Hearts 💕

Very fun game! I included it in my GM48: Sacrifice compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/qZITVIm2pYI

Very nice puzzle game that goes well with the theme. I like how the hearts just fall into the container (jar?). Like everyone else says I wish there was checkpoints. Maybe have rewards that are off the path that lets the player decide if they should take a risk. Awesome aesthetics!

The aesthetics of this game are great, the music is really cool, but the lack of checkpoints is a great letdown and were my principal reason to not finish the game (as it was for other reviewers).

For anyone who really digged the concept of this game and wants more, I recommend Warlock's Tower, also available on mobile platforms.

Lovely visuals and audio. The problem is : it's a puzzle game but there's absolutely no room for experimentation. For example I have no idea what bats do, but I don't want to waste a run just to find out because I get sent back to the beginning.

Then you get to a point where you don't really know if you have enough hearts and you messed up, or if you didn't have enough and you really need to optimize a previous level. And each move in the new level might just cost you a run. But then again, you need a lot of patience to just redo levels you already completed to just find out if this one level could be done better (most of the levels are straitforward, therefore just wasting time on retries). When there are 88 other games to try, that's just too much.

Should have used a score for bonus hearts or a secret ending or something, but this is way too punishing for a jam game (or just a puzzle game)

COuld not get passed level 4. Nice concept. Pretty brutal to have to restart entire game after a death though. Love the trail that you leave though. Music was nice too.

This game was really frustrating, so I'm not sure if that was the intent. Having to restart the whole game over each time made me not want to keep playing. This would be a nice puzzle game if you could determine which direction the enemies would go.

An extremely well executed game, it's simple yet so comprehensive and the lovely music and artstyle helps you sink futher into the experience. I liked the way the theme was implemented and how juicy the game was with for example the heart animations, but (as the other reviewers have said) I would've liked some checkpoints in every other room or so you don't need to restart the game every time you die, it gets pretty frustrating even though you have guidance.

Love the game! Loved the art style: really liked the heart falling mechanic as well as the shader and starting where you left off. Gameplay was lovely, as the blood trails helped you when you had to restart over and over again. Only real annoyance was restarting every single time. The last stage took me much longer than the other, more simple stages because I never noticed the heart cup had a limit, but restarting the game over and over again made the game play feel extremely tedious. Especially once it was revealed it was the last stage. The music helped numb the pain though; lovely sounds.

Nonetheless, well done! Looking forward to seeing more from you!

Pretty sweet! Loved the music and graphics! Tad bit repetitive but still nice job!

I liked the game, but I don't see much point in the repetition. What does restarting the whole game after you die add to the gameplay? It just feels tedious to me. I get that the blood trail is a mechanic you want to use, but if you've completed a level, then your trail tells you (almost) exactly where to go. If you take a while to finish a level, then there's a bit of a mess and you need to do some memorization, but not enough that it feels challenging. I suppose that's my point: the restarts don't feel challenging, they just feel tedious.

Otherwise, I liked the aesthetics. The way the hearts tumble into the cup is very satisfying to watch. The music loop, while short, was nice an' groovy. If there was a lives system or some sort of variation when retracing your steps, then I'd really have no complaints.

And it's not like Dark Souls because there's no shortcuts :p

Neat art style, good music, and good gameplay at its core - but I couldn't finish the game, because I got tired of replaying the old stages over and over again. Is there any reason why I gotta do that? I realise it may be a little hypocritical for me in particular to criticise this aspect, as my last gm48 entry had the same issue, but at least with some (albeit kinda poor) justification for why that was the case

Nice puzzle game, but after the first few or so deaths, it's really frustrating to have to start all the way back at the beginning. I get that you were going for forcing the player to memorize the solutions, but it's just tedious in my opinion.

Other than that, very well-executed idea and great connection to the theme overall.

First minute of play feels really good, but then, the repeats comes, and spoil it.

Didn't finish the game, got to repeatitive for me (music loop added to the fact you have to replay all the levels at each death to grind clues until you know how to beat the next level)

no replay, or having to replay only one previous level would be enough as sanction for death. you already have to replay the level if you don't beat it, no real need to add

p.s. reading other comment seams there is a reason for that; but without knowing that it just give feels of an unfair sanction

Lovely! Simple but it's fun to see the heart fall. My problem is that the game has some linearity, like, once you've done a level, you'll always be doing it the same way cause you can't afford to lose heart. No freedom of choice there. So it made it tedious to restart til the beginning each time... A solution to this would be a check point in the middle of the game, that if you have xx number of hearts (and that it's enough to end the game), then make the player take it back from there!

Reminded me of my take in a recent competition I did. I love puzzles games && mostly turned-based ones because of the different strategy you can come up with.

Once I realized you had to be as efficient as possible with your hearts to make it through the last level I understood the being sent back to the beginning every time. However it was still a bit annoying to do the first few simple levels where it is obvious you are taking the fastest route possible. Maybe allow the level to be skipped when that minimum moves variable is met?

Also you can bug your way through some of the blocks by pressing two arrows in the same step :)

I really liked your game and had much fun playing it :)
The art is simple and on point. Worked really well.
The music got repetitive due to the amount of tries it took me to finish the game (which I did! Still not sure how I managed that last stage though). It's stuck in my head forever now, hahaha.
It was a nice approach to the theme also.
Gotta agree that going back to the first level increased my anxiety a lot though o.o
For me it has potential for winning, but I've just started playing the games, hehe. Good luck!

The only problem I see with this game is that it sends you back to the first level when you lose. Everything else is fantastic. The graphics, though simple, are good, the music is good, and the gameplay is absolutely stellar. I will one day play this again.

I actually like the graphics on this game a lot. I think they're cool and well thought out. It (kinda) has the Downwell aesthetic goin' on. The music is great. The core mechanic is pretty interesting/fun as well. The big flaw I saw in the game was the unpredictability of the boxes. If they somehow telegraphed their next 1 or 2 moves, it would be super helpful. Because of their unpredictability, you had to give up a lot of tries trying to figure out their patterns. Because dying reset your progress, time felt wasted running through levels I had down and it got pretty boring. Still a good game tho.

Man this game is really addicting. I'm stuck in level 4 lol... It would have been nice to have checkpoints...

You so skimped on the graphics! but anyway, it's that kind of style game and I really like the idea of hearts=moves! Right, must play again.!

I absolutely loved this game, the shader and level design were top notch and the basic idea was great too, It kinda struggles to connect to the theme too much, even though the movement hp mechanic uses it a little bit.

The immersion was great tho, along with some of the best sound I've heard in this jam yet, didn't expect any less from juju.

Neat little puzzle game. The mechanics are fairly simple but all work well. The idea of leaving dots behind you so you can see where you have been (and therefore re-solve puzzles easily) is quite clever, but after a few retries the charm wore off and I just wished I could restart from the room I died at.

The visuals are definitely the highlight for me. Everything looks great from the limited palette, to the fading between levels, to the way the hearts bounce around. It's just all very smooth and well done. The music is good too, but it gets a bit repetitive after a while.

very good concept, well executed, want checkpoint and more innovative levels from you.

I really like the effect used to transition from screen to screen, Is it a shader or do you just draw black squares randomly till the screen is full?

Love the art, music, and concept of the game. Like others have said, a checkpoint system would benefit the game greatly. Apart from that, I love it!

Awesome game, really good concept of the game. All I wish is that there was a bit of a checkpoint system [ that could be enabled or disabled by a key ] - so those who don't want to try over and over can have checkpoints and those that like to complete all in one don't need checkpoints. Except that amazing and simple game!

Awesome game. I'd play it on my phone regularly if I could xD Kinda frustrating that I have to start from the very beginning every time I die though, maybe a level 4 checkpoint?