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A jam submission

NEXUSView game page

A Celeste-inspired kaizo platformer in which your soul turns against you.
Submitted by Sacha — 4 hours, 36 minutes before the deadline
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NEXUS's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Gameplay#613.9063.906
Overall#1013.9383.938
Presentation#1184.1884.188
Originality#2103.7193.719

Ranked from 32 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous.

  • Neat mechanic, cute atmosphere. Brutal difficulty but felt (mostly) fair; some mechanics need some polishing like air velocity control and bouncing on bubbles is touchy.

What do you like about your game?
This was my first time actually using a game engine, and I had a lotta fun learning how to use it. As an aspiring game dev, this project brought me a lot of joy and im super proud with the result!!! I also really improved my pixel-art skills during the jam :)

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

lovely pixel art! very fitting sfx, my only suggestion is that the jump sfx would benefit from some pitch randomization to break up the monotony. I think the music for the platforming part is a bit slow, but it fits the mood well enough. the boss music absolutely slaps!

that aside, gameplay is king, and this game really nails it. I read some complaints about the controls in the comments, and I suspect it’s because of how horizontal momentum is preserved while airborne. precision platformers usually have automatic deceleration when no input is held, and momentum-based platformers rarely require any precision at all. personally, I love this style of air-control, even for precise movement. it gives a lot of control over the jump arc: tapping left or right adjusts the trajectory, and not pressing anything simply maintains the trajectory. for this game, it makes it easy to match the velocity of the rolling balls — that would be pretty annoying with the more common “automatic deceleration” control type. maybe some of the numbers could use some tweaking, but the current controls feel really good in my opinion.

the core gimmick is neat, and the level design sets up for some interesting situations that are fun to figure out and execute. the level clarity was a bit lacking at first, but it was no problem after figuring out the properties of each tile type. my only real complaint about the platforming is how long the death/reset transition takes — it looks great, but it takes almost 2 seconds from dying until I regain control, and I found that long pause to be kinda jarring.

platforming aside, it was nice to see a boss fight to shake things up. however, it’s very punishing, as there are no checkpoints and a single hit resets the entire fight. that said, it’s an awesome boss fight, I just think it could be a bit more lenient.

overall, this is a really solid kaizo-like platformer!

Developer(+1)

Tysm for the feedback!!! really means a lot and it helps me improve for my future kaizo games, so thanks!! :D

Submitted(+1)

it was fun!

i had a lot of skill issues!

my only actual complain is some hitboxes were a little weird, sometimes i'd pop the bubbles but catto wouldn't bounce. same with breaking the boxes with the rocks. x3

(+1)

Lot of fun to play, looked great, and felt pretty original too, I'm a big celeste fan and this captured somewhat of a similar feel, only complaint is that the physics felt a bit weighty. Still fun enough to speedrun tho 2:29 :)

Submitted(+1)

Finally a game with checkpoints! haha. At the beginning the difficulty curve suddenly skyrocketed, but once I figured it out, it was really fun.
Well polished and nice art. Great game!

Developer

Thanks! :D

Submitted

Good art. I sux at precise jumping games tho.

Submitted(+1)

That was a very cute platformer. It felt like it was plucked from a SMBW kaizo hacking contest. I like how the controls felt very responsive enabling quick changes to suit the precision platforming. Even though I thought the difficulty ramped up too much too fast, I enjoyed the lay outs and mechanics introduced. My favourite part was the boulder chase. I liked the character sprites and the boss sprites, and that was le epic explosion effect. Must've been hard to draw with that limited colour palette.

My time was like 9:40ish

Developer(+1)

GG, thanks for the feedback! As a MM2 player, I have definitely adopted a SMW kaizo feel to my games, and it makes me super happy to see someone noticed!! :3

Submitted(+1)

looking good ngl

Submitted(+1)

There was a flash game I played with this same mechanic, but this game utilizes it SO MUCH better. While the difficulty ramps up quickly thats just the way I like it. Great game! I love it when a speedrun game ends in a boss battle!

Developer

Thank you!!! :D

Submitted

I'm sorry ill stop at the boss, the player controller is defintely not adapted for a one-hit bullet hell boss. And the inertia that goes with that is not enjoyable for these situations.
However, the game looks formidable, and sounds neat. And there are a lot of cool levels. But the character controller feels a bit too jank. I would advise trying to make it again ! It would be a great exercise! Look back at platformers you really enjoyed, see why they worked and why is your game juuust a bit far from that!
Not sure if you have twitter but this thread by maddy thorson explains a lot of the mechanics that makes the game play good and I would recommend trying to add some ! https://twitter.com/MaddyThorson/status/1238338574220546049?lang=en


Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! I did add coyote time and buffer jumps into the game to make it more fair, but I can understand how the controls can still feel a bit janky, with the slow acceleration for example

Submitted(+1)

16.19.443

Best explosion ever! The game is incredibly polished for a jam entry (required me to get used to physics though).

Submitted(+1)

i really liked the idea , the game is very fun to play but kinda hard good job :P , (make sure to check my game <3)

(+1)

Very hard but super fun once you get used to the controls! My only real problem with the gameplay is the fact that the hitboxes are unintuitive at times (like those forsaken bubble platforms!)

I also love the visuals but I can't really give it a 5/5 in presentation because of some polishing issues, like the lack of particles and some weird assets here and there.

I  also really liked getting to see the development process of this game, I remember when everything was just sketches in your notebook! And, of course, I think it'll be awesome to see this get expanded upon in the future, with more polished art and a longer story :)

Overall really love this, we're all proud of you Sacha <3

Developer

THANKS :3

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

Alright, I'll first say this: This game looks nice. The boss looks really cool too! however, I'm not sure if I have a clinical skill issue, or it actually is just hard. I think it was how I played it that caused me to find some strange oddities, such as bubbles popping if you somehow hitting them from the side, and (I think that) jumping off the bubbles higher with the spacebar really confuses me. The level design can be fun, but sometimes it can be a bit frustrating, and I think that the biggest issue is me not being able to do the bubble sections well :\

 (which probs is just a skill issue lol) But, to returning to the more positive aspects, the controls are actually quite good! As well as that, the tying in to the theme is also well-executed! Overall, this game is quite cool, just for me, the bubble sections can be hard to do, and sometimes the controls become a lil floatier than usual. Good Job :)!

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! I do agree that I made the bubble section a little too hard lol. Hope you enjoyed it nonetheless :)

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks for the reply! I try to be honest but not mean in the reviews :). I think this game would be a perfect start to a smaller-scale celeste-like (as you said). I also appreciate the response, good luck in the jam!

Submitted

The core mechanic used for this game is unique. Unfortunately it's used in a way that makes the game confusing to play. 

Submitted

looks cool it's fairly hard

Submitted

I have a problem with playthrough. Right after first checkpoint, when you jump on three bubbles, how do you progress? Jump is not resetting. I even hacked the game, by standing on a wall inside a spike to gain extra teleport, but I still can't progress(

Developer(+1)

Youre not supposed to use your tp until after the third bubble

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Oh, you can hold space and jump higher on bubble. No one told me that 😅
Great game, enjoyed playing it. Also, the last blast remind narco-flowey from undertale))

15/15

Developer

GG, glad you enjoyed :)

Submitted(+1)

it was a bit hard for me but i finished it somehow. a music seems too calm for this game

(+1)

I thoroughly enjoyed this game, I finished it in 26 minutes and 43 seconds. From the gameplay to the art to the music, I was captivated. Loved the final boss fight too.

Developer

Thank you!!! :D

Submitted(+1)

i really like the presentation (sound and music are wonderful). i just coudn't get used to the controls and game mechanism. 

(+2)

GOOD GAME, YOU GUYS BETTER LIKE IT OR I WILL FIND YOU AND-