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A jam submission

The Millennial WarriorView game page

A short metroidvania game, created for the Metroidvania Month 20 Game Jam.
Submitted by Michael Games (@MikeMalaska) — 11 hours, 32 minutes before the deadline
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The Millennial Warrior's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Execution#43.8753.875
Sensory#54.1254.125
Metroidvania#74.0634.063
Overall#73.8623.862
Enjoyment#103.4383.438
Relevance to the theme picked#183.8133.813

Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Theme Chosen
Out Of Time

Engine
Godot 4

Team/Developer
Michael Games

Reference info
Discord: Michael Games (michael.malaska)

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Comments

Submitted

Oh the art style is incredibly pretty, probably the best I've seen across these entries. Gameplay is also very solid too, with the metroidvania aspect captured well and the implementation of a neat time mechanic. Some of my comments:

  • Turning could be a bit more... responsive? A lot of the times I felt like I wasn't able to turn fast enough to hit a goblin behind me.
  • I would have preferred it if the dodge mechanic was replaced with a dodge-roll mechanic like Dead Cells did - the way the dodge is implemented here is a little bit janky (it can cause you to fall off ledges, for example).
  • I think you could have afforded to add more diverse upgrades to the chests than just heart containers and the usual time magic upgrade. Maybe hiding a power upgrade behind it so you couldn't just grind gold for all your power boosts?
  • That final boss was INCREDIBLY tanky, to the point that I had to go full-on YOLO and melee the boss because just reflecting the bullets wouldn't have been enough. The boss having a melee counterattack that isn't telegraphed at all doesn't help things much I feel, and the time-dash while useful also felt under-utilised. For example, an attack which summons moving laser walls that required you to dash through them to attack the boss would be nice!
Submitted(+1)

That's most likely a winner already, but I'll try my best to give some feedback anyway.
Pixel art is just gorgeous, altought I bet you're already aware of that, and there's also a lot of polish on everything, wich I really appreciate, everything feels really satisfying to do and has a lot of weight, wich is awesome.

The actual game design is surprisingly simple tho, I legit have not a lot to say about it. Both combat and platforming were actually pretty basic the entire time, wich is not a bad thing, mind you, the game was still done on a single month after all, but idk, something about the artistic side being so awe induncing kinda made me expect a little more I think. But hey, it's still great fun tho, really liked the bosses too, even if they were also pretty simple fights in essence.
Actual nitpick I have with the combat tho, is that it felt really random wheter I would do a backdash or an actual dash. I think your intention was to always make the char do the backdash while engaging to make it easier to avoid attacks, but for me that was actually pretty disorienting, since when I pressed to dash my intention were always to phase throught the enemy instead of retreating. And I also would have loved if there were a better indication of wheter I can dash or not, because let's be real, only warning me about that After I try is comedically too late xD

Minor comment that doesn't really impact the game at all tho, I actually tried to traverse that falling bridge on the beggining by backdashing the entire way throught just for the funsies, but the backdash isn't fast enought to actually do it, so I was punished for it, making me backtrack all the way to there twice, but hey that's already more my own fault anyway x3

And I guess that's it really, as I said, not a lot to comment on, this is just a really really well made game, and definitelly one of the top spots on the rank already. I also recorded my run, but it was a whoping 50 mins lol, altought if you wanna see it any time, just hit me up.

Developer

Thanks for playing! Your feedback makes sense. As an artist primarily, and doing this solo, the art is definitely my strongest skillset. But I have done enough dev work to have lots of code and experience to pull from. So I Actually often feel like I am under-developed at the gameplay/design aspect.

The feedback is great though, and I think I would need to rework how the dash works - maybe seems at odds with having a back-step since they both serve similar basic utility?

Thanks again!

Did you make this game all by yourself??

Developer

Yes I did.

Programming, level design, art and sound?!

Developer

Yes.

and all in one month?

Developer

Yes... What's the deal with you?

It's amazing

Submitted(+1)

Whoa, this is a really well polished entry. Graphics are excellent and gameplay feels solid. Honestly given the timeframe it's very impressive. 

Some thoughts:

- Might be just my computer, but when I downloaded the game and ran the 'Win Vulkan,' the audio kept giving me some weird audio clicking. Affects the sfx and music. The audio didn't look like it was clipping to me, so not entirely sure what the issue is. Audio is fine in the web build. 

- There's a point where the music sounds almost trap-like in these caves. I suppose this comes down to personal preference, but it seemed a little odd to hear it in a game with this look and feel. Maybe it relates to the Out of Time idea?

- I wonder if the time mechanic could be better explored / explained? It seemed the time boxes were sometimes just lying around the area without much rhyme or reason. 

Overall, really excellent job! 

Developer

Thanks for playing!

I will have to see if I can reproduce the audio issue you had with the Vilkan build... It sounds like it was specific to that one, but I haven't experienced it or had other reports of the issue so far (that I noticed). Thanks for letting me know.

Thanks for the feedback on the time mechanic - I think I spent so much time fine tuning how it worked I never left time to design cool challenges around it. I honestly felt the same issue with the time boxes while play testing it towards the end of the jam... So I'm all ears there.

Thanks for the feedback!

Submitted(+1)

This one's a contender.

Good:

  • Music and art are on point
  • Combat feels decent, though not revolutionary
  • Bosses were pretty good
  • Fun time mechanic

Bad:

  • Last boss fight drags on. Got a lot more interesting when I realized it was vulnerable to my sword
  • Not 100% sold on the puzzle design or always clear why a slowdown pedestal was in an area
Developer(+1)

Thanks kkairos!

Yeah, I agree the game design needed more TLC when it comes to the time mechanic and the related puzzles. I think it's good on paper, and could be in practice, just needs more time to play with it and figure out interesting ways to leverage it. Plus, I wanted several more puzzles, they just ended up being hard to design and implement in the jam time-frame. I may pick this concept up and try to polish it more though...

Submitted(+1)

Dang, this game feels like a full release!

I really really enjoyed your art direction. The layered backgrounds work very well to help convey a living world. The fuzzy effect on the edges is also a nice aesthetic choice, and I really like the bits of atmosphere/glow some of the grassy objects seem to emit. It's a very pleasing aesthetic and meshes well with your pixel style


The timeslow ability is SO neat and really well designed and executed! Its duration is very well-telegraphed to the player and it's very intuitive to use. 

The first bossfight took me a bit to understand I could reflect projectiles at them, but once I realized your intent, it was a fun challenge to precisely reflect it at the right time.

The menus are clean and read very well, there was never any confusion as to what you were trying to show me on-screen.


Seriously, really really great job on this!

Developer

Thanks for the feedback!

I am happy to hear you appreciate some of the things I spent time worrying about (like the time mechanic effects and feedback).

When it comes down to it I probably spend a disproportionate amount of time on the more aesthetic things... which is good, but I often ignore other important aspects.

Thanks for the glowing review :)

Submitted(+1)

This is a very hefty game, there's a lot of content here. There's also a lot of polish, everything just works - good feedback on player and enemy hits, enemies telegraph their moves, the time slow effect feels good, it's all great. The art of course is very solid, I love the look of the main character.

Some subjective thoughts (I'm giving you a lot here cause this game has a lot going on):

1. I was never really clear what exactly my goal or character motivation was, I was sort of just walking through this world without much purpose. 

2. Combat and movement through the world were too slow for my personal taste. The rhythm of combat, dodging and swinging, that all felt good, but getting to enemies and moving around the world felt on the slower side to me.

3. The area you need to use the double jump to go to didn't feel super well sign-posted. I had to look at the map for awhile before figuring it out. I wish there were something more memorable around there to give me that "a-ha!" moment.

4. I liked the first boss fight, but at first, I thought I had soft-locked myself and was missing the ability I needed to get over to him. I think teaching the player that there are some projectiles they can hit back when time is slowed could be useful before fighting this boss.

5. There were some places where enemy placement frustrated me, usually those dragon statues, but sometimes it was the goblins as well. There was a lot of ledge guarding going on, and the player character doesn't really have any tools to deal with it (as far as I could tell).

But yeah, overall this is a very solid entry. I think among game jams I've played this one felt the most like a game that's heading towards retail, so I hope you keep working on it!

Developer

Wow, great feedback! I can't say that I disagree with any of it. Thank you for playing and taking time to give me such great thoughts.

Submitted

I could see myself buying this game on steam honestly, very solid! Art is straight up gorgeous, music is very nice, only sensory part that i can nitpick about is that some sound effects are ear drilling (i'm looking at you big bad guy lazor). I enjoyed the initial time puzzle with scrolling chain of platforms, later puzzles were few and far between so there wasn't as much theme related mechanics as i'd like, but i still think the mechanic you made based on theme is very solid. It just later on turns into pretty regular double jump dash driven platforming. On my playthrough I only encounter 2 bugs which you might wanna look into, both of which are related to sliding stone door lol. First time you find one it's obnoxiously loud compared to the rest of the game, and also you can take damage from it as you're entering into final boss arena if you jump into ceiling where it comes down from.
You got a new fan sir, I'm looking forward to see more games from you in the future! :D

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback and compliments!

Yeah, the time puzzle mechanic took long enough to wrap my head around, I hardly had time to design good puzzles. For example, the large room just prior to the final bass (2 rooms prior) was intended to be a big behemoth puzzle. But I had left it for last, and ran out of steam/time.

Thanks for the bug reports as well, I'll have to fix those :)

(+2)

Honestly, this is pretty solid. 

The only critique I would have to toss out by default is that the control scheme is a bit wonky for people used to playing with a keyboard / mouse. But it's just something to get used to.

With that said, though. Don't really have a whole lot of complaints on this one. Especially considering it seems like a solo project - pretty lofty, I'd say :D

Developer

Thanks for the feedback - Keyboard/Mouse control scheme isn't my preferred scheme. I should have relied more on others to help settle that. It would ne nice to have a screen where the player can customize the controls as well possibly (especially for keyboard/mouse).

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+2)

Wow, the art, animation, and overall level of polish on this is absolutely jaw dropping. All the movement animations and attacks have really great weight and feedback to them, and the time slowing mechanic both looks and sounds great! It might just be personal preference, but I did find the character to be significantly slower than I would prefer, though. This made back tracking and traversal feel a bit like a chore. And the combat might need some more spicing up to it, for most enemies, I can just sit right in front of them and spam the attack until they die. But if you work on these game feel elements, I think you will have a stunning piece of art on your hands!

Developer(+1)

thanks for the feedback! I can definitely feel the blandness of the combat. I’m taking notes for next time.

Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+2)

Very polished entry! I liked how finished the art, animations, controls, and experiences were. I would love to feel some bigger sense of world / journey that feels like it ties it all together, but overall very cool!

Developer

Thank you! I'm glad you liked what I had enough to want to see more :)

Submitted(+2)

Really good entry! My only complaints are that the platforming in the puzzle where you get the torch was a little too precise for how the game controls and I felt like the enemies were just a bit too tanky as a whole. Rest of it was great though, the pixel art is consistently stunning and the time slow mechanic is really well executed.

Developer

Fair complaints! In all honesty I struggled to figure out how to implement the time based puzzles, hence the limited number of them. So I am totally open to criticisms.

Thanks for the compliments and for playing my game!

Submitted(+2)

This is a straight up crazy entry. I loved it. My only complaint was that the final boss has a little too much health I think. Thats the only criticism I can give it. Fantastic job.

Developer (1 edit)

Thanks for the feedback and compliments! I definitely waffled on the HP for the final boss.

Out of curiosity, did you upgrade your weapon? There are 2 weapon upgrades, which lands you at 40 damage? The boss may still have felt tanky with the upgrades though. I only play tested him at full health once before I had to publish, lol :)

Submitted(+1)

Yeah, I actually spent time grinding for gold until I had all the sword upgrades lol. So yeah, I think he's still a bit tanky. The mechanics were great though. Both of his fights were fun and designed very well.