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A jam submission

Out Of TimeView game page

A simple platformer where the clock is always ticking. . .
Submitted by nsubordin81 — 14 hours, 28 minutes before the deadline
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Out Of Time's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Gameplay#1272.7533.000
Visuals#1921.9502.125
Overall#1971.8642.031
Mood#1981.8352.000
Audio#2110.9181.000

Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Engine

Unity

Source
https://github.com/nsubordin81/not-this-time/commits/master

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Like the idea of you game i think previous comment have captured  most of the feed back, Keep working at it , Well done.

Developer

Thanks! I really liked yours too, I mostly played WIP versions on discord, but I have yet to play and rate the submitted versions, looking forward to it. Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

As a platformer lover, it’s good to see another dev in arms haha. I think you did well with the concept, there was a definite sense of urgency as soon as the level starts. There’s little room for error.

I think other commentators captured most of the gripes, zooming out would help a lot. I didn’t have much time in my game to include sound as well, so we both need give that some TLC as every game needs good sound. Keep it up though, your gameplay works well.

Developer(+1)

Happy to have jammed with a  kindred spirit! So much unexplored space in this genre, good to hear from a fellow spelunker ; ). Thanks I was definitely hoping that the timer mechanic would set that urgency tone so it is encouraging to hear you got that feeling. 

Haha yeah a month went by really fast! This being my first time trying to set a deadline on my game dev I was really happy with how much I was able to get through, but yeah so many things stayed on my backlog. Let's commit to getting that TLC in together. I'm looking forward to playing your game and the games of others too. I've been behind with my playing and rating since the jam ended but I hope to get to some this weekend. 

Submitted(+1)

Very creative and original!! The main problems I found were mentioned before, but the ones i found make the game too difficult are the "floatiness" of the jump (I mean, maybe making it snappier somehow would improve accuracy) , the jumps, which seem to not always reach the same height, and the fact that moving on a red platform continues decreasing your time (this i don't know if is by design or not). Setting the camera farther away would make it easier but, on the other hand, i sort of enjoyed not knowing what the layout was. I do like the minimalistic design, but I also think that some sounds would make a huge improvement. 
But definitely keep working on this one because the mechanics are really cool!! 

Developer

Thank you for playing and for the thoughtful response and encouragement! I'm glad to hear this was something new to try. Those are really good points and they'll really help inform my future work. 

I agree after some testing and hearing your and others feedback that the movement I programmed in, specifically the jumping mechanics, are not a great fit for the level traversal demands the game puts on the player, and also just don't make for easy play. There is something in the code to tamp the upward velocity as soon as jump is released, and I don't know that having this coupled with lower g is really what I should be doing given precision and speed are important factors.

I appreciate your comment about the view port, I was hoping that not seeing what was above and below could have that effect. My tendency I think has been to imagine my platformer ideas with a zoomed in feel, so it helps to have the feedback in both directions about how it makes the game interesting sometimes and frustrating at others. I think I'll have to be very conscious in level design of what impact each zoom level will have, maybe crack open that cinemachine manual some more : ).

Developer

Ooo also good point about the platforms that remove time, in the last level I had intentionally chained them so that you couldn't walk across, but that was the first time it was like that and there were no indications that you could lose time again by continuing to run there. Also, right now it is setup with an onCollide() callback so if your player collides with them two times in a short period of time you'll lose time twice (also with the toggle switches, which is something I had on my list to fix also). Thanks! re-playtesting after getting all this great feedback has helped me see those issues more clearly, and there is a bug. If you play twice without restarting, the number of times you ran out of time is still saved so you can't improve your score :blush:   

Submitted(+1)

I like minimalistic games like this one, let me know if you keep updating it!

What what was most missing was sfx, it really brings a game to life and it's not that hard to implement.

Some other tips to improve the gameplay:

  • coyote jump
  • input buffer
  • make the jump less floaty
  • make the level design a bit more interesting and really thing about it (one of the most essencial and forgotten game aspects)
  • maybe zoom out the camera a bit so that the player could know where it needs to go
Developer(+1)

Thank you for your thoughtful feedback! I do plan to make updates to get some of the experience with art and sound design that I didn't while the jam was in progress. I decided this will be my project for a while : ), your notes and specific techniques to try give me good priorities for starting on that. I'll take these to heart while I work to evolve this game. 

Submitted(+1)

That's really cool man! Let's keep getting our games better o/

Your welcome, hope it will help you! :)))

Developer(+1)

Yeah! It already has thanks. And yes let's do it!

Submitted(+1)

I liked the concept, and indeed the toggle switch was a neat idea. The gameplay was rather difficult, the jump was challenging somehow. I have a feeling maybe this game is better played with a game pad as there is a lot of jumping, but with the keyboard my thumb was getting tired!

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, my one and only playtester (spouse) also ran into an issue I couldn't reproduce where pressing spacebar didn't seem to always make the jump work. There might be some edge cases but movement is core to this so I'll definitely be looking into it. I appreciate you trying it out!

Submitted(+1)

The mechanics for this platformer is quite inventive, I should say. Mainly the toggle safety one. It added another element to make the game more interesting, rather than just collect time bits. But this game still has long ways to cover to be a proper game. The lack of SFX or music made the game very dull, and the art could get more work done.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for you comments! I'm glad you liked the mechanic and I agree there's a long way to go to make this game a decent product. I'll keep working on updates to the art, music and sound design and hopefully eventually a narrative that matches my mechanics. Great feedback

(+1)

The idea of having certain platforms detract from your timer is a really unique concept! nice job!

Developer

Thank you! I had a lot of fun building that in and playtesting it. I'm glad it was a fun challenge. Appreciate the feedback!