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A jam submission

Run DiomedesView game page

A short Metroidvania game prototype about infiltrating a computer. It is based loosely on 1980s media.
Submitted by dogheadedman — 34 minutes, 45 seconds before the deadline
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Run Diomedes's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Execution#133.4293.727
Metroidvania#143.5963.909
Sensory#153.5123.818
Overall#173.3783.673
Enjoyment#183.0943.364
Relevance to the theme picked#233.2613.545

Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Theme Chosen
Infiltration

Engine
Gamemaker Studio 2

Team/Developer
Dave Stein

Prizes eligibility
Eligible for Aecy and PlusMusic Prizes

Reference info
dave@southfog.com

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Comments

Submitted

Wow, this is some of the most impressive Metroidvania level design I have seen in the entire jam! The combination of firewall keys and power cycle doors allows an organic player choice feel and does a great job of encouraging exploration. The first few rooms did gating especially well, forcing you to see both door types before you were able to get everything to unlock either of them.

The movement also felt especially good and allowed the more precision platforming sections to really shine! There were a few bits that I think you can iterate on, though. The climb ability is a cool idea, but having to press a separate button to stop yourself from sliding down a wall, before pressing jump to wall jump was a bit finnicky, and difficult to pull off in succession. The room with the giant tractor beam down the middle was also very cool, but a little difficult to fully predict how the character would react in it. Getting to the bottom of this room also seemed to end my run, as I was unable to get back to the top to explore further.

Overall, this is an incredibly well designed game, and I am really excited to see how it turns out once it is fully polished and completed. Great work!

Submitted

Pretty fun game! Could be brutal at times but not exceptionally so for a precision platformer. Unfortunately my run ended when I entered a bossfight with no means of attacking and the warp to the previous room inexplicably didn't work.

 Aside from that game breaking issue there were also a lot of minor issues with the camera. Looking up and down tended to behave inconsistently especially if I was currently moving up or down - most notably if I held the down arrow while falling in the low gravity area the camera would usually scroll all the way until the protagonist was at the top of the screen and then jitter as it tried and failed to scroll farther. One time though it stopped scrolling after it scrolled about a third of the screen height which felt much better and I feel like was probably closer to the intended behavior... I also had the camera get stuck once, though it was fixed by simply leaving and reentering the room. The camera would also sometimes lag behind the player, especially while moving upwards in the aforementioned antigrav area. And, when I tried to correct for that by manually looking up, I found that I wasn't able to move left or right while doing so, despite those inputs working just fine while looking down.

Overall I didn't get to see much of the game... What I did see was promising, especially the basic platformer mechanics, but everything surrounding those mechanics is definitely a bit rough around the edges.

Submitted

I want to like this game, but the combination of difficult platforming and insta-kill enemies was extremely frustrating to me. I really wanted to explore the map, but I was dying way to much to make satisfying progress.

The game's art is cool, the collectibles are placed with care, the platforming challenges are clever. Ultimately, I think this game is awesome but too hard for me to fully enjoy :(

Submitted

What a great entry, congrats on a job well done!

You had a really strong, cohesive aethetic and the artstyle really stands out and looks clean/polished. Everything was quick and easy to read "at a glance" and digest what I was presented with. The red color for danger being used consistently in your designs made it SO approachable and easy to understand

Player movement feels great, jump is telegraphed well, and the animations are just oh-so smooth

The momentum/tractor beam mechanic is super neat, but the camera's lag made it a little extra challenging

I enjoyed that you had different gate mechanics and mixed/matched them. It really encouraged me as a player to explore each room fully so I could collect all the things

The jump felt FANTASTIC and I pulled off what I felt was some pretty neat tricks/jumps that felt great to land

I really desired some kind of movement boost/mechanic to make backtracking areas I've already been in faster (even just a simple run)


Serously, fantastic work! I really enjoyed my time with what you've made

Submitted

Very cool theming, I could feel the 80s. :D I know it's certainly Tron inspired, but I almost felt like Pac Man running around this maze eating all those dots. The run animation looks good, I love the little after trail when he jumps, and the game just controls really nicely. Sound effects, death animation, barriers disappearing all felt right. I also really liked some of the more creative hazard rooms, you got a lot of variety out of moving blocks. 

Some areas where I struggled:

- the world is huge and there are a lot of things to collect / doors to open. A map, an item tracker, or both would have been really helpful. It was kind of hard to stay motivated when I didn't have a strong sense of the scale of the world.

-  Kind of a minor nitpick, but the hit boxes felt pretty unforgiving. I died a lot just cause of impatience and near grazes. The spawn points were pretty forgiving though so it wasn't a big deal.

- I was never super certain how the low gravity beam was supposed to work, its physics could feel inconsistent at times and the giant room was kind of hard to navigate without any very defining characteristics on each level, some floor numbers carved into the circuit board or something might have helped. Also I think I ran into a bug in this room, if you jump into the gravity beam while holding the Climb button, you'll travel upwards for awhile based on your character's velocity when they entered the beam.

But yeah, all around a very cool entry, I'm super into the aesthetic and just running around the world felt really good. You also nailed the lonely, oppressive atmosphere with the ominous background track. Good job!

Submitted

Hey, the polish on this one looks great! It would be better if you got more mobility upgrades to have an easier time getting around the hazards. I also appreciate how you keep your power cycles and keys if you die in the middle of an area.

Hope the full version turns out awesome!

Submitted

The concept is interesting, however I found some jumps to be too precise. Eventually it became a little repetitive, it might be a combination between the constant tiles and hazards. Couldn't figure out how to beat the boss, I might have missed something.

Submitted

Nice, there's a lot of great things in this entry. The game feels well polished overall, in terms of animations, sound effects, deaths, menus, etc. The styling of the game is great and feeling coherent. 

Some thoughts:

- The footstep, jump, and landing sound all feel a little too loud to me. It starts to get annoying after a while to hear a continual rumbling sound. 

- Some of the platforming does get quite difficult. The respawn points to seem fair, however. The moving platforms suspended in the air where you have to jump between them and avoid blocks between them is very difficult. Feels to me that the platforms could be bigger to make it a little easier, or the obstacles smaller. 

Good job! 

Developer

Thanks very much for trying the game, and the feedback. Funny, I had just made the footsteps louder, but I'll turn them back down again.

That platforming section you mentioned, I had just made it a bit easier too, but clearly not enough. I suppose to achieve the metroidvania vibe, it is important to allow fast exploration and backtracking. Precision platforming may slow that down.

Thanks again.