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A jam submission

InvertigoView game page

A one-bit platformer demo
Submitted by TipTopTomCat (@TomcatTiptop) — 1 day, 9 hours before the deadline
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Invertigo's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Music#203.9293.929
Art#863.7143.714
Overall#953.5953.595
Originality#963.7143.714
Gameplay#1083.2143.214
Black and White#1164.5004.500
Theme#2342.5002.500

Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Really cool 2D platformer!

The basic controls felt pretty solid and the grapple was a neat mechanic. The sprites and music were nice, too.

Nice job!

Developer

Good to hear it was an overall positive experience! It was fun to make and I'm glad the mechanics got to as solid of a state as they did before submission time was up

Submitted(+1)

Great work,  I thought your idea was really neat! I fell quite a lot ahah but I'm sure if I get the hang of the controls a bit more I could make it farther than I did. Also, I loved your art and the music :D great job overall!

Developer

Thank you so much! I had a lot of panic falls in play testing myself haha

Submitted(+1)

Very nice game! I haven't had time to finish it yet (I keep falling!). I especially liked the climbing mechanic.

Developer (1 edit)

I appreciate you giving it a solid try and I'm glad climbing was a positive addition, thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

pretty solid game

Developer(+1)

I appreciate that an actual King took time out of their day to play, thank you kindly!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Fun game! Loved the music. Hit a wall at the dice though which proved frustrating.

Developer

Glad you liked it! I agree that the dice can be quite a skill wall in this version, but thanks for trying out the game and giving feedback!

Submitted(+1)

I loved this game! It's like a mini Getting Over It, in the good way!

The mechanics are great, but maybe the character moves a little too fast for the small plataforms.

Developer(+1)

Thank you kindly! I think I would make the whole level layout bigger with more expansive obstacles given the chance.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Great job on some of these tight platformer mechanics! The climbing mechanic felt the best and most responsive for me; it was an interesting twist on the one-way platform cliche seen in a lot of platformer games. I think the grapple mechanic has a really nice start, and in my opinion I feel like it'd be more rewarding if the player had more control over the trajectory, like choosing between directions with the WASD keys, or maybe pressing left and right to aim. Maybe if the platforms were much larger, and they were easier to target with the grapple, the player might feel more compelled to swing around and experiment, but the current aim-and-wait mechanic and the tiny platforms don't allow for the fun moves I expect to be able to do with such a mechanic. Also I'm not sure if this was intended, but I like the way you could actually float by holding down jump when you fall off a platform without jumping. I think this could be pivoted to be a base mechanic where you glide down instead of falling when pressing space, and it might allow for more deliberate movements/reactivity in the air.


I honestly haven't seen too many grapple mechanics in platformers that felt appealing to me, but combined with the climbing and tight controls I think there's a nice start to a cool grapple mechanic and great platformer game here. Congrats on the submission!


P.S. I could cheese my way to the end of the game by flying into the wall while spamming the grapple :P

Developer

Thanks for the detailed feedback, it helps a ton! I thought the climbing could add a nice bit of flavor, but I'd definitely want to make some of those improvements if swinging is going to be a main movement option. I'm glad someone else figured out grapple spamming, I tried to reduce its potency but ran out of time haha. Floating off platforms was also only partially intended (i.e. I hadn't found a solution to patch it out so it got kept),  but that's an interesting potential mechanic suggestion out of that emergent gameplay. Thanks again!

Submitted(+1)

Well done! I love the cute pixel art you did for this game. But it was quite difficult for me to try and understand the mechanics of the rope as I couldn't get through a lot of the level. I think for a skill-based platformer like this, the rope shooting mechanic needs to be more reliable and precise, though I'm unsure how to improve this. Great job though! 

Developer(+1)

I'd agree that the rope swinging isn't as intuitive as I had hoped it could be, and as I think about different ideas like a momentum based swinging adventure using the mouse, that could feel more freeing overall... but yeah there are so many directions it could go haha. Glad you liked the art and thanks for the feedback!

Submitted(+1)

This was fun! It maybe went a bit too far in the "frustration platformer" direction for me, but it's possible I was missing something.

Keep: The cute graphics and basic concept, and that music!
Refine: The grappling feel. There's some 'jank' that gets in the way. I think this has a lot of potential. A mouse-based grapple aim or even another 'stick'/'arrow' set (WASD vs arrows) could go a long way towards realizing it!
Add: More conveyance of how the level is meant to be solved, and (for level 1 at least) more things to grab onto.

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks a ton! I'm glad you had things you liked even though this demo's initial difficulty was frustrating. I definitely found the grapple could be easily broken in different ways, but it was one of those things I would refine for sure. I've gone back and forth on the control scheme since I wanted the game to be "controller friendly", but I agree that I may just have to commit to a more controlled grapple system to have it reach its fullest potential. I'd also definitely work on the visual language of when an object is climbable vs grapple-able, all great suggestions and I'm always happy when I get useful feedback like this!

Submitted(+1)

Hi! I liked the game, simple but challenging.. the kind of game I like to play in Jams. The rope game play is very good.

Maybe even the beginning is a little too difficult... maybe it would be good to start easier and then make the difficulty increasing more progressively.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! I tried to set a difficulty tone with the initial jumps, but in a full release I'd definitely want to tone those initial segments down. Glad you liked how the rope felt and that the game was to your tastes!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

The idea of platforming adventures with a yo-yo has a lot of potential! I would suggest keep working on this regardless of the feedback you receive. The music is excellent, the platforming needs tightening (jump feel mostly), and the art is charming with its own style. There are some sprites that need more attention to make them recognizable, and it's sometimes difficult to tell what you can and can't climb or land on. For your first game, this is impressive! Great job and keep it up!


*I would also consider uploading a standalone executable version instead of the installer, as I think most players get deterred by those extra steps despite having to tell Windows "it's okay to run this" when you use the standalone.

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much! It was definitely a balancing act of limiting scope while getting in the features I could, within the time limit, and I know where to start improving with your added perspective.

I wasn't aware of the standalone executable vs installer, so I added a .zip version of the game for those who prefer that. Ideally I would do it in browser, but I don't think GMS2 supports that

Submitted

I use GMS2 as well, it does support it for an extra fee, sadly my web build was broken for some odd reason and I had to do standalone as well. Hoping to get a shot at uploading a web build before voting ends so more people can just play.