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Knives of Solomon's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #1 | 4.100 | 4.100 |
| Execution | #1 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Sensory | #1 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Overall | #1 | 4.050 | 4.050 |
| Metroidvania | #2 | 4.100 | 4.100 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Engine
Gamemaker Studio
Team/Developer
Triple Lasers
External assets
Music pack from chippy01302
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Comments
Great game!
This is easily one of my favorites from this jam. I love the aesthetics, the music, the SFX; everything blends very well. I think the level design is spot on. I can't wait for it to be finished to replay it.
Nice game. Enjoyed the graphics and sounds, with good level design. Good luck with the jam.
This one flew under my radar until now, but it is an exceptional retro-style game. You got a lot of mileage out of the simple aesthetic. The game nails the fundamentals and has some great extra details. I'm glad I wasn't the first to play it and comment though, because the comments helped me have a great experience. I totally would've wandered around for a long time after the double jump XD. But that's a good problem; people want to keep playing!
Some observations:
Excellent Game! I love aesthetic. It is like the opposite of Castlevania with its bright color palette. The level design & mechanics are solid. The graphics, SFX, & music mesh together well. I don't have any major criticisms of the game. This entry really sets the benchmark for me. Great job!
Great Job!
Hello!
It was genuinely great, I really enjoyed it and explored everything in a row. I couldn't really stop playing, it was quite addictive. The player plays right from the start. The game is direct, fast, fluid and tells me what I need to know when I need to know it, and nothing more.
I want to see more of what you develop, please keep me posted.
Congratulations!
Cheers
PD: try to find the sequence break in our game :D
The gameplay are nice, i really the movement control of the player. The boss are pretty chanllenging but it isn't unfair, which is nice. And the visual and music are nice too. Basically the overall quality of the game are great.
There is a room that if you enter the game crash, which is fine since it is game jam but the room under it can go up to that room through the secret upgrade place and i dont think it suppose to be able to do that. Also not sure how to go through the 2 hits kill river, maybe its same as area 3 which is unfinished?
Anyways, really ncie game!
Out of all the 2D games in this jam that I’ve tried (only a handful, but still), this may be the best one yet! All that juice made every movement and attack so satisfying and I loved your art!
I was a bit disappointed when I found the Lead Fixation ability: with such a fast-paced gameplay up to that point, I didn’t expect to find an ability that made me move much slower and also wait for it to recharge between uses.
The camera almost always tracking the player closely when jumping felt a bit disorienting, but it may be just me.
Lastly, I encountered a couple of bugs. When grabbing that specific ledge as shown in the screenshot below and then performing a melee attack to the right, I could damage myself.
When I tried to access this area, the game crashed with the following error:
In the end, I had a blast playing this and I cannot wait for you to release the full version!
PS: The Windows build worked fine on Linux. However, even though it would detect my controller, no inputs would register, so I used my keyboard.
Absolutely amazing game, might even be my favorite out of the ones I've played and also my pick for winner! Had an absolute blast, the game was very polished, and gets a full score in pretty much every category for me, even if it does end pre-emptively. I see you've already gotten tons of (very deserved!) positive feedback, so I won't try and repeat what others have already correctly stated, and you can assume I agree with practically everything that has already been said about this game.
That said, I only have two real critical notes to make of the game: I was very happy realizing that you could also do vertical staff pokes/slashes, including a downwards one which works very similarly to something like Shovel Knight's. However, I feel like that pogo effect could've had a slightly bigger hitbox, and maybe even work by just inputting the down input instead of requiring the attack button as well, since the hitbox made it feel like I missed attacks that should've landed. The second point I'd like to make is that I'd have loved if there was any kind of map, even one that doesn't show the locations of items would be enough, just one that reminds you of which rooms you haven't properly explored yet.
Other than that, absolutely loved my experience, and would definitely play it again if you ever manage to finish it. Hope your finals went well!
Thanks for the feedback! I had expanded the pogo hit-time from some feedback before, but it probably could use a few more frames.
There actually was a map; M on keyboard or select on xbox controller. I didn't have a tutorial popup for it though, so easy to miss
(And the finals went well because I was grading them, not taking them =D )
Oh, my bad, there is a map indeed, and an excellent one at that! I'm very sorry for having missed it, I could swear I tried pressing M but maybe I misinputted and didn't bother double-checking, really odd. But thank you for pointing that out, it fortunately didn't affect the high rating I gave you regardless :)
I Love this! I feel like superstar Jesus in the Temple of Doom or something, the controls are great, the pixel art is great, the music is good. Overall great job 5/5 will come back and play this again. I have rated about 40+ games in the Jam I think you are the 3rd or 4th 5/5
Also it HAS GAMEPAD AND IT WORKS! Your a genius
Great Job!
Loved this game! This is one of the juiciest games I've played in the jam and I really appreciate that. Every action seems to have a sound with it. Really liked the dark portion too.
While I praise the juice, I think it might need to be toned down just a tad on landing on the ground. I'm not sure that needs screen shake and maybe just a less dramatic sound effect. However I'm happy it's in!
I had a lot of fun playing this one. Everything felt very polished and the abilities were cool and interesting.
The bird boss was really fun to fight and I felt that the enemies encountered before that helped prepare me.
Great game and I look forward to future updates!
I finally found someone who uses Graphics Gale! :D That was my first pixel art tool.
I like how you latch on edges and the four-directional attack, which I also have in my game.
I encountered a bug, though, where you would always look right by default. Which would make attacks to the left a bit harder. Which was ultimately the reason why I died quite often when there were enemies on my left side.
I liked the first boss fight. I haven't made it much further because of that bug. I might give it another shot later, though.
I am really looking forward to the post-jam version of this game.
good game, tho the screen flashes black when i got hit
Superb little retro romp!
The controls are great, the visual and audio quality is consistently good, the puzzles, secrets, and map are very well designed!
Even with playing the HTML version and getting a black screen on every hit didn't detract from my enjoyment.
Very, very good entry!
I love the pixel arts! and the music pack really fit in with the game choice.
Very nice and polished entry!
I love the look, feel, and sound of this game! I was a little disappointed when I got to the walled off area after the double jump lol I suppose this is where we stop for now? I played around a little after and went backwards, and found a few rooms I guess I wasn't supposed to go into because it errored the game out. I have screenshots if you want/need them.
So, as I said at first, the look, feel and sound of this game is great! I love the abilities, the save points, and most of the enemies also. The more powerful enemies and the boss were both really cool too! I really like how you sort of made the boss advance in difficulty as you were fighting him.
Overall great entry!
Thanks for the comments! Yes, the double jump is the end for now. I overscoped as always and finals week meant I ran out of time; one of the rooms that you unlock with the double jump has a message saying it's the end. I think I know where you got the error, was it the top left of the temple area?
I see; I thought the message meant that you didn't get time to do that area, but that there was other stuff to do if you backtracked.
SPOILERS
Yes, I got it in the top left of the temple area, and also if you backtrack all the way outside you can get up top with the double jump and it errors out there also. Oh, love how you pull the camera wide in that whole section; really gives it a cinematic feel and reminds me of Uncharted also.
really enjoyed this! the upgrades were fun and there was a lot of polish i don't usually associate with with these jam games like a settings menu, coyote time and good juice on the hits. i had a pretty bad issue that made it nearly unplayable with my controller, i think it might not have a dead zone registered for the thumbstick? the character would drift in one direction or another, often turning around when i release the thumbstick which of course would cause attacks to miss. that said, it's my favorite of the jam so far! i saw that you intend to continue working on it, i think it definitely has a lot of potential.
I had this same drift issue at first, but I was able to fix it by unplugging my controller and plugging it back in while still in the game. Maybe this will fix it for you also!
Dev note: not sure how to fix this exactly, but it definitely has something to do with a controller being hooked up when game starts and/or controller/keyboard interference at beginning?
I saw that bug one or twice, but wasn't able to narrow it down before the jam finished. Thanks for pointing out that plugging it back in helps, means I probably set deadzone when it detects a new controller but not if it starts with one. I'll go bug hunting soon!