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Balthasar's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall polish | #42 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Engagement | #90 | 3.786 | 3.786 |
| Overall | #98 | 3.690 | 3.690 |
| Creative use of art assets | #217 | 3.286 | 3.286 |
Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
I loved the idea, thought the game was well polished (the jump is amazing, even if a bit slippery), but I really disliked your levels. I think blocking the player so they have to restart using the R key (which I don't remember you explaining btw) is really really frustrating, even more so when it is not necessary - like in the third level where you made the platform to go up red, which means if you fall while red you can't get back up. After falling two times I just gave up.
Edit: I forgot to say I really liked the intro too, it was funny and I didn't feel like I wanted to skip it :D
Hi, thanks for the honest feedback. The jumping is more or less HeartBeast's algorithm, I just played a bit with the constants.
The R key was explained in the second level that has colors. That's the only place where I deliberately lured the player into taking the wrong color, so they learn about restarting. Maybe my trap didn't work on you, so you didn't see the hint 🤔
I think I will have to rework some levels, so I don't frustrate the player too much. But the way up is intentionally red: if you could get up there you wouldn't need to hop the platforms at all. I will have to think of something, maybe a safety net in the level or a rewind mechanic in the game? Make every color item a checkpoint?
Good thing you liked the intro, I noticed after submitting, that I didn't build in a skip function 😉
this is a solid game puzzle, i enjoy it alot but i get stuck in this level ,because i can't jump , overall good game
Thank you. Yes, that jump is a mean one, you have to run with ctrl (to jump long) and then hit jump only short, that makes you jump lower (below the little platform). That platform constellation was created by accident, but then I decided to keep it for the challenge.
I played all the way through and thought this was a very charming game. The final level was honestly challenging because you have to play through it a couple times to find the right pattern of the getting the colors. I think you did a great job with the “pass through your color” mechanic and created a cool game. Congratulations on completing your first game as well! Looking forward to many more in the future.
Thank you so much. I know, the last one is hard because of the mean jumps and finding the right order. Congrats on finishing 😁
By the way, did anyone find the secret room so far?
Ctrl + W (sprint and jump) closes the tab in chrome-based browsers, so I had to download this on Windows to play it comfortably. It is quite a creative and engaging puzzle game to use different colors and play with what’s passable and what’s not. It’s very polished, with an amusing cutscene in the beginning, level-select and lots of decorations in the level to make it feel good to explore. The movement and controls feel great in such a way that it allows players to react and correct platforming mistakes, all that’s missing is coyote-time (allow a short grace period after leaving the platform to still jump). While the levels look amazing, the mindset behind the design needs to be improved. In some parts of the later levels, if you so much so as to accidentally fall off an edge, or miss a platform, the player is forced to press ‘R’ and do it all over again. I don’t think this is a good way to introduce challenge; with your game’s unique puzzle aspect, it’s better to challenge the player’s thinking, not the player’s resilience. Overall, I had fun completing all 10 levels, and there isn’t much else to criticize. A solid puzzle-platformer, good job!
Thank you for the detailed feedback. I didn't know about ctrl+w before submitting, I would fix it now to run with shift, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to after submission (this is my first jam), I will definitely fix it after rating phase is over.
Coyote-time would be a cool (I think Celeste does this, right?). I have to think of a way to implement this. Good argument about the falling and then having to reset. I will have to rework some levels, I don't want to frustrate the player.
Nice, I like how you evolved the gameplay, and the music effet on color change is really nice.
Perhaps some your puzzles may need to be revisited, some times they consist of just getting the right color for a key, then getting another color for another key until you found them all, and don't give you too much to think about, but there are some that work much better.
Good job
I wasn't sure about the music effect, because it sounded better in my head than later in practice, so it is good to get another opinon here. I think I know one or two levels, that fit your description of getting another color for each key, and I get it. I was running out of ideas for the basic mechanic and I would have liked to create some more levels with the lever mechanic and maybe other new mechanics (a orb that makes you white again? mixed colors?) but ran out of time. But I hope to rework some levels and create new ones, in a few weeks.
Thanks for taking the time for the elaborate feedback and your kind words.
I think you may remove the run button and make the player permanently run. I have pressed that button and never leaved my finger from it. Nice puzzles. I have enjoyed playing your game. :)
At the start I was pleased with the speed, but later I kept on running through the levels myself. I thought maybe that was just me, because I had played them ever so often. Maybe I should replace it with a slow button for tricky passages. Thanks for your feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed playing.
Funny story and entertaining game.
Funny story and entertaining game.
Hey I played this one on Monday!
Did you know that ctrl+w is a hotkey to close a window in Linux? I learned that when playing level 3 and following the run tip. Guess there is a reason we all put run on shift. Nice to find you again, because I really enjoyed myself and couldn't rate you due to the aforementioned debacle.
I couldn't get past level 5 or so, where it is required to make a running jump, but I think that I have seen enough.
I liked the way you trapped the player in the consequence of their own doing (I think it was level 2 where you could pick up the red orb, but that screws with you 10 sec later and again in lvl 4), but I must warn you to only do such maneuvers when resetting doesn't take too long!
I forgot that platformers like to change jump height depending on how you hard you press the button. Took me a sec to remember.
Story was funny, but I wouldn't mind some sound to go along. You did a great job in the rest of the game.
Hi, thanks for finding me again :-)
I did not know that, and I didn't know shift is the default run key for most games, I will keep it in mind in the future and change this. I trapped the player in level 3 to introduce the R for reset. You're right, one shouldn't do this too often, unless you want to lose the player. The story was a last minute change, so yes, this could really use some polish.
Thanks for the helpful feedback and the nice words.
That was really cool, and it's especially impressive considering it's the first game you publish!
I think the difficulty was good, not too easy but not so hard that you have to go through the levels 100 times. Also I'm gonna be honnest, the amount of levels was actually just right. It's a personnal preference, but I like jam games not to be too long :) (Although I'll admit the one I made myself is longer than what I wanted ^^')
Anyway, congrats!
Wow, thank you so much. 🤩
Great game! I enjoyed playing it! The idea is good.
Thank you! I wanted to do something with the fact, that the tileset is only one color. So I thought changing color could be part of the core mechanic...
Great puzzle platformer! Puzzles were well designed too!
Thank you so much. I was never sure if the puzzles are too easy, as the person who creates the level, you already know how it will work, that makes it hard to get a feeling, what the player will think and try. So glad you liked the puzzles. I just wished, I had have some more time to create some levels that make good use of the lever, after I introduced it...
I enjoyed the intro; Balthazar is very charming.
Simple but nice puzzle game.
Thank you, I'm glad you liked it. I would have liked to create some more levels, maybe I will do that in the next weeks...
I love the backstory, very funny :-D
Thank you, the idea for the backstory came to me in the middle of last week and I just didn't know if I could somehow fit it in time. I then added the intro almost last thing before submitting. It's good to know that it is appreciated, because it might have been a level more in time had I skipped it.