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A jam submission

Further BelowView game page

A cave journey metroidvania/platformer, with tumbling
Submitted by HinmanLantern — 11 hours, 35 minutes before the deadline
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Further Below's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Enjoyment#24.2004.200
Design#64.0004.000
Overall#93.9173.917
Presentation#124.0004.000
Metroidvania#283.4673.467

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

Engine
Unity

Team/Developer
HinmanLantern

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Comments

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Really short and solid "Minivania." Just one central mobility thing but a couple of great other 'traversal' items to round it out. And what a central thing! Very good.

Developer

Thank you for playing and for this feedback!

Submitted(+1)

Really enjoyed my time with this game! The intro section hooked me right up and the final jump to the ending is very satisfying. The controls feel polished and easy to learn. The small and simple map size  prevented me from getting lost and made the flow of the game feel smoother. I like the use of light rays and green plants that pops right out in the dull, earthly environment. The water reflection shader is pretty cool too.

One small criticism I have is that the bats and falling rocks blends a little too well in the environment and is a little hard to spot, though it didn't really frustrate me since the game is short. If I am to nitpick, I would also suggest that the waterfall audio source to not be fully 3d so that the sound does not immediately 'snaps' to my other ear when passing through it.

Great job on the game!

Developer

Thank you for playing it and for taking the time to give me feedback.  Your critiques are very helpful -- thank you!

Submitted(+1)

So good! ^^ the animation is amazing, and in general the art and music/sound are perfect! I wish it was longer just because I was enjoying playing so much, and Id have loved to see some acrobatic wall jumping / double jumping :)

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for your kind words!

Submitted(+1)

Loved it! Didn't realize i needed to use the momentum thing for the flood for a while though. 

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much --  I was hoping it would be a small 'aha moment' with that move to cap off the game.  Thank you for playing!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Yeah i had that after a bunch of tries, i waas finally fast enough to just stand next to the exit, realizing i couldn't jump as high, and then i went "ooooooooooh" in my head.

Submitted(+1)

short and enjoyable, the movement feels nice (tough the acrobatics feel tacked on)

Developer

Thank you, and thank you for playing it!

Submitted(+1)

That falling to title reveal was genius! Wonderful first impression for sure.  Also I really like the momentum jump and the animations are superb! Awesome work~

Developer

Thank you for this kind feedback, and thank you for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Brief and enjoyable experience. I enjoyed the animations of the main player quite a bit, nice work with that. I have some feelings about the level design though:

1. The acrobatics aspect was very neat (though seemingly unrelated to the game). I felt like it required a bit too long of a spinup time for me to enjoy using frequently. I used it when I had to.

2. I'd frequently fall to my death since I could not see beneath me :(

3. I found the gas caves and the game put a checkpoint down there for me. This meant that every time I was trying to climb back out I kept respawning down there and I was sad...

4. I found the flashlight + helmet before I knew I was even looking for them! Would be nice to force the player's discovery order of "Oh this place is dark, if only I had a helmet with a flashlight!"

5. The final boss / flood sequence was fun! My only feedback here is that the final enemy's motion pattern phase was RUTHLESS. If you were not way ahead of schedule, you were effectively guaranteed to be slowed down and die because of that final enemy. Consider removing it completely or make it move faster or something of the sort. There's a balance between "Fun because challenging" and "Annoying because unintentionally challenging" :p It seemed like the two paths to reach the top changed the phase of the enemy because they had different path lengths. One of the paths would always put the enemy in the wrong phase!

That's all I've got. Nice work with this little piece :)

Developer

Thank you for playing it and for taking the time to give me this thoughtful feedback -- I appreciate it!  On #2, I set out to avoid any possible blind jumps (i.e., being in a position where you need to jump but can't see a safe, reachable landing spot from your start position), though there did end up being one such possible position (oops).   But your comment also makes me wonder if perhaps it's just more fun to be able to see the hazard from the jump point than to have it off-screen as an unknown.  Perhaps a good design guideline.  Thank you again for this feedback!

Submitted(+1)

I too remember when on a trip to mammoth caves, I fell into a ditch when answering somebodies plea for help. Had I not been an olympic level acrobat I would not have been able to escape with my life! In all seriousness, great game. My pet peeves are as follows

1: Why acrobatics? I mean does it look awesome? Heck Yeah! But the caves are the last place I'd ever imagine a person using this skill set.

2: if you turn around while close to a spike you die.

Other than that, Great game! I, like everyone else, loved the tumblin' animation.

Developer

Thanks for this feedback -- I need to watch out for the asymmetrical player hurtbox.  Thank you for playing!

Submitted(+1)

I can't express how much I love the somersault animation. Amazing work with that!

The game is also very fun. The graphics, music, and story all fit together so nicely, and I liked most of the level design. There were a few platforms where the jumps felt a bit fiddly (specifically with bumping my head against the bottom of them), which became particularly noticeable in the final bit. 

Everything killing you in one hit was a bit frustrating at times, but the quick respawns (and once I saw there were fairly frequent checkpoints) mitigated it.

There's a bit where the player is taught how the falling rocks work, but I learned the wrong lesson there, getting past by standing just in front of them rather than somersaulting past them (presumably because there were enemies in the way), which meant I didn't really understand that I could somersault past them. So it took a moment (after a platforming challenge) to figure it out. (But I did eventually figure it out, so maybe it's fine?).

Anyway, incredible job!

Developer

Thank you for these kind words, and thank you for giving me this great feedback for improving.  I was hoping that the realization of the ability to flip under the falling stalactites would come at the end, so I hope that was kinda fun (?).  Thanks again for the feedback -- I appreciate it!

Submitted(+1)

What a splendit game! Love it! - the Theme is very well thought through.

Developer

Thank you, and thank you especially for playing it on your stream -- that provides such great feedback, and it's also just fun to watch.

Submitted(+1)

Loved that somersault ability! Neat game

Developer

Thanks so much!

Submitted(+1)

I like the somersault jump, also nice game

Developer(+1)

Thank you!