The best game I've played since the Jam has started. The beginning is hilarious, hilarious cartoon violence. I literally kept playing the beginning cut-scene over and over again.

It was pretty funny! I had a blast playing this game. The cartoon style reminded me of the ASDF movies! Very well done!

@beanslasher Thanks for commenting! I'm glad you liked it. I uploaded a fixed version of the game just now because Level 7 is buggy, just incase you made it that far into the game/want to revisit it later.

I wasn't expecting too much going in, but this was actually incredibly fun. This thing is a gem! Managed to make it through to the end as well :D The graphics and voice acting were awesome, loved every bit. Gameplay was difficult, but pretty fair. I have 0 idea how I'd get the coins surrounding the turret. Congratulations on this thing, it was honestly so much fun playing through.

P.S. One of the levels I found out I could just... walk through the lava. On that specific level. It was an earlier level, with breaking blocks and a turret.

@mrpiedpiper Nice job making it to the end! The coins surrounding that last turret are a joke, since they're impossible to get, which is why the level is named "Don't Release It". I know about level 7 being broken, and I fixed that in the newer build I linked. Thank you so much for the review.

Edit: The newer build makes the game a little easier by the way, I thought the game's difficulty spiked at the previously mentioned level 7, which is why I tweaked it.

echoing other comments, definitely one of the most fun games i've played so far. nice game!

Pretty fun game. The juggling/multi-tasking was definitely hard given all the different keys you have to press, but I eventually got used to it.

Whew! I managed to beat it but it took a lot out of me. Overall I like your game, definitely on theme! The game my team made for this Jam is very similar (placing objects to steer a helpless create away from hazards).

There were a few levels where the timing was extremely tight between when you would get an item and when it was need (coupled with needing to switch to my shield to avoid incoming fire). I think if you want to keep the timing that tight, I would recommend giving the player more control over object placement. I would often over/under rotate or accidentally switch back to the arrow when trying to get the spring. If there were specific buttons for each thing (maybe WASD for up down left right arrow, Q for shield and E for spring) I think it would go a long way to lowering frustration without making it easier.

Overall, a solid game! Plus, I appreciate the cut-scenes : )

Yes, a fantastic gamejam game! I wasn't able to beat level 9 because I'm bad but this is the first entry that I'm definitely revisiting, kudos to your awesome level design and humor

lOVED IT. I MUST be dumb because i couldn't figure it out past lvl 3 already.. but i really love the idea and i love ur voice acting

@kosmo Thanks for the constructive criticism. I actually planned on using WASD to rotate the arrow, infact if you look at the source code there's a script called "todolist" where I have that unchecked. I personally found switching objects to be easy to do, since I designed the levels to use only 2 objects. The rotating/switching objects is part of the game's difficulty, so I don't want to change it too much, however, I'll patch in configurable controls in the future.

Trying unload the zip file, "The archive is either in unknown format or damaged". v1.0.1

@ismael-rodriguez That's strange... I haven't gotten that error, and I just tested out the game jolt download right now. It seems like an error with winrar, now that I realize it, I zipped the file with winrar instead of compressing it normally with winzip.

Try this mediafire download, since it takes way too long to upload stuff to gamejolt:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/vclh3gtzcgv0e31/Josh_Dumb_Windows_v1.0.1.zip/file

@catalystl that link worked for me.

Intro is great, cool funny/silly artwork.
Game is interesting. I like the little touches you have like the fireballs popping out the of the lava.

BUT...
Fumbling around with the keyboard keys was tricky. the 1 key, to the e key, to the 3 key, to the r key, to the enter key.

I think it would be better to have on screen buttons to select your inventory and such, right click to rotate objects. I hit a point where I know what the solution is, but I fumble around trying to learn the keys rather than getting into a flow. I wanted to continue playing and see more of your humor and cut scenes, but I can't get past the frustrating controls.

@ismael-rodriguez Thanks for the feedback. Screen buttons would be easier to understand, but the game's challenge/fun comes from the quick switching between your shield/cursor/objects. Having to move your mouse to a section of the screen would make the game impossible in certain sections, like in Level 7.

I'm sorry that you can't get past the controls. I'll upload a patch that lets you configure the controls when I can if that helps. Other than that, if you're having trouble, try strategizing by breaking blocks when Josh isn't in danger, and keep in mind that the arrows are rotated clockwise.

If you ever go back to this game, I suggest trying to play the game up to level 6 because my sister, who doesn't have the best reaction speed was able to make it there and get more out of the experience.

Either way, thank you for trying it out.

Probably my favorite so far, so well made and really funny! Pretty hard though, took a while to get used to

Lost it at "CUT THIS PART OUT" but I might be too dumb to do well at this game. Loved the art and voice acting, love the juggling of items and tasks, but wish it was a little more forthcoming in what items actually do, if that makes sense. It's easy to be overwhelmed at the very start - something like a "press enter to begin" would go a long way, I think.

@otterdisgrace Well it says to press enter to continue when you beat a level, are you saying you should press enter to start a level once you reach it? If so, I actually considered that but I ran out of time to add it. I'm going to add it in the Post-Jam version.

Had a lot of fun once I got the hang of it. Got stuck on level 6 though, there seems to be no way past the turret without the shield breaking. For something like that, try to introduce and make obvious the mechanic you want the player to use in a previous level

This is actually a really nice game. I like the aesthetic of it as well as the gameplay concepts. The intro sequence is just a blast.
The thing that's a bit annoying is that the game doesn't pause when displaying hints, so that one never has time to read the hints.

Wow, it's funny and so challenging! An awesome first jam game! You get your best of your time. I want to see a video of someone beating it, bc T JUST CAN'T! HAHAHA KUDOS

@rsninjadev Your shield breaks when it gets too close to the turret, this is to stop from cheesing the game. I will add that in text form in level 4 when the shield is introduced. Thanks for the feedback!

@toddthewraith I'm adding a fix for that in the post-jam version.

Josh ain´t be Joshin around when it comes to giving his boi the milk.
Super well polished guys :ok_hand:

am I allowed to curse here ? lol...
first of all Function you too!


second of all what a blast... this easily my favorite entry so far... well except for mine of course :P
great job. I almost gave up on level 9.
level 10 seemed easier than 9 at first but nooooooooooo

and if you told me that you can collect the things around the canon on level 9 I will choose not to believe you ok? I collected all POSSIBLE tokens. and beat the game. good night.

I had a blast playing this. really good job. and also I love the intro I had to watch it again.
the intro is funny I had to restart the game
Fantastic.

edit: oh and that last jump on level 9. I was going to punch someone ;D

I just finished the game again because Its so awesome. piece of cake now :)

I didn't play a lot of games yet, but I can say this is the best one so far!
I think the difficulty curve should be a little bit slower if this to be released as a full game, and I really thing it should be! with some polishing and enough time put in puzzle design, this can be a full game, and it's perfect for mobile controls for a higher market

good job guys

Thanks to everyone for the feedback! I uploaded the post-jam version of the game to the game jolt page just now. Here's what I added:

* Control configuration
* WASD to rotate arrows
* You can bind the arrow/spring to a certain key
* Right click to start each level on the first attempt
* Josh's brother's "shirt" says COOL GUY on it in the ending cutscene (no way)
* Font has lowercase letters, making it easier to read
* Bad ending music

I was originally going to add more to the update, but because this took a while to do, I'm uploading it in its current state and adding onto it in the future. I'll post another comment here when that's finished. Sorry for the wait, and thanks for sticking with me if you're reading this.

It's pretty fun but the difficulty goes up way too quickly.

Best intro and game name ever! The premise is hilarious and the gameplay definitely has potential. I'm not a fan of Josh starting off already running and think the game would be just as interesting if you could set everything up the way you want it then press the "Josh GO" button. I also found myself fighting with the controls a lot. I knew what I wanted to do, but between pressing 1 to cycle and pressing 3 I was constantly not doing what I wanted to do. This frustration was amplified being on a timer with Josh starting off already running. Since you have mouse controls already, why not let the player directly click on the upper menu which would put the desired piece into the cursor, then click again to place it? Destroying rocks could be just another item on that menu (like dynamite) and with limited charges would make things pretty interesting. Like I said, the premise really sold me on this game and it's very impressive for your first game jam. Looking forward to playing more of your jam games in the future!

@flyingbear Thanks for the really detailed criticism! Controls using the mouse to switch to different things wouldn't really work out (because of the strict time periods between switching and placing things later in the game), however, now that I'm thinking about this again, I realize that on mobile you could use two fingers to do it easily so if I ever get around to porting this to mobile I'll definetely include that.

Because the challenge of the game is the juggling between tasks quickly, being able to place things before Josh starts moving would point/challenge of the game. I think most people give feedback on how the game is too hard to manage because it looks like a puzzle game when you first start playing but technically it's a real time strategy game with light puzzle elements.

Also I like how you were sold on the premise because the name Josh Dumb because personally the stupidness of the name would make me want to check it out if I glanced at it, and it's funny to see that someone else was interested in it for that reason.

It was hard ;_; But the story is really fun, congrats :)