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GitHub repository URL
https://github.com/gogwilt/secrets-game-jam
Game description
Cluedomancer is a puzzle platformer, where you play as an occult detective. Your job is to solve the case, by entering the minds of your suspects, uncovering their truths and revealing their secrets. Each suspect's mind is a level, and within each level, you must access a secret dimension to find a way through.
Theme interpretation
"Secrets" inspired us to build a story-driven puzzle game, with the idea that each character in the story was a puzzle for you to solve, and the reward for each solved puzzle was the character's secret. The "Speed Run" wildcard reminded us of "Neon White," which led us to building a speed-running platformer as the "puzzle" for each character. Early on, we added a "secret parallel dimension" as the main puzzle element, which lent itself to hiding secret cards within the level (the reward being the fuller story). And of course, we had to add a final twist at the end with a secret level!
Wildcards used (optional)
Make time the enemy
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Comments
The topic of the secret has even been revealed twice. And there is a secret in the mechanics and in the plot too. Overall, the concept is interesting. However, I quickly got stuck in one place and can't get out))
What a fun concept and great to incorporate secrets and time challenges into the game. I liked the little story and especially the overlapping worlds. It's implemented simply, but very well.
Your art was AI generated and that was visible. Not that I mind that it's AI because of the time constraints and not everyone is an artist, but that you really saw the imperfections in some of the eyes.
My other feedback is about the controls. They feel weird and the acceleration feels uneven. On the other hand, it added another dimension to learning the controls. There is a jump in the first ghost where I got stuck, but when I got the triple jump there, it felt great. Good job, keep it up.
Thank you so much for the feedback. The AI art definitely elevated the game feel from what it was, but there does seem to be an upper limit to it 😅. And really glad to hear there were parts of the controls that felt rewarding. We definitely want to tighten them up, and it's good to know what parts we might want to preserve!
Interesting story. I like the mechanic of having to switch between worlds. The platforming is quite solid and nicely built around speed running. The character portraits are quite nice. I do have to say using acceleration in the character movement leads to some wonky movement sometimes, though when you do have speed it goes quite smoothly. Maybe allow the speed to build up faster? The dash had a nice animation and the sections where you had to air dash continuously upwards were challenging.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you!! This is great feedback. We are hoping to update the player movement to make it tighter after the jam judging finishes. Really appreciate you playing our game!
I like the mechanic to hop between to overlapping levels but I couldn't complete the second level, character's jumps were too low.
Thank you! Sorry to hear that the character's jumps were too low. There's a directional dash mechanic, that allows you to basically triple-jump, but it's difficult to discover, and the tutorial can be easy to skip over.
I totally missed the directional dash mechanic. I replayed the game and I like it. The directional dash gives it a more polished platforming feeling and also more freedom in the air.
Thank you for giving it another try! And thank you for the additional feedback! =)
Okay, that's certainly an interesting concept. Nice idea with the dimension switch too! Platforming mechanics aside, I feel it could've worked better if there was more interaction between the storyline and the gameplay. Like, maybe the dialogue going on in the background as you collect the cards, or advance through the level? Or maybe the level responding to the dialogue? It feels like the two exist apart from each other.
Kinda disappointed the art is AI-generated. It looks appealing and clickable, yet the levels are made from plain white boxes, and the character uses isometric perspective instead of side perspective so their feet don't line up with ground. Ends up looking like a bunch of 3rd party assets thrown together... I'd suggest you look for an actual artist, or at least take more care to keep it consistent.
Thank you for the suggestions! Glad you liked the concept and saw the potential in the storyline. Originally, we planned to integrate the dialogue into the level (as you suggested), but we are still learning Godot, so we opted to keep it separate. We kept the dialogue more linear, because we weren't sure how much people would even read it. But the card-collecting mechanic did seem to work!
Agreed that an actual artist could have done a better job, but I assure you that the two of us couldn't have =). The AI assistance was tremendously helpful, although it required a decent amount of tweaking afterwards by yours truly. Someone with true art skills could have done a lot more
Thanks for playing and thanks for the feedback!
I agree with some other reviewers about the weird controls but I like the idea about having to switch between two overlapping maps. There is no mention to where the art assets came from or how were they made, they look GenAI, is is all from the same model? Can you comment on which one you used?
Thanks for the feedback! It's our first game jam and our first platformer, so we're learning a lot.
Yes, many of the key art assets are Gen AI, or we utilized Gen AI to make them. We used LayerAI for the character portraits, level backgrounds, and other backgrounds. We used the PixelLab plugin for Aseprite to help us animate the player character. ChatGPT generated the initial version of the game logo. And Suno for the level music.
This was a fun platformer with an interesting narrative element. The Secret dimension was a really interesting take on the theme and allowed some fun level design decisions!
Awesome work! :)
Thank you!!
Liked the concept but the controls were not very fluids. Some controls were not explained in game.
With a little more polish and some adjustment it could be a very cool game
Thank you! This is great feedback. Thank you for taking the time to play our game!
This was such a cool game. I hope this gets more polished and launched as a full game!!!
Thank you! Really glad you enjoyed it and saw the potential. Means a lot!
The movement feel needed some tweak. The adaptive music when changing world is interesting but quite jarring in some instance.
overall is good! keep it up!
Thank you!!
I'm curious, what was jarring about the adaptive music?
Definitely hear you on the movement feel. It's our first game jam, and our first platformer, so this feedback is super helpful. We have a lot to learn!
The hidden map idea was super creative, I loved it! I did get stuck at first when I had to dash upwards (totally my fault for skipping the instructions) and again later when I needed to use the extra dash from the cards. It took me a moment to figure out, but I really enjoyed the game! Also, I hated having jump on J, but I get why it was mapped there. The game hooked me so much I just had to finish it!
Oh wow! It means so much to us that you finished the game! Thank you!!
I wish we'd had a bit more time to rework the tutorial. The Up+Dash control felt easy to pick up if you saw someone do it, but difficult to "discover." And definitely hear you on the controls. We had an even worse keyboard set-up until the last-minute, and didn't have time to improve from there.
Thanks again!!
Had some nice elements. Really liked the cards which kept me engaged. Like the idea behind the gameplay hook and the art was really good, especially that logo.
Thanks!!