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Shadow Peaks (Demo)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Sound/Music | #59 | 2.366 | 2.800 |
| Art / Graphics | #59 | 2.704 | 3.200 |
| Overall Fun | #66 | 1.859 | 2.200 |
| Controls / UI | #68 | 1.521 | 1.800 |
Ranked from 5 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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I am going through all submissions to make all developers aware of an important Google form I've made.
I'm joining the IQ folks to help organize smaller events in between the main FQ event in order to help prevent us from getting too many games in main events. Right now, I have a planned structure for these events but I would like to hear from everyone who was in this event in order to tune things better. The survey is a bit long, but it covers as much as I could think of. If you can take the time to do the survey by June 1st, I would immensely appreciate it!
You can find the form here: https://forms.gle/P9LPYwERhJtpZzteA
This game looks promising and I have high hopes that with a few tweaks, it could be amazing! I liked the style, the aesthetics are gorgeous. However, navigation was difficult and frustrating as it is in it's current state. Again, I feel that with a few tweaks, this could be an amazing game! So don't give up! Looking forward to possibly testing again in the future!
VOD Highlight:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1819996789
Hello from tonight's stream!
I can see potential in this, but right now its movement needs a lot of fixes. The main issues I feel need to be tackled are as follows:
- When using the faster speed, there needs to be an allowance for doing a jump. Many times I would be on the edge of the platform and jump, only for the game to have already made me airborne before the game responds and thus my jump isn't a proper jump. This can make using the run difficult.
- Platforms should not be universally sized the exact same. A great example of this is in the second screen near the top, where there's a platform that is just out from the wall. There's just enough room on this platform to fall off, but this shouldn't be allowed. By that point, the player is done the screen and going to the next, so this platform should be longer to allow the player to only worry about continuing.
- As a game that focuses far more on obstacle platforming, the inability to move or change movement speed in the air can be frustrating. While it does provide more challenge, this method can cause issues when the punishment for failure is so brutal. If you want to keep the inability to change trajectory in the air, I'd say that every few screens you should set it up that the player is safe from falling all the way back down.
- I encountered some glitches regarding grabbing the ledges at the very bottom where you can clip through the ground. Not a major deal, but it could be a problem later.
Overall, the game needs to be more responsive. Right now, the controls feel sluggish and hard to handle. However, like I said before, I see potential here. Some iteration on the game's platforming aspects to make it more fair and fixing the responsiveness should alleviate a lot of the issues.
I appreciate your input! I've done work to make the controls and player feel much more responsive and have more weight. I've gotten many comments of the floaty nature of the player and have hopefully resolved this.
As for the matter of controlling your player in the air, I have decided to fix this by adding multiple difficulties. In the base difficulty, casual or assisted mode, you will be able to control the player while in the air and have access to checkpoints. And in higher difficulties, you will not. Among other changes. I believe this is a good compromise to have a mode for players to learn the layout of the game and the mechanics of the player, while still being able to have the challenge I'm looking for. I'm also modifying the movement mechanics and how they function to make it more intuitive and fun.
I'm releasing a new overhaul update come next the end of next week with a full level redesign, more background art, better mechanics as I mentioned, and a proper ending. I'm grateful you saw potential in my game and hope you give it another chance at some point when it's further in development. I have quite big plans for this game and would love all the feedback I can get ^^.
While I really love how the game looks and its animations, I can't recommend it much.
The movement is unresponsive, sometimes you press dash mid air and it activates, other time it gets stuck in the animation. There's also no coyote time, so the character falls off pretty easily.
Another problem I have is that the default speed is too fast and acceleration is low, so you go from going very slowly to a suddenly sonic speed. Another problem is that double jump sometimes killed the momentum for no reason.
I really like the vibe, but the movement needs some big changes, I think its nothing too gamebreaking, but quite annoying.
The pixel art is great. It is hard to see some of the platforms. I am missing a lot of sounds so that is unfortunate (e.g. jumping, walking, dashing). The moveset is way too complicated to just slap the entire tutorial on the screen. I was also having trouble with the keys like z for dash. Maybe this isn't design for querty keyboards? The double jump forces you back and has weird momentum. The overall character felt very floaty making it hard to control. The climb is a bit buggy, after climbing I glitched into the floor and was stuck lol
I'm glad you liked the art. The remaining sounds such as the jumping and walking will be implemented in the next update this coming weekend. I do have plans on adding a more progressing tutorial in the near future. An option in the menu that will bring you to a level that gradually teaches you the mechanics, and that will likely be in the second or third update from now, being implemented with an overhauled level design.
Originally I had dash as alt, but quickly realized that caused you to exit the window, so I chose z since it was the key closest to the shift key which is to change the speed of the character, so it seemed like a spot you'd likely have your finger on anyway. Perhaps this will be changed in the future if more people criticize it.
To my knowledge the only time the player can glitch into the ground during the wall climb animation is at the very start. Initially I made this a required jump, but after noticing this bug I made it a series of basic jumps instead. I thought I had removed that ledge as one that could be grabbed, but I may not have uploaded a new version since I did so. That is no longer an issue as of the next update.
Could you elaborate on what you mean by floaty? I intended for you to not be able to control the character midair, wanting to make the judgement of distance a part of the difficulty, is that what you mean? Or do you feel the player is too light and could use to be heavier and thus have much momentum and less airtime?
It is hard to describe, I will say I don't play that many platforms, but I feel like there is a lot of momentum and it is hard do simple moves. Hmm.... maybe like if I compare it to something like Celeste, the controls there feel a lot more snappy and responsive. Maybe experiment with the gravity and draw of the character? not sure exactly tho
Noted. I appreciate your input.
Really fun platformer game! I love the sound design as well.
I appreciate it. I'm glad you enjoyed it!