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A jam submission

SquareActing (Jam Edition)View game page

What's the harm in acting square?
Submitted by tomputergames (@tomputergames) — 6 minutes, 19 seconds before the deadline
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SquareActing (Jam Edition)'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Creativity#164.0374.037
Gameplay#213.6673.667
Audio#253.5563.556
Overall#273.6303.630
Technical#483.2223.222
Visuals#503.6673.667

Ranked from 27 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Message from the creator(s):
Be a circle or act square - it's your choice!

Rule

Rule A

Only used the colors black (#000000) and white (#FFFFFF)

Theme

Yes

This game follows the theme "You only realize the value of something when it's gone."

Original Art

Yes

Created own art

Original Audio

No

Didn't create own audio

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Comments

Submitted

So some parts of the tutorial I couldn't read, as some text were off screen (especially on level two).

How do I even shapeshift back to a circle? Because I had to restart the game and play level two as a circle, even though the tutorial seemed to encourage me to play as a square. There doesn't seem to be much benefit playing as a circle, other than exiting through doors that can be only be entered if you're that shape.

This does seem fun; I just think your tutorial (or introduction) needs a bit more polishing.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback.

Bit surprised there was some cut-off; it should be a fixed height camera. I wonder where that bug is! :D

As for the shifting; I’m afraid once you’ve shifted into a square you’re stuck that way for the level. You’re right on their being little to no benefit staying as a circle; except for being able to say you did it your own way :)

Submitted

Love the simple graphics, reminded me of ascii art. I like the music too and the simple story. Liked the ending as well. I wasn't sure when I needed to be a square/circle but still figured it out.

Developer

Thanks :) I’m glad you made your way through it!

Submitted

Graphics are simple, but clean and elegant. Music is engaging but calm at the same time. The slippery controls took me some time to grasp but once I figured it out I had a lot of fun. My only real critique is that there was something about the camera being fixed to the character with no "play"... in sections with a lot of jumping it messed with my eyes a bit. But overall I very much enjoyed the game!

Developer

Thanks for the feedback :D Glad you liked it!

Submitted

I tried to live my life as a circle but thought the first level forced you to be square to proceed.

Which I didn’t mind at first.

What really stopped me from wanting to be square was that I didn’t want to stomp on any of the circles. So I flat out refused to finish the game as a square.

Nice concept, really good use of the theme.

Developer

Honestly, it feels like you’ve found a third ending I hadn’t even considered :D

Submitted

I like the deep concept behind this game. The small of idea of a circle not fitting into a square world had a big, impactful meaning! The music was nice and chill, the movement was awesome, and the visuals were pretty. Awesome job on this game and nice use of the alternate endings!

It would of been nice if there was a restart button so I won't have to reload the page though.  But, nonetheless, the game was awesome.

Developer(+1)

Thanks - I’m glad it made an impact :)

I know what you mean about the restart button; I had meant the endings to be more cut-scenes than floating text, but I ran out of time :D

Submitted (1 edit)

I loved everything about this submission! The sharp art, the story that made me smile on every level, the creative take on the optional theme.. Even the fact that you submitted this with just 6 minutes and 19 seconds to go before the deadline!

I got through it as a square but went back for the round experience. What a wonderful entry!

Developer

Thanks so much :)

(Damn itch betraying my lack of organisation and last minute submission!) :)

Submitted

Love the interpretation of the optional theme! Couldn't finish the game because I'm very terrible at platformers , but i really liked it.

Developer

Haha :) Thanks very much!

Submitted

Very original concept. Aesthetics are cool as well.

I think perhaps the idea of being a circle or going the easy way of becoming a square could be explained or emphasized a bit more clearly - I completed the game once as a square, I didn't really understand the point and only got it after looking at the comments here. And completed it as a circle afterwards. The idea itself is great though!

Maybe the game could also use slightly more variety in the platforming challenges. I understand the square ones being trivial, but the circle ones were almost exclusively jumping on sequences of 1-block platforms.

Oh, and the camera has too much lookahead, which is a bit annoying when jumping left and right between 1-block platforms - your view constantly makes those huge jumps back and forth, often not actually showing you the block you want to jump on next.

Developer

Thanks and glad you like it :)

Alas- the ‘only one block platforms’ was a bit of a victim of the game jam timing, I had had hopes for moving and disappearing platforms to add a bit of variety!

Submitted

Amazing! Love the idea and the execution, very cute. I thought the bouncing sound was nice, and the music matched perfectly. Animation is simple but effective. I did both paths, actually I did it as a circle first, and really enjoyed its difficulty. Just a suggestion: you could reinforce the circle end visually by having more rounded forms there instead of the currently square platforms. Nice job, would love to play an expanded version ;) 

Developer

Thanks a lot! Glad you liked it.

That’s a good idea- maybe the corners could round/square off depending on how true to your circle you’ve been :)

Submitted

I loved it, the music choice was on point.

great work.

Developer

Thanks :D

Submitted
Deleted post
Developer

Thanks - glad you liked it :)

Submitted

I thought it was really solid game! I tried to be true to by circle self on the last level, but couldn't find the way through :/ so then I gave up my individuality and was scolded by the game xD music matched the aesthetic well and getting judged by all the squares and circles at the end was strangely embarrassing. nice job!

Developer(+1)

Thanks :) I’m glad the ending was effective!

Alas, you have to be true to yourself from the beginning if you want to make it as a circle :D

Submitted

I like the story and the message at the end! I thought it was sorta cute.

Developer(+1)

Thanks! Glad you liked the game; cute was what I was going for :)

Submitted

Loved the  gameplay! The squish animation of the player is really cool, depending on it's velocity.

The camera is smooth and lovely!

Great Job :)

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it :) It was my first time using Aseprite.

Submitted

Nice gameplay and music!

Developer(+1)

Thanks - glad you had fun!

Submitted

Hey! That was really fun! I really liked the alternate paths you can take. The visuals reminded me of the ending of a Super Mario Bros. 3 level, which was really cool. Another thing with the visuals-  I think the fact that everything wasn't just part of the same terrain (you had stacks of blocks, different circles, squares, etc) was a part of the game that made me want me play to the end. Some constructive criticism- the camera felt a bit weird, trying to shift ahead of the player(good), but only shifting when the player was moving(bad) also I totally get it- you only had two weeks to make the game. Overall good game- short, sweet, and with more stuff to do once you're done.

Developer

Thanks - glad you liked the visuals and had fun :)

I see what you mean about the camera; it’s a bit fluid for the general low-bitness of the rest of the game :)

Submitted

Hey! I have some feedback for your game!

I wish when playing as a circle on the first level there'd be fewer jumps.

I also wish that there'd be coyote jump ( you can jump while not being grounded if you were grounded like 0.1-0.2 seconds ago )

Lastly, I wish you would not need to restart the game when you beat the game as a square.

Fun game.

Square ending:


Circle ending:


Developer(+1)

Thanks - glad you had fun and saw both endings :)

I get what you mean- I wanted to make it clear that being your own circle was the difficult path- but ran out of time to use anything than the somewhat cheap ‘you have to do lots of jumps right’ mechanic to do this!

Submitted(+1)

I really enjoyed the realization that the game is more than double what I thought  when I reached the square ending! Awesome plot twist! 

Developer

Thanks a lot - glad you like it!

Submitted

Really good game except, I can't solve the first level.

Developer (1 edit)

Oh noe!

You should be able to solve it by:

[as a square]) go right, press [tab] to turn into a square, and then you should be able to double jump up to the exit when you hit a wall.

[as a circle]) go left, fall down and then start heading right, jump from single block to block until you make it to the exit.

ed. In the end, I added a walk through video (https://youtu.be/9PjaMpKuyCg) just in case anyone else gets stuck

Thanks for giving it a go!