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The Experiment's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #4 | 4.200 | 4.200 |
| Overall | #55 | 3.624 | 3.624 |
| Game Design | #65 | 3.714 | 3.714 |
| Fun | #66 | 3.629 | 3.629 |
| Innovation | #86 | 3.486 | 3.486 |
| Audio | #164 | 3.257 | 3.257 |
| Graphics | #186 | 3.457 | 3.457 |
Ranked from 35 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?
As it dies, the mutant can respawn and change its form thanks to its egg. Hence, its end is only a new beginning. As long as it fed on biomass...
Did you write all the code and made all the assets from scratch?
No. I made all the code myself, following several tutorials when needed. I used external assets for the tileset, the music & the SFX, all credited. Other assets are made by me.
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Comments
Really nice game! Nice Graphics and atmosphere! Though most of it felt rather like a tutorial and the game felt a bit too overwhelming after the second room. Maybe consider watching GMTK's video about Super Mario Maker 2 Level Design, as it also presents a lot of concepts for other games. One you could apply to this one is letting the player getting known to the mechanic before combining it with other mechanics. Other than that, this was a good game! Good job!
Yeah I didn't get much time for level design, I already planned to add some levels in the week after the jam rating period.
I'll check the video! Thanks.
Really liked the take on the theme and I thought it was pretty well polished. The controls were a bit rough when trying to deal with the turret fire. As others have said - I had the puzzle figured out but executing it wasn't as easy. Otherwise, really great work!
Good work! Very good idea and I think it fits the theme in a way that I haven't seen so much in the Jam. I think some of the puzzles have a problem where you already figured out the solution, but actually executing it is complicated since it is very hard to dodge the turrets with the controls, I might be doing the puzzles wrong though. I didn't get too far because i'm not much of a puzzle guy but I enjoyed the time I spent on it.
Yeah the bullet were add to implement, but I already planed and started to fix it. As you say, they shouldn't be a obstacle to solving the puzzle if you figured it out already!
This is a really fun puzzle game! The fact that you have to consider the level design and the different abilities that the mutants have is very engaging. This is a very solid game and very well thought out. Nice submission!
Are you sure this is your first game? :) You designed and implemented it really well. Nice job. Thanks for the level select; I wasn't able to solve the 3rd stage, but got through the others! It was really fun and made me feel smart. The audio fit the theme. The graphics are super cute. I like that the game gives me a limited number of re-spawns, and makes me choose who I want to re-spawn as. I look forward to see what else you create!
Oh my god you should see my code, it's not clean at all x) But I learned a lot during this week with about 50hours spent on this game ^^ Tilesets, raycast, collision, pixel art, animation, tween, adding child node, audio.... I can't name them all! But I reproduced a few classic games previously in my life (pongs, yam's...), I've programming experience and I binged watched a lot of game jam & game dev video before deciding to start my journey, so it helps a lot. A select menu was a recurring tip for game jam :)
Yet, thanks for the compliment, I've many ideas of things I wanna do in the future.
Fantastic game! The last 2 levels were especially challenging. I did have a bit of a problem with being killed by a bullet that I couldn't see here and there, but I think that's mainly because of having to play it on the browser, which tends to be really laggy. The movement sounds also got a bit annoying after a while. Great job!
Yeah I picked the sounds in a rush and couldn't spend too much time on time ^^' I tried to make it low and played on the pitch to make it better. Next time I'll make sure to have 2-3 sounds and pitch them differently
This game was an absolute blast to play, I think this game does an excellent job of requiring you to use all of its mechanics in order to clear room. Nice game!
I had a ton of fun with this one. In my opinion this jam entry is exactly how a puzzle game should be: there are few mechanics, but you need to be considering all of them to win.
The thematic tie is obvious and strong in the gameplay; you will find yourself, by the last room, having internalized thinking “How should I die?”, not “How should I survive?”
The li’l guys are cute (although the worm gave me flashbacks to X-Com Apocalypse) and the practice of providing the (very few) instructions needed on the margins of the puzzle worked really well.
Puzzles were tight and the game did not overstay its welcome - once you understand a mechanic you won’t be asked to do it by rote again.
I’d love to be more critical but I really think this one was very good; my one gripe is that the projectiles used by the turrets don’t always look exactly how they act, and that got me killed a couple of times.
Thanks for the game!
Thanks for the feedback!
That was the idea with coming back to life with limited ressources: you have to think it forward. I pictured the game more action paced at first, but quickly wanted to make a puzzle game with grid movement game (so hard to implement, I must improve it for next time). I would love to make it action platform in the future!
I really wanted at least 3 forms to make it more coherent: it's a real mutant adapting, not just a switch on death. Anyway, plates, crates, spikes were the basics to make it look like a classic puzzle game. I needed turret to deliver biomass. I wanted to make levers too, and maybe water, but then I realized that each form was its own mechanic, and it shouldn't share any with the others.
I wanted it to look cute with a bit eerie/unsettling part to it. The mouse is not my best success here, but I was short on ideas (it should've been a bat first, felt too overpowered, but didn't implement water either).
I intend to make the bullets more forgiving, I might change their speed & reduce the hitbox. Bullets must block your path in a line, but not stop you from passing where it's supposed to be possible.
I'll add some levels after the jam (6 or 8 total), so you might have to learn a bit more the mechanics, but it'll be incremental :p
Very good use of the theme! It actually feels super rewarding to beat a level.
Cool puzzle game with strong game design and art!
Very nice, thoughtful game, puzzles were challenging and satisfying. Really well-fitting audio. It's amazing for your first game, keep it up! :)
nice game
Nicely done!
Really fun puzzle game. Interesting take on the theme and well executed! Great job.
Great job, The style came together really well and the game mechanics were interesting and thought provoking. Its cool to see a Godot entry too, nice!
What can I say... I love FOSS :)
An excellent first game. The puzzles were well designed, I only wish there were more
I'm working on it for after the jam! :)
For your first game very good. Theme well taken, the music is great and the graphics too.
Nice puzzle game! I really like the grid based movement. The animations also felt super snappy and nice!
I really liked the concepts of bodyblocking bullets with the crate & moving the spawn point around, very elegantly used in level 3 and level 4. I do wish that the bullets weren't quite so frustrating as they do feel a little out of place in a puzzle environment, maybe you could redesign the bullets so that they still fulfil the same puzzle role but aren't timing based? E.g a lazer that only fires on every second move
Thanks for the feedback! Sorry, long answer ahead~ TLDR: You are right, but it's hard to implement for me, might try next time, but still willing to make improvement
Thinking of it, turrets were supposed to be soldier shooting at you on sight (maybe even moving!), but that didn't make it to the final game, along with levers to deactivate spikes or make them go in & out of the floor (I actually made the animation's sprites...). But then it's mostly like a wall until you block its sight, while you can still pass between bullets.
As for your idea, it's good, but harder to implement, at least for my current skills: hitting a bullet still makes the game crash sometimes :/ It also raises lots of question: turned base? Everything happens on the same tick? Collision are calculated after the move, during it, but whose move? I needed a biomass "container" anyway, but you are right, this kind of puzzle game should focus on solving and not skill. Maybe making the bullets slower could do the trick? Level design should be around the pacing of bullet I guess. I'll make some test.
The goal of room 3 is to use twice the egg mechanic, that's why I used two turrets on the right to insure you cannot pass without blocking the turret. I realize now placing the turrets at different distances works too, so the crossing of the bullets makes it impossible to pass, and I think the timer to go top is easier. So I just changed room 3 layout :) And for room 4, you are not really supposed to face the bullet! Not the way I solved it at least ^^'
I'm considering making a few more levels and a move counter on the room select so you can see if you did it in a minimal number of moves. But I won't change the physic otherwise, too much work, I want to consider my job done for this jam and keep it as close as it is from now!