Really appreciate the awesome feedback! I’m definitely planning on a full release because i’m so happy with how the game feels and looks, and have already planned the first half of the game, with what was made in 3 days being the first two levels (however i believe you missed out on the second level, due to the crash. Sorry about that). The post jam update is almost done and fixes a majority of the problems you mentioned, however i wasn’t aware that 4k resolutions were a problem, so i’ll have to add that to the list. I’m not too sure about the crashing issue however, was it because there was a large amount of blood on the screen? If so that should be fixed in the new update. Thanks again for the awesome feedback.

Lots of fun, love the tone and the overall style the core mechanic is a little tedious at times and I felt enemies just were a non-threat which kinda is a bit of a let down considering how strong the tone and feel comes off at the start. Overall a lot of fun to play though and I love this kind of ridiculous over the top action movie concept.

Great submission!

Wow, very cool game! I liked music and that pixel blood a lot :D

A bit missed animation for jumps and wall jumps, but that's ok.

Just an amazing game! It is so polished, I'm really impressed! Great graphics, great audio, great gameplay... just great :) Pretty descent job!

stunning visuals and great gameplay, loved the Ultrakill nod with the main mechanic !

Awesome! It has very good mechanics, is fun to play, and is visually well done.

@leokrechmer As an Australian the timezones don't mix well and I unfortunately wasn't able to tune into the stream when you were live, but I just gave the VOD a watch and really enjoyed your reaction. Thanks heaps for playing and enjoying :D

@llaumegui Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed the Ultrakill reference :smile:

@javicoder I'm glad you enjoyed playing :D Appreciate the feedback :smile:

@cakts can you reach me by any chance in discord? :) leokrechmer#7690

@leokrechmer sure, just sent you a request.

I played it yesterday, but did not have time to write the comment. So here I am now. Amazing job! The art style is awesome. The blood splashes looks so good. And the amount of in-game mechanics is astonishing. Not to mention excellent audio. 5 out of 5 for me!

@zimny11 Thank you! Really appreciate the great rating :D

The game was super fun to play! Loved the graphics, and mechanics were fun! Heres our game as you aske din your post :P https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/nekonovas-not-home

_Got 12934. :wink:_

Where to begin with this?

This game leaves me so conflicted. There's so many good things going for it: the graphics, while minimal, are still pretty slick with all the glitchy effects and particles, the audio fits great, the variety of mechanics is impressive for a game jam game, and you even got a boss fight in. Overall, it comes off as very polished (which is even more impressive given this is a 1-man submission).

However (you knew there would be a "however", didn't you? :stuck_out_tongue:), this game has a bit of an identity crisis. A lot of the elements scream "intense action run-and-gun", such as the bullet ricochet, the deathswap, and the grapple. But a lot of the map design rewards stealth and strategic planning over reckless action.

Often I was punished for charging ahead as I can barely see 10 feet to the right and shooting an enemy offscreen that is clearly shooting at me can sometimes be a fatal mistake (particularly during the car chase section) when you deathswap. This is probably easiest to resolve as you could simply zoom out further (when aiming the mouse close to the edge of the screen? Or just in general).

On top of that, the wall jump is super hit-or-miss (I think some grace frames when you swap left/right arrow keys would help avoid missed inputs) resulting in the occasional failed recovery when I misjudged a jump distance (prior to unlocking grapple), thus requiring me to take things slower as failure equals immediate restart to the previous section. Not sure what the best approach at rectifying that issue is, perhaps either an _"oops you fell, here's 1hp left and we'll bounce you high enough to recover from the missed jump"_ or simply more frequent checkpoints (not sure I'm a fan of the 2nd option, that seems to be part of the appeal of the game). Ledge grab may be another solution.

And compounding on all of that is the fact that a lot of the mechanics aren't really explored to their full potential. I know this is almost certainly due to time constraint, but I feel like I should mention it for completeness sake. I wish the grapple was one of the first things introduced since it's one of the mechanics that's both super practical _and_ really fun. On the other hand the core throwing ricochet makes for cool trick shots, but really can be disregarded aside from the fact that throwing the core regens HP. It would have also been a nice touch to have the core throwing have some callback in the boss fight (ex: a fight stage that has high walls so you have to ricochet from above) since it seems to be a _core_ (pun) part of the game.

On a lesser note, but still worth mentioning, the background colors and moving patterns behind the boss made it really hard to see the bullets which caught me off guard completely the first time. Simply making them like, blue or something would help that.

With all that being said, the game was fairly technically impressive with 2D reflections and the slick screen distortion transitions. As a fellow dev who's totally into that kinda thing, congrats, here's my official seal of "I like it :thumbsup:". :stuck_out_tongue:

If this was to be a full game, I definitely see potential with some of the rough edges polished out. One of the better entries I've played so far, despite all it's shortcomings, so well done, you got me to write a short essay lol.

Awesome graphics, the blood effect is very nice. Shooting feels great too.
The idea of ejecting your core is great, feels like a solid concept for a game.

@guitarbro Wow, super appreciative of this in-depth feedback. The level design and maybe even movement speed need to be tweaked to definitely embrace the "run and gun" feel I was going for, as the game originally started off as a stealth experience but the mechanics I kept adding were so enjoyably "badass 2012 action movie protagonist" that the game feel kept evolving. For a main release, I'd like to make the game flow nicer, but still keep that idea that you have to play stylish to play well. I'll experiment with some new camera zoom levels as I agree with you on that point as well.

I was brainstorming ideas for how to counter the occasional mishaps when the player falls into the water/road, and the idea of bouncing them up and removing 50-70ish hp feels like a good idea, however a ledge grab (if implemented well) could be good too. Of course for a full release each level will be loLS

@guitarbro Wow, super appreciative of this in-depth feedback. The level design and maybe even movement speed need to be tweaked to definitely embrace the "run and gun" feel I was going for, as the game originally started off as a stealth experience but the mechanics I kept adding were so enjoyably "badass 2012 action movie protagonist" that the game feel kept evolving. For a main release, I'd like to make the game flow nicer, but still keep that idea that you have to play stylish to play well. I'll experiment with some new camera zoom levels as I agree with you on that point as well.

I was brainstorming ideas for how to counter the occasional mishaps when the player falls into the water/road, and the idea of bouncing them up and removing 50-70ish hp feels like a good idea, however a ledge grab (if implemented well) could be good too. Of course for a full release each level will be loLS

@guitarbro Wow, super appreciative of this in-depth feedback. The level design and maybe even movement speed need to be tweaked to definitely embrace the "run and gun" feel I was going for, as the game originally started off as a stealth experience but the mechanics I kept adding were so enjoyably "badass 2012 action movie protagonist" that the game feel kept evolving. For a main release, I'd like to make the game flow nicer, but still keep that idea that you have to play stylish to play well. I'll experiment with some new camera zoom levels as I agree with you on that point as well.

I was brainstorming ideas for how to counter the occasional mishaps when the player falls into the water/road, and the idea of bouncing them up and removing 50-70ish hp feels like a good idea, however a ledge grab (if implemented well) could be good too. Of course for a full release each level will be loLS

@guitarbro Wow, super appreciative of this in-depth feedback. The level design and maybe even movement speed need to be tweaked to definitely embrace the "run and gun" feel I was going for, as the game originally started off as a stealth experience but the mechanics I kept adding were so enjoyably "badass 2012 action movie protagonist" that the game feel kept evolving. For a main release, I'd like to make the game flow nicer, but still keep that idea that you have to play stylish to play well. I'll experiment with some new camera zoom levels as I agree with you on that point as well.

I was brainstorming ideas for how to counter the occasional mishaps when the player falls into the water/road, and the idea of bouncing them up and removing 50-70ish hp feels like a good idea, however a ledge grab (if implemented well) could be good too. Of course for a full release each level will be loLS

@guitarbro Wow, super appreciative of this in-depth feedback. The level design and maybe even movement speed need to be tweaked to definitely embrace the "run and gun" feel I was going for, as the game originally started off as a stealth experience but the mechanics I kept adding were so enjoyably "badass 2012 action movie protagonist" that the game feel kept evolving. For a main release, I'd like to make the game flow nicer, but still keep that idea that you have to play stylish to play well. I'll experiment with some new camera zoom levels as I agree with you on that point as well.

I was brainstorming ideas for how to counter the occasional mishaps when the player falls into the water/road, and the idea of bouncing them up and removing 50-70ish hp feels like a good idea, however a ledge grab (if implemented well) could be good too. Of course for a full release each level will be loLS

@guitarbro Wow, super appreciative of this in-depth feedback. The level design and maybe even movement speed need to be tweaked to definitely embrace the "run and gun" feel I was going for, as the game originally started off as a stealth experience but the mechanics I kept adding were so enjoyably "badass 2012 action movie protagonist" that the game feel kept evolving. For a main release, I'd like to make the game flow nicer, but still keep that idea that you have to play stylish to play well. I'll experiment with some new camera zoom levels as I agree with you on that point as well.

I was brainstorming ideas for how to counter the occasional mishaps when the player falls into the water/road, and the idea of bouncing them up and removing 50-70ish hp feels like a good idea, however a ledge grab (if implemented well) could be good too. Of course for a full release each level will be loLS

@guitarbro Wow, super appreciative of this in-depth feedback. The level design and maybe even movement speed need to be tweaked to definitely embrace the "run and gun" feel I was going for, as the game originally started off as a stealth experience but the mechanics I kept adding were so enjoyably "badass 2012 action movie protagonist" that the game feel kept evolving. For a main release, I'd like to make the game flow nicer, but still keep that idea that you have to play stylish to play well. I'll experiment with some new camera zoom levels as I agree with you on that point as well.

I was brainstorming ideas for how to counter the occasional mishaps when the player falls into the water/road, and the idea of bouncing them up and removing 50-70ish hp feels like a good idea, however a ledge grab (if implemented well) could be good too. Of course for a full release each level will bLS

Holy heck the polish on this! So much feedback implemented for everything! Pretty incredible submission!! I loooooove shooters and this really scratches that itch for me, The visuals mannn omg, amazing!! I had strong ULTRAKILL vibes, especially with the shooting core mechanic which is a plus for me. Overall, I think with just a little tweaking with the balance and the mechanics, it can be a game I would totally pay for. Really great entry!!

@guitarbro Wow, super appreciative of this in-depth feedback. The level design and maybe even movement speed need to be tweaked to definitely embrace the "run and gun" feel I was going for, as the game originally started off as a stealth experience but the mechanics I kept adding were so enjoyably "badass 2012 action movie protagonist" that the game feel kept evolving. For a main release, I'd like to make the game flow nicer, but still keep that idea that you have to play stylish to play well. I'll experiment with some new camera zoom levels as I agree with you on that point as well.

I was brainstorming ideas for how to counter the occasional mishaps when the player falls into the water/road, and the idea of bouncing them up and removing 50-70ish hp feels like a good idea, however a ledge grab (if implemented well) could be good too. Of course for a full release each level will be loLS

@guitarbro Wow, super appreciative of this in-depth feedback. The level design and maybe even movement speed need to be tweaked to definitely embrace the "run and gun" feel I was going for, as the game originally started off as a stealth experience but the mechanics I kept adding were so enjoyably "badass 2012 action movie protagonist" that the game feel kept evolving. For a main release, I'd like to make the game flow nicer, but still keep that idea that you have to play stylish to play well. I'll experiment with some new camera zoom levels as I agree with you on that point as well.

I was brainstorming ideas for how to counter the occasional mishaps when the player falls into the water/road, and the idea of bouncing them up and removing 50-70ish hp feels like a good idea, however a ledge grab (if implemented well) could be good too. Of course for a full release each level will bLS

@cakts No problem, glad I could help and best of luck continuing the game! I think you'll do great.

Very good and well polished game. I liked that you actually put some effort into level design instead of just having the main mechanic be there. While playing I realized that the edges don't get cleared. As your game is made in Unity and I have no way of explaining this. Also it would be great if you shared source code


Wery beautiful, from the intro to the end. I really liked the graphic and the mood. I found it a little bit hard, especially in the beginning when I had to do all headshot or get insta killed. The ability that "teletransport" you on the enemy you kill was a bit annoying... I died a lot of times because of that ability. The last boss was surprisingly easy if compared with the rest of the game. Apart from that I feel that, with a bit of work, this could became a great game published on steam.

I don't know if it's a good score but in the end that's my result:

Wow, what an entry ! Were you alone for making it ? Because the amount of content is insane for a single person. And on top of that you made a very fun game ! Really appreciated the long experience, what I really loved with your game is effort on level design, and littles adds you give all along to your mechanics, that was sooo much appreciated ! And none of them makes the game too repetitive, too easy or too hard, that's well balanced. Art is sufficient for what it is, it works. Also musics was so involving, all of these created a vibe that reminded a lot of Hotline Miami. I played your two versions, and adds you made on the post-jam version makes the game better and better, always more (very simple pattern boss but it works so well with mechanics and makes it an hard but balanced fight !). You were smart to always add elements that are simple to operate with. In short, a fun and clever entry, BRAVO !

@pierre-morreel Thank you! I really appreciate the feedback :smile:. I did indeed do everything solo, which was a fair bit of work but I'm quite happy with what I made in only 3 days. I'm super glad you enjoyed :D

Insane quality game for a jam! Here is little grunt from me: I think kill-teleportation is kinda mean element)) It killed me many times without my own failure and makes me frustrating. Restoring HP via throwing your core is dubious, restoring over time would be more sensible. Saving before core swinging mechanic would be nice)) (as a full level implementing this mechanic, but i'm just too harsh for 72 hour work) Everything else is top-notch! I liked SUPER HOT atmosphere and overall feeling of game is awesome!

@runuchok Thanks for playing :D

A straight 5 stars game! So much fun and the polished level is insane. Extremely cool to play. Fantastic job！ Especially as a solo developer!

@dgspitzer Thank you! Really appreciate your kind feedback :)

It was great experience! Thank for the game! I like your level-design. So phenomenal!