You have completed the building! You now have to build a review!
Conclusion
BNB (Build n' Buy) is a building game where you crawl back and forth from shops
to your build site to replicate a build for cash money. The gameplay while not
entirely original, managed to implement the core gameplay of Build Mart rather
well albeit with some flaws. Most prominently, your movement is just too slow
when the fast pacing of the original inspiration is considered. Another critique
worth bringing up here is the textures. Reusing texture for both glass and wool is
infuriating because there's not enough visual information to make them distinct. This critique is
most clearly seen in this image;
try and guess which is glass and which is wool.
Flawed gameplay aside, the textures look pretty good - just not very
distinctive. Using Zughy's well-made textures is fine, but it's clearly not
helping in this regard since soothing32 is made using a really limited palette and therefore very little unique or very small identifying features. I hope for a rework to easily identify the nodes as
I'm scanning the inventory and shop. Anyway, the builds themselves are also cute
and fits the themes of BNB's inspiration very well. I wish the music is tuned
down a bit more and that more sounds are added to help with indicating the
effect of the player's actions. Overall, BNB is executed acceptably despite the
many shortcomings.
Boring core gameplay with success on creating unique visuals.
ST (Stella) is a game where you realize what is meant by the words "repetition".
No wait. ST (Stella) is a game where you long-DIG to collect resources from
"pools" and then stand still at certain parts of the island to allow it to
slowly drink the resource. How unamusing this grindy experience have
been. At least, I finally fulfilled all of the available
task.
I'll delve a bit more on gameplay: You spawn on a hexagon-grid island (which is
genuinely an awesome visual +1). You're also given some attrocious
dialogs (I don't dare
run this on my phone, so this image is what it might look like).
Continuing, the gist of the game is to use the appropiate tools to harvest certain
resources to expand the island. Unfortunately, harvesting resources meant holding
down DIG to get more resources, not something more interesting like idle games or automation games (shapezio being the first to come to mind). LMD's choice of words being a "cookie clicker" is what i would agree with in regards to the gameplay, except that ST is missing the "idle" part. Additionally, expanding the island meant standing at one
place while the island slowly drinks from your inventory, for all 10-50 items.
In spite of the lacking gameplay, the visuals themselves are honestly quite
decent and definitely stylistic. Hexagons wouldn't be the only non-MTE thing
you'll see - cylinders are here too. Unfortunately, going off the visuals alone
won't help. Garnish on raw meat is still raw meat of course. Aside, the lack of
music and sounds readily become apparent when I "accidentally" fall into the
ocean. Overall, the experience has been rather bleak to the point where I
don't think I can pull off the usual full review.
Needs quite a lot of rework to be enjoyable. And there's an unsolvable level, whoops.
LZR (Lazarr) is a pretty meh puzzle game where you fiddle around with mirrors to direct the lasers into cube targets on certain sides. In LZR, there are laser
sources which must be interacted using the fist to activate. Each level starts
with the laser source turned off and contain lazer targets with specific
orientations that only accepts an incoming laser from one side. To change the
direction of the laser, mirrors are used. Mirrors can be rotated and behaves
like a normal node being that you can break and place it down. The few available
mechanics need more work, they weren't able to keep the levels interesting.
The levels must then be able to carry LZR because the mechanics are somewhat
dull. Unfortunately, the levels are not very entertaining to me as it
explores what I would consider surface-level ideas: "What if the laser source needs more mirrors to redirect it into the target?" "What if the laser sources are not on the same y-level?" "What if the
there's ALOT of laser sources and targets?".
I stared at the description for a while and my confusion only spiraled further
trying to understand how pirates and lasers connect - not well showcased in LZR
either.
Overall, I have to give LZR a thumbs down. I had expected better from an older
member of the MT community.
Casual hack n' slash with insufficient mechanics to keep it interesting.
Conclusion
BZ (Berzerkpt, glad I use acronyms instead!) situates somewhere in the desert
world of ancient Egypt where you play as a wanted rebel against pretty much
everyone. Good premise! Anyways, the gameplay seems to be inspired by casual
hack n' slashers as the player navigate through rooms slashing anything to avoid
being killed. My initial hype quickly fades away as I reach the 10th-ish room.
I realized that BZ is very repetitive, being limited to only a few rooms and a
single enemy type.
Currently, BZ looks to be a good starting point to further develop into what
might be a very enjoyable (rougelite) hack n' slasher. There's plenty of other
avenues too, but the core gameplay seem to be set: slash your way forward.
Presently, I give BZ a thumbs up as hard as I want to give a thumbs down.
Although the sublime models, sprites, and sounds bothered me; BZ still is a
playable hack n' slasher game.
As I scour the desert island for coconuts, a relentless piece of thought
beckons me: why? The 99th (+ 20 + 8 + 4) coconut in sight, I picked it up.
The lingering thought ever more nailed into my brain: why? I got the drill and
continue to search for coconuts to express myself.
...
Conclusion
CC (Coconut Collection) is a game where i would pin it down as a tame experience
of searching and long-digging coconuts. All 131 of them, with the painful
breakneck subsonic speeds of about 4-5s per coconut. I-I think this is perhaps
the most painful complete submission I've had the displeasure to review. There's
no purpose or reason to play CC is there? Not even as a fun arcade. The
original inspiration for CC, for a lack of a better phrasing, is equally
unamusing.
Apologies to the developers for being rather incessantly harsh. However, I can
see CC for what it is - a last ditch attempt from a blunder in planning. The
idea to make a Fortnite clone in MTE isn't bad in of itself. But with a small
window of a couple weeks, that idea was never gonna fly. At best, we could have gotten a buggy
Fortnite clone, but CC is definitely isn't the worst thing to come out of this.
Overall, it's clear that the developers mishandled the assignment for the game
jam ("make a small, complete, self-contained game experience") and with this
being the result of that blunder, I have to give CC a thumbs down.
I'll be on the lookout for the Fortnite clone. Let's hope it would be much more fun than CC.
Horribly unfinished. So too is this review, not to be harsh, but because i
really have no idea what this game is supposed to be. Whenever a more complete
release is made i will re-review this game appropiately. I wish the best of luck
to the developer.
Working with what i can see
I believe GTB (Grand Theft Box) is an attempt at a Grand Theft Auto-like(?) game
in MTE. While the bike mechanics do work here (I'm not convinced by the
premise), the rest of the gameplay feels more like a tech demo than anything
else. My main issue being that GTB's only mechanic is the bike and that's all.
What's stopping me from slapping a bike mod on MTG? Overall, I'm just
disappointed by the incompleteness and the prototypical characteristics GTB
exudes. I hope the developer(s) don't feel discouraged however, and continue to
play around with MTE's capabilities. Perhaps in the future, they could be one of
the first to make a GTA-like simulator using MTE.
🎵 So we back in the mine, got sam sprinting from side to side. Side, side to side. 🎶
Conclusion
SM (Subway Miner) is another scroller entry where you play as Sam running
through the three-lane "underground" railroad system, collecting mese crystals
on the ground for fun. This isn't a particularly original entry with
original mechanics, but the execution here is high-effort enough that I can't bring myself to dislike it. Especially when place in the context of the often blocking MTE
limitations.
As you might have guessed from SM's screenshot, this game uses actual models for
the stranded cars and obstacles on the railroad tracks. Quite a lot of detail
went into matching the style of the models together, but alas could not be
matched with MTG's nodes. It's little faults like these that are ever present in
SM, not only in the graphics department but so too music+sounds.
Overall, I would give this a recommendation. SM still is able to meet my
expectations of a scroller game despite it's many spotty flaws. I hope more work
is continued to polished the rough state of SM. Anyways, I managed a high score
of 517 mese crystals and playtime of 0:06:11.
It's not hard to beat, but I invite you to beat me anyways.
Horribly unfinished. So too is this review, not to be harsh, but because i
really have no idea what this game is supposed to be. Whenever a more complete
release is made i will re-review this game appropiately. I wish the best of luck
to the developer.
Working with what i can see
I believe MG (Minegistic) is an attempt at a shapez io-like(?) game implemented
in MTE. I understand that this is merely a beginner's attempt at doing something
different to contribute for MTE. Game development is not something anyone can pick up immediately within a couple days. Most of the participants in the game jam have tons of experience beforehand. With this in mind, i hope the developer will regain their enthusiasm and further play around with MTE. Perhaps in the future, they will be able to revisit this idea that initially could not be executed today.
Fun fact: Snake cannot chew; they must swallow food whole. This snek eat mese blocks. Poor snek
Conclusion
S3D (Snake World 3D) is a game where you realize that you're not playing snake
2D. My point being that you should approach this as a different game with
different reflexes. While some say the controls are difficult, what I think must
happen is that S3D is to be introduced properly to new players within an easier
arena. I managed a couple
goodbeginningscores within a
couple rounds, and I think so can you. Can you beat my high score of 57?
Aside, the graphics in this game while rudimentary, was definitely more
appealing than the mere void approach. Sounds sit in the similar vein of being
rudimentary. It's totally fine though, the 3D mechanics alone is enough to make
up for the banality of it all. All in all, I would give this a recommendation!
Try S3D for a couple short rounds, the controls really aren't all that bad 😄.
"I only want the bitterness, its coffee, its grapefruit, its licorice." - Bennett Foddy
Conclusion
LL (Little Lady) is a maddening game where your patience and careful movement
will be tested. Took me a long, long while to review this one. This is the type
of games in the same vein as Getting Over It (with Bennett Foddy). It's not
supposed to be fun in the usual way, like when you're playing a puzzle game or
casual platformer. I'm not entirely sure if this design was intended, but LL was
a real challenge to me most in part thanks to the ambiguity of nodeboxes and the
corresponding model.
Anyways, the graphics here are quite unique in their own right. Never have
MTE-based games ever had such heavy uses of models (kudos for creating autobox
and using it). The UI/UX could use a bit of work in stylization but I think it's
impressive enough as it is. The music is actually pretty good and fitting for the little ladybug. Previously, i've mistaken due to MTE bugging out with the sounds on Pipewire (probably due to my setup). Overall, I would not recommend LL to anyone as
an enjoyable game, but instead recommend LL as a one-of-a-kind challenge.
More in the comments... (Last updated 2021-12-28 17:12 UTC)
UFO sighted! It's Moving at about 160 knots. It has an upright teardrop shap- huh? Hot-air balloon?
Conclusion
My highscore is
31,241, can you beat
mine (worldDL)? Anyways, BA
(Balloonair) is a nice scroller arcade game with some faults here and there. In
BA, you control a colourful hot-air balloon (the model I appreaciate a lot)
whilst try to avoid mountains in the beautiful carpathian mapgen and sunsetting
skybox. If anyone asks me which of the game jam made best use of default
mapgens, it would be this one purely for aesthetic visuals alone.
However, the faults in BA really dampens the whole chill and relax experience.
Most prominently, the balloon's speed being too fast for the mapgen to catch
up - therefore interfering with the spawning of entities. One may say it's a
small technical detail, but considering that BA is a simple scroller game, you'd
think a lower-end PC or a mobile phone can handle it.
There's an old famous voxel game where you can build your own parkour maps. The name? Well...
Conclusion
Unfortunately, PK's (Parkour) potential is there but the execution is too
lackluster. The mechanics here felt too basic and the emphasis on physics isn't
even there. When I finished the short game, there's a feeling in me that says
"this can be better" and indeed it should.
Overall, I have to give this one a thumbs down for the gamejam. I'll return it
to a thumbs up once its over, since PK is exactly a parkour game. Everything
here is just so bland and uninteresting, it even uses the sam model. I can
probably make this one myself in MTG if I wanted to, but I rather not make
something so uninspired. I will return once this has become something much more
than a stripped-down minigame.
"Studies show humans frown on weight variances; Our survey reveal you frown most."
Conclusion
AT (Alter) is a game about mirrors and everything mechanically interesting when
you begin to think what your action will do to the mirrored world. In this
respect, AT has attained what i sought for when i think of a puzzle game based
on mirrors. The mechanics here while deceptively simple are showcased rather
wonderfully in all of the levels. In some respect, this reminded me of the
beginning of NC (Nodecore) as you start to unveil the ruleset one by one. Fantastic!
Anyways, like most good puzzle games, the graphics are... uninteresting. I'm
sure many players would care less for graphics than good levels in a puzzle
game. In addition, the player has a familiar company - one that i would call
overplayed or oversaturated and it really shows here as i felt that it entire
presenece was rather unnecessary. AT (as of this review) doesn't really need the
overseer now does it?
Overall, AT did accomplished being a somewhat difficult and decently interesting
puzzle game. I would very much would love to see more of it.
With great powerups, come great responsibility... to blow stuff up!
Conclusion
Disclaimer: I did not install this, only played on the server.
BB (BlockBomber) is a really, really, good clone of bomberman. In my opinon, it
does everything right with its own aesthetics while still being familiar to
anyone that have ever played bomberman before. BB still manages to pull off
despite the limitations of MTE.
My only serious suggestion is to add A.I. non-players so BB can be played even in
"singleplayer" (still hosted of course). Not really necessary to BB, but being
able to play around in while waiting for players is nice.
Horribly unfinished. So too is this review, not to be harsh, but because i
really have no idea what this game is supposed to be. Whenever a more complete
release is made i will re-review this game appropiately. I wish the best of luck
to the developers.
Working with what i can see
I believe MTR (spMeTeR) is an attempt at an RPG(?) game with a fixed map(?).
Naive glance on codeberg shows no crafting recipes, so i don't think the stock
crafting UI is necessary. Additionally, the way resources work currently makes this a
really grindy game. Overall, i have to give a thumbs down because of how utterly
unfinished this is.
More crucially(!), i have to kill this
cute blob of dirt.
How dare you force my hand. -1
Labryinth... with a nice twist! AND it has sick tunes!
Conclusion
There's a lot more to say about JE (Jail Escape) than its parent, LB
(Labryinth). Its premise evolved from the lame "escape the maze game" into
"prisoner breakout" which is massively more interesting and entertaining.
Certainly a new breath of fresh air from the mechanical prototypical LB, as JE
wants to identify itself as more than just the dreaded "maze game". In other
words, this is the creative implementation that LB was missing back when I made
my review.
Ultimately however, JE still fall short on its own potential, just as LB did. I
wish the developer the best and hope to see future updates turning this game
into something better... perhaps a rougelite?
There's not a lot to say about LB (Labryinth), unlike say BW. There's no wasted potential here as the LB accepts that there's no potential to become more than a maze game in the first place. Despite my many criticisms, i can't really bring myself to give a non-recommendation because it's as advertised and the issues are quite minor. For people wanting to try out a maze game, LB is a marvelous beacon for what it stands for.
More in the comments...
Slated for re-review in the near future for the new release
Inflexible tool with certain limitations holding it back from being other than a concept.
"Anything beyond the naive simple things, you're better off just wasting seconds reloading your game than to waste many minutes to rework this tool into something to suit your purposes."
Simple, quick game that will leave you hollow before it has even begun.
Conclusion
I would describe BW (Box World 3D) as a genuine, earnest puzzle game with a highly wasted potential of being more than a completed prototype abandoned somewhere along the way. I wouldn't recommend this game to players for the lack of further push of the basic concept BW developed in both game mechanism and levels. However, as BW stands right now as a game, it's definitely enjoyable despite the very short playtime and rough edges. For that, i have to give a recommendation despite the critiques i have, so please try it! 👍
Boring. Stagnant. Players are better off installing modpacks from servers...
Conclusion
I do not recommend JG for any players whatsoever until the core gameplay of JG is established and harnessed to stand above and beyond MTG. Players are better off git cloneing modpacks from their favorite servers as they will be familiar with how it works. Albeit packing visuals and nicer ambiance, those are secondary to JG as it has no main leg to stand that justifies me to continue playing this game.
Inspired from Hugues Ross' analogy: JG represents a bloody raw pork (MTG) with some recently unfrosted side dish (mods), some nice garnish (textures) and ambiance (music). The dish is still awful because there's nothing notable that separates it from a bloody raw pork on a plate.
More in the comments...
Slated for re-review in the near future for the new release
An immersive "silent puzzler". Voxel building game optional.
In another voxel building game you might have heard of, building a simple house is as simple as punching a tree, interact with menus and "draw" lines of wooden blocks that will become walls and ceiling, ultimately pieced together as your house.
In Nodecore, before you even begin to idealize your house, you are tasked with the following: what are the ruleset of this game? That is one of the ultimate tasks that you will progress, before, during and after you've built your crude wooden home. The philosophy centering around avoiding explicit instructions allows Nodecore to become an enigmatic game with similarities to Understand and The Witness, which vastly entertained the puzzling mind inside me. Additionally, the limitations and mechanics in Nodecore is implemented such it is packaged with a well-rounded ruleset.
One of the realizations i made while playing Nodecore is when i create structures, which looks rudimentary in other voxel building games, whilst knowing that the precursory knowledge and resource is not trivial. In other words, buildings, monuments, etc are unique in more ways than simply aesthethics. They require understanding the limitations of the ruleset you've learnt, and then finding ways to overcome that limitation such that it becomes another rule in your corpus.
My main criticism would be forgetfulness, a burden that plagues humankind, even so far as to degrade my experience of Nodecore. I play Nodecore quite casually and do not play Nodecore often, resulting in higher probability of forgeting. In my opinion, this is the biggest hurdle for all casual players. There's many ways to solve this: the developer/community could make a (optional, separate) built-in reference, the developer/community could complete the wiki, the player could jot down notes, the player could create structures in-game to demonstrate a rule for their future-self, etc.
You have completed the building! You now have to build a review!
Conclusion
BNB (Build n' Buy) is a building game where you crawl back and forth from shops to your build site to replicate a build for cash money. The gameplay while not entirely original, managed to implement the core gameplay of Build Mart rather well albeit with some flaws. Most prominently, your movement is just too slow when the fast pacing of the original inspiration is considered. Another critique worth bringing up here is the textures. Reusing texture for both glass and wool is infuriating because there's not enough visual information to make them distinct. This critique is most clearly seen in this image; try and guess which is glass and which is wool.
Flawed gameplay aside, the textures look pretty good - just not very distinctive. Using Zughy's well-made textures is fine, but it's clearly not helping in this regard since soothing32 is made using a really limited palette and therefore very little unique or very small identifying features. I hope for a rework to easily identify the nodes as I'm scanning the inventory and shop. Anyway, the builds themselves are also cute and fits the themes of BNB's inspiration very well. I wish the music is tuned down a bit more and that more sounds are added to help with indicating the effect of the player's actions. Overall, BNB is executed acceptably despite the many shortcomings.
More in the comments...
Boring core gameplay with success on creating unique visuals.
ST (Stella) is a game where you realize what is meant by the words "repetition". No wait. ST (Stella) is a game where you long-
DIGto collect resources from "pools" and then stand still at certain parts of the island to allow it to slowly drink the resource. How unamusing this grindy experience have been. At least, I finally fulfilled all of the available task.I'll delve a bit more on gameplay: You spawn on a hexagon-grid island (which is genuinely an awesome visual +1). You're also given some attrocious dialogs (I don't dare run this on my phone, so this image is what it might look like). Continuing, the gist of the game is to use the appropiate tools to harvest certain resources to expand the island. Unfortunately, harvesting resources meant holding down
DIGto get more resources, not something more interesting like idle games or automation games (shapezio being the first to come to mind). LMD's choice of words being a "cookie clicker" is what i would agree with in regards to the gameplay, except that ST is missing the "idle" part. Additionally, expanding the island meant standing at one place while the island slowly drinks from your inventory, for all 10-50 items.In spite of the lacking gameplay, the visuals themselves are honestly quite decent and definitely stylistic. Hexagons wouldn't be the only non-MTE thing you'll see - cylinders are here too. Unfortunately, going off the visuals alone won't help. Garnish on raw meat is still raw meat of course. Aside, the lack of music and sounds readily become apparent when I "accidentally" fall into the ocean. Overall, the experience has been rather bleak to the point where I don't think I can pull off the usual full review.
Needs quite a lot of rework to be enjoyable. And there's an unsolvable level, whoops.
LZR (Lazarr) is a pretty meh puzzle game where you fiddle around with mirrors to direct the lasers into cube targets on certain sides. In LZR, there are laser sources which must be interacted using the fist to activate. Each level starts with the laser source turned off and contain lazer targets with specific orientations that only accepts an incoming laser from one side. To change the direction of the laser, mirrors are used. Mirrors can be rotated and behaves like a normal node being that you can break and place it down. The few available mechanics need more work, they weren't able to keep the levels interesting.
The levels must then be able to carry LZR because the mechanics are somewhat dull. Unfortunately, the levels are not very entertaining to me as it explores what I would consider surface-level ideas: "What if the laser source needs more mirrors to redirect it into the target?" "What if the laser sources are not on the same y-level?" "What if the there's ALOT of laser sources and targets?".
I stared at the description for a while and my confusion only spiraled further trying to understand how pirates and lasers connect - not well showcased in LZR either.
Overall, I have to give LZR a thumbs down. I had expected better from an older member of the MT community.
More in the comments...
Casual hack n' slash with insufficient mechanics to keep it interesting.
Conclusion
BZ (Berzerkpt, glad I use acronyms instead!) situates somewhere in the desert world of ancient Egypt where you play as a wanted rebel against pretty much everyone. Good premise! Anyways, the gameplay seems to be inspired by casual hack n' slashers as the player navigate through rooms slashing anything to avoid being killed. My initial hype quickly fades away as I reach the 10th-ish room. I realized that BZ is very repetitive, being limited to only a few rooms and a single enemy type.
Currently, BZ looks to be a good starting point to further develop into what might be a very enjoyable (rougelite) hack n' slasher. There's plenty of other avenues too, but the core gameplay seem to be set: slash your way forward. Presently, I give BZ a thumbs up as hard as I want to give a thumbs down. Although the sublime models, sprites, and sounds bothered me; BZ still is a playable hack n' slasher game.
More in the comments...
An opportunity struck by blunders.
As I scour the desert island for coconuts, a relentless piece of thought beckons me: why? The 99th (+ 20 + 8 + 4) coconut in sight, I picked it up. The lingering thought ever more nailed into my brain: why? I got the drill and continue to search for coconuts to express myself.
...
Conclusion
CC (Coconut Collection) is a game where i would pin it down as a tame experience of searching and long-digging coconuts. All 131 of them, with the painful breakneck subsonic speeds of about 4-5s per coconut. I-I think this is perhaps the most painful complete submission I've had the displeasure to review. There's no purpose or reason to play CC is there? Not even as a fun arcade. The original inspiration for CC, for a lack of a better phrasing, is equally unamusing.
Apologies to the developers for being rather incessantly harsh. However, I can see CC for what it is - a last ditch attempt from a blunder in planning. The idea to make a Fortnite clone in MTE isn't bad in of itself. But with a small window of a couple weeks, that idea was never gonna fly. At best, we could have gotten a buggy Fortnite clone, but CC is definitely isn't the worst thing to come out of this. Overall, it's clear that the developers mishandled the assignment for the game jam ("make a small, complete, self-contained game experience") and with this being the result of that blunder, I have to give CC a thumbs down.
I'll be on the lookout for the Fortnite clone. Let's hope it would be much more fun than CC.
WIP... too WIP
Conclusion
Horribly unfinished. So too is this review, not to be harsh, but because i really have no idea what this game is supposed to be. Whenever a more complete release is made i will re-review this game appropiately. I wish the best of luck to the developer.
Working with what i can see
I believe GTB (Grand Theft Box) is an attempt at a Grand Theft Auto-like(?) game in MTE. While the bike mechanics do work here (I'm not convinced by the premise), the rest of the gameplay feels more like a tech demo than anything else. My main issue being that GTB's only mechanic is the bike and that's all. What's stopping me from slapping a bike mod on MTG? Overall, I'm just disappointed by the incompleteness and the prototypical characteristics GTB exudes. I hope the developer(s) don't feel discouraged however, and continue to play around with MTE's capabilities. Perhaps in the future, they could be one of the first to make a GTA-like simulator using MTE.
🎵 So we back in the mine, got sam sprinting from side to side. Side, side to side. 🎶
Conclusion
SM (Subway Miner) is another scroller entry where you play as Sam running through the three-lane "underground" railroad system, collecting mese crystals on the ground for fun. This isn't a particularly original entry with original mechanics, but the execution here is high-effort enough that I can't bring myself to dislike it. Especially when place in the context of the often blocking MTE limitations.
As you might have guessed from SM's screenshot, this game uses actual models for the stranded cars and obstacles on the railroad tracks. Quite a lot of detail went into matching the style of the models together, but alas could not be matched with MTG's nodes. It's little faults like these that are ever present in SM, not only in the graphics department but so too music+sounds.
Overall, I would give this a recommendation. SM still is able to meet my expectations of a scroller game despite it's many spotty flaws. I hope more work is continued to polished the rough state of SM. Anyways, I managed a high score of 517 mese crystals and playtime of 0:06:11. It's not hard to beat, but I invite you to beat me anyways.
More in the comments...
WIP... too WIP
Conclusion
Horribly unfinished. So too is this review, not to be harsh, but because i really have no idea what this game is supposed to be. Whenever a more complete release is made i will re-review this game appropiately. I wish the best of luck to the developer.
Working with what i can see
I believe MG (Minegistic) is an attempt at a shapez io-like(?) game implemented in MTE. I understand that this is merely a beginner's attempt at doing something different to contribute for MTE. Game development is not something anyone can pick up immediately within a couple days. Most of the participants in the game jam have tons of experience beforehand. With this in mind, i hope the developer will regain their enthusiasm and further play around with MTE. Perhaps in the future, they will be able to revisit this idea that initially could not be executed today.
Fun fact: Snake cannot chew; they must swallow food whole. This snek eat mese blocks. Poor snek
Conclusion
S3D (Snake World 3D) is a game where you realize that you're not playing snake 2D. My point being that you should approach this as a different game with different reflexes. While some say the controls are difficult, what I think must happen is that S3D is to be introduced properly to new players within an easier arena. I managed a couple good beginning scores within a couple rounds, and I think so can you. Can you beat my high score of 57?
Aside, the graphics in this game while rudimentary, was definitely more appealing than the mere void approach. Sounds sit in the similar vein of being rudimentary. It's totally fine though, the 3D mechanics alone is enough to make up for the banality of it all. All in all, I would give this a recommendation! Try S3D for a couple short rounds, the controls really aren't all that bad 😄.
More in the comments...
"I only want the bitterness, its coffee, its grapefruit, its licorice." - Bennett Foddy
Conclusion
LL (Little Lady) is a maddening game where your patience and careful movement will be tested. Took me a long, long while to review this one. This is the type of games in the same vein as Getting Over It (with Bennett Foddy). It's not supposed to be fun in the usual way, like when you're playing a puzzle game or casual platformer. I'm not entirely sure if this design was intended, but LL was a real challenge to me most in part thanks to the ambiguity of nodeboxes and the corresponding model.
Anyways, the graphics here are quite unique in their own right. Never have MTE-based games ever had such heavy uses of models (kudos for creating autobox and using it). The UI/UX could use a bit of work in stylization but I think it's impressive enough as it is. The music is actually pretty good and fitting for the little ladybug. Previously, i've mistaken due to MTE bugging out with the sounds on Pipewire (probably due to my setup). Overall, I would not recommend LL to anyone as an enjoyable game, but instead recommend LL as a one-of-a-kind challenge.
More in the comments... (Last updated 2021-12-28 17:12 UTC)
UFO sighted! It's Moving at about 160 knots. It has an upright teardrop shap- huh? Hot-air balloon?
Conclusion
My high score is 31,241, can you beat mine (worldDL)? Anyways, BA (Balloonair) is a nice scroller arcade game with some faults here and there. In BA, you control a colourful hot-air balloon (the model I appreaciate a lot) whilst try to avoid mountains in the beautiful carpathian mapgen and sunsetting skybox. If anyone asks me which of the game jam made best use of default mapgens, it would be this one purely for aesthetic visuals alone.
However, the faults in BA really dampens the whole chill and relax experience. Most prominently, the balloon's speed being too fast for the mapgen to catch up - therefore interfering with the spawning of entities. One may say it's a small technical detail, but considering that BA is a simple scroller game, you'd think a lower-end PC or a mobile phone can handle it.
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There's an old famous voxel game where you can build your own parkour maps. The name? Well...
Conclusion
Unfortunately, PK's (Parkour) potential is there but the execution is too lackluster. The mechanics here felt too basic and the emphasis on physics isn't even there. When I finished the short game, there's a feeling in me that says "this can be better" and indeed it should.
Overall, I have to give this one a thumbs down for the gamejam. I'll return it to a thumbs up once its over, since PK is exactly a parkour game. Everything here is just so bland and uninteresting, it even uses the sam model. I can probably make this one myself in MTG if I wanted to, but I rather not make something so uninspired. I will return once this has become something much more than a stripped-down minigame.
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"Studies show humans frown on weight variances; Our survey reveal you frown most."
Conclusion
AT (Alter) is a game about mirrors and everything mechanically interesting when you begin to think what your action will do to the mirrored world. In this respect, AT has attained what i sought for when i think of a puzzle game based on mirrors. The mechanics here while deceptively simple are showcased rather wonderfully in all of the levels. In some respect, this reminded me of the beginning of NC (Nodecore) as you start to unveil the ruleset one by one. Fantastic!
Anyways, like most good puzzle games, the graphics are... uninteresting. I'm sure many players would care less for graphics than good levels in a puzzle game. In addition, the player has a familiar company - one that i would call overplayed or oversaturated and it really shows here as i felt that it entire presenece was rather unnecessary. AT (as of this review) doesn't really need the overseer now does it?
Overall, AT did accomplished being a somewhat difficult and decently interesting puzzle game. I would very much would love to see more of it.
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With great powerups, come great responsibility... to blow stuff up!
Conclusion
Disclaimer: I did not install this, only played on the server.
BB (BlockBomber) is a really, really, good clone of bomberman. In my opinon, it does everything right with its own aesthetics while still being familiar to anyone that have ever played bomberman before. BB still manages to pull off despite the limitations of MTE.
My only serious suggestion is to add A.I. non-players so BB can be played even in "singleplayer" (still hosted of course). Not really necessary to BB, but being able to play around in while waiting for players is nice.
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WIP... too WIP
Conclusion
Horribly unfinished. So too is this review, not to be harsh, but because i really have no idea what this game is supposed to be. Whenever a more complete release is made i will re-review this game appropiately. I wish the best of luck to the developers.
Working with what i can see
I believe MTR (spMeTeR) is an attempt at an RPG(?) game with a fixed map(?). Naive glance on codeberg shows no crafting recipes, so i don't think the stock crafting UI is necessary. Additionally, the way resources work currently makes this a really grindy game. Overall, i have to give a thumbs down because of how utterly unfinished this is.
More crucially(!), i have to kill this cute blob of dirt. How dare you force my hand. -1
Labryinth... with a nice twist! AND it has sick tunes!
Conclusion
There's a lot more to say about JE (Jail Escape) than its parent, LB (Labryinth). Its premise evolved from the lame "escape the maze game" into "prisoner breakout" which is massively more interesting and entertaining. Certainly a new breath of fresh air from the mechanical prototypical LB, as JE wants to identify itself as more than just the dreaded "maze game". In other words, this is the creative implementation that LB was missing back when I made my review.
Ultimately however, JE still fall short on its own potential, just as LB did. I wish the developer the best and hope to see future updates turning this game into something better... perhaps a rougelite?
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Bore yourself whilst listening to sick tunes.
Conclusion
There's not a lot to say about LB (Labryinth), unlike say BW. There's no wasted potential here as the LB accepts that there's no potential to become more than a maze game in the first place. Despite my many criticisms, i can't really bring myself to give a non-recommendation because it's as advertised and the issues are quite minor. For people wanting to try out a maze game, LB is a marvelous beacon for what it stands for.
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Slated for re-review in the near future for the new release
Inflexible tool with certain limitations holding it back from being other than a concept.
"Anything beyond the naive simple things, you're better off just wasting seconds reloading your game than to waste many minutes to rework this tool into something to suit your purposes."
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Simple, quick game that will leave you hollow before it has even begun.
Conclusion
I would describe BW (Box World 3D) as a genuine, earnest puzzle game with a highly wasted potential of being more than a completed prototype abandoned somewhere along the way. I wouldn't recommend this game to players for the lack of further push of the basic concept BW developed in both game mechanism and levels. However, as BW stands right now as a game, it's definitely enjoyable despite the very short playtime and rough edges. For that, i have to give a recommendation despite the critiques i have, so please try it! 👍
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Boring. Stagnant. Players are better off installing modpacks from servers...
Conclusion
I do not recommend JG for any players whatsoever until the core gameplay of JG is established and harnessed to stand above and beyond MTG. Players are better off
git cloneing modpacks from their favorite servers as they will be familiar with how it works. Albeit packing visuals and nicer ambiance, those are secondary to JG as it has no main leg to stand that justifies me to continue playing this game.Inspired from Hugues Ross' analogy: JG represents a bloody raw pork (MTG) with some recently unfrosted side dish (mods), some nice garnish (textures) and ambiance (music). The dish is still awful because there's nothing notable that separates it from a bloody raw pork on a plate.
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Slated for re-review in the near future for the new release
An immersive "silent puzzler". Voxel building game optional.
In another voxel building game you might have heard of, building a simple house is as simple as punching a tree, interact with menus and "draw" lines of wooden blocks that will become walls and ceiling, ultimately pieced together as your house.
In Nodecore, before you even begin to idealize your house, you are tasked with the following: what are the ruleset of this game? That is one of the ultimate tasks that you will progress, before, during and after you've built your crude wooden home. The philosophy centering around avoiding explicit instructions allows Nodecore to become an enigmatic game with similarities to Understand and The Witness, which vastly entertained the puzzling mind inside me. Additionally, the limitations and mechanics in Nodecore is implemented such it is packaged with a well-rounded ruleset.
One of the realizations i made while playing Nodecore is when i create structures, which looks rudimentary in other voxel building games, whilst knowing that the precursory knowledge and resource is not trivial. In other words, buildings, monuments, etc are unique in more ways than simply aesthethics. They require understanding the limitations of the ruleset you've learnt, and then finding ways to overcome that limitation such that it becomes another rule in your corpus.
My main criticism would be forgetfulness, a burden that plagues humankind, even so far as to degrade my experience of Nodecore. I play Nodecore quite casually and do not play Nodecore often, resulting in higher probability of forgeting. In my opinion, this is the biggest hurdle for all casual players. There's many ways to solve this: the developer/community could make a (optional, separate) built-in reference, the developer/community could complete the wiki, the player could jot down notes, the player could create structures in-game to demonstrate a rule for their future-self, etc.