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A jam submission

The Backward ChickenView game page

Submitted by Someone242b — 8 hours, 34 minutes before the deadline
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The Backward Chicken's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Creativity#33.0003.000
Appeal#32.0002.000
Theme#41.0001.000

Ranked from 2 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted

What a cool game! I love the reminiscence of the Mario aesthetic (Classic!), and the chick is way too cute. 

At first I was confused as to what to do — naturally I went for the buttons (red, then blue), which didn't seem to do anything (after a few playthroughs, I think the red one gives speed and super jumping powers, and blue negates this, but still not entirely sure). I kept getting caught "below": 


which I'm not sure if it's a bug, or an intended mechanic. After playing around for a bit I finally did figure out that I have to go to the blue sparky thing. 

The same thing (getting caught below the main platform) happened in the second level, which actually helped me because I could jump directly to the blue sparky thing while suffering minimal damage from the spikes. The third and final level I simply jumped through the spikes to the ending; I think I was supposed to hop on the platforms, but the incentives (and my skills with the controls) simply weren't there.

Sometimes the controls were a little sticky, but nothing too frustrating. I think if you want to improve this game, making clear what the different buttons do, making clear the blue sparky thing is the goal/way to advance to the next level, and maybe adding music (as well as fixing bugs like falling "below" the platform, jumping through spikes, smoothing out controls, etc), would go a long ways! 

To make it more "fun," I'd suggest making the system more forgiving (or appear to be more forgiving). Sometimes my super speed and jump after hitting the red button was too much for me:

The above video shows a few things:
1) controls stuck the first time trying to hop on the red button, and I died.
2) upon landing on the button the first time, it didn't trigger the "pressed" event, so I had to fly back to it
3) after triggering the "pressed" event, my powers were too strong for my own good, and I died again.

I think there's a lot to learn from here  — but if you added a mechanic of time slowing down (everything else slowing down, but my chicken remaining the same speed), or a way to flutter-jump in the air (and thus get a second-shot at landing on the platform), I think the game would be a lot more addicting. The fast reload ability is nice though!

Overall I think you did an outstanding job! The concept is great, and the art is super cute. Just a few things need to be smoothed out, and especially for a game jam made in a time crunch — this is really great work!

(Sorry for the super long and in-depth response — I just learned how to screen capture and I am obsessed)

Submitted

Hi! I'd love to play your game (the name is fantastic), but only have access to a Mac right now. Is there any way you can share a Mac build? 

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Yeh, I only got your reply now!! im on my way to add a mac build, Do u have Discord

Submitted

Yep! bowlfishbowel#9177

Submitted

Hey! Any update on the Mac build?

Developer

Yeah, I added you on discord, waiting for you to add back for me to send it in

Submitted

Ah my bad! I'll add you now

Submitted

Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to make a playable version of this for me!! I really appreciate it.