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Gastronoir's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Devlog | #1 | n/a | n/a |
| Gameplay / Fun / Engagement | #2 | 3.840 | 3.840 |
| Audio / Sound Design | #2 | 3.760 | 3.760 |
| Overall | #3 | 3.700 | 3.700 |
| Art Style / Visuals | #3 | 4.240 | 4.240 |
| Theme | #35 | 2.960 | 2.960 |
Ranked from 25 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
My game fits the “one room” theme because the protagonist is trapped inside a demon’s stomach, and the entire game takes place in that single location.
Devlog
Devlog link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/114wkhhcZusMUZH6KoXmlRmdMB7ExA3KZ/view?usp=sharing
Easter Egg Challenge
Easter Eggs
To find the Easter Egg, you need to destroy at least two hearts. After that, go to the differently colored wall at the top of the stomach. Once you break it, grab the green heart. At first, that wall isn’t destructible and your shots bounce off it, so defeating two hearts is required (the tutorial heart counts).
Game Engine
Game Engine / Tools (Other)
Aseprite, Audacity, Paint Tool Sai
Self-made & used stuff
Have you joined a game jam before?
Roughly how much time did you spend developing? (in hours)
54 hours
Anything else you'd like to share about your game or development process?
Creating Gastronoir was a huge challenge, since it was my first real test of everything I’ve been studying over the past two months. Still, I’m really happy with the result — I think this is my best creation so far.
Are you entering the "Best 3D Model Design with UModeler X" optional prize?
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Comments
The web view is to big
best game i have played this game jam!!.
for such a short time you managed to create something with such a high quality. from the art to the music and responsiveness, everything is top notch. well done!
Nice game. Cover image look like inside of Collen.
A very impressive game with its atmosphere, music, and gameplay. Even though the difficulty spikes at times, the overall experience was really enjoyable — nice work!
Really cool game ! Animations are really well made ! Audio was a bit intense sometimes but the heartbeat to find the next target is a smart idea.
Wow, what an amazing game.
Gameplay feels so good and so juicyyy I love it. The game is challenging but not too punitive.
Graphics and audio are great. Using stereo to tell the player where the enemy is is such a clever idea!
And the intro/cutscenes add so much you really nailed storytelling.
10/10 game for me.
(I also found the green heart easter egg, it made me so powerful I destroyed the last heart with it xD)
Beautiful game in every aspect: art, music, sound, gameplay, everything. I had a lot of fun playing this and it was a pleasure to experience.
The difficulty skyrocketed after the second heart. And, honestly, I gave up on the 5th one. The amount of enemies spawning felt oppressive. Didn't seem like I had enough time to both damage the heart and manage enemies but maybe it's just a skill issue.
Phenomenal entry!
Wow this was an amazing game! First the cutscene at the start was super cool and throughout the game I loved your art style and color palette. The music really fits the vibe of the game your going for and the SFX were pretty good!
I love the animation of the cutting heart and its super crisp and so polished it's insane for a game jam.
Now the combat at times for me did feel hard (but that might just be me) and I couldn't full screen so I kept clicking out of the game T_T. But the combat is well designed, and super satisfying. I love the screen shakes, enemy blood splatter and the SFX. The enemy variety is pretty good too. Now one feature I'd love to see is extra abilities cause that could go a long way, like multi shot, extra dash, etc.
I enjoyed this game a lot, superb entry in the game jam!
Really sick game, awesome job on the cut-scenes, sound design and UI. This game gives me strong the binding of isaac vibes, which is one of my favorite games) Simply amazed
I had a good time playing this! The art is super impressive tho it did gross me out a little bit (but i guess thats intended). The intro and the 2 endings stood out to me the most, i assume those mustve taken alot of effort! Definitely paid off
Gameplay wise its fun, the way the difficulty curves is perfect imo, but only if you find the secrets heart. Without it its very hard to beat.
Good job on the game!
Sick ass game, one of my favorites in the jam, really well done :) The intro cut scene does a great job of providing context for the crazy situation and strikes some nice moments of poignancy and humor without over staying its welcome. My first impression when spawning into the game was awesome; the animated UI and pulsating music with the squishy sfx made for such a cool vibe, the ambiance is perfect. I do wish there had been some variance in the footstep sounds, even just randomly pitching them up and down a bit would have gone a long way imo. The player sprite is very cool, the little lean he does when idling has lots of personality.
There's sooo many little details of juice: the blood trails of enemies, player death/respawn animations, the short black and white cutscene after killing a heart, etc. It all adds up to a very polished experience. I would recommend toning down the screenshake a bit, since its a bullet hell basically every moment the player is either shooting something or getting hit which makes for a near constant screenshake that gets a bit annoying after a while. The variety of enemies is very impressive and the different attack patterns for each boss kept things fun throughout. The player feels good to move and satisfying to shoot with. I did feel that the player bullets didn't really fit with the rest of the aesthetic, but not a big deal. Also, very much appreciated not having to start from 0/5 hearts after dying, great decision, especially for a jam game.
Overall, I had a blast with your game and the presentation and overall aesthetic is an absolute home run in my opinion. I do think the theme interpretation is a bit weak, and didn't really seem to fit into the game much beyond the fact that the player is running around one giant room. Really great entry, and I think your studying and work paid off big time! Keep up the great work!!
edit: GameMaker Gang! legggooo
omg your game is amazing your art is soo cool (I got the secret ending without knowing)
but the map was hard to explore i got lost there many times regardless of that your game is amazing keep going mate :)
Great storytelling which added a lot of agency to the gameplay. Very cool atmosphere and clear instructions on what to do through gameplay which was great. Had some trouble finding the first hearts but after that the enemies guided me.
Feel like the theme was a bit lacking wouldn't be able to guess it based on the game. But I loved all the art and gameplay.
Great entry!
Thank you so much for the feedback! I’m really glad you liked it.
The hearts are guided by their pulses — I decided to use 3D audio for that. If your sound setup is mono, it can make locating them a bit harder, since the effect relies on stereo audio to work properly.
As for the theme, sorry about that. I chose to tie it into the story’s context rather than the gameplay itself.
Really fun shooter with amazing art! I could destroy 3 /5 hearts, but the 4th one proved too difficult haha.
The combat on this although quite straightforward is implemented really well - even having just 1 'weapon' for the player, it did not feel repetitive at all since the feedback/ juice with the particles, screenshakes, sound effects and the animations were phenomenal! The variations in the enemies were well done and the difficulty ramp up also felt very organic.
The sound effects really added that crunch to the combat and the music also fit the gameplay perfectly.
Also i really appreciated the fact that I didnt have to replay all the hearts from the beginning after dying. That was a very important design decision which made me play a little longer.
Overall a really well done, congrats :)
Thank you so much for the feedback! I’m really glad you enjoyed it.
The game has two endings: one you get after finding the easter egg and destroying all the hearts, and another one without the easter egg. If you manage to unlock it, I’m sure destroying all five hearts will feel a lot easier if you decide to give it another run.
Really, I’m genuinely grateful for your words!
General:
The intro was incredibly atmospheric! Absolutely brilliant. I honestly didn’t expect such an action-heavy game — you’re really versatile. I really liked the graphics and animation! The controls feel good, and the hearts are quick enough to defeat — neither too spongy nor too easy. I often felt like I wanted the character to move a bit faster, though this might be because the animation looks more like walking. At the same time, it reinforces the feeling that the floor is covered in slime — which is probably intentional? :)
It’s also great that the game shows how many hearts are left. That gives you a clear sense of the goal.
Graphics:
The palette is well chosen, and the player character is easy to recognize. I especially liked the short animation when you defeat a heart — it really highlights the feeling of success.
Music / Sounds:
The sound effects are very well chosen, and the music fits the atmosphere — I actually recognized one of the songs, but it suits your game very well. In the intro, the music seems to only come from the right channel? I only noticed because I was wearing headphones. Overall, the audio is well selected and the sound effects are great!
Theme:
It’s more of an area than a room, but if you see it as one large room, then I think it fits the theme!
Conclusion:
A fantastic entry!! The title is brilliantly chosen — action-packed with bullet-style elements.
Thank you so much for the feedback, Meru — I’m really glad you enjoyed it!
And yeah haha, the animations were made with the environment in mind, which is why his walk looks a bit “weird” at first glance, almost like he’s leaning or tilted in some way.
About the audio, I had no idea it was only coming from the right side during the cutscenes. For some people it worked normally, but for others (especially those using mono audio) it only played on the right. I designed the effect for stereo audio, and my own setup is mono, so I had to trust the documentation blindly. Something must have gone wrong… sorry about that.
As for the theme, it’s more connected to the story itself, since the demon’s stomach is “a single place,” but I admit it ended up a bit subtle.
Again, thank you so much for the kind words! Your comments are always great to see.
Thank you! The Same goes for you. Your comments always motivate me. You are giving valuable Feedback while also staying motivating!
Ok, this was seriously good! And it's starting with the title- "Gastronoir"! Sounds equally disgusting and intriguing!
Let's go through the things! The graphics were great. From the intro you know you are in for a treat. The gameplay animations were great too. If I were to nitpick, I'd say that maybe that floor could have more texture? Or the guy could have a more visible attack animation? That's nitpicking though! Because you know what's the real winner? how the game gives you feedback. After killing the first heart, and seeing the animation I instantly knew what my objective was, no text exposition needed! Also- the screen shake was a nice touch!
Lat's move on to the sound. After killing the first heart I knew what I had to do, but at that time I also knew the level was kinda large. Not a problem, though, because I was lead by the heartbeat! I loved this! Most of the jammers struggle with audio, some opting for sparse sound use and some background music (me included). Hewr, you had sound give you navigation hints! Loved it!
The gameplay? The difficulty increased at a nice pace. After I died on fourth heart, I was afraid I'd have to play all of the previous ones again, but no! Checkpoint system works great in conjunction with the difficulty, because the last heart made me die a lot :) One problem I had was with the lack of the fullscreen option in the web build. In the heat of the battle I often moved my mouse out of play area, and that caused me to stop shooting, and that broke my flow a bit.
The usage of the theme was ok. There was something missing here. Like I didn't feel that "one room" affected the gameplay.
Over all- great gameplay, great animations, awesome sound design! Keep it up man!
Wow, that was an incredibly detailed review. Thank you so much for the feedback — I’m really glad you enjoyed it.
I’ll explain a lot of the design choices in the devlog, but yeah, the simple floor texture was intentional. Since the game throws a ton of particles at the player, I wanted the player to fill in the empty space of the environment through destruction.
The 3D audio effect was a total gamble — it could have worked perfectly or blown up in my face, especially because my own setup is mono and the effect only works in stereo. I had to trust the documentation blindly. So I’m glad to hear it landed the way I hoped.
Unfortunately, HTML export in Game Maker is terrible. I found out that to make something like this work, I’d have to write a JavaScript script directly on the game page, and I don’t know how to do that yet. I’ll try to learn it for the next project (fullscreen).
The theme was tied more to the story than to the gameplay itself, and that probably caused that feeling of disconnect. Sorry about that.
Again, truly amazing words. I appreciate them a lot.
(By the way, I played your game yesterday but couldn’t vote at the time — I did that recently, and I’ll be leaving a comment soon.)