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A jam submission

TetherGeistView game page

(GMTK Jam 2021 - Top 10 Popular Vote) Traverse a mystical world by separating and rejoining with your ghost.
Submitted by O. & Co. Games (@TetherGeist), Jefftacular, rusty fishburger, Doctor Ty, TheCanyonKid, RaeAllenArt (@raeallenart) — 4 hours, 59 minutes before the deadline
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TetherGeist's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall#104.4174.417
Fun#114.3654.365
Presentation#144.6634.663
Originality#914.2214.221

Ranked from 104 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the theme?
This is a puzzle platformer that dynamically changes as you separate and rejoin with your spirit.

Did your team create the vast majority of the art during the 48 hours?

Yes

We created the vast majority of the art during the game jam

Did your team create the vast majority of the music during the 48 hours?

Yes

We created the vast majority of the music during the game jam

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Comments

Viewing comments 53 to 34 of 73 · Next page · Previous page · First page · Last page
(1 edit) (+1)

This is a perfect entry. The game feels satisfying to play, the art is beautiful, and the music is perfect. The tether mechanic is easy to use for new players, but can be used to skip parts for second playthroughs. Amazing speed running potential and for challenge runs (like minimum splits). An incredible amount of volume for a jam game, and lots of potential for post-jam improvements. Can't wait to see what you do with this. (btw my lowest splits run was 40) (Edit: I've gotten it down to 33, don't think that lower is possible)

Developer

YES! I'm sooo happy you saw the speedrun potential. We designed it intentionally this way. Definitely will be pursuing this idea further after the jam.

I'll have to see if I can beat 40 splits....

Thank you so much for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Amazing! Beautiful graphics and the controls are very smooth. Amazing game! (i did find a few cheeky cheat spots ;3)

Developer(+1)

lol chances are those cheat spots were ones we left in intentionally. We want players to experiment with the mechanic and find shortcuts for speedruns. Thank you so much for playing!

(+1)

Overall a stunning entry! Gorgeous graphics with a very responsive gameplay. I love the fact that the physics allowed some intended cheese strats. It felt very satisfying and polished. Amazing job! :)

Developer

Woot! I'm so glad you found the cheese strats! We really want to encourage that speedrun potentional in this game. Thank you so much for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Loved all of it, art, concept, gameplay! Amazing game, congratulations to the team! :) 

Developer

Thank you so much!

Submitted(+1)

I don't know how you manage to come up with such a great mechanic in almost every jam, loved the music and art both, great game :D

Developer (1 edit)

Thinking about game design is almost an obsession I suppose lol. This one I collaborated a lot with @Jefftacular to hone in on mechanics and design. I see him as the co-creator. Thank you so much for the kind feedback!

Submitted(+1)

Wow, this is fun and well polished, I want to see this expanded after the jam. I like the art style too, good work guys, this is better be included in the top 20! :)

Developer(+1)

Gosh thank you so much for the high praise! Seriously means a lot coming from someone who made a game as great as yours! Boy it would be a dream come true to see this game in the top 20... we definitely plan to expand on this post jam. Thank you for playing!

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

Very pretty decors (those clouds!), chill music and fun mechanics! You added a lot of bricks around the core mechanic, which kept this very interesting! You also did a very good job at introducing them progressively with a lot of levels, which I find is always an underrated achievement.

I love how you made the statues shine when the spirit is active. Are they Sheikah statues? ;D

Also had a good laugh releasing the spirit in the blue spaces!

Developer

Lol they do look like Sheikah statues huh! Thanks for the kind and thoughtful feedback. We prioritized ramping up at the right pace in our design decisions, so it's validating to hear you appreciated it! Thank you for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Art is neat and the controls are just perfect. I enjoyed the game.

Developer

Thank you so much!

Submitted(+1)

Very nice game! The combination of art and music gave a really satisfying feeling. The core mechanic and level design were really fun too. The movement felt nice and responsive however maybe you could slow the player a bit after rejoining. I would like to see some levels where your number of splits is really limited (rather than having excess) and you have to think carefully when and where you use them. Nice job!

Developer

You are thinking on the same wavelength as we are! We're excited post-jam to really dig into this mechanic and make levels with very limited diamonds just like you mentioned. You are not alone in the frustration about the excess momentum after rejoining. Many have said the same thing. We're super jazzed to see trends like this. It will really help us in designing our future builds.

Thank you so much for playing!

Submitted(+1)

The best game I've played in the jam so far. The core mechanic was really fun to engage with. I had fun finding skips in levels using the mechanic. Amazing work!

Developer(+1)

Wow thank you so much for the high praise! That's huge!  I'm really glad to hear you found skips in the levels. That is by design, we were hoping to spark some speedrun strategies for players. I'm so glad you liked the game. Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

This game had an amazing presentation to it and the gameplay was solid. The puzzles weren't that challenging, but I felt were good for a jam game. The platforming was decent but leaving the spirit form resulted in a lot of what felt like cheap deaths due to a weird momentum. If you want to see what I said further about this game, then you can check out the stream here:

Developer(+1)

That's great feedback! We noticed this as well but didn't have enough time to address it for the game jam build. We'll definitely look into it for our post-jam work. Thanks!

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for the kind words and thorough feedback! Just watched the stream and I totally agree the extra momentum when you  rejoin with the spirit feels uncontrollable, resulting in it feeling unfair. I also really love the idea you mentioned about having a timer on the spirit projection. We'll likely play with that idea in our post-jam version. As you inferred, we really were just all hands on deck for the 48 hours. Very little sleep lol. 

Thanks for playing!

Submitted

I can completely understand that! I only had about 8 hours to work on our project so squeezing out every last minute to get something working was a miracle lol

Submitted(+1)

The spirit shifting mechanic is really well done! once i saw that there's extra mechanics like your body floating slowly while in spirit mode, and the momentum you get from rejoining your spirit this movement really opened up! 

There's a lot of play to this movement system and your level design really allows for people who grok the mechanics to soar through them and sequence break them which i find rewarding. 

However, you've also made sure to introduce levels in an order that subtly teaches the player these more advance mechanics, so great level design and difficulty progression!

Developer(+1)

This is some of my favorite feedback ever. It's clear you're a fellow game designer and developer based on how astutely you analyzed this game.  It's very rewarding as a designer to hear a player who noticed all of our little design decisions for the player experience. Thank you so much for thoughtful feedback, high praise, and for playing! I'm excited to check out your game!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

It was very validating reading your feedback, thank you :) You have some real talent on your team, so I wanted to be sure that you got the recognition you deserved!

Submitted(+1)

Loved the mechanic, like Celeste with a twist. Big potential.

Developer

Thank you for the kind words! Any comparison to Celeste is a huge complement in our books.

(+1)

this is dope! love the almost celeste puzzle/platformer vibe!

Developer

Thank you so much! We're flattered to be compared to a masterpiece like Celeste.

Submitted(+1)

Spectacular! It is such a polished game in such a short time, and with quite a lot of levels! Audio, art, gameplay everything was amazing, really well done! 

For the feedback, I have to say that there were some levels where it was possible to jump straight to the finish (of course not easy jumps) skipping the whole stage pretty fast (but I think it is a good thing because it lets you think creatively), also it is possible to glitch trough blue zones, but it actually made the game even more interesting to play, because you were not forced to follow the rules :D 

The only thing that made the game a little bit harder was that when you are falling and catch crystal in the mid-air and then instantly press J it doesn't register it that fast and you end up falling to the pit. Despite that, it is one of the best entries, without a doubt!

Developer

Thank you for the kind and thoughtful feedback! The levels where you can skip things with big jumps were actually designed that way intentionally (we were hoping to spark some speedrun ideas in players) so it's actually really encouraging to hear that you found them! And you are not alone with the mid-air difficulty. It's clear to us that we need to provide the player a bigger window to execute on that. Likely with a slower maximum fall speed. Post-jam stuff!

Thank you so much for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Nice graphics!  Good job!

Developer

Thank you! Our artists did some amazing work.

Submitted(+1)

really neat game and the visuals are amazing

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

I liked the visuals and level design, well polished and smooth. ~ Please check my entry, when you get time.

Developer

Definitely will check out your entry! Thank you for the kind words.

Submitted(+1)

Great game, everything about it ran smoothly, nice job

Developer

Thank you for the kind words! We put a lot of heart into this game :)

Submitted(+1)

Very well polished and executed game!

Developer

Thank you kindly! Our artists really helped bring this game to a new polished level.

Viewing comments 53 to 34 of 73 · Next page · Previous page · First page · Last page