Another incredible game by Wuzzy - The storyline is great, the assets and textures are great, and it has a unique feel that makes the game fascinating. The sounds are awesome. Although this doesn't compare with Glitch for me (which is my personal favorite Minetest mini-game at the time of writing), this is entirely different, focusing on defeating darkness with weapons, skills, and collectables.
The mechanics are pretty simple at first - find vases to get healing essence, and kill mobs to get shadow fragments, then upgrade at your local campfire. The strategy that works best seems to be running mad until you find a house with some amount of protection - then you can kill lots of mobs, gain shadow fragments, and upgrade at the nearby campfire. Unfortunately, I think this bypasses a lot of the fun of the game, which may have been geared more towards exploration, but it's often instead dodging mobs wildly and harvesting them in arbitrary ways. Light crystals are pretty rare, you've got to look for them hard! You need three of them to break the barrier which will eventually lead you to the boss. As the game progresses, it goes from a collecting game to a exploration game, looking for the answers and the boss, and exploring pretty amazing places (all the meanwhile dodging mobs). Once you've got most of the upgrades, you won't have so much trouble with the mobs, but you'll still have to run. The boss is super difficult, and it took me a few tries to defeat him. Keep yourself moving as much as possible and keep throwing light.
As for unexpectedness, I can't really say I was too surprised by anything in particular - Despite that, this is my personal pick for best game of the 2023 Game Jam, and I hope it wins, because it simply feels the most complete and polished of all the games, despite the mobs :-)
What if, instead of a mad scientist as the villain of a game, you had one as the developer?
Looking at the scope and design goals of this project, it feels like it really should have the "Joke / April Fools" tag. Looking at the actual execution, it becomes obvious that it really should not.
The Boom game, in particular, seems to be a complete software-rendered 3D game implemented in typescript, transpiled into Lua, and rendering to [png: texture modifiers; the fact that it actually runs at all on my laptop from 2012 is amazing. Bit's Battle demonstrates that it's not just pure tech demos that run in this environment, but games with actual gameplay and progression, albeit only a rudimentary amount as implemented so far.
To enjoy this "game" to the fullest, it helps for a player to understand the spectrum of games that have been created in Minetest, and understand how much this is abusing the game engine to make it possible. It feels like something in the same spirit as arbitrary code execution in NES games. Rather than being "immersed" in the experience, it sort of demands that you remember that this is all running inside Minetest. There's not a ton of depth and it won't keep you occupied for hours (especially if it crashes MT in a few minutes; I don't know where the "B" in "BOOM" comes from, but I know where the "OOM" does) but it's a spectacle worth witnessing.
Well-executed, with good variety, for a short game
This is a very balanced and well-executed game. It has a well-written story, variety of gameplay elements and areas, fits the theme, and seems to suffer from no major bugs or breakages.
The main annoyance I ran into, that made it hard to complete the game without resorting to cheating, is how unforgiving the parkour sections are, especially considering the level of movement jank in Minetest. It was hard to get my momentum correct client-side but lock in server-side, even with the short network path for singleplayer. Something like allowing you to set restart checkpoints by standing perfectly still for a few seconds would have been more fair, without sacrificing the challenge for people who want to speed through.
The projectile combat also felt a little sluggish, though this may just have been my bias coming from other games with faster-moving projectiles; given the movement speed of the enemies, it didn't feel unfair or anything. I didn't have enough health supplies for the boss fight, but apparently the only consequence for dying is injury to my pride, so you can still make it through even if you didn't plan well enough.
I didn't find the plot twist all that surprising, but the evolving gameplay supplied enough intrigue to keep me interested through it, and the story was at least not a distraction, and gave the gameplay a sense of structure and meaning.
Players should expect to need some patience for the parkour elements (especially with MT's imprecision) but the momentum-locking mechanic makes those still worth experiencing, and the game overall is enjoyable in a single sitting, and for replay value you can speed-run it.
Great concept, lots of potential, but questionable playability
I've been toying with the idea of a "video game without the video" for a while now, and it's great to see somebody actually attempt it. I love the ambition of the concept. It might just be a bit much to try to make it work as a sandbox game during a game jam timeframe.
Unfortunately, while a human has potentially dozens of senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, balance, body position, temperature, passage of time, etc) on a computer you mostly just get sight and sound, and losing sight is harder to compensate. Without a sense of balance or body position, it's hard to tell when I'm looking at the horizon, or when I just fell down a hole, or about how far. Without touch, I can't tell if the crunchy-sounding stuff I'm touching is sand, gravel, or dirt. The use of "synesthesia particles" is a pretty good way to translate at least some of the missing senses into the unused visual medium, but it really needs to expand to cover more senses. In particular, when I'm working without a sense of sight (reaching deep into a machine to find a broken part) I rely on touch, not just to sense obstacles, but feeling textures, shapes, temperatures. More missing senses need to be recreated in some way to know what it means when I poke something and it sounds like a drum.
I'm not sure I can recommend this to a player yet. It was a bit intriguing wandering around and getting lost in a cave but now I think I'm stuck. It definitely feels like a project whose development I want to get involved in, suggesting, experimenting with, or contributing some ways to recreate the missing senses ... but for those not developerly inclined, it's one I'd watch for future updates rather than expecting much right now. I'm definitely looking forward to when it reaches the tipping point where I can change my neutral review to a positive one.
Also, the "no sense of sight" game being one of the few to actually feature a gameplay video was entertaining.
This game has literally nothing to do except pushing a lever. But then there's this chat simulation... and it was so amusing, the game suddenly seemed to be well worth the time. Somehow, despite no gameplay, this is actually pretty fun. And the textures are great, IMO. I debated with myself whether I should really recommend a game with absolutely no gameplay that doesn't even feel like Minetest material, but this is simply the most amusing game I've seen in the Game Jams. Recommended - it won't take you long to win (or even lose :-) ), it's worth a download.
I... don't know what to do. I "looked" around, clicked on some nodes (also, the HUD is broken) and I guess there are secret things to find in the dark (I've also read the description now). But I can't find them nor I felt intrigued, so after 5 minutes I quit the game.
Fairly complete parkour/maze game, with a plot twist at the end!
You need to recover a crystal and bring it back to it's origin to light up the world again. This is a parkour/maze/combat game in one, which is easily finished, but it's a lot of fun to play and feels mostly complete. The gameplay and characters are pretty good and the music fit well. The plot twist at the end was very unexpected and caught me totally offguard - I only barely survived because I hadn't farmed the health powder enough earlier on, I just jumped over the ants many times. The wand is completely intuitive: The "Orange" function of the wand makes you glide in the vector that you are travelling in for a limited time, the "Blue" function gives you the ability to throw blue damage balls at enemies, and the "Green" function shrinks you. Once you get the hang of it, you can solve the levels somewhat proficiently: it does take some time to get used to it though. My main complaint would be that it felt a bit short - I completed it in 30 minutes, but it felt like it could use a few more levels that explain the theme better. For a short playthrough, this game is fantastic - recommended.
I appreciate how the author wanted to experiment but at the same time I wouldn't feel like recommending it either. It's basically chess with unexpected things happening on the board (e.g. pieces swapping), so your skill doesn't really matter much. I also think that games like chess work better through an UI rather than having an in-world representation with the player floating around to move the pieces
Its too random, the concept didnt have enough time to mature
It looks so good, but there is this huge problem: dominating part of gameplay is combat, the least polished part of the game. Mobs are not dangerous, they are annoying at best, mostly boring. It does feel like mobs are in the way of exploring, because of how basic and useless they are in comparison to how good environment looks. Shooting and hitting a target is not fun at all, does not feel rewarding at all. I would rather have either less enemies and more platformer stuff, or I would absolutely make the most dominating part of the gameplay the most fun
It started nicely with the introduction (albeit a bit too long) but then it immediately becomes frustrating with the wand mechanic. It's not intuitive, and starting from the begininning of the parkour area every time you fail doesn't help. I wasn't encouraged to continue after a few tries. Also, I don't understand how it fits the jam theme "unexpected"
The beginning is so dark I can't even see the vent I'm supposed to break through
Like, I can't play. I had to do /grantme all and noclip myself out of it to actually understand what was happening. Turning on as much as I could the brightness of my screen didn't help. If I can't move the first step in the game, I can't play the game; which is a huge problem.
The author was able to pull off an entire barebone OS, with not one, not two, but three games in 21 days. And one of those is in 3D (!) allowing multiple instances to run together (!!!). The vibe of this "OS" is definitely nostalgic, helped by the old machinery sound effect and the launching sequence.
You probably won't believe it until you try it, so make yourself a favour: download it and be ready to be mindblown (beware: if you're a modder, the mindblown effect is doubled, as you want to know how in the world the author was able to do what they did)
P.S.: I'm definitely keeping this one installed, I want to see what could bring in the future (but please add a game icon :P)
The only thing you can do is break the map. You can't even die if you fall outside the map, remaining stuck.
I get that this is unfinished (the author put a huge disclaimer here on CDB now that I notice) but it's not an excuse to avoid being reviewed for the jam. It's literally a small map where you spawn with a couple custom models; nothing else.
The game started nicely, you can definitely tell the author tried polishing the experience as much as he could. However, once the "real" gameplay starts, things start not fitting together anymore. Infinite monsters preventing you to explore in depth, dialogues being displayed whilst fighting, a grind mechanic that it almost feels like a chore (too many collectibles): after the first death I didn't feel encouraged to continue and see what was coming next, which is a pity.
Also, I don't understand what's the "unexpected" part ("unexpected" is the theme of the jam this game is competing in)
Considering this was made for a jam where the theme is "unexpected", I think this little trolling game is pleasantly coherent . Contrary to other trolling games that made it for the jam (also previous jams to be fair), this is actually curated. It's fun, stupid, soothing (the keyboard sound is basically ASMR) and the author is well aware they're not making an AAA game with several features, turning that into their strength. They prove that you don't have to develop something gargantuan to actually deliver a good game and that small things matter. Personally I prefer something that makes me chuckle multiple times and that lasts 5 minutes rather than a game that lasts two hours and that doesn't communicate much
Very cool operating system, but not a lot to do with it
There's simply not enough 'gameplay' for this to be worthwhile yet - the mini-games included are cool, but are repetitive and aren't going to keep you interested for very long.
Ideally, the ability to create programs and coding IN the operating system would make this a very entertaining game for computer geeks. But as it is now, it's basically a rad-looking interface that doesn't actually serve any purposes (except the mini-games maybe).
Side note: Digiline touchscreens from the digilines and digilinesplus mods can create a real operating system that can actually be modified by the client, if you work hard enough at it!
I can't give a negative vote because, if we consider the author had 3 weeks to make a game, this is definitely a solid concept. The core idea of time travelling is well executed, there is a good attention to details (music, graphics, NPCs to talk with), yet I find it very frustrating gameplay-wise. The only instructions are given by opening the inventory, and it requires an important amount of patience. I think that with some tweaks here and there it could become way more enjoyable. Chapeau for the 4D exploration :)
True that the bot is alternatively gifted, but that's totally ok, it was still fun because of unexpected swaps and what not. Maybe you can't plan too much like this, but its like having a new puzzle setup every few turns.
Seriously didn't expect that these mechanics which are basically game-breaking for chess will make for refreshing fun gameplay
Classic Tomb Raider in 4.5D, incredible concept, tolerable jank
A mix of maze exploration, gentle parkour, and puzzle solving gameplay in a world with free travel across more dimensions than you thought you were getting when you opened the box. On top of the 3 spatial dimensions, not only do you need to travel across time to navigate the citadel, but you need to change the past and create alternate timelines.
The gameplay is well executed, given how ambitious the idea was and the tight timeline. It's rough around the edges and there are minor bugs galore, but the core seems to be intact, and the gameplay is well thought out and reasonably balanced. The setting, storytelling, and atmosphere all work together well, and the plot twist fits the jam's "unexpected" theme, as does the surprising depth of mechanics.
To navigate the extra depth and complexity of the game, players will need to bring a measure of patience and keen perception. The deceptively small size of the game world in 3 dimensions hides a surprisingly intricate maze of paths across time and possibility. Expect to spend a lot of time looking for subtly hidden treasures, and trying to fit an image of the citadel superimposed across a handful of different eras in your mind.
Things that aren't obvious bugs but I'd still like to see include reducing immersion breaks (diagetic guidance, and the entire inventory screen is unnecessary), a bit richer in-world sound (footsteps! maybe voice acting...?) and some accessibility improvements (fixes for HUD/GUI and font scaling settings, translations).
I'm excited to hopefully see more developer attention on this game in the future, to clear away annoyances and distractions and add the shine and polish it deserves, and hopefully the community will rise to the occasion with play testing, bug reports, and pull requests.
This is not a game, and doesn't have any gameplay - but this could be a very interesting mod in the future if properly assembled!
Effectively, this is a proof of concept for dynamic mapgens, but there are only two choices for what is to happen to the mapgen, and a block modifier actively changes the world based on your choice. It's cool, but it's very useless.
If you're looking for a way to customize your world's biomes (among other things), try Josselin's mod Unilib. It's powerful, easy to modify, and supports (by containing) over 200 minetest mods.
As mentioned in Zughy's review, this is effectively a 3-step tutorial with some funny credits, and the textures aren't exactly glamorous either. As it is currently, it's not worth your time, other games will check wisdom better!
Didn't expect to see a Chess game in this year's Game Jam, that's for sure! This is the most polished chess implementation I've seen yet in minetest and proved to be a lot of fun. Normal chess rules are all here, unlike the other minetest implementations: en passant logic, three-fold repetition, and correct castling! Only one thing I didn't notice was the 50-move rule, but that's not really necessary in a minetest subgame. I would absolutely love to see a Fischer Chess implementation in this game (with proper castling) someday :) Multiplayer chess is pretty cool, but it really needs timers to be at it's full potential, since your opponent can just stall forever. I think it would improve the game a lot if that was added.
The bot itself is OK and interesting to play with, but it's not very smart and could use a lot of work: it is extremely materialistic, and simply can't see most checkmating attacks and pin attacks. It makes decent, solid moves in the opening, but if you set up a decent attack against it, you've basically won the game (Also, it always picks the same opening, which is a little dissapointing). It will usually always take material over a decent defense, which means that if you find tricks in the position, you're going to have a very high success rate. The bot also, most of the time, can't convert winning positions: even if the bot has many pawns and pieces and all you've got is a king, it still somehow manages to find a way to repeat moves and end in a draw. It can definitely win though - if there's a checkmate in immediate sight, it can usually find it.
The unexpected changes to the board were pretty awesome to play a game with, although they could use some highlighting, as I had to search the board for what happened many times. Maybe a 3 second highlighting of the affected pieces would improve the gameplay.
Overall, I really enjoyed this, and I think it's currently the best minetest has to offer in terms of chess.
Saving the world doesn't require solving the puzzles, sadly
I can't bring myself to give this a positive recommendation, despite how much I like the assets and storyline. It's vaguely backrooms-y and the darkness combined with the textures and robots is mildly terrifying. Every time you exit the game and reload, you save your progress but you have to go through the same intro again and lose your old position. Not a big deal though. The problem is that there is simply not much gameplay - the robot control panels are awesome, and solving the robot puzzles was quite entertaining, but they don't actually unlock anything or serve any purpose at all. Your job is simply to get a "robot_2" in a short amount of time, which looks like a black tank, and to find the exit door and right-click on it. This can be done in less than 2 minutes if you're into speedruns, and I know because I tried :) There's also certain places that if you fall into, you won't be able to get out. All the puzzles work, you just need to use the NE/NW/SW/SE direction indicators.
Some more sounds are needed, as there appears to be only one sound during the course of the game (when you finish the game), and making the puzzles actually unlock sectors or switches would be satisfying and justify solving the puzzles! I see there are also some empty rooms on the map, which may have been part of the story, but weren't completed in time(?) - this game is probably still a WIP, so I'm excited to see what will become of it.
Nice experiment, but I wouldn't define it a "game"
I understand it's a proof of concept, and it actually creates a very nice effect - I mean walking around whilst the world around you changes - but there's nothing else to do. It seems more like a mapgen mod showcase than a game, hence the negative vote
I looked in the code to see if I missed something, I tried not following the instructions seeing if something different was happening but it doesn't look like so. The main menu music created some expectations but what I found in the end was a click and walk tutorial with funny credits. Too bad
There is literally nothing to do nor to see. The author just wanted to troll a bit for the 2023 jam. It was kind of fun and unexpected (which is the theme of the jam) but... c'mon :D
It's hard to balance content and mechanics for a short minimalist game. But this game does not feel unfinished, it feels exactly minimalist, and its made with very simple tools into fun platformer, and it does not seem that something is missing or this game has to be much more to be enjoyable. This game nails it.
I like this demonstration of just how much Minetest can be abused, but there isn't really anything to do; all the "games" become pretty boring pretty fast.
Spent more time in mineos than in any other gamejam game. Technically it's the most impressive entry by far and should win only because of that, so that aspiring developers will pay more attention to the least obvious but extremely important part of gamedev - performance
From the art consistancy to the fun, hard to break gameplay. This game is very tied together and easy to understand. It's perhaps harder to see the aspect of "unexpected" to it, though in my opinion that really takes a backseat to the quality of the gameplay.
A lot of games for Minetest, even the relatively well-made ones, feel samey, too derivative. Nothing is ever wholly unique anymore, but Shadow Forest is not the usual fare that I expect out of Minetest. It is truly an game. It's also the first time I've thought "maybe ContentDB needs a souls-like tag", even if that's not the most accurate way to describe Shadow Forest.
You'll be running around at breakneck pace in this game, looking for the collectibles and dodging the baddies. The RPG elements, like Dark Souls, are gained at a campfire and are mostly there to help to help improve your stats if you are struggling. If you're good at the game, or speedrunning, then they're completely optional. You may want some damage upgrades though as the final boss can be a bit of a bullet sponge.
The game is visually and aurally appealing. It has a proper aesthetic going. It has a moral to the story. It has nice and themed level design. The 1.0 Game Jam version had issues with being swamped with infinitely-spawning mobs, and a lot of high frequencies in the staff noises. The 1.1 release leaves the game hard in spots but not unbeatable, and the staff sounds are much better.
Wuzzy is an expert with Minetest and it shows. Shadow Forest makes use of a recent feature that controls the fog distance independent of your settings. It also doesn't let you choose options like creative mode, enable health, and other things that can be left checked the wrong way for playing a Jam Game. One problem I had though was the dialogue didn't word wrap and ran off the right edge of the screen. This is at 1080p resolution fullscreen on my desktop monitor.
Took me ~20 minutes to play this through, I like the mechanics. The "health powder" feels like a bit of a cheat - I had plenty of it when I went into the boss fight.
The game is fun to play and I never felt like I was lost or confused when going through it, I think the worst thing I could say about it is that I forgot who the characters were when they reappeared later in the story (which is not really an issue, I think I managed to figure out who they were).
Does what it says it does, except there's nothing to do
You can truly embrace and discover air like you never have before. What's there not to like, I guess?
This is a negative review simply because there is no gameplay, absolutely nothing to do but fall and enjoy air. Anyone who downloads this might be in for a major disappointment, because Air Game is a legendary title. Take the title 100% literally, and you understand now!
Also give this man bonus points for unexpectedness :-)
Takes spunk and stamina to beat the Shadow
Another incredible game by Wuzzy - The storyline is great, the assets and textures are great, and it has a unique feel that makes the game fascinating. The sounds are awesome. Although this doesn't compare with Glitch for me (which is my personal favorite Minetest mini-game at the time of writing), this is entirely different, focusing on defeating darkness with weapons, skills, and collectables.
The mechanics are pretty simple at first - find vases to get healing essence, and kill mobs to get shadow fragments, then upgrade at your local campfire. The strategy that works best seems to be running mad until you find a house with some amount of protection - then you can kill lots of mobs, gain shadow fragments, and upgrade at the nearby campfire. Unfortunately, I think this bypasses a lot of the fun of the game, which may have been geared more towards exploration, but it's often instead dodging mobs wildly and harvesting them in arbitrary ways. Light crystals are pretty rare, you've got to look for them hard! You need three of them to break the barrier which will eventually lead you to the boss. As the game progresses, it goes from a collecting game to a exploration game, looking for the answers and the boss, and exploring pretty amazing places (all the meanwhile dodging mobs). Once you've got most of the upgrades, you won't have so much trouble with the mobs, but you'll still have to run. The boss is super difficult, and it took me a few tries to defeat him. Keep yourself moving as much as possible and keep throwing light.
As for unexpectedness, I can't really say I was too surprised by anything in particular - Despite that, this is my personal pick for best game of the 2023 Game Jam, and I hope it wins, because it simply feels the most complete and polished of all the games, despite the mobs :-)
Blursed Engine Abuse
What if, instead of a mad scientist as the villain of a game, you had one as the developer?
Looking at the scope and design goals of this project, it feels like it really should have the "Joke / April Fools" tag. Looking at the actual execution, it becomes obvious that it really should not.
The Boom game, in particular, seems to be a complete software-rendered 3D game implemented in typescript, transpiled into Lua, and rendering to
[png:texture modifiers; the fact that it actually runs at all on my laptop from 2012 is amazing. Bit's Battle demonstrates that it's not just pure tech demos that run in this environment, but games with actual gameplay and progression, albeit only a rudimentary amount as implemented so far.To enjoy this "game" to the fullest, it helps for a player to understand the spectrum of games that have been created in Minetest, and understand how much this is abusing the game engine to make it possible. It feels like something in the same spirit as arbitrary code execution in NES games. Rather than being "immersed" in the experience, it sort of demands that you remember that this is all running inside Minetest. There's not a ton of depth and it won't keep you occupied for hours (especially if it crashes MT in a few minutes; I don't know where the "B" in "BOOM" comes from, but I know where the "OOM" does) but it's a spectacle worth witnessing.
Well-executed, with good variety, for a short game
This is a very balanced and well-executed game. It has a well-written story, variety of gameplay elements and areas, fits the theme, and seems to suffer from no major bugs or breakages.
The main annoyance I ran into, that made it hard to complete the game without resorting to cheating, is how unforgiving the parkour sections are, especially considering the level of movement jank in Minetest. It was hard to get my momentum correct client-side but lock in server-side, even with the short network path for singleplayer. Something like allowing you to set restart checkpoints by standing perfectly still for a few seconds would have been more fair, without sacrificing the challenge for people who want to speed through.
The projectile combat also felt a little sluggish, though this may just have been my bias coming from other games with faster-moving projectiles; given the movement speed of the enemies, it didn't feel unfair or anything. I didn't have enough health supplies for the boss fight, but apparently the only consequence for dying is injury to my pride, so you can still make it through even if you didn't plan well enough.
I didn't find the plot twist all that surprising, but the evolving gameplay supplied enough intrigue to keep me interested through it, and the story was at least not a distraction, and gave the gameplay a sense of structure and meaning.
Players should expect to need some patience for the parkour elements (especially with MT's imprecision) but the momentum-locking mechanic makes those still worth experiencing, and the game overall is enjoyable in a single sitting, and for replay value you can speed-run it.
Great concept, lots of potential, but questionable playability
I've been toying with the idea of a "video game without the video" for a while now, and it's great to see somebody actually attempt it. I love the ambition of the concept. It might just be a bit much to try to make it work as a sandbox game during a game jam timeframe.
Unfortunately, while a human has potentially dozens of senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, balance, body position, temperature, passage of time, etc) on a computer you mostly just get sight and sound, and losing sight is harder to compensate. Without a sense of balance or body position, it's hard to tell when I'm looking at the horizon, or when I just fell down a hole, or about how far. Without touch, I can't tell if the crunchy-sounding stuff I'm touching is sand, gravel, or dirt. The use of "synesthesia particles" is a pretty good way to translate at least some of the missing senses into the unused visual medium, but it really needs to expand to cover more senses. In particular, when I'm working without a sense of sight (reaching deep into a machine to find a broken part) I rely on touch, not just to sense obstacles, but feeling textures, shapes, temperatures. More missing senses need to be recreated in some way to know what it means when I poke something and it sounds like a drum.
I'm not sure I can recommend this to a player yet. It was a bit intriguing wandering around and getting lost in a cave but now I think I'm stuck. It definitely feels like a project whose development I want to get involved in, suggesting, experimenting with, or contributing some ways to recreate the missing senses ... but for those not developerly inclined, it's one I'd watch for future updates rather than expecting much right now. I'm definitely looking forward to when it reaches the tipping point where I can change my neutral review to a positive one.
Also, the "no sense of sight" game being one of the few to actually feature a gameplay video was entertaining.
I wasn't expecting this for sure
This game has literally nothing to do except pushing a lever. But then there's this chat simulation... and it was so amusing, the game suddenly seemed to be well worth the time. Somehow, despite no gameplay, this is actually pretty fun. And the textures are great, IMO. I debated with myself whether I should really recommend a game with absolutely no gameplay that doesn't even feel like Minetest material, but this is simply the most amusing game I've seen in the Game Jams. Recommended - it won't take you long to win (or even lose :-) ), it's worth a download.
I'm highly confused
I... don't know what to do. I "looked" around, clicked on some nodes (also, the HUD is broken) and I guess there are secret things to find in the dark (I've also read the description now). But I can't find them nor I felt intrigued, so after 5 minutes I quit the game.
Fairly complete parkour/maze game, with a plot twist at the end!
You need to recover a crystal and bring it back to it's origin to light up the world again. This is a parkour/maze/combat game in one, which is easily finished, but it's a lot of fun to play and feels mostly complete. The gameplay and characters are pretty good and the music fit well. The plot twist at the end was very unexpected and caught me totally offguard - I only barely survived because I hadn't farmed the health powder enough earlier on, I just jumped over the ants many times. The wand is completely intuitive: The "Orange" function of the wand makes you glide in the vector that you are travelling in for a limited time, the "Blue" function gives you the ability to throw blue damage balls at enemies, and the "Green" function shrinks you. Once you get the hang of it, you can solve the levels somewhat proficiently: it does take some time to get used to it though. My main complaint would be that it felt a bit short - I completed it in 30 minutes, but it felt like it could use a few more levels that explain the theme better. For a short playthrough, this game is fantastic - recommended.
Chess but confusing
I appreciate how the author wanted to experiment but at the same time I wouldn't feel like recommending it either. It's basically chess with unexpected things happening on the board (e.g. pieces swapping), so your skill doesn't really matter much. I also think that games like chess work better through an UI rather than having an in-world representation with the player floating around to move the pieces
Its too random, the concept didnt have enough time to mature
It looks so good, but there is this huge problem: dominating part of gameplay is combat, the least polished part of the game. Mobs are not dangerous, they are annoying at best, mostly boring. It does feel like mobs are in the way of exploring, because of how basic and useless they are in comparison to how good environment looks. Shooting and hitting a target is not fun at all, does not feel rewarding at all. I would rather have either less enemies and more platformer stuff, or I would absolutely make the most dominating part of the gameplay the most fun
Highly frustrating, dropped it after a little bit
It started nicely with the introduction (albeit a bit too long) but then it immediately becomes frustrating with the wand mechanic. It's not intuitive, and starting from the begininning of the parkour area every time you fail doesn't help. I wasn't encouraged to continue after a few tries. Also, I don't understand how it fits the jam theme "unexpected"
The beginning is so dark I can't even see the vent I'm supposed to break through
Like, I can't play. I had to do
/grantme alland noclip myself out of it to actually understand what was happening. Turning on as much as I could the brightness of my screen didn't help. If I can't move the first step in the game, I can't play the game; which is a huge problem.Author is insane, and I love it
The author was able to pull off an entire barebone OS, with not one, not two, but three games in 21 days. And one of those is in 3D (!) allowing multiple instances to run together (!!!). The vibe of this "OS" is definitely nostalgic, helped by the old machinery sound effect and the launching sequence.
You probably won't believe it until you try it, so make yourself a favour: download it and be ready to be mindblown (beware: if you're a modder, the mindblown effect is doubled, as you want to know how in the world the author was able to do what they did)
P.S.: I'm definitely keeping this one installed, I want to see what could bring in the future (but please add a game icon :P)
Unfinished, no gameplay
The only thing you can do is break the map. You can't even die if you fall outside the map, remaining stuck.
I get that this is unfinished (the author put a huge disclaimer here on CDB now that I notice) but it's not an excuse to avoid being reviewed for the jam. It's literally a small map where you spawn with a couple custom models; nothing else.
good , but could you add support for some of the currency mods
, while i enjoy using this mod , i would like to be able to use it outside of mineclone a good potential solution would be to allow it to integrate with some currency mod like https://content.minetest.net/packages/mt-mods/currency/, https://content.minetest.net/packages/CodeMiner/atm/, or https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?t=7821
(also thank you for including a link to differences between free software and opensource software since some people tend to get confused around here)
Run and pick up simulator
The game started nicely, you can definitely tell the author tried polishing the experience as much as he could. However, once the "real" gameplay starts, things start not fitting together anymore. Infinite monsters preventing you to explore in depth, dialogues being displayed whilst fighting, a grind mechanic that it almost feels like a chore (too many collectibles): after the first death I didn't feel encouraged to continue and see what was coming next, which is a pity.
Also, I don't understand what's the "unexpected" part ("unexpected" is the theme of the jam this game is competing in)
Made me chuckle (jam 2023)
Considering this was made for a jam where the theme is "unexpected", I think this little trolling game is pleasantly coherent . Contrary to other trolling games that made it for the jam (also previous jams to be fair), this is actually curated. It's fun, stupid, soothing (the keyboard sound is basically ASMR) and the author is well aware they're not making an AAA game with several features, turning that into their strength. They prove that you don't have to develop something gargantuan to actually deliver a good game and that small things matter. Personally I prefer something that makes me chuckle multiple times and that lasts 5 minutes rather than a game that lasts two hours and that doesn't communicate much
Very cool operating system, but not a lot to do with it
There's simply not enough 'gameplay' for this to be worthwhile yet - the mini-games included are cool, but are repetitive and aren't going to keep you interested for very long.
Ideally, the ability to create programs and coding IN the operating system would make this a very entertaining game for computer geeks. But as it is now, it's basically a rad-looking interface that doesn't actually serve any purposes (except the mini-games maybe).
Side note: Digiline touchscreens from the digilines and digilinesplus mods can create a real operating system that can actually be modified by the client, if you work hard enough at it!
Nice concept but highly frustrating
I can't give a negative vote because, if we consider the author had 3 weeks to make a game, this is definitely a solid concept. The core idea of time travelling is well executed, there is a good attention to details (music, graphics, NPCs to talk with), yet I find it very frustrating gameplay-wise. The only instructions are given by opening the inventory, and it requires an important amount of patience. I think that with some tweaks here and there it could become way more enjoyable. Chapeau for the 4D exploration :)
Unexpected!
True that the bot is alternatively gifted, but that's totally ok, it was still fun because of unexpected swaps and what not. Maybe you can't plan too much like this, but its like having a new puzzle setup every few turns. Seriously didn't expect that these mechanics which are basically game-breaking for chess will make for refreshing fun gameplay
Classic Tomb Raider in 4.5D, incredible concept, tolerable jank
A mix of maze exploration, gentle parkour, and puzzle solving gameplay in a world with free travel across more dimensions than you thought you were getting when you opened the box. On top of the 3 spatial dimensions, not only do you need to travel across time to navigate the citadel, but you need to change the past and create alternate timelines.
The gameplay is well executed, given how ambitious the idea was and the tight timeline. It's rough around the edges and there are minor bugs galore, but the core seems to be intact, and the gameplay is well thought out and reasonably balanced. The setting, storytelling, and atmosphere all work together well, and the plot twist fits the jam's "unexpected" theme, as does the surprising depth of mechanics.
To navigate the extra depth and complexity of the game, players will need to bring a measure of patience and keen perception. The deceptively small size of the game world in 3 dimensions hides a surprisingly intricate maze of paths across time and possibility. Expect to spend a lot of time looking for subtly hidden treasures, and trying to fit an image of the citadel superimposed across a handful of different eras in your mind.
Things that aren't obvious bugs but I'd still like to see include reducing immersion breaks (diagetic guidance, and the entire inventory screen is unnecessary), a bit richer in-world sound (footsteps! maybe voice acting...?) and some accessibility improvements (fixes for HUD/GUI and font scaling settings, translations).
I'm excited to hopefully see more developer attention on this game in the future, to clear away annoyances and distractions and add the shine and polish it deserves, and hopefully the community will rise to the occasion with play testing, bug reports, and pull requests.
Proof of concept, but that's it
This is not a game, and doesn't have any gameplay - but this could be a very interesting mod in the future if properly assembled!
Effectively, this is a proof of concept for dynamic mapgens, but there are only two choices for what is to happen to the mapgen, and a block modifier actively changes the world based on your choice. It's cool, but it's very useless.
If you're looking for a way to customize your world's biomes (among other things), try Josselin's mod Unilib. It's powerful, easy to modify, and supports (by containing) over 200 minetest mods.
Wisdom was checked, but not found, in Part 1!
As mentioned in Zughy's review, this is effectively a 3-step tutorial with some funny credits, and the textures aren't exactly glamorous either. As it is currently, it's not worth your time, other games will check wisdom better!
Best chess implementation in minetest to date
Didn't expect to see a Chess game in this year's Game Jam, that's for sure! This is the most polished chess implementation I've seen yet in minetest and proved to be a lot of fun. Normal chess rules are all here, unlike the other minetest implementations: en passant logic, three-fold repetition, and correct castling! Only one thing I didn't notice was the 50-move rule, but that's not really necessary in a minetest subgame. I would absolutely love to see a Fischer Chess implementation in this game (with proper castling) someday :) Multiplayer chess is pretty cool, but it really needs timers to be at it's full potential, since your opponent can just stall forever. I think it would improve the game a lot if that was added.
The bot itself is OK and interesting to play with, but it's not very smart and could use a lot of work: it is extremely materialistic, and simply can't see most checkmating attacks and pin attacks. It makes decent, solid moves in the opening, but if you set up a decent attack against it, you've basically won the game (Also, it always picks the same opening, which is a little dissapointing). It will usually always take material over a decent defense, which means that if you find tricks in the position, you're going to have a very high success rate. The bot also, most of the time, can't convert winning positions: even if the bot has many pawns and pieces and all you've got is a king, it still somehow manages to find a way to repeat moves and end in a draw. It can definitely win though - if there's a checkmate in immediate sight, it can usually find it.
The unexpected changes to the board were pretty awesome to play a game with, although they could use some highlighting, as I had to search the board for what happened many times. Maybe a 3 second highlighting of the affected pieces would improve the gameplay.
Overall, I really enjoyed this, and I think it's currently the best minetest has to offer in terms of chess.
Saving the world doesn't require solving the puzzles, sadly
I can't bring myself to give this a positive recommendation, despite how much I like the assets and storyline. It's vaguely backrooms-y and the darkness combined with the textures and robots is mildly terrifying. Every time you exit the game and reload, you save your progress but you have to go through the same intro again and lose your old position. Not a big deal though. The problem is that there is simply not much gameplay - the robot control panels are awesome, and solving the robot puzzles was quite entertaining, but they don't actually unlock anything or serve any purpose at all. Your job is simply to get a "robot_2" in a short amount of time, which looks like a black tank, and to find the exit door and right-click on it. This can be done in less than 2 minutes if you're into speedruns, and I know because I tried :) There's also certain places that if you fall into, you won't be able to get out. All the puzzles work, you just need to use the NE/NW/SW/SE direction indicators.
Some more sounds are needed, as there appears to be only one sound during the course of the game (when you finish the game), and making the puzzles actually unlock sectors or switches would be satisfying and justify solving the puzzles! I see there are also some empty rooms on the map, which may have been part of the story, but weren't completed in time(?) - this game is probably still a WIP, so I'm excited to see what will become of it.
(READ COMMENTS for more info)
Really fun parkour puzzle game
Maybe too hard for the most to appreciate though. I'd say difficulty is not a flaw. It's actually maybe my favorite
Nice experiment, but I wouldn't define it a "game"
I understand it's a proof of concept, and it actually creates a very nice effect - I mean walking around whilst the world around you changes - but there's nothing else to do. It seems more like a mapgen mod showcase than a game, hence the negative vote
3 step tutorial?
I looked in the code to see if I missed something, I tried not following the instructions seeing if something different was happening but it doesn't look like so. The main menu music created some expectations but what I found in the end was a click and walk tutorial with funny credits. Too bad
2023 jam troll
There is literally nothing to do nor to see. The author just wanted to troll a bit for the 2023 jam. It was kind of fun and unexpected (which is the theme of the jam) but... c'mon :D
Probably the best for this jam
It's hard to balance content and mechanics for a short minimalist game. But this game does not feel unfinished, it feels exactly minimalist, and its made with very simple tools into fun platformer, and it does not seem that something is missing or this game has to be much more to be enjoyable. This game nails it.
Cool tech demo, but not exactly anything to play
I like this demonstration of just how much Minetest can be abused, but there isn't really anything to do; all the "games" become pretty boring pretty fast.
Nostalgic and actually fun
Spent more time in mineos than in any other gamejam game. Technically it's the most impressive entry by far and should win only because of that, so that aspiring developers will pay more attention to the least obvious but extremely important part of gamedev - performance
Enjoyable!
I like the graphics as well as the gameplay. The trick is to not fight too much, but to make a run for it ;P
By far my favorite
From the art consistancy to the fun, hard to break gameplay. This game is very tied together and easy to understand. It's perhaps harder to see the aspect of "unexpected" to it, though in my opinion that really takes a backseat to the quality of the gameplay.
Well done sir.
A hardcore but enjoyable shooter-platformer game
A lot of games for Minetest, even the relatively well-made ones, feel samey, too derivative. Nothing is ever wholly unique anymore, but Shadow Forest is not the usual fare that I expect out of Minetest. It is truly an game. It's also the first time I've thought "maybe ContentDB needs a souls-like tag", even if that's not the most accurate way to describe Shadow Forest.
You'll be running around at breakneck pace in this game, looking for the collectibles and dodging the baddies. The RPG elements, like Dark Souls, are gained at a campfire and are mostly there to help to help improve your stats if you are struggling. If you're good at the game, or speedrunning, then they're completely optional. You may want some damage upgrades though as the final boss can be a bit of a bullet sponge.
The game is visually and aurally appealing. It has a proper aesthetic going. It has a moral to the story. It has nice and themed level design. The 1.0 Game Jam version had issues with being swamped with infinitely-spawning mobs, and a lot of high frequencies in the staff noises. The 1.1 release leaves the game hard in spots but not unbeatable, and the staff sounds are much better.
Wuzzy is an expert with Minetest and it shows. Shadow Forest makes use of a recent feature that controls the fog distance independent of your settings. It also doesn't let you choose options like creative mode, enable health, and other things that can be left checked the wrong way for playing a Jam Game. One problem I had though was the dialogue didn't word wrap and ran off the right edge of the screen. This is at 1080p resolution fullscreen on my desktop monitor.
Good game, I give it a 5/7.
Good game
Took me ~20 minutes to play this through, I like the mechanics. The "health powder" feels like a bit of a cheat - I had plenty of it when I went into the boss fight.
wow an update, now we have lavagold PART (CHAPTER) 2!!!!1141!
can't wait to see what did the LAVAGOLD v2 deliver to us
Great work
Really original and cool project. I wish you winning on gamejam and luck in future development!
Oh, fooled me to actually tryna craft one
I executed the following:
And then went to craft. Good job, nothing.
Nice game
The game is fun to play and I never felt like I was lost or confused when going through it, I think the worst thing I could say about it is that I forgot who the characters were when they reappeared later in the story (which is not really an issue, I think I managed to figure out who they were).
Does what it says it does, except there's nothing to do
You can truly embrace and discover air like you never have before. What's there not to like, I guess?
This is a negative review simply because there is no gameplay, absolutely nothing to do but fall and enjoy air. Anyone who downloads this might be in for a major disappointment, because Air Game is a legendary title. Take the title 100% literally, and you understand now!
Also give this man bonus points for unexpectedness :-)