Fun entry! Had a great time working out the mathematically best way to place everything around the world. I really like how you can leave the summoning area and find random items around to help you. Great stuff! :smile:

Cool style, love the music and the whole mood with the little talking sound and animation. Fun game to play around with!

First off, the writing, art, and choice of music all did a great job of selling the feeling of a lighthearted world where this apparently affordable-and-socially-acceptable summoning service is the norm. I tend to let the flavor my games get the axe while staying fixated on mechanics or technical issues, so I extra appreciate when it's done well.

The puzzles were fun, and the environments for them were designed in interesting ways. I liked a room I encountered where the starting circle was completely covered with carpet, for example. It was fun discovering what new items existed too. I really liked the kinds of emergent strategies that came with the glass chess pieces, and I liked the different "variations on a core mechanic" thing you had going on with all of the different item re-skins. I didn't end up interacting with the items that involved destroying other items, but that whole idea seems cool too.

Oh, maybe having different classifications of items being popular / morally acceptable in different regions could be a fun way to push more variety in an expanded version of the game. Like, this place is cool with animal sacrifice, this place doesn't like fire (no candles!) etc. And the summoner might have to dress the regionally-appropriate part for the role. It's fun to imagine stuff like this, which really speaks to the strength of the concept.

Big point of feedback - for the sake of the jam, I think the mode of interaction (tile-based movement, lifting and dropping items) was a really good idea. I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of SokoMaker, but I imagine that it helped set up those fundamental pieces more quickly so you could focus on your specialized gameplay logic, creating different environments, writing witty dialogue, etc. etc. (the scope of stuff you put together in the limited time frame of the jam is definitely impressive!)

In practice, though, I think the character's movement was a little clunky, and the time spent shuffling items around rooms didn't engage me too much. The initial exploration was fun, and the surprise of what I could find in each room was nice, but I spent the whole time walking items back-and-forth wishing I could get to the puzzle - which was reliably a lot fun! - sooner.

Maybe there's something to be said for "distance makes the heart grow fonder" as I wandered around people's basement halls wishing for the summoning to start, but I'd be interested to see what this game would look like with mouse control for direct pick-up-and-drop gameplay. Or maybe an inventory of items that we can store / retrieve many items from would be cool, if you prefer direct character control. I know these things aren't really feasible in the space of the jam, but if you plan on giving the game more time (and the concept and execution convinces me it'd be a good idea) I'd love to see how those alternate modes of play would work.

Secondary thought - the semi-randomized nature of the levels makes the sting of defeat a bit painful, especially if you end up just short of your goal due to a miscalculation (or an incorrect description - looking at you, cupcake candle!). Maybe a sort of gradient of success: failure/mixed success/great success could be a nice way to give a player extra-high goals to shoot for while still rewarding a near miss. It's not really necessary (and maybe the feeling of a close loss is what drives the excitement of the summoning ritual) but it might be worth playtesting if you've got extra time.

Alrighty, I've almost certainly rambled for far too long about everything. Again, awesome work on the game! It was fun from start to finish and I'm glad I got a chance to play it.

@lectvs Thanks! The random items around wasn't in the original premise but after having them in testing it just felt like the way to go, would have loved to have more randomization with that!

@brandsma I'm a big fan of the talking blips! A nice think of SokoMaker is its robust dialogue display system! I should have made more use of the colored text ability...

@doctor-zeus Oh wow so many great ideas! I dig the expanded scoring mechanics, if we move forward with the game that's definitely something I'd like to explore. Originally we had thought about making silhouette summons and requiring specific items to get the right ones, but that was one of the many things that didn't make it in.

Oh I didn't even notice cupcake description was off :cold_sweat: - didn't have a lot of time for testing as I was going head down on content mode with all the art / levels / random content!

we did actually think about adding mouse support to SokoMaker, but after getting the basics of carrying and dropping items decided to go with what was already supported. There's definitely a lot of trade offs there, but I agree an inventory system would be nice to have! I think that's the way I would go so you don't have to keep carrying stuff downstairs then go back to pick up another item. Also I think having mouse control of items from inventory to summon area would be nice! So you could still carry and drop stuff the same way, but also supporting alternative mouse dragging items around would be great.

We had considered making the randomization much more roguelike with some inspirations from balatro in being a scoring based puzzle game that resets if you fail.... but that was scrapped for time constraints. I do think it could be an interesting flow of trying to get a high score run with more randomization and balancing of course!

I have to agree with @brandsma i really love the mood and audio of this game.

Fun game. Would buy it!

Very special game. Hit the theme very well. The art was fitting except all the people on cocain. :D And the movement was a bit clunky. But that aside finally some large clean Text. I really dislike all this super small text on my whd. But the game was also super fun. Great idea with a nice story and funny ending. Although the balancing is a bit of. But thats not an issue for a game made in 72h. The learning curve was there and it was fun to hit the high numbers. A pitty the highest Contract is only measly 400 Points. :D
And why are potatoes not for summoning - demons have no taste... or should I just have tried it... who knows. :D Nevertheless great work guys! I enjoyed it very much.

Maybe the best one I've played so far! Incredible that this was finished on time as part of a game jam! Truly far more polished than the majority of games from jams, and really fun! I've played this way longer than most.

I loved this game! At first I was quite lost but then I got to understand how pieces interacted with each other.

The presence of theme is clearly not only on the visual identity but also on the puzzle's logic itself, as nexuses (nexi?) form a center of focus which can be further disturbed by asymmetries in the scenario.

I also enjoyed how not only there are many different pieces, but how you can find them through exploration. There's some real space there for further development.

Overall, visuals, audio, all great! Really good job, keep on.

Good job on the art, music and idea, great job! Not clear what to do at first, not easy to figure out the mechanics. A bit of a complicated game, but I still enjoyed it!

This was really relaxing and engaging to play. Music was whimsical, and fit very well. I like casual writing in games, and yours flowed very well. The puzzles were interesting if a bit too easy. I enjoyed the choice you made to encourage exploration with curiosity. It felt very natural and rewarding to explore the connected rooms. Was there a way to pick up the objects that were on the tables, maybe I missed something. that potato. The movement felt a little clunky at times, but it didn't get in the way. Mostly I kept forgetting what items did and had to go to the book so many times. I think it would be better if you had a pop up when you are next to the item, maybe with a toggle. Otherwise it was an exceptionally pleasant, and enjoyable experience. Luudum Daarey solutes you!