really cool concept ! and well polished. I love the simplicity and all looks nice. Congrats.This is a game I would play if it was a commercial one.

The music slaps! It would have been great to have a little more feedback on the pixel cooldown, but great super fun game!

Really good game! I couldn't stop playing it. The gameplay was amazing and the tutorial was intuitive. The only "bad" thing I could think of was that my clicks felt unresponsive at times but it wasn't a big deal :)

@roughskin @kazuren Thanks for the heads up about the slow controls! I am uploading a build that will fix that issue right now!

Great execution, definitely feels like you had a plan that you knew how to accomplish

My only complaint is that the early game feels a bit slow to get through after a while - maybe there could be more kinds of spawn patterns to break it up

@yokin I just balanced the game so it is a bit more interesting early on! Thanks for the feedback!

I enjoyed the idea of needing to stay on screen quite a bit. Needing to make sure I don't overshoot. Not instantly dying just because I touched an enemy, which let's me knock them around too is quite fun.

Well done and looks nice :)

This is one of the top games I've played so far. Its very conceptually similar to my entry, but I feel Pixel Panic is much more polished and well presented!

The game was super fun and clean to play
i went to over a minute)))0)
well done

Full release when

Looks like good time-killer for android, good job =)

This game is great! I really wish there was a leaderboard so I could compete with my friends.

Great job, the slowmo effect was spot on and the physics felt good. As others have said, would love to play this on my phone :)

cool game, i like the minimal graphics, got like 39 seconds time :)

Really nice game! The music can get a bit stressing after some time though

Really enjoy playing it! It's so cool and fluent!

Really well done! Very interesting take on the theme. Feels really smooth and fluent to play. Cool!

Wow, this is such an effective and simple design, instantly fun and addictive. Congrats!

I played pretending to be in space. got addicted.

Very simple but solid jam game. The core gameplay loop is quite engaging!

I can also appreciate the very detailed tutorial you have included. Maybe it taught be too much - it could have been fun to learn different pixel mechanics on the fly.

My maximum record is 29.1.
Matrix in the world of pixels

Very fluent gameplay! Really cool

Wow! Nice take on the theme!!

One of the most creative game on this jam!

So simple and so fun!!!!

Well done!

Simple but fun, I really enjoyed the game! My max score was 30 :D

Amazing game, a really simple mechanics but so effective. It's super polished in terms of graphics and sounds. good job :D

I like the games based on some sort of cool mechanics. Perfect product from start to end!

Really fun! I like the feel and concept. Simple yet effective. The different enemy types were really neat as well. The way time slowed down gave me Matrix/Super-Hot vibes and was awesome.

This was a fun game! The sound effected and the slow down when you click really gave it a fun feeling!

Really fun game. Nice Visuals and really great audio design!

Definitely the most fun game I've played so far in the jam. It reminded me of Superhot kinda, although the gameplay is completely different. Big dub imo

Very polished game and an awesome aesthetic. One of the most fun games I've played this jam!

Well done!

The music bops! Really cute and fun game!

The game is cool! It is fun even without any graphic. The motion for different blocks is smooth and this seems to be a game that can be played for a long time.

I wasn't ready for big ennemies, I was like "this game is too easy". I loved the slow time feature, it feels good. Simple to learn (intuitive), great game!

This was awesome ! Easily the most fun game i played yet, looooved the music and sound design, the slowmo feels really great, and you nailed the difficulty increase over time. Congrats !

I love the simple graphics and amazing music, a simple concept accomplished well

Bright spot required ahead, try running.

Great idea for a game! I had a lot of fun!

Very nice game and super clever take on the theme, I liked that you pushed the detail to give the score in nanoseconds :thumbsup: and it's also surprisingly playable given the hectic pace and speed of the pixels ! great idea, good job !

44.7 best here.

The extra effort put into the tutorial really shows. It was done very cleanly and you delayed the Next button such that the player had to practice at least a little bit. That gave me a lot of time to fully understand how the AI of each square worked.

Conserving momentum through your dashes is something I haven't seen in these types of controls and I think it was a fantastic choice. You wind up with less control and now had to factor in 3 things before letting go: what your current velocity is, where you're aiming, what obstacles are around you. That extra 3rd variable creates a lot of depth for a small mechanic!

The game speed was an interesting mix. On one hand, it plays so fast that it would be suicidal to stay on normal speed. On the other hand the slowdown mode makes it very easy to analyze what's going on. I think for gameplay reasons this is a good mix, but there were times where I wanted to sit back and revel in the chaos but couldn't as a result.

The ideas all work very well and the execution is very high. There's just a lot of nice touches to everything. From the font choice to the power gauge. Well done :)

Very nice, fits great to the jam theme - tried a few times and got up to 35ish seconds on screen, but as soon as some green and blue buddies are around, gets really tricky. Super fun, will try again tomorrow! Cheers!

@peachtreeoath Thank you for writing such a detailed review!

I put a lot of thought into the construction of this game, and I am glad you noticed!

In regard to watching the chaos unfold, I wanted to implement a feature where a player gets to watch a real-time playback of their run at the end.

This real-time playback would allow the player to see all of their cool dodges and close calls over the course of their run. However, Construct 3 does not have good support for such a feature, so the idea had to be dropped. I would still like to implement some sort of feature like that if I go for a full release.

Thank you again for your detailed feedback!

@ideaspersecond oh man that'd be so cool. It's kinda like when you beat Civ and it quickly replays how the world changed over time. It's just nice to sit back and appreciate what you just did. That'd be very nice to have in!

@peachtreeoath Exactly!

Absolutely polished and really fun mechanics! The simplicity of the game combined with the depth of the movement mechanic made this game a joy to play. I suppose my only feedback would be that it's tough to gauge the current direction whenever you're aiming your next shot. I would have liked if there was a "current direction" or some way to see your current movement vector. Other than that, this is a great game that I could see expanded upon if you wanted! Great submission!

I really loved playing this one! In terms of this jam, I think it's the one that does "easy to learn, hard to master" the best. The simplistic mechanics, combined with the physics on enemy cubes result in a surprisingly amount of gameplay depth. One can't just simply sit in the middle of the screen and move around slightly-you have to be moving around in order to get the velocity of enemies high enough to cause them to skyrocket off the screen, or to get them to run into each other and cause them to ping off. As a result of that, along with the introduction of new enemy types, gameplay gets very hectic quickly and it is glorious to behold. The graphics and audio are very simple here, but I don't think I'd want it any other way. With a game this fast-paced and hectic, the simple presentation allows players to focus on the game and responding to enemy manuevers.

Overall, good concept, excellent execution, and great submission. Good job!

very nice game! On my first try I got kicked out on the first pixel, but then I managed 40 seconds.
There aren't many rules - just go for it and have fun - I like that.
The control also feels very smooth.

@proxy-games Thank you for your in-depth review! You are completely correct when it comes to your breakdown of Pixel-Panic.

I wanted to craft a simple, yet complex game, with deceptively easy mechanics paired with frenetic gameplay that is hard to master. This is partly why I spent a fair part of the jam crafting an interactive tutorial, as I did not want players to be confused by the core mechanics of the game.

Ideally, players should be comfortable with the controls, so they can focus on the action.

You also nailed why the graphics are so simple. I found that extremely simple graphics make this game manageable. With more complicated textures, the game becomes graphical overwhelming, and unfun to play.

Overall, your breakdown of Pixel-Panic is completely accurate and I do not think I could have explained why the game works better myself!

Thank you again for taking the time to write such an in-depth review!

Great concept, execution and polish. You really nailed the "juice". Well done!

Very nice game, ready to be released on mobile ! Great concept, great execution, controls are smooth, bullet time is bug-free, impressive entry ! Thank you for submitting this !

@javasaurus Thank you for playing it on stream! I really enjoyed watching your coverage of other games and the chill atmosphere for your stream! You have earned a new follower here!

This is by far the best game this LD that I have played so far!
The graphics are simple but super clean and clear, the audio fits perfectly and the gameplay is just amazing. Such a simple concept in theory but beautifully executed.
The difficulty ramps up just in the right pace, so that starting over doesn't feel annoying and it always has the "one-more-round" feeling.
Also the different enemy types are awesome.
The only thing that would make this game even better is an online leaderboard. But other than that it's pretty much perfect.

And I managed to get a score of 54.6 which I'm pretty proud of :)


@stefan-laimer 54.6 nanoseconds is a VERY good time! Nicely done!

I really wanted to reduce frustration with additional runs of the game, as it happens ALOT. The “one-more-round” feeling was exactly what I was going for!

I was not able to implement an online leaderboard in time, which is unfortunate as that would have made the game actually competitive.

Thank you for your detailed feedback!

This is a personal recommendation, but I feel like the game might be even more fun without the slowmo. The slowmo kind of makes me want to hold it down all the time, which makes the game feel really slow instead of needing good reaction time

OR what if the slowmo was limited by a timer? Like after 3 real-time seconds it launches you if you don't release it

Great take on the theme and super satisfying controls, definitely has the "just one more go" effect that makes arcade games so fun. Love the visual style too, incredibly clear what's going on while still being stylish. Great job!

@yokin I agree, but I did not have time to fully playtest a limit on the slowmo mode. It makes gameplay a bit more complicated to balance, so I left it out. If I decide to develop the game further, I would put a limit in for sure!

Nice game!
Tutorial implementation is intuitive.
I especially like that the player bounces from screen borders in the tutor.

But after some tries I've found myself on a weird thought that I don't play the game in real-time.
It's nearly always in slow motion.
And there is no any penalty for holding left mouse button all the time.
I guess some kind of stamina could make the gameplay a bit deeper.

I like this game very much. Highly polished minamalistic gameplay and art work together perfectly.
I think it's would look realy nice on smartphones.

Reminds me of one of Dani's games.
Nice music, but it looks like you opted out of that category.
I don't know what game engine you are using (if one at all) or if it supports it, but please port this to Android. I think it'd work great on that platform.
Anyways, it's a good fun game!
High score: 33.2 Nanoseconds.

@augustcoder High praise indeed! I work in Construct 3 and I am considering publishing an Android version to the Play Store after the jam if Pixel-Panic has a high final ranking.

Also, don't forget to drink your milk and Wishlist Carlson on Steam!

I really enjoyed the "slowdown" effect when you hold click. Agree with most of the other comments that the game was well done and very minimal. Great job.

Great Game! The game at first felt easy with the time slow mechanic, but later on when more enemies showed up it's difficulty began to ramp up nicely. I also like how the momentum stays even after to shoot another direction, making it hard to guess where exactly your block will shoot towards when moving at high speeds.

Very innovative, minimal and fun. The force you apply being added as a vector to the current velocity was difficult to get used to at the beginning but slowing down the time more helped me to stay alive.

I liked the balance as well, it has a nice learning curve.

First of all: I love a game with slow motion. Always ups the fun factor for me for some reason... maybe some deeply rooted love for the first Max Payne games.

Secondly the music fits really well and kicks a**. Really driving the gampeplay similar to the way the music drives you in Hotline Miami.

To improve upon the overall experience I feel flashing indicators for a few milliseconds before an enemy pixel appears would be very helpful. More skill and less luck based that way. Currently frantically dragging in different directions gets you a long way I feel.
Also, and this may be intentional, it felt a bit inuntitive for me that a new dash wouldnt always give me the amount of speed that I indicated with the cursor. I think this might come from the fact that if you are in motion and want to change direction you first have to cancel out your current movement vector. For me that slowed down the responsiveness somewhat.

Overall really fun though and probably worth exploring for a small arcade type of game.

Amazing game, the tutorial is well put together, the mechanics are easy to pick up and yet really difficult when you get into the thick of it. The graphics are really minimal and works well with the artstyle, concept and thumping music :D

It doesn't seem like there's a cheating strategy, like there sometimes can be with jam games. It's really inventive and well made.

A very polished game for a game jam! I really enjoyed playing it and I think this might be the game I've spent the most time playing so far. It feels like the difficulty ramps up very far around 30 seconds and getting past 45 seems damn near impossible! Graphics and audio works very well with the game. Overall a really good entry! :D

@faceless Thank you for your detailed breakdown!

I agree with both of your points.
I ran out of time in this jam to implement some of the more useful features, mostly due to extensive playtesting, as I was trying to get the difficultly curve just right, which proved to be very challenging.

I originally planned to have a complete shop in the game where upgrades, such as a radar, pulse blast, and movement indicator were all unlockable, among other cool goodies. However, as will all game jams, it is very easy to over scope, so I had to drop the shop entirely.

If I go for a future release, I plan on adding the shop back into the game!

Thank you again for your very detailed review!

You are very welcome it was my pleasure.
I enjoyed your game and would look forward to you exploring the concept further. Your ideas sound great. And I totally get it.. three days is not a long time :D

Very fun game! The mechanic was a blast and I like how it's all based on vectors so it's a bit harder to control. The difficulty really adds to the craziness and fun of mastery. One quality of life feedback that I think will make the player feel better is having the lose game boundaries a bit further out than the viewport. This will make the feeling of coming back from the brink of being about to lose feel really good and when you lose you feel like you really deserved it.

it's very addictive but gets quite difficult pretty fast, haha. had fun playing this one, good job!

I don't think I've seen a game with movement quite like this. It is easy to learn and fun to master. I also appreciate having a tutorial in the game. Most people in jams don't have time to implement such a feature within their game. We definitely didn't! Overall, great job sir!

Loved everything about this game, I think my favourite arcade-ish style highscore game. I got to 40s and then got absolutely clapped, super fun and the slow motion is everything.

I loved it, music, graphics, gameplay, everything is well done. I just missed some element to seek, maybe upgrade or scoring point and stuff like that :)

This is really fun. Very hard to do well but doesn't feel unfair when you lose (although the movement occasional felt slightly unintuitive). The mechanic is quite innovative and the graphics are simple but effective.

That was really fun! Simple, but well made. I always want to try to beat my previous score, online leaderboards would be great as others have suggested.
It works well using a pen tablet as well which isn't true for most games.

My highscore was 42.7

A+ game, really enjoyed playing it! I especially loved the well made tutorial!

Fun simple and hectic! I love the slowmotion mechanic, it makes it easy to pull off some really slick dodges which makes the whole thing just feel a lot cooler.

I am a pixel.
My time has come.
5/5

Love the concept of a screen refresh turned video game! Also it's just immensely fun to zoom around the gameboard and try to not hit or at least strategically hit other pixel!

Love the simple and consistent art style! I also love that a force is added to the pixel instead of setting the velocity, which added an extra layer of complexity.

Clean game ! Love the simplicity and overall game feel.

A cool take on what _feels_ like a twin stick shooter, but really isn't. The slow-mo mechanic really gives a good feel of control. This game ramps up quickly. I made it to just shy of 50ns multiple times, but couldn't get past that point. I really like the physics here. They are subtle, but meaningful.

a really good game with nice and simplistic graphics and a cool and challenging mechanic

Super fun idea, clever, engaging mechanic. Good stuff, really fun, really well polished, nice font. :D

This game is so polished for such a simple concept it's insane. It's really fun, and I love the fact that it's basically impossible to stop moving once you've started.

Simple looking but with complexity when difficulty level increases. The game play is simple. It is evolved version of Atari Astroid with the objective of staying in the play space. It is clever approach.

E X C E L L E N T

Fun and intense game! Loved how simple yet exciting it is, plus the music just gives the right vibes :)

I see it having potential to be a good casual mobile game