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A jam submission

Rest Stop 23View game page

A pit stop goes horribly wrong.
Submitted by kkairos (@Kaikairos), Zephyr (@zephyr_zzt), Michael Games (@MikeMalaska), Tomkai — 1 hour, 24 minutes before the deadline
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Rest Stop 23's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Metroidvania#34.1334.133
Overall#83.6333.633
Presentation#133.6673.667
Design#133.5333.533
Enjoyment#183.2003.200

Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Engine
Gamemaker Studio 2

Team/Developer
Team TGW

External assets
We didn't use any. But we wanted to mention a known issue in the last jam build: if you die before you reach a save point, the game will crash during your next play. Reloading from menu should avoid this issue. We have a fix which we will apply after the game jam voting period ends."

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

wow! this game is beautiful and so polished, great color scheme, fun intricate backgrounds. the controls were very smooth as well great stuff. 

for the sake of nit picking i'll say the game deserved a more visually complex villain, the slimes are cute but those backgrounds are amazing. Maybe a robot?

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much! I agree on the villain. We had other enemies planned but unfortunately had to scrap them bc of time. Maybe in a future expanded version!

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

Great entry, extremely well polished for a jam!

My main complaints are around difficulty, the section returning from the dash pickup and on the section on the way to the double jump pickup took me waaaay too long. I had a hard time going from wall jump to dash, might just be a dexterity issue. Those little blobs are such a pain! Getting up out of the shaft was very irritating, it seemed like the way to do it was with a double jump to get around the edge, but in the middle there was a screen transition with a short but significant pause as the screens loaded; somehow I did this fairly easily the first time, but when I returned I had difficulty getting the timing right, maybe fatigued by then. It really couldn't have been that hard if I could finish it with my limited action platforming skills, though. I finished with 12/16, I went back after I first encountered the boss to pick up a few more to make it easier.

I had no idea there was a wall jump available at first, so I was stuck until I read the comments here mentioning that.

I played through the difficulty because the presentation was so strong. Graphics, animation, music, atmosphere, a bit of humor, all great. Well done, team!

Developer

Thank you for playing and sharing your thoughts! I'm glad you were able to finish it, in spite of the difficulty and our oversight about wall jumping. I'm delighted that you found it compelling enough to keep going. Your feedback (which echoes several others) is insightful. We have been thinking a lot about how to make the platforming more fair.

Submitted (1 edit) (+3)

Excellent. I think it's a bit too hard at some points though. I got stuck dying over and over again on the path to get the double jump upgrade, it took me 30 minutes to an hour to pass it. Other than that, it's kinda perfect. I particularly enjoyed the audio and music.

Awesome work !

Submitted(+3)

This game is so close to being great! The art, sound and music are all great! The idea is unique! And the enemies - though they could telegraph attacks better - are are really good! Plus the story and other polish - all very good!

But - and you knew there was a but - the fact that it’s so close to being great makes it all the more frustrating in the areas it falls short in. The game is just way too punishing. It’s to the point where it feels unfair and unenjoyable. I actually gave up after the umpteenth time trying to make it past a certain point and dying again and again.

The spike damage is way to darn high. And so is contact damage with enemies. A way to fix this is given players more hit points at the beginning. And make the controls more responsive so we can make those tricky wall jump + dash moves around obstacles. Giving the player more time of being invulnerable after taking damage could help this too.

Another issue with damage and health is that there’s no way to regain health but to save again. Why not have the health restored when an upgrade is obtained? Or have enemies drop something to heal the player? If this is something introduced later in the game that I didn’t get to, I’d move it to the beginning.

That we can wall jump from the get-go is odd. But worse of all is not telling the player this. Its odd with play testers helping out that this was not discovered earlier.

It’s also odd that the player is completely defenseless. Why is that? Most metroidvanias do not do this. And it’s OK to go against convention, but usually there’s a reason. It’s not a deal breaker, but internal consistency in design choices and story are important in game development just like it is in other mediums.

Re-reading what I’ve said, I sound kind of harsh. But as I said before, that this could have been so much more enjoyable coupled with the fact that your team are obviously really good developers, is the reason for this. I hope you’ll take all player feedback into account and make this game as great as it could be!

Hopefully you’ll agree constructive criticism makes us better developers. And so now I ask you to please play, rate and comment on our game. Let us have it! You’ll only be helping us, more than you know. Thanks!

Developer

Thanks for your comments and suggestions. A lot of what you mentioned we've been considering and thinking about how to improve. I think a healing option and adjusting the environmental damage would allow us to have some of the platforming we like while making it more fair. 

I was wondering if you could say a bit more about the issues you had with the control responsiveness. Did the wall jump seem like it required too much precision? 

I hope you'll play version 1.0 when we release it after the jam after incorporating feedback!//

(+1)

Trust me, it doesn't need to be any easier. Just add a tour mode with infinite health and it'll have about the same effect.

Submitted(+2)

I went back and played the game to make sure what I was talking about. It’s not responsiveness that I really meant. Sorry! Words are important and I used the wrong ones.

The issue is with perhaps one could call refinement. Specfiically with this area I got stuck at before. Playing it again I realized that once the dash has stopped - you hit the wall - you quickly (immediately?) begin to fall, right into the spikes. This could be solved by moving the platform above so the player can get higher on the wall. But I think you could also make the player hang there for a few ticks to allow them to then wall jump from there. I think Hollow Knight does this.

Developer(+1)

We appreciate your clarification/further feedback--as Zephyr notes above we're looking into lots of different solutions, so every big helps with the "Experiment" section of our 1.0-1.1+ roadmap.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the clarification here!

Submitted(+3)

Hi very cool game, cool music the start of the first exploration music reminds me the begginig music from the Thing. The gameplay work perfectely, and input feeling are very cool. I have notice some possible amelioration, first optimisation, on web browser some map have some lag, other point cristal pics, when i saw the cristals for the first time, for me they didn’t make damage, so it make it better you can add a light animation along the peaks. Otherwise, your game are very cool.

Developer(+2)

We definitely need to optimize for web play. I agree with you about the spikes too. Thanks for your comments!

Submitted(+3)

Really solid little game. Has a nice progression, loved the cinematics and titles, the rest stop music was hilarious, and you get that feeling of a good metroidvania where you start of moving slowly through areas, but after a couple power-ups are going through the same areas in different ways. 

One small thing for me was that it took me a couple deaths to figure out that I could wall jump from the start (I assumed it would be a power-up later, so never even tried till there was nowhere to go). If there had been some way to teach the player that early on, maybe with an early wall to jump up, or simply making it a power up and putting it in one of the early rooms, I think that'd help quite a bit.

I also like that you added the extra challenge pick-ups. I didn't have the patience to get all of them, but I appreciate them being there ; )

Very nice entry, congrats! 

Developer(+2)

Thanks for your kind words. We're thinking about a 1.0 and onward roadmap for things we want to do with this, so this is valuable feedback!

Submitted(+3)

Really well done!

The wall jump was a little unforgiving, and taking so much environmental damage was annoying (it almost felt worth it to go back to the nearest rest stop to heal after hitting spikes once because two hits and I'm dead). The smallest blobs are also annoying because they can only be shot while they are jumping, but I guess that adds to the difficulty.

I really love the art, music, and story telling!

Developer (1 edit) (+2)

Thanks for your kind words and your feedback! Without saying too much concrete about future plans, we are definitely thinking about all the [above in your post. I said below originally. That makes no sense in jam page comments context.]

Submitted(+3)

I loved this one. Very fun, challenging without becoming annoying. The art and level design are excellent!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for your kind words! We're glad you enjoyed it!

Submitted(+3)

loving this entry, playing the web version and do see the odd stutter but nothing that makes it unplayable, and you warned me... the bug before reaching the first check point is annoying (and almost caused me to give up this game which would have been a shame because once I got into it it's great). I also think maybe the difficulty curve needs tweaking as the start of the game can feel frustrating with just 2 hp... but it gives a nice risk reward to the more trickly placed health ups!

Presentation wise it's beautiful too.. and the purple weirdly gloopy radishes (or at least that's what they are in my head) made me smile.


Great job!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for your kind words! We're thinking about the difficulty problem a bit, as (as you can probably see) it wasn't just 1 or 2 players :P. We're glad to hear the game was awesome enough to stick it out!

Submitted(+3)

This is incredibly fun. The restroom music, the metroidvania feel, the storytelling and the environment are exceptional. I'm impressed at the length of the game, yall did a great job, this is certainly one of my favorites!

I also found the game a bit punishing at the beginning, but after a few health upgrades everything becomes super manageable. Great work!

(Oh, and the ending is adorable)

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for your kind words! We're glad you enjoyed it!

Submitted(+2)

I like the concept of the game. Story feels Cartoon Network-like which I also like. The error before reaching a checkpoint is kind of annoying though :(

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks! Sorry we didn't catch that error--it should disappear for a given save entirely once you reach a save point. While you've probably found it by now, there should be a safe path to a save point to the right immediately after the intro.

(+3)

The animation of large enemies is very good. As is the progression from being completely helpless to double jumping through the entire map.

(+3)

I had a lot of fun testing this for you guys, it was a nice piece of work before I got to it and I'm glad I was able to help you polish it, since it feels really good to play now. If anyone else feels like the game is too hard, it's probably on me for saying "yep this feels about the right difficulty."

(+3)

It's nothing too bad. Getting the rhythm down for jumping actions is the first hard part. But I got the hang of it before the end of the game. The orange area has some kaizo going on, but any deaths after the first few in any part aren't the game's fault. It's a fun area to run through once you know how to do it.

(+3)

Awesome stuff. Incredible what you achieved in just a month. Punishing in parts, but never unfair.

Submitted
Deleted post
Developer (1 edit) (+3)

Thank you! And thanks for playing and streaming!

Submitted(+4)

Really good game. Everything from the controls to the art design is very well done.

The theme of a space rest stop is unique and fun and I like that the save rooms are restrooms. Also the music that plays there is fantastic.

I think that the game in general is too punishing. Spikes do a lot of damage and most enemies were able to kill me in one to two hits. That paired with blind jumps and foes not telegraphing their attacks feels kind of cheap to be honest. The last boss wasn't cheap though. But I had a lot of trouble with it since I could only survive one attack, so I had to basically do the fight flawlessly. Which I did eventually. But in the end it said that I missed a lot of hp upgrades, so that is probably on me. 

I also like the two cutscenes at the beginning and end. It makes the whole thing come together nicely and the story was also pretty lighthearted and different from your standard sci fi fare.

Developer(+2)

Thanks for playing, and thanks for your comments!