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A jam submission

Froggo and the Clockwork towerView game page

Submitted by SmellyFrog (@daSmellyfrog) — 14 minutes, 26 seconds before the deadline
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Froggo and the Clockwork tower's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Presentation#14.8894.889
Overall#34.3614.361
Concept#64.4444.444
Use of the Limitation#74.2224.222
Enjoyment#243.8893.889

Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Team members
smellyfrog

Software used
python IDLE, pygame, GIMP, Famitracker

Use of the limitation
Player has a time limit, if it hits 0, player gets sent back to hub. But timer limit can be expanded

Cookies eaten
I ate 3 donuts

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

I liked the game a lot, you really nailed the feeling of an obscure NES title forgotten by time! Graphics and especially the music are very good. 

There were unfortunately a couple of things that were driving me insane. The controls were not precise enough for the gameplay, I especially did not like the sections where you had to swing with the tongue, letting go and landing somewhere or swing again on a different point. I would have liked it a lot more if you just held the tongue button and let go of it to release, instead of pushing it again, that felt really unintuitive. I also think swinging pendulums in a speed oriented game fit the theme well, but don't make for the best level design. Waiting for the cycles to hit the right spot over and over again is really tedious if you need to go fast. The most irritating thing for me was the final section being accessible from the start but in it's blue state. It gave me the impression that I could take this challenge once I decided that I collected enough clocks and a better player could take this challenge earlier as a way to adjust the difficulty yourself. But that was not the case. I was able to turn up the platforms that you have to move up by hitting them with your tongue, but painstakingly slow. I thought at this point that the room was just a tedious test of patience, but I could not make it in time. So I decided to explore more to find more clocks and when I found all of them, the state of the section changed and it was suddenly doable. I would recommend not making the section available from the start or at least make sure that the platforms don't move at all, so the player knows without a doubt "I'm not supposed to do this room right know".
These criticisms are mostly level design and controls, I hope it helps. I had a good time with the game nonetheless and would love to see how you improve making games in the future!

Developer (2 edits)

Hey thanks for playing! And I just wanna say sorry for all this irritating stuff. A lot of stupid decisions have been made due to rush. But I am making an updated version to this game that will be released after voting ends.

About the swinging thing, I wanted to see if pressing the button twice works better than holding the button. But it looks like it's a bit irritating for some people so I'll probably change to holding it in the updated version.
I also do admit that the swinging pendulum isn't the best kind of gimmick for this kind of game, it's more of a random thing I thought of to fill an area up with stuff to interact with. But since the level were already designed around them, it'll remain unchanged.

The final area is an interesting case as I actually did wanted skillful players to be just barely able to make it to the top without collecting any clock. But I was in a rush and there wasn't really enough testing so it's the way it is in the game. I'll make the bolts and the pendulums move faster slightly than this. Some decisions were made because I was worried that skilled players can just breeze through large chunks of the game entirely, but I probably shouldn't have worried that much about a 3 day jam game.

Again thanks for playing this and the paragraphs of feedback!

Submitted(+1)

This is an amazing game! It has a lot of potential to be an even bigger game! I'm impressed

Submitted(+1)

This is the best concept I've seen in the jam, and it looks fantastic.

Submitted(+1)

Wow, incredibly well made, and looks amazing. Especially enjoyed swinging on frog's tounge. Well Done!!!

Submitted(+1)

This game is amazing! I got lost easily and took me a bit to realize that I was switching between the same rooms. 

Submitted(+1)

Nice game! I really enjoyed the presentation and the clock mechanic. Is it possible to play the game in fullscreen?

Developer

Oh yeah, forgot to address this in the description, but yeah you totally can toggle it with backspace.

Submitted

Oh, that’s awesome! I played it again in fullscreen and it greatly improved the experience. I was able to get to the credits now. Great work, it was really fun!

Submitted(+1)

This game is cool because it has clock

But seriously though, good game and idea. I was able to fill the hour glass to the half-way mark. After that I got a lost and wasn't sure which areas had a clock I missed. I also felt like some sections required platforming which was a little too precise for the controls. Besides that, it's a cool idea and you've done it well. Seems like a nice twist on a traditional metroidvania as well.