The 12 days of Itchmas #3 (December 2023)

Did some more catching up on the Itchmas games today.

Franken
Nice little game. Not much in terms of gameplay but I really enjoyed the graphics. The writing gave me Undertale vibes.
I'd be interested to see if the dev is ever planning to make a bigger, more fleshed out game.
Looks like they're first and foremost an illustrator/artist though. They have a website full of neat character designs and I also saw that they made a whole "fake" beastiary/game manual for a game that doesn't actually exist that's full of really fun sprite art. They got talent there.

Yoshi Goes To Tesco
After the reception from other people, I expected much worse, I think. lol
This wasn't great of course. It's obviously a shitpost, even the dev admits that, and there is a bunch of grating old memes and juvenile humor in there. But it did make me chuckle once or twice and I was actually surprised to see a functioning puzzle or two in here.
Also, I too prefer the femboy-chemicals-induced tap water over expensive bottled water.

Sandtrix
Was excited to finally give this a shot. Fun game! It's a bit wild how the simple sand gimmick completely changes the entire dynamic of Tetris. Took me a minute to re-adjust my brain. But once I got a hang of how you have to weave and layer the colored sand, I got into the groove pretty quickly. It's interesting how the block shapes are almost completely pointless in this version of the game but the long, straight piece still reigns supreme because of how much ground it covers. I thought that was funny.
I played for around 20 minutes. Did the "Clear 40" game mode in 6mins. Then went for the Endless mode where I survived for 8mins 23secs. 60 clears and a score of 109.632 points.
I could see myself going back to this as a podcast game and I definitely plan on buying that extended/enhanced Sandtrix+ on Steam sometime.
Also super happy that other people here enjoyed this as well!

Pigeon Ascent
Neat little game. I liked the art. Would be cool if it was fleshed out a bit more. I think it would have potential for something more.

The Anglerfish Project
Good vibes, decent writing, nice visuals. Maybe just a tad too long but solid execution.

Going to play the rest of the Itchmas games some other day. Really enjoyed my little marathon this evening though.

- Matt

Feather Park was cute. Birds+Autumn is a good thing. I liked the jazzy sort of music.

So just beat Pigeon Ascent. Yeah it was alright. Basic little RPG about increasing the right skills to get through the game. Could do with more but can't say there is nothing too bad about the concept

I liked the look and music of Chalk Gardens, but especially the look of it had lots of fun things. Sweet little thing. I wish you could click through text since I read faster than it would go by. I feel like it could have used something more but I'm not sure what.

So this is how I would rank this year's itchmas games (or at least the ones I played):

1. The Anglerfish Project - Loved the writing, the setting, and the gameplay. I very much enjoyed the story and its resolution- I got the go to the lighthouse ending. Ultimately this felt like one of the few "complete" games we played this year.

2. Lookouts - Again, loved the writing, but also loved the art. The story hooked me in and pulled at my emotions in a nice way, and I was glad to see everything resolve how it did. This also felt like a complete game, which was nice.

3. Feather Park - The worst thing was its simplicity - I would have liked to see some more complexity in the minigames. However, it was a fun little game and put together really well. Overall I enjoyed my short time with it and didn't run into anything I didn't like.

4. Chalk Gardens - I low-key dislike the art (just a taste thing), but I enjoyed the gameplay enough and exploring the world was fun.

5. Sandtrix - Really liked this take on a familiar formula, but I'm not much of a leaderboard/high score chaser, so there was very little depth in it for me.

6. Soundmarine - Loved the style and concept, but was way too short and very much a prototype that would be cool if it were developed further.

7. Pigeon Ascent - Eh... not a fan. The gameplay was boring and its simplicity worked against it in this case. I would have liked to see some kind of reason behind it all.

8. Tinkercore (retired) - I'm not big on GBA style games... this was no exception.

9. Yoshi Goes To Tesco (retired) - I'm sorry I spent any time on this juvenile turd.

I didn't play the others because they didn't look like something I would enjoy. Overall though, just like every itchmas, I like that we had a bit of variety and some really interesting entries that were surprising and fun.

So just beat Pigeon Ascent. Yeah it was alright. Basic little RPG about increasing the right skills to get through the game. Could do with more but can't say there is nothing too bad about the concept

So anyway what I thought of Tinkercore... thought it was meh. Can't say it was bad for a game jam game but it severly needs more fleshing out. The rock, paper scissors style gameplay can and does work in RPGs (looking at you persona and Octopath) but you can't relie fully on it and more needs to be done. In the end you just do the same moves multiple times on a boss until it goes down. It does not offer enough to be of any interest

Okay now done Lookouts not sure what I think really. Yes I thought it was well written but kind long winded. It also didn't feel written for me. I geuss it's good but not something that I was fully enthusied with

Top 3 (at least so far, I haven't played Tinkercore or Haunted Cities Vol.4 yet.)

1.Lookouts
2.The Anglerfish Project
3.Franken RPG

As for the rest there were some nice little game jam games which I liked well enough Feather Park, Pigeon Ascent. And MapFriend and Sandtrix are also worth noting. And then of course there's the worst of the bunch Yoshi Goes to Tesco which just fell flat pretty much immediately.

Okay been busy last couple of days should get the last two done the day before xmas eve. Still the angelfish project interesting concept and doesn't outstay it's welcome. Liked a bit more on the foundation and the was a bit too much wandering between angles. Still liked the idea

Just beat Feather Park reminded me a bit of A short Hike specifically in the art style. It was a series of small mini games. I can't say much else it was alrtight some were better then others

And now the final game Chalk Garden is done. Yeah that was fairly cute little game I think I got the bad ending I'm not sure if you can find the leg or not but I didn't have enough hats to continue but I think if I find the right path I can reach the good ending by making the right decisions. I'll write up the final review and them give my ranking of the itch.io games

Ranking:
12th Yoshi Goes to Tesco
Completion December 12, 2023
Main Story 28m 25s
Review:
A weak and poor attempt at lol so random humour. Offers nothing of value what so ever. May have a trojan as Norton picked it up as a threat
1/10
11th Haunted Cities Volume 4
Completion December 10, 2023
Main+Extras 59m 45s
Notes All stories
Review
A series of four short stories rammed into a game with very little gameplay. These stories don’t feel like they need a game to be enjoyed and there needs to be better reasons to have these stories written as a game.
4/10
10th MapFriend
Completion December 02, 2023
Main Story 10m 29s
Review
An interesting concept which needs more fleshing out and better foreshadowing.
5/10
9th Tinkercore
Completion December 16, 2023
Main+Extras 1h 8m 59s
Review
Tinkercore is a GBA style RPG which uses Rock, paper scissors as it’s mean emphasis for combat. While not a bad idea it is in a severe need of fleshing out as bosses end up just a slug fest as you wait to out damage your enemy. It doesn’t do enough with it’s system to be of any interest.
5/10
8th Pigeon Ascent
Completion December 14, 2023
Main Story 7m 50s
Review
Simple little RPG pigeon fighter basically about increasing the stats of your character. Doesn’t offer much but for the most part the game isn’t bad.
6/10
7th Feather Park
Completion December 23, 2023
Main Story 6m 28s
Review
A series of mini games. Some good some alright nothing spectacular but was well developed
6/10
6th Lookouts
Completion December 17, 2023
Main Story 3h 9m 56s
Review
A well written Visual novel that and can be long winded but ultimately I felt wasn’t for me. I can see why people like it but I wasn’t enthused
7/10
5th Chalk Gardens
Completion December 23, 2023
Main Story 16m 57s
Review
A rather cute little puzzle adventure game but is based on picking up hats and finding the right solution to continue. It can end abruptly though if you don’t make the right paths but still it is well thought out and allows to finish if you can’t carry on with a decent ending
7/10
4th Soundmarine
Completion December 02, 2023
Main Story 3m 15s
Review
A fun little game with layered music where picking up picks ups increases the layers. It is only a single song though and more songs would’ve been great. A great concept which could be fleshed out into a full game
7/10
3rd anglerfish project
Completion December 21, 2023
Main Story 33m 48s
Review
An interesting concept about angling for transmissions. Wandering between transmissions can take time though and I would like the foundation fleshed out more but for what it was worth defiently an interesting idea
7/10
2nd Sandtrix
Completion December 13, 2023
Main Story 8m 56s
Review
Sandtrix is a unique twist on tetris where the block turn into sand once they hit the ground and to create a line in this game you must have a colour connected to both side of a map without any other colour in the way. I can see this being an addictive game to play but it is definitely a harsher challenge then tetris and does a poor job of explaining the rules (you only find out after you get your first line).
8/10
1st Franken RPG
Completion December 11, 2023
Main+Extras 1h 40s
A fun and quirky RPG which wears it’s Earthbound/ Undertale inspiration on it’s sleeve. Where it lacks the interaction in the game it makes up with it’s writing and willingness to break the fourth wall and mess with the gameplay loop.
8/10

Alright, I'm a bit late to the party but here are my general thoughts and ratings on the games for this Itchmas.

Soundmarine
Soundmarine was pretty cool for a short little experience. I liked it visually and the music was pretty solid. I do wish it did a bit more, but it was fun regardless. I did have some issues with wonky hitboxes where I would pass through notes where they wouldn't trigger along with me not even being close to mines before they would trigger for no reason and give me a game over. Neat little experience overall but I have nothing else really to say.
6/10

MapFriend
Mapfriend was an interesting horror game. I really like the concept here, but it definitely needs a bit more work overall. I really like the google maps aesthetic and I think it could be even better with more things the player can interact with. I wish the puzzles were a little bit more interesting than just clicking on a sight with your mapfriend and then collecting an orb. The horror elements kinda fell flat with me not really knowing what was going on, along with its overall lack of buildup. Definitely an interesting concept that I would like to see explored more of.
6/10

Haunted Cities Vol 4.
Haunted Cities is a collection of 4 short indie horror games created by Kittyhorrorshow. I'll give my thoughts for each game down below.

-Grandmother’s Garden
Grandmother’s Garden was definitely an interesting experience. This one definitely left me with quite a heavy sense of dread while trying to figure this game out, thanks to the morbidly cryptic writing and certain ramblings by the main character. The sound design was solid, and so was a lot of the horror. I’m not entirely sure what the story was about or if there is more to the ending besides just digging, but this was interesting regardless. I do wish this game allowed you to sprint indoors and had less of a long walk between each moment as I did find that to drag on a bit.

-Exclusion Zone
Exclusion Zone was an interesting little walking simulator. I liked being able to check out all of the different locations of the fictional religious compound while trying to piece together what exactly happened here. The music and ambiance were good, along with the general black-and-white appearance of things. This one wasn't particularly scary, but it was cool nonetheless. I kind of wish everything wasn't just a wall of text whenever you reached a new section, but I understand why it did so.

-Lethargy Hill
Lethargy Hill was pretty scary. I really enjoyed how the story was told by just letting you walk around an almost empty surrounding while text appeared on the screen. The story itself was quite solid and reminded me heavily of those "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" books that scared the heck out of me when I was younger. I do think the story began to drag out a bit near the end, but it was pretty scary nonetheless. I really liked how the surroundings became more Hellish as the tale progressed, which led to me feeling incredibly scared by the time the story began to wrap up. I really liked this experimental little horror game.

-Tenement
Tenement was kind of lame overall. I can't say I was super impressed with the overall story here as there really isn't anything I could figure out from it. Most of the text from the interactable NPC's just seems to be ranting about somethings in the world like alleyways, hotels, and buildings, which I found to be a lot less interesting than the stuff from the prior games. The overall level design and way to finish the game was really quite confusing and didn't really have a great payoff at the end.

Overall Haunted Cities Vol 4 Score: 8/10

Franken
Franken was pretty good. I liked its artstyle that was inspired by Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. The humor was mostly on point and the enemy variety and visuals were great. The music was also pretty solid. I really enjoyed the final boss fight and the overall corny ending. I recommend this game.
8/10

Yoshi Goes to Tesco
I wasn’t able to download this game which kind of sucks. I don’t really have anything else to say about it.

Sandtrix
Sandtrix was a pretty interesting spin on tetris. Having to match colors based on sandy shapes was super weird and kind of frustrating at first, but I began to like it a lot more as I played it. Besides that, this was a pretty neat little game that I may go back to in the future.
7/10

Pigeon Ascent
Pigeon Ascent was pretty fun, albeit a bit too short. I liked it's visuals and it's quick gameplay is pretty basic and fun. I do wish it was a bit harder overall and that it wasn't only 5 minutes long to complete.
7/10

Tinkercore
Tinkercore was just ok. I wasn't super interested in the story and the overall combat was pretty boring once you get the hang of the rock paper scissors system. I like that this one at least tries to be a proper turn based RPG unlike the others so far in this event, but it ultimately just kinda left me bored. Also, I don't get why every single enemy near the end of the game is weak to the first attack option? By the end I really just felt like I was spamming the z button with little to no thought to finish the game. The artstyle was extremely messy and just not great to look at when compared to most other GBA esque games.
5/10

Lookouts
I’m not a big visual novel fan so this game really didn’t grab me and I retired it due to me not personally enjoying it and it’s longer length. Lookouts seems to be pretty well written and the artstyle is pretty cool, but I just can't get past this being a visual novel personally. I’ll not include it in my overall ranking as I haven’t fully finished it so I can’t give it a proper score or opinion

The Anglerfish Project
I personally really enjoyed it. I liked walking around the small planet and casting the probe into the rifts, it was quite soothing. The story was interesting, but I do wish it elaborated more on what the foundation was or what was going on with all that.
8/10

Feather Park
Feather Park was a pretty fun and short game. I liked each of the minigames, but I did wish there was a bit more to the game besides the 4 minute experiences.
7/10

Chalk Garden
It was ok, nothing that really blew me away. The choices sections were kind of interesting and the visuals were fun but I don't have much else to say about it.
6/10

Overall Ranking
1. Franken RPG
2. Haunted Cities Vol 4
3. The Anglerfish Project
4. Sandtrix
5. Pigeon Ascent
6. Feather Park
7. Mapfriend
8. Soundmarine
9. Chalk Garden
10. Tinkercore

sorry to say that nominations have already closed and we're well into the 12 days - there will be another chance next year, or with itchmas in July ;)

ok