The makings of a quality game.

There is little content but I think what is there is sufficient for the game jam.
The game is aesthetically pleasing, easy to pick up and the mechanics are unique to me.

I see the potential for this to become something like a 3D OpenTTD
I was reminded of OpenTTD while playing Builda City.

If Builda City is further developed in this direction it will probably become one of my favorite games.

Several bugs and basically no cubes

The author paid attention to graphical details, but as I've already said with Stella (another Jam entry), why exactly feature a game with basically no voxels in a voxel engine? Why not on Godot, to name one?
Graphics aside, punching things makes the game crash, time doesn't work and I think that it was used too much text to explain some basic concepts that could have been indirectly narrated

Solid puzzle with Portal humour

I think that, to me, this is the most polished and fun game to play of the whole 2021 jam. I'm not that into puzzle games, but this was very fun and challenging to play. The humour adds personality and little breaks from the challenge, alongside levels that don't tend to be repetitive, always adding something new.
My only critique is how much the game punishes players, making them start from the very beginning when they fail a level (that's what happened to me in the one requiring spatial memory, and I refused to start again). Infinite potions or making people restart that specific level might be a better solution that avoids excessive frustration

A breath of fresh air

A well polished, well rounded jam project that plays nicely and is quite compelling and addictive.

I enjoyed my time memorizing and counting blocks, getting lost on the shop, and having to use the quite unreadable signs to find my way. Even if the shop aspect of this game gets complaints, it's clear the intent is to make navigating the shop a challenge, a disguised maze of sorts, and it works wonderfully while also achieving an unique look.

Movement felt sluggish and the building area was too dimly lit in my opinion. Some textures like the "glass" ones weren't representative of what they actually were.

Some character upgrades would be nice, movement speed, sprint, buying the telescope or the minimap, all could add some more depth to the game.

Well done, I find this to be one of the top submissions.

buggy and underdeveloped game

Zombies can hit you from too far away and you respawn outside the building.

great idea but needs improvements

great concept but it needs some improvements like ability to jump on wagons. the models in this game are great

It is snake I guess

Controls are bad, but not as bad as they could be, when using the WASD keys, you'll go in the direction you probably intended. Going up and down is where most of the problem is at, the camera and the body of the snake get in the way of an enjoyable and smooth experience.

This is a clear case where less is more, a 2D snake clone, or one where the snake actually manouvers on 3D terrain but still moves in 2 dimensions (with the ocasional jump/climbing up hills/walls) would've been more original and more easily executed and fun.

Sound design is next to none but that's alright, since it's just snake, artwork and modeling could be improved upon.

Extra credit for programming everything as far as I checked. Props to the author.

As of now the game has potential post-jam if the camera and movement issues are addressed, since it's a good snake game with a twist.

It would work great as a mod, but not as a stand-alone game

The portal idea unveiling new areas is absolutely great: I can already imagine an RPG requiring you some specific items to unlock certain locations, and I'd really like to push the author to continue it along this modding path. Unfortunately, this is a game and I think that, as such, it turns repetitive after a while. Lack of instructions didn't help either, I had to check out on CDB what to do

Tutorial?

No explanation of what to do or how to get the tutorial, which was later explained to me on discord. IMO the tutorial should be abundantly clear and easy to find (or not even find), specially due to the fact that the tutorial gave you items essential to the game. Furthermore, the textures were simple and when i did find out how to play, the buttons were glitchy and only worked every now and then.

Copying by heart is not that fun

I get that formats like these work on MineCRAFT servers where you have a limited amount of time to copy something whilst racing against other players, but a single-player version felt just... boring, to me. Especially the idea that players had to manually go buying things in a physical space (with signs not always that readable and a flight mode not fast enough) instead of using a polished GUI.
Using blocks as instructions is another thing I would have avoided, as it doesn't allow to easily geolocalise the game.
On the bright side, the author took time to customise the main menu and to add some music, which are always nice things to have

Lack of goals

My main problem with the game was that I didn't understand what to do. Like, I get that you can ride boxes (which are supposed to be bicycles I guess), but after that, what exactly? I was happy to see the game has a custom main menu and a soundtrack (too loud in my opinion), and that the author implemented nose-ups just for the sake it (nice touch!), but then the content was immediately over. I guess it's still a WIP

Cool game

Very cool game

On the road to greatness

Even though you can't win or lose at the moment, it's still fun to overtake the AI and test out the powerups/mechanics.

Multiplayer and damage would be on top of my wishlist.

Currently reminds me of the good old racers of the PS1, where I spent countless hours.

Also I see some people mentioning performance issues, but on my laptop it ran nicely!

Definitely one to watch!

EDIT: added a bit more info.

100% luck based game

There are games that are somehow based on luck, but here it's just pure luck. I personally don't get where is supposed to be the fun/challenge in pressing a cube, hoping that it's not the wrong one, over and over. Music and main menu are very nice, but the gaming experience is quite debatable (and kind of absent, it's just one room)

Complex game with no instructions

The game experience had started quite nice with a custom main menu and a BGM, but I then found myself lost into too many inputs with no instructions whatsoever. It feels very "developer"-oriented, with a lot of written parameters on the screen (some of them can be easily converted into icons, like the hunger, maybe placed near the health). I know there are instructions here on CDB, but players are not expected to check out a manual before playing: the game should be able to explain itself to them, whether it is via tutorials, hints etc.

Also, the very first launch didn't work, I had to make another world, and I'm personally not a fan of round objects in voxel worlds. Having cuboids for most of the objects would make the game way more lightweight (it took a lot to download compared to other games) and possibly nicer

I'd love to play a city builder game on MT if there were more gameplay

There's not really a lot of gameplay and the tutorial isn't shown right away, but I love being able to fly above my little city and interact with it: it is waay more immersive than just clicking on the buildings (as it happens in classic city builder games); I can imagine how funny it would be to fly on people/vehicles walking on the streets. It also has some good-looking assets. I hope this game will be further developed, 'cause right now there's not enough content to play around with.

Presumably useful for roleplaying servers

Consider expanding upon this mod in the future. Support for something like player entity nametags might be interesting too.

great entertainment

ill be honest, looking at the screenshot for this game and initially opening it, i thought, man, this game is really lackluster and simple looking. i didnt know how wrong i could be. It does have a simple look and bare bones UI (formspecs), but it manages to be a very interesting and challanging puzzle game that can keep you entertained for a while. the one suggestion i would have to improve it is to allow restarting a level, rather than restarting the whole game.

interesting concept

This package leaves me with conflicted view. To start off with, looking at the positives it is a interesting game concept, something different not seen/really done with the minetest engine. the concept of what the game could be is really interesting. onto the cons, from a playability standpoint it simply is just placing some elements and increasing a counter, and after a while it gets boring. additionally you are limited to placing things branching off of existing areas rather than placing things anywhere on the map. in spite of this i think that the game could be a great thing if some of the wanted contributions for features e implemented and could potentionally give the game a point. on the topic of contributions wanted it seems the author wants to keep going with there very odd dreampt up license https://github.com/Splizard/buildacity/blob/d2b30f7aa203c163a6015947bddfb9148a249069/License.txt of which there is a osi thread asking it to be approved https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-review_lists.opensource.org/2021-February/005068.html which appears to lead nowhere as well as potentially suggesting that git hosting sites forks might not be allowed (not a lawyer disclaimer here). regardless contributing to this code base while something that would be fun to do, seems like something that is probably best to be avoided.

Nice atmosphere, but it lacks of gameplay

I was really happy to see a game taking place in some sort of Ancient Egypt: the first map was really on point talking about level design, wide outside and narrow inside. A few decorations more would have totally helped, and as general taste I would avoid completely round objects inside a voxel game (ie. columns).
However, I wasn't able to understand the sense of the game, especially the white room that was way different from the rest (is the character inside a mental institution? Is there an end? Am I supposed to endlessly cicle?). Unfortunately, gameplay comes before atmosphere (games with a wonderful graphics but with poor gameplay < games with a poor graphics and wonderful gameplay), hence the negative vote.

I wasn't expecting a runner in Minetest, but it's fun

That's definitely not the first game that would pop into my mind when thinking about Minetest (and I don't even think it's a great stand-alone game concept, it feels more like a minigame) but the author made a really nice job porting an endless runner videogame into Minetest. Collecting coins is rewarding, it can jump AND slide (the dead animation also works perfectly, congratulations for using the tools the game already gives you), and with the music defaulted to on it would have been even better.
If I have to find some critiques, putting it into a cave would have made more sense with the title, as the empty sky is somehow out of context. Also, I think that, after a while, the author just copy-pasted a piece of the map over and over, but (if I'm right) it's a jam and it's totally understandable.

P.S.: I know that saying the following isn't impartial as I'm the author, but consider to use arena_lib to turn it into a really nice minigame that people can put into their servers

Can't maneuver properly

This was the first game from the jam that I've seen having a custom icon and background image in the main menu, so +1. Unfortunately, inputs felt a bit clumsy (maybe because I'm used to MisterE Snake 3D, and I admit that it's not that easy to calibrate anyway) and even playing in third person doesn't help as the body of the snake basically covers the whole camera

Confusing

The first thing I don't understand is why there are monsters roaming through this warehouse. It looks like a puzzle game where you have to find these special presents, but it feels like the author thought fighting was a must have, forcing these creatures in the game. They don't seem to add anything special to it (also, when damaged, they have no feedback but the HP bar changing on their head).

Another thing I can't seem to grasp is how the aisles counting works. I... just can't navigate through them properly, so I have no idea of what present I should open. Furthermore, instructions in chat aren't that handy (why not a GUI or an HUD?) and, if you die, you respawn outside the warehouse, breaking the game

Not intuitive nor rewarding

I had to check out on CDB how to play because I was expecting to do something with the screwdriver from the very beginning instead of using my fists. If the bar would have been reduced to 2 slots, it might have resulted more intuitive. Or even better, giving the screwdriver only when needed.
Texture pack is nice, but sounds are missing and, more importantly, there is no rewarding feeling when a level is completed, as the player gets automatically teleported into the next one. Some delay to have players look around (maybe followed with a jingle) would be nice. Also, I personally got bored after a few levels rather than feeling challenged

Good graphics but confusing

I understand that it was made for a jam and the author might have not had the time to clean it up, but having to manually move the map into a world folder can't be ignored - as who plays is not expected to read the description here on CDB. A soundtrack would have helped a lot to convey the right atmosphere, and in general I wasn't able to understand how to play (I couldn't place anything). Too bad, because I think this game has potential, so I really hope to see the author polish it!

Simple and fun—too simple?

I loved this—really smooth gameplay. Thought it took me a little while to figure out how to get the power and how to turn on the lights. But so far seems to be pretty easy. I wonder what challenges might come. It also doesn't seem to matter much where your city is or how it is laid out. Seems like building in some more dynamics about how users construct their cities would make it more interesting and challenging.

Thank you for your time and energy on this!

A game with no cubes in a voxel engine

I had liked that there was an initial context welcoming the player (even if no sound), but it turned into a repetitive clicker after a while; the objective is to keep farming, and unlocking new areas needs players to stand still in front of them for an amount of time that increases according to the number of resources needed (I would have put a default time, maybe with a nice sound).

Most importantly, though, why there is not even a cube? I think the author wanted to experiment, but areas could have been squares instead of hexagons (meaning also less models to download). Furthermore, I personally don't like perfectly round objects placed into a voxel context, as they result out of place, so I think that - graphically speaking - it could have been way better with way less effort and resources. Seeing all these non-squared 3D models I wonder: why on Minetest and not, for instance, on Godot?

(Jam) No context nor goal

The game started well with a nice pixel art icon in the main menu bar, but then there was no immersion into the atmosphere: lack of music, lack of context (there is a guy exchanging items and brown monsters, with no further info provided) and lack of monster boundaries, attacking the player whilst talking with the merchant. In general, I haven't understood the purpose of the game and experienced a crash at the very first launch

works nicely

I like it also how are the shops too far ? There is a node you can right click that teleports you. Didn't feel like the longest journey to me at all ... (are you noclip flying there ? ^^ )

Not much to do

This game work well, no crashes, but you only have to click in some of 4 squares, this is all the gameplay. I miss more levels or new challenges.

Funny game

The game lacks a way to save yor progress :/

EDIT: fixed later

Graphics are nice and game is pretty fun.

Overall: Good

I have yet to beat this, even when I abandon oxygen and HVAC I can't get enough moeny before things start going downhill. A little balancing is probably needed.

The models are very detailed, did you do them yourself?

Great work! I didn't test multiplayer but that would be an interesting direction to take this in

0: Bad
1: Meh
2: Ok
3: Good
4: Amazing

Fun       : 3
Innovation: 4
Graphics  : 2
Audio     : 3
Humor     : N/R
Mood      : 3

Good i guess...

Good game.

Few notes, While moving to the sides, you sometimes bug out of the rail.. (oops i use 5.4.0 my bad.) would be good to have a change in camera when sneaking.

pretty good game

Quite an interesting game, but it needs some improvement. It gets a bit boring after a while.

260/450: Berzerkpt

GAME DESCRIPTION: Berzerkpt is a game similar to dungeon crawlers, where your goal is to kill as many enemies as possible.

RATINGS:

• Visual Appeal: 5/20

• Sound/Audio Design: 0/20

• Completeness: 15/30

• License: 30/30

• Originality: 10/50

• Gameplay: 20/50

• Performance: 30/50

• User Friendly/Intuitive: 50/100

• Codebase: 100/150

FINAL SCORE: 260/450

FINAL THOUGHTS: Berzerkpt has the potential to be a fun, enjoyable time killer but fails at the part of keeping users entertained. I am too detached from the game when I play. The same four buildings get repetetive. Adding objectives and a little ambient music would really spruce it up.

NOTE: Recommended/not recommended is based on if the score is an 84% or higher.

85/450: Arcade3D

GAME DESCRIPTION: Arcade3D is a game remniscent (and a near-clone) of games like Pac-Man in arcades in the 1980s and onwards.

RATINGS:

• Visual Appeal: 17/20

• Sound/Audio Design: 8/20

• Completeness: 0/30

• License: 0/30

• Originality: 10/50

• Gameplay: 0/50

• Performance: 20/50

• User Friendly/Intuitive: 10/100

• Codebase: 20/150

FINAL SCORE: 85/450

FINAL THOUGHTS: Pac-Man was a hit in Japan and America when it was released. I loved the game, and I was hoping I could give it a chance. Unfortunately, there are too many other glaring issues for me to enjoy this game. For example, you really take the fun out of it when the player must do everything themselves, from placing the map and breaking the pellets to placing the ghosts. Is this salvagable? No, but I recommend you redo it properly. Use entities for pellets, ghosts, place maps automatically, handle the game properly instead of piecing this together. I hope to see another version of this I can enjoy in the future!

NOTE: Recommended/not recommended is based on if the score is an 84% or higher.

323/450: BalloonAir

GAME DESCRIPTION: BalloonAir is a forwards-scrolling game where your goals are to collect coins and dodge paper airplanes.

RATINGS:

• Visual Appeal: 16/20

• Sound/Audio Design: 6/20

• Completeness: 20/30

• License: 30/30

• Originality: 0/50

• Gameplay: 15/50

• Performance: 40/50

• User Friendly/Intuitive: 70/100

• Codebase: 130/150

FINAL SCORE: 329/450

FINAL THOUGHTS: It's alright for a game, fun to play for a few minutes but I see not much value in playing it for longer than that. Maybe making it competitive with an online leaderboard or server would make things more interesting. Let me know if you do!

NOTE: Recommended/not recommended is based on if the score is an 84% or higher.

380/450:

GAME DESCRIPTION: A competetive game whose objective is for players to destroy the most blocks without dying.

RATINGS:

• Visual Appeal: 20/20

• Sound/Audio Design: 20/20

• Completeness: 30/30

• License: 30/30

• Originality: 20/50

• Gameplay: 40/50

• Performance: 40/50

• User Friendly/Intuitive: 80/100

• Codebase: 100/150

FINAL SCORE: 380/450

FINAL THOUGHTS: It's a great LAN game that really shows that Minetest is capable of handling other fun games, other than simple block placing games. Music is a nice touch.

NOTE: Recommended/not recommended is based on if the score is an 84% or higher.

371/450: Build 'n' Buy

GAME DESCRIPTION: A game where your objective is to clone builds using items found in the shop for profit.

RATINGS:

• Visual Appeal: 16/20

• Sound/Audio Design: 15/20

• Completeness: 30/30

• License: 30/30

• Originality: 20/50

• Gameplay: 30/50

• Performance: 40/50

• User Friendly/Intuitive: 80/100

• Codebase: 110/150

FINAL SCORE: 371/450

FINAL THOUGHTS: For a concept that isn't original, it is still intriguing and with a few small changes, I think it would boom as an online server. Defining custom sizes for schems and building them for others would be great. Timing the builds and having a leaderboard would be awesome.

NOTE: Recommended/not recommended is based on if the score is an 84% or higher.

375/450: Subway Miner

GAME DESCRIPTION: Subway Miner is a game remniscent of Subway Surfers, where the goal is to get as many mese as possible while avoiding obstacles.

RATINGS:

• Visual Appeal: 15/20

• Sound/Audio Design: 10/20

• Completeness: 20/30

• License: 30/30

• Originality: 10/50

• Gameplay: 35/50

• Performance: 45/50

• User Friendly/Intuitive: 80/100

• Codebase: 120/150

FINAL SCORE: 375/450

FINAL THOUGHTS: It's a good clone of the Subway Surfers game and with a few tweaks, it could bring hours of enjoyment to players.

NOTE: Recommended/not recommended is based on if the score is an 84% or higher.