It would be easy to say "same but more!" which would be great, because the core is great. Art is great, animations are clean. Hits are punchy. Music is fitting, not too repetitive.

But I would tighten and polish up the core even more first before adding anything so you know you have a perfect gameloop to work off of

One thing is the performance issues, do all instances have to follow player every step, or can they update their direction on an out-of-phase delay of maybe 5 frames or more? Maybe implement a system where if instance limit is reached it spawns bigger fires instead of a lot of small ones. Exp droplets seem to stick around, maybe they should despawn? I like the lighting system, is there a way to optimize it?

Next thing is the variety of the enemies. The fires are fine, it's a basic enemy, but the tree just seems to be the same thing with no mechanical differences. Maybe the tree having a significantly different attack or movement pattern would set it apart more from the basic enemy.

The difficulty also seems to ramp up too high for your own power to be able to match too early. This seems like it should be handled via stat adjustment first so that any additional weapons/abilities can be already based around a balanced system. Minor tweaks can go a long way here.

Probably the main thing I would say is there is nothing to shoot for on the map. It is mechanically barren other than the obstacles, so the strategy is just to make a big looping path for yourself with no goal. Maybe have some points of interest on the map that help you with your growth as a character or story progression?

All in all - Great start! I kept wanting to replay it, which means your game loop is pretty solid. Keep up the good work! 

This is a solid submission! The art and animations look stunning. The water claw feels very satisfying to use. 

Mechanic wise I especially like the idea that these fiery enemies can ignite flammable obstacles. I would love to see you expand on this further. I was thinking that your own water based attacks could maybe quench the fire, giving the player more control over the environment or making it possible to give them something to protect.

Awesome game! I remember seeing the character art in the discord server. Already thought the character looked really nice back then. The game looks and feels very polished already. 

Love the feel of the character with the water attack combined with the sound effect and the knock back on the enemies. The subtle lighting of the enemies is a nice touch as well. The music is a bop too. 

Goodjob you guys

A very well made game. I enjoyed the music in the background matching the environment of the game. The colors and shading was structured to feel the ambience of the environment. I was sad that there was not more. 

PS the framerate dropped during late game lol

I finished! I like the tension of all of the fire building up over time, and the unwinnable state in relation to that. Because you are small, and singular, and fire grows. Nice theming with that, even if it the unintentional consequence of not having time to implement more content I think it weaves in well with everything else. 

I wish I could reread the beginning, I originally skipped it immediately and had to refresh the page so I could read it. I think it adds a lot.

I'm not sure if this is an issue on my end, but in the end credits there seems to be unloaded fonts which give symbols? Maybe I don't have something loaded, but I figure you likely know if it is.

Overall, I like it a lot. I wish I had a bit more control over where the water goes, but similar to the first point, I do think it works well with the theming of the stress and fear of being trapped in a fire.

Great job folks!

Very fun game and well put together, I like the arrows indicating where the attacks will go so you can anticipate; and I really love the music. Great job!

Ahesteticaly pleasing! The soundtrack is top knotch! The take on the theme is quite touching as well. Really great job everyone! I can see this going places!

Really fun to play and I love the art style! 

I really like the artstyle, and the impact the weapons feel they have. I also like the music it gives it a bit of tension. The story is a neat intro to the game as well.

For me personally knowing that the lvl up system was a last minute add it worked pretty decently. I would switch the colors so it fits more with the game and I like the extra weapons more than the just powerups as they change the playstyle a bit more. But as a last minute add, it did add quite some extra value to the prototype for sure. :D

It's fun following the games progress throughout the jam. I like the effect the additive lighting gives to large groups of enemies. Ramping up the intensity. Very enjoyable.

What an awesome game! Really enjoyed the theming (art and sound) as well as the gameplay and animations. Well done! 

Great fun, loved how weighty the hits felt. ❤

Pretty fun game, would love a dash tho,but other then that its a neat game. i did manage to go until 5  minutes and then i had to quit the game cause then it started being to many enemies so i lagged like crazy xD. hope to se more of this game in the future.

I like that the game makes you want to stay close to enemies, even though it would be convenient to stay away from them. Very fun, I would play more :)

Is there a end or is level 6 the max? I love the art style very cute. :) Would play more of it.

good 👍🏽 5/5 I especially liked the cat