An interesting prototype, it can offer some interesting puzzles, and even the fact that it's always you, but younger, who reverses gravity, can lead to some nice moral storytelling.

The main problem I encountered is that the buttons, despite being red, are not very visible. Maybe you could make them just a little taller and see how it turns out.

Another thing, but I don't know if it's a bug or intentional, when I turned into a child and the boxes became balloons, I saw one that was horizontal and not vertical like the others. I think it was due to the rotation of the box I had overturned, but it looked strange. If it doesn't use some kind of mechanics, I would reset the rotation to prevent the balloons from being crooked when you transform (if it's already there, I found a bug, sorry).

The game concept of a puzzle platformer where you can switch gravity is rather classic but something that works well and can always be extended with further mechanics. Controls & game feel overall work fine.

I had two main issues with the game. The first being the lack of indication of what the purple thing on the right side of the level was. The two buttons next to it having no prompts and looking the same as buttons you’re supposed to stand on. On my first playthrough, I didn’t understand it at all and after not finding any other ideas, I managed to go upwards by climbing on a box & switching to child (riding on the box as it went up with the switched gravity) which wasn’t the intended solution at all. I only understood what I was supposed to do after reading the comments here and seeing the mention of a catapult & that you were supposed to press E on the buttons.

Next issue is the energy system which feel a bit out of place as it brings nothing in the current version of the game. You can still do everything even without energy, just a bit slower, and I’m not sure what it could bring to the actual puzzle-platformer gameplay.

Music sounds good - controls worked well for me - Nice having little NPC to talk to... I expected it to say something different to me as a child vs adult, not sure if you're thinking of doing something like that but thought I'd mention it.  I l like the overall concept and would love to continue playing it as you develop it more! Nice job so far - no complaints at all. 

Nice puzzler, I like the gravity switch mechanic! It’s easy to understand but I can see how you could build some really tricky puzzles with it. I had fun solving the level.

But while the mechanic worked really well gameplay wise, I didn’t really get how it fits with the game’s theme. Why does being your younger self reverse gravity? Does a child see the world upside-down or how is it meant? As of now maybe you can find a way to contextualize the power better.

About the power-meter: are you supposed to lose when it runs out? In the demo it seemed kinda pointless as it would just slow you down a bit but still make the level solvable once empty. If you want to include it, I would tie it to a loss condition - but my feeling is that the game might be better off without it. Maybe you can use it for a new game+ challenge mode instead.

The art style looks pretty good already for a first demo but for the proper game you need to make sure that it is easier to see what an obstacle does by its visuals and to never use the same sprites for different objects (the two different buttons types and the one way platform didn’t look like one to me.)

The prototype works.

After finishing the demo and pressing "New Game" again, it doesn't work. Starting in the right side room with only one crate available.

Congrats on finishing the PJP game jam and continuing to work on it. Your stated concept is intriguing: "seeing through the eyes of a child", but I feel like you haven't yet executed on your promise. 

Perhaps you could expand on what looks or feels different through the eyes of a child. For example, one of your core mechanics appears to be changing the gravity of crates when you switch to a child, but it's a tough sell for me. What if instead, the crates turned into balloons when you switch perspectives? Or another idea would be that everything looks bigger when you're a child so what if the crates were larger crates when you switch to the child? If you're intending for the concept (rather than specific gameplay mechanics) to make your game special, I'd spend time listing out all the different ways kids see things differently from adults then build your mechanics around those ideas.

Player movement feels good. Pushing the crate up slopes doesn't feel great though, there's too much friction up slopes which can make them tedious to move. Also, the physics simulated crates can make it feel unpolished when using the crates on the catapult. Try locking the crate's rotation when on the catapult to make it feel smoother.

Nice work on the tileset. The gopher is cute! I like the bobbing idle animations too.

I don't understand why you need stamina in this game. Perhaps you're planning on using it later, but I feel like implementing limited stamina in a puzzle game can make it feel frustrating. Although, I ran out of stamina as an adult and there were no apparent consequences.

Lastly, regarding the puzzle design. It is fairly good, but the communication of mechanics is sometimes unclear. In particular, why can objects move through certain floor tiles in one direction, but not the other (i.e. the one above the catapult)? The tile should be clearer about which direction objects can flow through it to minimize player frustration. Same goes with the ground tile and lasers next to the gopher; it's unclear what the rules of the game are from the visuals.

Overall, good effort. My advice is to be crystal clear on your concept first and make sure your executive aligns with your concept so that you don't continue working on mechanics that you might have to scrap later.

This was a decent prototype. It took a bit to figure out the last switch, but I did finish. I think that the "catapult" switches should have the same text telling you to interact as other interactables, rather than needing to get it from the dialog. Consistency is good. If you plan to no longer offer such text later, then starting to transition can work, but it felt out of place with all others having the text. I like the concept of switching between older and younger selves and having that affect the world and what you can do. It could be a fun game.