Whoua great game but this got me raging bro. Like it tho
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ESC. (GDKO 2023 - Round 1)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Should this entry qualify for the next round? | #22 | 4.050 | 4.150 |
| Would you want to see more levels of this game? | #25 | 3.855 | 3.950 |
| How good is the art style? | #26 | 3.952 | 4.050 |
| Is this a well thought out level? | #33 | 3.416 | 3.500 |
| How unique is the location? | #62 | 3.074 | 3.150 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Which game engine did you use?
Godot
Comments
I am the ultimate scapegoat ... wait that's not right. Ultimate escaper ... escape artist. That's it. I'm the greatest escape artist! Loved, loved this entry. Was one of my favorite plays while streaming so far. I think you heard all the feedback there, but great job giving me that gamer high when I finally reached the end.
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Intergalactic JanitoryAhah thank you again for playtesting ESC. ! I must say I really enjoyed watching your replay (😈), this exactly what I expected the players to feel like and you finishing the level was just the cherry on top ! For sure I heard all the feedbacks and will do some changes so it will be more forgiving eheh.
Great accomplishment. Wonderful use of art and feel good speedy character. Obviously you know the points about the difficulty so I won't bother saying, and it is not a task about gameplay anyway. looks nice and has a flow in the level which is good.
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Planeshifter- Enter The FeywildsI agree with others about the difficulty, maybe a practice mode with checkpoints and no chasing would have made learning the level less frustrating? The art is great and it was still fun to beat, here is my speedrun video
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Uzuan OrbitalWow. What can I say, this is absolutely brilliant. Probably the best I played so far in this jam and I've played a lot. The art is astonishing and love the movement feel and abilities of the character. As others have mentioned, it is definitely on the steeper side of the difficulty curve. I managed to get past the two drop down sections and then a little way up the next up section in my first 15 minutes of playing, which is probably about 13 seconds of gameplay, I died a lot but learned with it. I would love to see a video of the whole level or know if I was close to beating the level? I think the shadow chasing the player is really cool but probably work best as a last level boss. I think introducing the character's abilities in a safer place for a first level would work best but I must admit I did enjoy playing this game a lot and may have to come back to it and see if I can complete it
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one-eyed PeteWow (too), thank you so much for this positive feedback, it really brings me joy ! And yes you're totally right it definitely needs some difficulty curve, I've been a bit sadic on this one ahah.
Didn't think about making a video so I just uploaded one (It wasn't on the first try, probably on the 10th or so, because YES it's hard who made this ? lol)
I have a lot to say so here we go.
First the positives. The art is absolutely amazing and I love the use of particles for the thing chasing you and the hazards. the player also controls really nicely feeling super tight, snappy, and responsive. But there are some Negatives as well. Like many have already said the game is brutally difficult, it took me almost 45 minutes to complete. A lot of that is down to two parts in the game that made it kind of frustrating to play, the level design and the death.
The problem with the death is it messes with the flow of the game. The death cuts off the music and starts it back from the beginning, which is frustrating on its own if you die a lot (Like I did), it also freezes things for a second before you can jump back in again. In a game like super meat boy for example the death is fast, you hit an obstacle and you respawn at the start, no pauses, no music cuts. and this helps the game feel better as there's no pauses in between your runs and you can achieve a better sense of flow.
The other big is the level design. For the most part the level was great, It was fun to maneuver around. except for 3 big sections which are all drops. all of those parts have hazards at the bottom and its super frustrating to die to them because you couldnt see them coming, and by the time you did you didn't have enough time to react. especially with the last zigzag section maybe an indicator or a way to see the whole map before you start like Skull Binoculars from celeste would help the player feel less frustrated.
Please don't take this criticism the wrong way though. this game is still absolutely incredible and I hope it gets to the next round.
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Comet Rocket - GDKO 2023 - Round 1I would have said similar things with Game Dav. The art is great, and you have implemented it beautifully in this game, which reading from your information might be one of your first, so extra well done! The effects, the wall climb and double jump were superbly implemented with fluid in motion makes this a great submission.
What I found very punishing was your decision to place such a hard obstacle first. The wavy "poison grass?" that coats the first steps, could be mistaken for actual, "step-on-me grass", so I died there a few times before realising what happened. Then, I am required to hang on a wall and then jump over, something uncommonly found in platformers, thus (I at least) kept dying 10+ times before I realised what was possible with the toolset you have given me.
My suggestion would be to try and bring the difficulty scale down a lot, and build baby steps. Some games here on this jam do a great job with this, I am sure looking around will help you reflect if this is your aim.
You have done something amazing here! Please don't keep it locked behind such a steep difficulty spike.
Thank you very much for playtesting my game ! and for the feedback.
Like I said in my reply above, your points are valid ! I spent so much time on art and game feel/ platformer mechanics that I couldn't make a better game/level design. I actually am a newbie in coding so it was very challenging to me ! Sorry for the frustration ahah. Also, as it was demanding a single level, I opted for a difficult one with hope that people would hard try it, get tension. I know there are a lot of games submitted and sometimes I found it hard to get engaged in the first seconds of playing. Just my taste ! But with more time and confidence in my coding skills I would have revisited the difficulty for sure.
Again, thank you for playing and leaving a feedback ! (and I loved your game, def one of my favourites <3)
Of course! You are 100% correct, for brutal games like this set for a specific niche it is hard to choose what and when to present difficulties to the players.
No worries at all, you did an amazing game! It looks and feels perfect.
Just the scaling of the difficulty was too sudden for a filthy casual like me :D
First of all, thank you for playing and taking the time for writing this feedback, it is very helpful to me.
All your points are valids and it helps me to understand better what players expect in this type of game ! Oddly I chose to make an hardcore platformer though I don't even play this genre. As I said I'm more of an artist and it's because of the lore and the idea of being chased by a monster that leaded me to this gameplay.
Indeed I hesitated about the pause after death before retry since it clearly break the flow, same for the music. I should have watched/try super meat boy as reference but actually didn't take the time to. All my time went into the platformer moves / game feel and art, it didn't leave me enough time as I wanted for game and level design.
Very fair point about the guidance through the level, there is actually no way to anticipate the traps when you are falling or in the last parts of the level ahah. I was biased because I built the level so I did know where the traps were. I just thought " Well I suck at this kind of games so if I can do it, people will" ahah.
Again, thank you so much for the feedback, I think I learned a lot from this ! And maybe I will keep workin on it or at least correct some things :)
Very challenging! I can definitely see this as a couple levels in where you’ve gotten a chance to deal. You have some unforgiving placements of those pesky slime walls :p Nice art style, popin music, well done.
(also I appreciate the mac build <3)
Submitted
Escherport Concept
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