Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
A jam submission

HooplessView game page

Entry by sherlocklini for GoedWare Game Jam #13
Submitted by Sherlocklini — 26 minutes, 38 seconds before the deadline
Add to collection

Play GoedWare Game Jam Game

Hoopless's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Devlog#2n/an/a
Overall#33.0833.083
Theme#43.4723.472
Gameplay/Fun#53.0563.056
Innovation#103.0003.000
Audio/Sound Design#122.9442.944
Art Style/Visuals#142.9442.944

Ranked from 36 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Game Engine / Tools
Godot 4.4

How does your game fit the theme?
You are a ball trapped in a loop - literally. You need to (actually) break the loop by destroying it!

Devlog link
https://sherlocklini.itch.io/hoopless/devlog/902798/devlog-sumbmission-day

Self-made & used stuff

Graphics / Art (e.g. models or textures)
Assets (e.g. free or owned)

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Comments

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 28 · Previous page · First page
Submitted(+1)

Very well polished.

Puzzle for level 12 is either super convoluted or I got super unlucky, I found that clicking the little decorative particles did something and made a buzzer, never made progress on it despite trying multiple times.

Trying to see the light coloured electricity against the light coloured tiles was a little challenging, I would like to see it tint the tile its colour. I noticed you used yellow, cyan, and magenta as the colours, which are much brighter than red, green, and blue on a screen.

I liked the theme interpretation a lot, fits perfectly.

Puzzles were pretty clever, though quite easy.

Developer(+1)

Many thanks for your feedback! Yes, level 12 is a hidden Level. SPOILER ahead:

You need to find the correct shape in the background of each level. You will know what to search for if you have a look at the level menu (looking at the circles surrounding the different numbers). The circles differ for the levels. If you completed a level, you can also closely look at the 'O' of COMPLETE when a level is completed, this is the shape you will need to click in the next level :D

Submitted(+1)

I went and did it, and, after collecting all 11 parts, successfully completed level 21!

Developer(+1)

Haha, you found the easter egg I did not attend to have in the game (Level'21' Labeling) :D Really good :)

Submitted(+1)

wow good idea for a good puzzle game :D

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

Great game, the levels are very well designed and challenging. The art looks nice however there is a small problem, the colours of the sparks on the floor are hard to differentiate but that might just be me. Overall great job on this i like it!

Developer

Many thanks for your feedback! Good point regarding the sparks, I did not check how good they can be distinguished on smaller screens. I will have this in mind for future game design :)

Submitted(+1)

Dang! What a great game. :3

I found the progression in difficulty very natural, and very much appreciated the instruction. I also liked the Action Points system, and that you would have to sometimes get hurt to progress!

I really loved the visuals. They were clear, and fun. The movement you gave them brought it to life.

I like how quick and easy it is to restart, since I am pretty bad at video games. And that you implemented a level select screen.

Music is a fun choice that had me bouncing along. The sound effects were poppy and felt good.

Definitely fit the brief!

Developer(+1)

Many thanks for your feedback!

Submitted(+2)

The visual style of this game caught my attention right from the start. Even though it’s relatively "simple," the combination of colors, effects, sounds, and music all came together perfectly, great job on that! It gave me a strong sense of nostalgia for retro games, which I really appreciate.

I found your interpretation of the theme particularly interesting. The fact that we break the loop in a literal way (since here, the loop is something physical) was really clever. Usually, this concept is explored in a more abstract manner.

Fortunately, I didn’t encounter any issues while playing (in terms of bugs), but I have to admit that I felt a little lost when it came to the character’s movement. This is probably more on me than on the game itself, as I sometimes got confused due to the way gravity works in 360°.

The game's progression was great, you did well by introducing each mechanic before moving on to more complex challenges. It gave just the right amount of time to grasp everything and understand how things work.

However, I feel like this slightly affected the game’s difficulty curve, as some later levels ended up being easier than the previous ones (at least in my opinion). That said, it’s nothing that detracts from the experience, just an observation from my playthrough. A solid example of this would be the “final” level (11), which, despite having a somewhat tricky logic to solve (in a good way), felt noticeably simpler compared to earlier sections.

Level 12, from what I read, is an easter egg, right? Could you give me a subtle hint on how to access it? I’d love to see it in action.

Congratulations on the project! Wishing you the best of luck in the jam!

Developer(+1)

Many thanks for your detailed feedback! You are right regarding level difficulty. I thought it would be nice to 'mix' the levels instead of increasing difficulty all the time. This way sometimes player tend to think "too much" instead of going for the simple approach, do you know what I mean? :D

And yes, Level 12 is an easter egg! 

So SPOILERS ahead:

You need to find the correct circular shape for each level, click it within the level and complete the level as well. The vorrect circle is shown in the level selection screen or the 'O' of 'COMPLETE' when using the "next-level-menu-approach" :)

Submitted(+1)

That is really clever puzzle game. Innovative and fits well to the theme. I completed all levels except the hidden level. Well done.

Submitted(+1)

Very nice made, fits the theme very well and i think is overall a cool idea.

Submitted(+1)

the game is very interesting and fun, above all it is well made, beautiful work

Submitted(+1)

The puzzle design was excellent. Really good! I wish there were more levels. It ended when it was getting really good, I know there is a secret level but i could not unlock it, I'm sure it has something to do with little clickable circles that appear, but I didn't get it. Very well made game!

Developer (1 edit) (+2)

Haha, yes, you are totally right :)

Little SPOILER ahead, so ignore the following if you want to find it out by yourself:

For each level a specific circle needs to be clicked in the background. You may wonder what circle? Have a look at the level selection menu. Within each 'box' there is a specific shape shown. This is the one you are searching for.

If you don't want to get to level selection all the time, you will also see what shaoe you are looking for when focusing on the 'O' within the word 'COMPLETE' after you completed a level.

Just have in mind: You not only need to click the correct circular shape AND finish the level :)

Submitted(+1)

Thank you! I just beat the last level!

Submitted(+1)

Very nice game! I got stucked in the 5th level, i really like the way the ball bouces and phisycs behind, the effects are amazing, I really liked this game!

Submitted(+1)

This is amazing! It's unique and really makes you think. I also love how health is treated like a resource rather than purely an obstacle. I couldn't unlock level 12, but I'm assuming that's the easter egg?

Developer

Yes, level 12 will be unlocked if you find the hidden secret of each level :)

Submitted(+1)

This is a really unique game! It's cool to see someone else who took the idea the same way I did, by quite literally breaking a physical loop! (Although yours was a loop loop, mine was a gas station loop.) So, 5 stars for theme interpretation! I also really liked the art and sound effects; they added to the overall experience. The gameplay wasn't bad either - I appreciated how mechanics were introduced very regularly and the level design made you think. Overall, this was a really fun game to try out. Great work!

Developer

Many thanks dor your feedback! I will play your game very soon as well and I am also looking forward tonget in touch with all the different ways how to interpret the theme  :)

Submitted(+1)

Nice game, i like the graphics although i think that other than a little more polish, a more indepth gameplay could have been better. having limited actions is the core gameplay but it feels frustrating having to repeat an entire level just because of a misclick. the cotrols are too complicated. every action is a different button! the levels are a bit forgetable and not very interesting.

On the other side the game is very good to look at, and the theme fits in an orginial and unique way. extra points for me! that said i think that foucusing a bit more on player experience and unique gameplay elements instead of level amount could have been more beneficial for this jam.

Keep it up! :D

Developer
Thank you so much for your feedback! I really appreciate it. I’ve realized that the game might be a bit too challenging, and the player movement could use some refinement. As I’m still quite new to game development, I’m continuously learning and will work on improving these aspects in the future! :) I must admit, I tend to get easily distracted by new ideas. In this game, I focused a lot (maybe a little too much) on the Easter Egg Challenge, which is why some other elements, like player movement, didn’t get as much attention.
Deleted post
Developer

Many thanks! Haha, yes. Movement orientates on the player, so if you are at top of the loop, it might feel strange :D

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Nice puzzle game! It took me some time to really understand some gameplay mechanics but overall the puzzle were pretty enjoyable. Since the gameplay is with the keyboard, it would be nice if you could navigate the UI with the keyboard too, especially since you need to click on a button to retry (or just restart the level automatically). 

Developer(+1)

Many thanks! Yes, navigating the UI with keys will be added in the future. Thank you for your feedback :)

Submitted(+1)

This was a cool concept and the puzzle difficulty ramped up beautifully! I found one small bug though where if I had the menu open when I lost the level, the "do you want to restart" prompt is hidden behind the menu. Clean sound and some jammy music were also great. I think the levels that rely on careful platforming (lvl 7 took me a good few tries) can be frustrating with this type of character controller (look into stuff like coyote time and reduce the gravity down a bit if you wanna keep it) so maybe avoid making too many levels rely on it. Gotta admit the art style and minimalist visuals are pretty striking and immediately readable so well done there. Overall cool game, just fix those little things!

Developer(+1)

Thanks you for your feedback! I was not aware of this bug, I will have a look at it.
You are totally right regarding the player controller. I am still new to game dev and will do my best to adjust it in the future :)

Submitted(+1)

Nice tutorial, the soundtrack is great. The game is a bit too hard for me though. Being able to interact with the UI using keyboard would be great.

Developer

Many thanks for your feedback! You mean like adding the possibility to open and close the menu(s) using keys? I will include that in an update, thank you!

Submitted(+1)

Yeah. I’m playing with the keyboard, so when the menu pops up, I want to interact with it using the keyboard too.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Perfect.

Submitted(+1)

I loved it! I had to stop a couple of times to think where left and right were from player's perspective, and I enjoy that kind of things a lot. I liked using health as a mandatory resource, and music and assets fit perfect together too.

I only found it a bit confusing the first time I had to change colors, but it's because I didn't find the key on the page instructions.
It's a very nice game, congrats!

Developer

Thank you for the feedback! You are absolutely right...The instructions should also show how to change colors, if applicable. Taking notes and will update after the jam :)

Submitted(+1)

A cool, retro, puzzle platformer! Nice!

I liked the retro inspired presentation- made the game feel really old school, and fit the gameplay really well. The levels sometimes took a second to figure out- that's what you want from the puzzle platformer, though :)

The idea, where you use your health as a resource is an interesting one. Most games treat loosing lives as a fail state, but here it was more "I need to get hit twice, but not more". Gave an extra layer to the puzzles! Nice!

There is only one thing that bothered me. I would much prefer, if the ball stayed in the bottom of the screen, and the loop moved. It was sometimes hard to judge where the jump will land, and that resulted in repeating the level multiple times.

Over all- that's a good jam game! Good work!

Developer

Many thanks for this nice feedback!

I actually started with the loop rotating instead of the player moving. However, I decided against this mechanic, because it looked less dynamic. 

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 28 · Previous page · First page