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A jam submission

Looking BackView game page

2d Puzzle Platformer
Submitted by Balamast (@gmbalamast) — 5 days, 2 hours before the deadline
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Looking Back's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Theme#633.8373.837
Art Direction#753.7763.776
Overall#1213.3473.347
Game Design#1233.3273.327
Fun#2262.8982.898
Innovation#2362.8982.898

Ranked from 49 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 38 · Previous page · First page
Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Art style is great. Music is great. Concept is great. Dialouge/stroy is great. Level design is great. Theme is true to the jam. The way you portray the character's emotion with the art, music, dialogue, and game mechanics, such as links/memories/etc. is great.

This could definitely become a popular game if you keep working on it. I loved every second I played it. I also really love the name; It's very fitting for what the game is about and is a unique title, not some generic "Connecting with my past" or something like that. A+ game

Developer

I'm not crying or anything.... Thank you for the kind words!

Submitted(+1)

I liked that you kept the mechanics simple, complicated doesnt always equal good. Also, while visually not stunning, you definitely conveyed all the right atmospheres and feelings through the graphics. The 2 players controlled by 1 input is also very similar to what I had in my game, so obviously I enjoyed that mechanic too. (Funny how when you give 400 people the same word to make a game off of some people make similar games). I did encounter one problem which was sometimes I would land on the side of a wall like there was a platform there. Not a huge issue though.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback and kind words! I think its because we are super cool 😎 and thought if a fun mechanic. I wanted to make it a point to convey atmosphere since the topic is kind of heavy while keeping it vague in order to not trigger actual trauma someone may have. 

Submitted(+1)

Great game! Loved the challenge of it and overall aesthetics. The final puzzle was my favorite. Good job!!

Submitted

Nice cover and art direction! The animated loading screen is a nice touch. Visually it really feels like coming out on the other side, when you reach the end and you go from the previous landscapes to the bright ending screen.
The deadly plants are visible enough but could perhaps be emphasized more visually with a brighter color to make them stand out more against the environment.

Gameplaywise, you could experiment with not having the dialogue pause the game in some parts to preserve the flow of the game more, since it does feel like the dialogue takes control away from the player at times. I do see that it makes sense in some parts to have a pause like when you need to find a safe place to land.
Personally I felt the jumps themselves were fine (we are not in the real world after all), but you might want to disallow the player from perma-jumping when holding down the jump button, but that's just what I'm used to from most platformers.
Props for doing it solo, I think you've managed to deliver a very well-rounded package. Keep it up! :)

Developer

Thanks so much! With my little programming experience I saw the glaring issues with the jumps/hit boxes and the dialogue problem. I had no idea how to fix it so I bit the bullet lol. I am very glad the thing I wanted to show I believe I'm good at is the art and I have gotten nothing but nice things said to me about it. This comment means a lot to me. For the plants, it was waaaaaay worse when I first made them because they were the same color as the tile set for a while.

Thank you so much for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Very enjoyable experience. For me it has the right amount of difficulty and levels were designed very well. Pixel art looks well made but the inconsistent size of some of the elements disturbs the whole image. All in all great entry!

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for the feedback, I have definitely never made pixel art for a game before and I tried but I realized I failed in some aspects. high lesson to learn about keeping things consistent.

Submitted(+1)

If this is your first attempt then you my friend have nothing to be ashamed of! Only growth in front of you from now on! Good luck and I'm looking forward to your progress shares!

Developer

THANKS!

Submitted(+1)

I don't know if something is wrong with my browser but I couldn't see the game at all, just a black screen with the music playing

Developer(+1)

that is definitely wierd. If you feel safe with it, I can rezip the game as a downloadable file when I get home if you would still like to try it.

Submitted(+1)

Not to worry, it was a problem with my browser. I got it working. It's a nice game, I've seen a few with similar take on the theme. Well done!

Submitted(+1)

The pixel art is good. There are some small bugs, however good job.

Developer

Thanks for playing the game! What bugs did you see so I can try to fix them after the jam. Its my first time doing a game jam and I am trying to learn as much as I can to progress.

Submitted(+1)

At some parts in maps, one of the characters get stuck on places that are between a platform and a wall.

Developer

thank you for that. Must be something funny with the colliders.

Submitted(+1)

The last few 'doubt' hit boxes really got the best of me but good execution in terms of making me pretty deliberate about my movement choices. It would be interesting to see how this concept could be explored without the very deliberate dialogue (i.e. let the player come to some of their own conclusions about this persons memories through their own interpretations of the world you've created)

Developer

Thats such a cool idea. It would be really challenging for me as a first time game I've made, but this definitely makes me want to think out if the box a bit. I mostly chose the dialogue route to give context to the mechanics and after I did that I just kept it in every level. I appreciate the feedback and for playing the game. Once I get out of work I will make sure to play yours. Ive been adding everyone that comments into a collections so I can play through them all.

Submitted(+1)

I really liked the music. The pixels were also good, but there were some mini bugs.

Developer

I plan on working on the game for my own sake of learning after the jam. What bugs did you experience so I can try and fix them? Thank you for playing as well!

Submitted(+1)

You you have fullscrenn on HTML you can't see all the game, also the jump was a little bit of confusing.

Developer(+1)

hmmm, I am unsure about the fullscreen thing. I had it work on mine fine and I have the aspect ratio set to 16 by 9 so it should work on any monitor with 720p. Ill have to look into that. 


Jumping wise that is definitely something I need to work on. Thanks for letting me know and thank you for playing! Good luck with the jam.

Submitted(+1)

Good Job on this game.

What I like :

- Mood is well installed.

- Good take on the theme

- Music fit the story

What can be improve :

- Character feels floaty (need some coyote jump, a jump buffer, etc...)

- As we use only keyboard, 'continue' button should be actionable with keyboard.

- Inconsistent pixel size between foreground/background

Hope it helps !

Keep up the good work.

Developer

thank you, I have been waiting for a comment like this because I want to actually learn some stuff. I appreciate the comment a lot!

Submitted(+1)

It has a really interesting take on the jam's theme. With great art, narrative, and music,The controls are a bit frustrating though especially the jump. The hitboxes are unforgiving as well. All in all a decent game.

Developer(+1)

thanks for th feedback. So far i realized one of my biggest issues is definitely the jumping. Something im going to go out of my way to learn and make it feel better. I appreciate the the feedback!

Submitted

The music and pixel-art are really good!

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

Nice character portraits and the music is suitably melancholic. The memory concept is nice too. The jumping is really finicky though. I think the floaty feel of the jumping and unforgiving hit boxes make the game a little frustrating. 

Developer(+1)

Totally understand that, thank you for the feed back. Definitely something I'm going to need to work on is the jumping.

Submitted(+1)

Those were really complex platform puzzles! I almost gave up, but the narrative kept me going <3
I really like the moody visuals as well.

Submitted(+1)

I can tell a lot of effort was put into the artwork, presentation, and game design as well. I agree with Pet Pumpkin's  assessment that some of the levels made good use of both characters simultaneously and I can really appreciate the mindful level design choices. Great job!

Submitted(+3)

Nice little game! Got some Celest vibes. I really like the artwork and the simple mechanics, especially like the cover art. I've seen this idea done a bit, with two characters controlled at the same time but I think you managed to make puzzles where both characters are actually in play at the same time. A lot of the time with this kind of mechanic, the player can just resort to putting one character in a safe spot and then platforming with the other character, that happened in your game as well but I felt that there were also times where I had to jump both at the same time and actually platform with both characters at the same time. Nice work :)

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much, I feel like there is this pitfall with this type of game where some puzzles have to be solved that way and that's just from creating that whole yourself. I was trying to do that in the beginning to teach the mechanics and level 3 and 4 I went out of my way to make you them at the same time. I really appreciate this comment. 

Submitted(+1)

Woow very cute game!

Submitted(+1)

Art in this game very well

Submitted(+1)

I'm not much of a platform player, so I'm really bad at this. I love the concept, and the implementation is really solid. The story adds a nice touch and wraps up the atmosphere nicely.

Submitted(+1)

I loved the art and atmosphere! My only nitpick is the continue button is a bit out of place, but this is a game jam

Developer(+2)

I 100% agree, I ran out of time so I just dealt with it lol

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 38 · Previous page · First page