The art style is just amazing. It also plays well. Good job

A little sound would make this so much better!

Anyways I love it (although it's not quite clear to me, what I am supposed to do :D", oh well)

A super pretty game and overall fun game idea. But I would have liked a clear goal with the game, and of course some music or/and some sound effects would have been great.

Mind. Blown. What an amazing looking game!

Gorgeous looking game. Fun to play, and more of an experience than a challenge. Sooooo wish you added audio to this!

This game is jaw-droppingly beautiful. I can't believe you achieved such a great aesthetic in only 48 hours with all your crazy family stuff going on. Great job.

Thanks for sharing your game!

The game looks really amazing! The only small things that don't fit the look are the legs and the arms. It would have looked better if they were also hand drawn. But I'm really impressed with the graphics!

The rules of the game were quite unclear. I got that you should push the cubes of the side to get the hearts, but you don't really know when and on which side the cubes will fall, so should you just stand under one side in the beginning and hope for the best? Also, is there a difference between the two types of cubes? Why is there a picture of one cube on the one side, and a picture of the other one on the other side, if I still get hearts when I push a circle cube of the left side, and vice versa?

Maybe some more instructions in the game description would help.

It looks good, runs well, and everything seems to work. I didn't really find anything about the gameplay that grabbed me, and some sound would have really improved the experience, but for a jam entry it's perfectly respectable.

There's a lot to like here. Off the charts in terms of looks: it looks great, is really well animated via algorithm in a way the gives a great robotic life to the character, and there are loving little details in the fire, trap doors, machines, and the "grand dump" of everything at the end. I'm blown away.

I would respectfully disagree with the other commenter asking for instructions. It's mere personal preference, but for me and my taste, I appreciated very much that you did NOT provide instructions. In a game where there are just two buttons and a few simple rules, you can seize the opportunity to give the player that extra pleasure of experimenting and exploring the unknown system. I think this is especially true in a physics-based game with a limited set of discrete possible outcomes. The downside risk is confusing the player beyond a reasonable/pleasurable amount and losing them, but I didn't experience that here. It's a risk, but I'm glad you took the chance, I enjoyed the rule-learning period.

My first run score was a bit more in the fire than not. I tried to do better, and I managed to lower that to 37 into the pit. I think there may be a small bug where after restarting the boxes which you succeed with do not become hearts and are not counted. For example: https://imgur.com/a/qoWx5

It's a shame there is no audio. With such an awesome presence in the visuals, it would be a bigger shame to detract with poor audio. But still... it all feels distinctly less real with a total lack of sound. But that's a jam for you - something comes up, and you cut scope, so nice work delivering anyway!

Great job.

(One last thought looking back at the screenshots: this is a 2D game, but it felt more realistic than that, and in retrospect I think it was a big deal that you drew the cubes in various states of angled perspective rather than as rot-locked squares. I played again looking just at this, and also noticed that slight camera rumble which plays nicely with the flicker overlay to give an old-timey feel that fits.)

Absolutely gorgeous game! It ran super smoothly on my machine and was very enjoyable to play. Only thing it was lacking was the sound. Solid entry, thanks for the game!

Can confirm the bug mentioned by @pkenney, after restarting the level, the hearts do not count anymore.

Other than that, some music would make it even more awesome!

ahhh 99 00 lets gooo! awesome art, super fun gameplay and cool physics. good job!

Great job on the visuals! Like all the others, I found myself wishing it had some sound to go with the aesthetics, but you can't always do everything.

As for the gameplay, I felt it took some time to really understand what was going on. Does it matter which side I drop the different coloured cubes in? Do I lose if I burn too many cubes? etc. but nothing that can't be figured out with a little trial and error. The core mechanics are solid and the physics and controls feel very nice (and it does work with a gamepad for the record).

*Thank you so much, everyone!* I was sad about the lack of sound, too, so I went ahead and did some foley / BFXR work. Combined with some dynamic volume and pitch control, I think it complements the game very well. I also added some simple instructions to clear things up.

When the game starts now, you can select the *ORIGINAL* version for the compo entry, or *ENHANCED* version to get the sounds, instructions, and all that. AND I fixed the bug y'all found... thank you!

That's very cool! I love the 3D pencil textures cubes! A little bit more warning before the cubes start falling would have been nice, at least in the first round.

Reminded me of old school linetest exercises!

Really good ! I'm stunned by the kind of things you can do by yourself ! I would love to do the same kind of stuff and you inspire me :-) (the sound version is cool ! the music could be have some variations, a build-up over the number of cubes on screen could do the trick :-) and quite easy to do) Some little colors could have been great to : in key item for instance as hearts, cubes and flames !
Big GG man !! See you around !
Our game : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/the-darkest-light

The hand drawn look for this is really well done. The balancing physics were on point as well, nice to see a game that is getting that right. Not sure if it's the background texture animating or if it's a shader doing the overall effect, but it would be a nice option to slow it down or disable it. It was neat, but it was messing with my vision a bit lol

i really loved the aesthetics of this game, i think you really got a great style going! the gameplay definitely had heart in it, and i did have fun. it was definitely missing sound (i'm aware you did a post-compo update to fix this though) and some sort of tutorial, but besides those things i thought it was a great entry! good work.

The art style of this game is really beautiful and unique! I couldn't really figure out what to do, so I burned most of the cubes :D but I had fun doing so!

Nice little game, graphics and wnimation are well done. Well i did'nt really understood what to do in the ludum Dare version, but it is nice. I liked the enhanced version too. Good job ;)

I love the graphics, the art style, and the game! Amazing!!

Just gonna copy what I said on the public post; Love the handdrawn look! Reminds me of Machinarium a bit! That’s a good thing! I must admit that I’m glad I’m not an epileptic because the film effect is almost stroboscopic, I would recommend making the lightness of each frame a bit more similar so that it doesn’t flash as much.

Awesome art style!

Really interesting game. Graphically, this is a gorgeous experience - maybe one of my favorites aesthetics which I have ever seen. The main game isn't bad, and controls work fine. You did a fun entry. Well done ++

Fantastic art, perfect for that relaxing mood, what I experienced. I really enjoyed playing with it.

Fun game! Great use of physics, and I love the hand drawn style. I played the LD version without reading any instructions and it was clear enough that I still figured out what to do. Also just wanted to say that's a cool idea putting the LD and post-jam versions in the same build with an option-- haven't seen that before.

cool art and fun neat game! why does this remind me of vectorman..

Like hand-drawn visual style! Vut can't understand purpose of the game...

Nice use of timing/pacing. I like the cohesive art style as well.

The graphic art was very good.

Not surprisingly, the soundtrack was quite lacking (and some sound effects).

Inside the game it was difficult to understand the goal, whether to throw the boxes off the platform or drop them to burn (as there are signs beside the incineration, I believed I would have to burn that type of box on that side, it got a bit confusing for me).

I also did not know how long it would take for the game to finish, so it got a bit complicated for me to have feedback (despite the scores below).

Really cool entry! I liked your beatiful graphics and animations!
Game is super polished.

The only thing - first play I have not checked the game descriptiona and played LD version, so it was a bit unclear that I should move boxes out of the fire. When I started the play it was obvious that I should catch them, but when amount of boxes raised I thougt that I need to both drop them and burn to make a score.

But then I checked your description and instructions in post LD version and realized the truth :)

I really like the handdraw style, and the game. Bravo!