I really love the concept behind this game but the controls itself were super finnicky. The character was both slippery yet stopped on a dime which felt awkward. Coupled with the precise jumps and super fast falling speed, it made for a slightly infuriating time haha. Still the main gimmick is super cool, and I could see it being fleshed out where you have to mold into different types of dirt and stuff to maneuver. Keep up the good work!

the game itself was equal parts infuriating and genius.. 

for some reason the downloads weren't working for me (as in wasn't downloading, tried chrome and edge)... and the web version had an annoying issue where if the window went off screen, it wouldn't appear back, like when I accidentally pressed page down being close to my arrow keys ;). 

However this is a jam and Bugs are par for the course... The main takeaway was a really smart game with a really fun and unique mechanic, lovely graphics, that made me want to pull my hair out frequently!

Really really strong entry!

Extremely fun! I loved the mechanics, and the universe created, simple but makes me want to explore and see if there is something new. I liked the difficulty, I think the checkpoints are well located, maybe I would just add some in more critical areas, since the game works by fast respawns, going back a lot on the map gets a little annoying

I really like the design and mechanics of this game. It also feels very metroidvania, I think you nailed that pretty well.

There are two suggestions that I think would really improve the game:

* More checkpoints! Since this game has lots os precision jumping and platforming, sometimes it can get very frustrating. Having more checkpoints would make the player cherish each small victory, IMO. I do think a lot of people would disagree on me with this one, though, haha.

* More visual feedback! The deaths are so instant that sometimes they didn't give me the time to notice what I was doing wrong.

Other than that, really solid game. Great work!

Good:

• The level design is fantastic. Really nicely interconnected, with some very cleverly-designed jumping puzzles.
• The animations are really nice! Subtle, but I like how squishy the blob is.
• The earth merging mechanic is very neat. I like how you can only merge downwards, which forces you to really consider the space.

Bad:

• I had to stop playing, because the double jump stopped working. I got it, got out of the area where you find it, went down to the path you need a double jump to get through, and could no longer double jump. Dying and respawning didn't change that.
• The one-hit kill isn't really my thing, but that's just personal taste. More objectively, dying is very abrupt. Some kind of animation, sound effect, or screen transition would make that less jarring.
• The character moves to fast, to my mind. Admittedly, clearing a really difficult section was very satisfying, but I think at least the opening of the game should be easier. Don't destroy the player until they're invested...

Overall, I really enjoyed this. The level design was great, and a few tweaks to the movement would make this even better.

★ Enjoyment: 5/5

It's difficult, but that's part of the challenge. And it doesn't seem like an impossible challenge.

★ Design: 5/5

Love the unique mechanic of going underground. And the slippery movement really makes it hard.

★ Presentation: 5/5

Very cute! A lovable ball of dirt.

★ Metroidvania: 5/5

Yeah, definitely a Metroidvania.

This game is both delightful and infuriating for me. I loved the little eyes while in the ground, and the ground mechanic itself was neat. Being able to bump slimes from underneath was fun and the whole aesthetic was working for me. Holy heck, though, the amount of precision require for some of the areas coupled with the super-fast character movement had me about ready to smash my keyboard. I finally had to give up because my keyboard simply isn't precise enough to edge up to a red block to squeeze a jump through a one-tile opening.

I think dan.collins.dev outlines really great suggestions. I would just add that I think you don't necessarily need to do both allowing more hits and improving the player movement. Either one on it's own would make things much more palatable. Even reducing the player's collision box width by like 10% would help the area I was having trouble with.

All that being said, there's still a lot of fun in there. Kudos!

Congrats on submitting! You definitely have a jumping off point for the next MVM jam! I'm going to offer some feedback to help you progress in the future.

• One thing to take into consideration in the future is giving the player feedback. This is usually visually and/or audibly. When I hit an enemy I expect something that confirms I hit an enemy. The same goes with being hit.
• Unless you are aiming for a rage game, I believe there should be at least a minimum of three hits before death. This gives the player a little more information as to how to progress and what kind of difficulty they're facing.
• Player movement is a little rough in this game. I think it can be improved significantly by adding coyote jump or slowing the player's movement speed down. Any kind of  platform jumping was frustrating in none of the good ways. Personally, I used this jam to improvement my controller movement because I've never made a fun platformer controller. So I get this.
• Level design was all over the place. This could have been due to lack of time or just being new to it still. My current entry has this problem too. The rooms are inconsistent in their difficulty and thats one thing I'd like to fix next time.

I know there's more criticisms here than compliments, but this type of feedback has helped me become better at making games and also challenges the assumptions I make about how the player will play my game.

Once again, congratulations on submitting and please continue to work and participate in jams to help evaluate your progress!

Nice control scheme, very snappy! Also some pretty groovy music, good work!

Such a great concept! It’s like dig dug meats metroidvania! The art is cute and the music is great! I think slowing down the player character or using acceleration would make the game a bit easier, which would help smooth out the difficulty. As it is, I died a lot because I couldn’t release the move keys quick enough. Still, it’s a very cool concept! Very unique!

I guess I could say our game is unique as well. We crossed a top down space shooter with a metroidvania. Did we get a monster or a great new breed of game? We’d love to know what you think! So if you would, please play our game and leave a comment to let us know. Thanks!