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A jam submission

No Time To WaitView game page

Magical Girl Jam Project
Submitted by AJuneBug (@LoneJuneBug) — 10 hours, 34 minutes before the deadline
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No Time To Wait's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Gameplay#34.3164.316
Art#54.0534.053
Overall#73.8033.803
Creativity#93.8423.842
Magical Girl Use#223.0003.000

Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Theme(s)
11) The Only Thing I Have Left to Guide Me
As well as overall "Hidden" theme (time mechanic/darkish background)

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Why use time-altering magic clocks when you have a box? Boxs work just as well.

A good puzzle game. Quite hard by moments, but I cleared it, so I can feel smart about myself ^^ Most levels are well-constructed, with the solution being just hidden enough to feel satisfying to find.

It felt weird to just dash into enemies at times and being safe, but it makes sense quickly enough.

Though the mecanic of desynching the enemies with boxs instead of clocks in the last few levels could use a bit more intuitive logic. I stumbled upon it by chance and managed to clear the game with it, but I understand why people would get stuck. But once I realised it and used it, I did feel smart. That's the  delicate balance with puzzle games after all ^^'

(Or I just completly missed an obvious solution and did something weird with the box. That's possible too)

Anyway, these are at most nitpicks, I had fun playing the game. Good job! :)

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! I might write a postmortem or devlog about my design decisions (or lack there of). About 50%-75% of my way through, I realized that the game essentially ran on "cycles", and that the wait powerup was essential a "change cycle button", instead of a "get out of jail free card". This caused a problem where using the power up could just put you into an unwinnable situation. I also didn't think that puzzles where the solution was a "use the wait power up at the right place to change the cycle" would be easy to understand. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to go back and redesign levels/mechanics with this new understanding.

If I expand the game, I'd probably rewrite boxes so you'd move along with the box so they don't turn into reusable clock power ups. And also think of ways to teach "cycles" to the player better.

Submitted

OMG, your response just made me realise that the box could be used to change MY cycle. I was doing super complicated manipulations to change the enemy's cycle one by one, by pushing the box where they would have moved. This litterally made my time on the 11th level, like, 10 or 20 times shorter! I suddenly feel a whole lot of not smart right now XD

So in conclusion, good game, and I WAS doing something very weird.

Submitted(+1)

I really liked it! But I really like puzzles anyway.

I actually really like the puzzle design: how do you come up with ideas for levels? Do you just take random ideas and see what sticks? Or do you carefully design each puzzle? I have wanted to do a puzzle game for a long time but I can never think of good levels...

The skip turn mechanic was a bit underutilized. Only in the first level it's introduced did I really need to use it; in fact, I think I'd have lost if I had used it in any other level. I like that it takes careful thought to decide when to use it, but at least most of the puzzles should be solved by using it in the right spot, not by never using it! It should have been a mechanic in the last level, too!

I liked the artstyle, too. Very pleasant to look at!

Overall, very good job, one of my favourites in the jam!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! I provided my thoughts on the skip turn mechanic in my response to Weakest Imp.

I'm glad that you liked my puzzles! I essentially came up with "mechanics", like the clock power up, enemies, the keys, boxes, etc. Then tried to make a level that only uses one of those mechanics in a relatively fail free environment to introduce/teach it. Then I'd mix and match the mechanics to have them interact (enemies on moving platforms, boxes to block enemies, etc).

As in designing the levels, I essentially made a start and end position and played around with moving to it. I then would look to see where I could roadblock the player with the mechanics (an enemy here, or a detour to a key). I felt putting restrictions on myself made it easier, especially keeping everything to one screen.

Making the levels was definitely the most time consuming part, with ideas just "popping" in my head while I was doing other things. I definitely wanted to make more levels, but due to time I just tried to polish what I had. Was going to have more enemy types and a boss as well.

Submitted(+1)

It's a solid concept for a puzzler, though the last mission threw me. I managed to clear it, but it was more a 'try shoving the crate everywhere' kind of clear than a 'aha, I know how to solve this' moment. So many enemies all in the same cramped space makes their cycles hard to grok, especially when you also have to factor the crate into it. The 'skip turn' mechanic also wasn't that useful, to be honest. There was one time I definitely had to use it, but all the others I 'saved it in case I need it' and wound up... not actually needing it.

Art style's great though, and I love how the levels rise/fall and assemble themselves.

Character's idle animation is a little odd; it kind of looks like her hat is breathing whilst the rest of her stays stock-still.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! I definitely didn't use the wait power up to its fullest potential. I made a more thorough rundown in my comment to Weakest Imp, but tl;dr, I didn't realize the game turned into a "cycles" based game until too late in the jam. The clock was supposed to be a "get out of jail free" card, but really was a "change cycle" power.

The last level was definitely stretching my creative juices and not my strongest level.

I wanted to make a full idle for the character, but just didn't have the time. I left it as a simple "scale it slightly on the Y axis" animation so it wasn't lifeless lol. I probably should of made it more pronounced.

(+1)

I quite liked the game, it is a nice short puzzle, it took me a while to figure out what was supposed to do. I also didnt see the description for the game, so I just die until I use the wait mechanic, which isnt later put, but is just 12 levels, overall I like the game, I rather simplistic, but I liked it. Also at least it better than nothing.

Developer

I'm glad you liked it! There was definitely a lot of "Just ship it!" at the end lol.

HostSubmitted (1 edit) (+1)

Really, really cute game... but an extremely tough one. I felt like my IQ just increased by a few points after playing this... I have always sucked at puzzle games. -.-

At first I have a problem with the idea that you need a special power just to... wait. But then I read the description and say "Oh... ugh... alright then XD"

But I think here comes a weakness of the game: later levels no longer use the wait mechanics (well... even had the wait mechanics been added again it would've been quite useless though because you had the box that you could use to... "wait")

Really would like to know the name of the character.

And then... DAMMIT I WISH I HAD RECORDED MY ATTEMPT. I WANT TO PUT THIS INTO MY UPCOMING LET'S PLAY BUT I DON'T THINK I WOULD KNOW HOW TO SOLVE THAT LAST LEVEL AGAIN IF I HAD TO DO IT ONCE MORE!

P.S.: By the way... I don't think you got the "hidden side theme" correctly. While the [main] themes are the names of episodes of the [main] original Puella Magi Madoka Magica anime, the [side] themes are the names of the (season 1) episodes of Puella Magi Madoka Magica [Side] Story: Magia Record.

Developer

Thank you for the feedback! I definitely needed more work into the "wait" mechanic and rework the box so its not just a free "wait".

As for the hidden theme, I just assumed it was anything related to the show since I recognized the titles. I probably should of checked the thread lol. Oh, and I haven't come up with a name for the main character yet.

Also, thank you for hosting this jam. It was the motivation I needed to finally release a game (even if it wasn't finished).

HostSubmitted

Your game did really well in this jam -- among some of the highest rated. Congrats!

My playthrough of this game is in this let's play video. I hope you will check it out:

(+1)

Gameplay is a lot of fun, though I got stuck pretty hard on that level where you have to make that thing go across the moving platforms with the buttons! The art is very cute, and I think I know which pieces of music your brother wrote!

As a side note, isn't it cool to work with your siblings? I've done a few albums with my brother and it's just so cool to make something together.

Submitted(+1)

Cute little puzzle game! Clever title!

Submitted(+1)

Nice game! Fun puzzle mechanic, and the character is super cute! I got through all the levels. The last one took a few tries though... Overall quite good!

Submitted(+1)

I really like these simple but fun games.

Submitted(+1)

Nice game, I'm just not smart enough to for it

Submitted(+1)

I'm in love with this! This is such a clever idea! This concept feels so solid and the levels were designed suuuper well, good job!

Submitted(+1)

It definitely feels prototype-y, but I really liked the gameplay. It's quite fun and quite different from (most of?) the other games in the jam.