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Nyota & the Moon Palace's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Community's Voice | #49 | 3.516 | 3.516 |
Ranked from 31 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Creative Vision / Rationale / How Did You Incorporate the Theme
Nyota & the Moon Palace centers generosity through its story, characters and setting. The game follows Nyota — a young witch who lost her magic and her memories — and her cat Paka at the start of their journey after freeing her from her imprisonment.
This initial setup leads the player to question our protagonist(s) and who they are. Why was Nyota in the cage? Did she commit an unknown crime? Is she a bad person? It is a question that lingers in the player’s mind as they progress through the story, exploring the Moon Palace and a few of its secrets before eventually stumbling upon the broken star.
Without hesitation, the protagonist decides to help the star regain its missing pieces without even being prompted to do so. And after doing so, they are granted “stardust” which gives Nyota’s magical abilities a slight boost. Because of their generosity, the player is rewarded for their act of kindness which also helps them progress deeper into the Moon Palace.
This subsequently confuses and intrigues the player, once again remembering the initial scene. If Nyota chose to help the star all on her own, what could have warranted her imprisonment? Who is she? Although it is not a mystery that gets solved by the end of our demo, its concept nonetheless is one that catches the player’s eye and makes them want to know more.
Additionally, the visual of the beautiful yet empty palace is accented by our simply-designed protagonists and the golden star hanging off Nyota’s hat — a small light that glows bright even in the darkest corners. Against the vast universe and the brilliance of the castle, it’s just you and your cat making it through together, but that’s also doesn’t stop you from engaging with and helping the universe (or a small piece of it at least).
Humanity has always sought a connection to the stars, and in our game, we took that to heart to bring the theme of the game jam to life.
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Comments
Love how you really brought the atmosphere together with sound and visual design, I really enjoyed how you played with contrast!! Didn't have time to finish it but oh I do really want to come back to it :nodnod:
Thank you!! Hopefully you can come back and play the full thing later~
I aspire to make art and music as beautiful as this, but there were some gameplay quirks I found disruptive. The camera jitters in certain places and the music cuts off in others. The flight mechanic was also difficult to use vertically with multiple W keypresses and shift being required. If it were distance-based instead of time-based, it would be easier to handle the inconsistencies.
This is a contender for best visual design IMO, and with more polish and seamlessness in gameplay, it can showcase its strengths even better. Also I love games with cats.
Thank you so much for playing! We too love games with cats lolol. There's definitely a lot to improve upon in all areas and some stuff we couldn't get to due to the time limitations, so the feedback is greatly appreciated for when we go back to polish our demo in the future.
Beautiful scenery, going through the first set of arches with the parallax effect was gorgeous. Touching characters and art!
My only criticism echo's some other comments in regards to the flying. Perhaps being able to jump then fly would help things feel slightly smoother.
Overall amazing job with this!
Thanks for the feedback! We definitely hope to make the flying much smoother and efficient in subsequent patches. Glad you enjoyed it!
Really beautiful game! The art and the music are excellent and go together so well! I'm also a sucker for any game that has a cat haha.
I did find the flying mechanic a little confusing, and sometimes difficult to maneuver with the little bit of "power" I had available, but was quick to figure it out in the end!
Thank you, we too love our virtual cats haha! We unfortunately ran out of time to properly balance the flying mechanic, but glad you were able to figure it out.
Pretty artistic game. The visuals look really good and the audio is well made and really adds to the mood. Great job! Running down the stairs was pretty amusing. It was tricky trying to fly for some reason, not very responsive.
Overall pretty solid entry. Nice work and thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the feedback! We have received other comments about the flight mechanic so we intend to go back and rework it to be more balanced after the voting period ends. Aside from that, glad you liked it!
Really impressive game! The artstyle is amazing and I love the music. I'm a sucker for good piano! The game was pretty fun as well. You guys did a great job!
Thank you, we're glad you enjoyed it!
I love the environmental art, it's beautiful in a storybook kind of way. The music is also very pretty and matches well with the environment. Others have said that the movement felt clunky. Maybe, but the only thing I really noticed was that it took me a few tries to fly over the first large gap before I realized that I was expected to "sprint" while on the broom. I was actually very impressed that the cat familiar would jump over obstacles behind me! I know that's not necessarily the easiest thing to get working, and it was a nice detail. I was disappointed that controlling the cat didn't come into play more, however. Unless I missed something, it seems like the only time you need to control the cat is at the very beginning, I was expecting more puzzles involving switching characters. Nevertheless, the art is excellent and I didn't encounter any bugs while playing, good job. I'm interested in what you might do with this project given more time after the jam.
Thank you! I was inspired by storybooks for the art concept, so I'm glad to hear that came through. We actually did have more plans to have to the cat play a more crucial role that actually encourages the player the swap between the two, but we unfortunately ran out of time and had to scrap the idea for our submission. We do intend to keep working on the demo after the voting period, so it's something we plan to add into the patched version. We appreciate the feedback and are glad you liked the game!
Beautiful work, the hand-drawn 2D art and animation are stunning, and the overall aesthetic strongly evokes Gris in the best way. The visual storytelling and atmosphere are truly captivating.
One area that could use refinement is the character movement. It currently feels a bit slow and clunky, which disrupts the otherwise fluid experience. For a game with such an emotional and artistic focus, smoother, more responsive, and slightly floatier controls could enhance the sense of flow and immersion.
Additionally, while the cutscenes are effective in setting the tone, the frequent text interruptions tend to break the pacing. It might be more impactful if dialogue could integrate more seamlessly into gameplay, maintaining the momentum of the experience.
Overall, a beautiful project with a lot of potential, I’d love to see where you take it next!
Thank you for the detailed feedback! Character movement is one area we’ve gotten a lot of input on and we hope to refine it to provide the player with a much smoother experience. Likewise for the pacing and finding a stronger balance between the cutscenes and gameplay. My team and I are incredibly proud of the work we’ve put in these three weeks but we know there’s definitely a lot we can improve upon once the voting period ends. Glad you enjoyed our game and thank you for playing!
Great visual design and vibe, love how the cat jumps on the broom. That's a cute touch!
Thank you, glad you liked the visuals! A witch has gotta have her cat accompany her haha
The art is beautiful - the silhouetted characters with the moon beaming behind the pillars works so well. I love the detail that Paka hops onto your broom when you start flying, but the implementation felt clunky and caused delays when Paka couldn't reach the broom. I seemed to experience a bug where you couldn't assemble the star if you switched scenes by walking off the top right and had to restart. The music is great and fits the environment well. Excellent work!
Thank you for the feedback! Those are definitely things we intend to patch in the game after the voting period ends to avoid the issues cropping up in the future. Glad you enjoyed it!
A game crash was experienced in the room where deciphering is taught. Pressing “two” briefly unfroze the game. The final minute of play time was spent repeatedly pressing this miracle button whilst navigating to the bottom exit. Unfortunately, the program met its end shortly before the exit was reached.
The animation was excellent in a subtle way, such as the gentle hand on her companion’s head, and the flowing dress. The ivories were similarly pleasing to the ear.
Oh no, sorry that you experienced a game crash, we’ll make sure to go back and test to see what might have caused it so we can patch it out, thanks for the heads up! Also glad you liked the animations and music!
Very cool. The art is so beautiful and cool. And the music complements it very well.
I missed a tutorial for the Z button in the first room, I had to check the page to remember the keys I should use, but that's okay. Also I had a bit of trouble with the broom, sometimes it takes me a while longer than usual to move.
Glad you liked it! The Z button was our fault, it was the only prompt we forgot to include because we were rushing towards the end. We also got some comments on the flying mechanic so we’ll definitely go back and polish it. Thank you for the feedback!
for a game with so much thought behind the environment, visuals, narrative and controls - i wish the gameplay experience was a little more enjoyable! the controls felt a little too clunky and difficult (i mean my game has issues with control too because of last-minute rushes, so i completely understand) but i really hope you take it forward! everything looks so magical and visually appealing, and you have evoked curiosity in me about Nyota and Paka and why they were trapped! do take it forward!
P. S. Being specific about controls: flying was difficult to be precise with + the energy drained too quickly and there was not enough time to navigate; when you press shift and use the stairs, it looks off
Thank you for the detailed feedback! We do intend to keep working on our game and polishing the gameplay and mechanics for a more completed demo. We’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished in these three weeks, but we know we can definitely improve upon those elements since we unfortunately had to rush some of them due to the time constraints. Glad you still enjoyed those other aspects and thank you again for your comment!
It's a beautiful game very original and impressive art style :) I like the music, too - very nice to see that you had your own composer as well! A bit strange how it fades in and out with changing the scenes tho ^^
I am not a big fan of the gameplay, it feels very slow and the pacing is a bit off - it doesn't feel as rewarding as it could, which is a bummer since the environments are so nice. I want to experience the story but the game wants to challenge me with some very narrowly balanced platforming - fells like you are right in the middle of the two sides and the hybrid did not quite work (for me!!).
The flying also has this problem in my opinion. I think a more generous (no pun intended xD) flying would have been nice - right now it breaks with the rest. The duration is so short and the controls are not snappy enough for the duration :(
I was also a bit hung up on the early level design - especially the first door haha did I miss the interact prompt or is there none that tells you tu use "Z" - that is the danger zone of losing players in the first minute if they did not read through the controls on your page.
Its a very cool package and a jam game! I am sure you have learned a lot and hope to see more of what your team will be making in the future! Keep it up mates - gonna go pet my cat now :)
Wow, thank you so much for the detailed response!
Glad you liked the visuals, but I agree the platforming could have been balanced better. Level design is one of my weaker skills, so it’s something I’d like to go back and refine. We wanted our game to start off slow and then (in a theoretical post demo) build more tension as the story unravels, but we could have probably paced the story a little better so the transition is a bit smoother.
We did get a few comments about the flying mechanic, and looking back at it, it’s definitely a little lackluster. In theory, there would be a more noticeable build up as the player regains more of their magic and thus can fly longer, but it still ended up being too short in the intro so we’ll make sure to extend the duration a bit.
As for the “Z” button, that one we just completely forgot ‘cause we were rushing at the end. We had all the other commands prompted except for that one so it unfortunately threw off the game flow right at the start.
We did learn a lot from this experience and we do intent to keep working on our game once the jam’s over and improve upon various aspects including the gameplay. We really appreciate your reply and thank you for trying out our game!
This was nice to read!
Yeah - that's what jams are for right :D
I always love looking back at older jam games to reflect what I learned with each and every one of them :)
And I really like the "test grounds" style of the jams here on itch since you tend to get so much players and feedback and can really test and review your game with a bigger audience to see what works and what doesnt.
With our game I wanted to make something super super simple that works without much explaining AND gets you right into the action.
I also have the feeling that comedic narrative or dialogue works so much better on itch and in jams in general ^^ that's a bit of a bummer if you want to tell a more serious story.
Your game is so cute! I was really surprised when I saw the connecting mechanics and the Minor Ursa, we have those in our game Ursid too!
Thank you! Constellations do make for great connecting mini-games haha
A visually stunning game. I love that this game's art style is similar to those of ancient Greek black figure pottery. Some of the player movement, to me, wasn't very intuitive and a bit clunky at times, but I can see a lot of inspiration from games such as Spiritfarer and TGC's own Sky: COTL. The worldbuilding is very interesting!
Glad you liked the art and worldbuilding! We'd definitely love to do more in the future and expand upon the story and setting. If it's not too much trouble, could you specify what part of the player movement felt clunky to you? The gameplay is also something we plan to improve upon, so any feedback is greatly appreciated <3
Just wanted to add in that you hit the nail on the head with the inspirations— I started playing Spiritfarer pretty recently, and when I was designing some of the sound effects I absolutely had that in mind! And Sky is a longtime inspiration for me, it's one of the first games that really got me interested in game audio, so there's definitely parts of my style tied to it. Thank you for playing and for the feedback! :)
Great art direction, and I loved how the environment felt really large with the sky in the background and the shadows cast on the interior.
Thank you! We definitely wanted both the cosmos and the palace to feel grand compared to our two protagonists, so I'm glad we were able to accomplish that.
The art is amazing. Though admittedly I had some troubles with the controls. They didn't feel very responsive to me. Overall a pretty good platformer!
Glad you liked the art! If it's not too much trouble, could you clarify a bit where the controls weren't responsive? We want to patch our game in the future once the voting session's over, so we'd love any feedback on how we can improve!
I think the reason they felt unresponsive to me is because of the inconsistency of the acceleration and deceleration of the player. Which gives the player an unreliable feeling of weight.
Changing direction while walking is slower than changing direction while sprinting. You reach your max speed much sooner when you sprint than when you walk.
When you stop moving while sprinting, you slide across the ground. Which can make it feel unresponsive. On the opposite side, when you stop moving while in the air, you stop almost instantly. This makes for clunky feeling in-air movement imo. I find it feels better to keep some of your momentum when you release the movement keys while in the air.
Another thing I noticed was that the player seems to go up faster than they do going down when jumping. This can also give a very clunky feeling.
I personally would make sprinting the default when moving and have walking be a key press. Because to me, walking felt very slow and encumbered.
And lastly, I would recommend adding coyote time to your jump. It makes for a lot nicer feeling platformer.
I like the art and the scene so much, I spent a lot time petting the cat, it is just so cute lol. While I found sometimes the cat will stuck at some point so that I cannot fly and needa refresh the game. But I really like the background and the color! Great job!
Thank you! Petting the cat was an essential feature, we were planning to include that from day one haha. Unfortunately the code is a bit finicky and we definitely hope to patch any bugs in a future update once the voting session's over. Quick note, if Paka gets stuck, petting him will also teleport him to your location!
heya it's Chris!
I was deeply immersed in the soundtrack and the visual presentation. It was cohesive and mysterious, raising questions about the world-building for me to feel it over. I also loved that you guys implemented the cat companion and the flying broom mechanic--very creative and goes a long way.
I feel the game would really benefit from stronger onboarding. There's definitely instructions, but for example, I wasn't able to see what button to press to interact with the door, and almost quit before finding out the answer from your comment to yufpan. Another scene was the level where the cat ran away: because how it was placed, I was able to fly over to the other side, and due to that, it took me a long time to realize I was supposed to follow the cat. More gameplay playtesting would no doubt make the rest of the game shine much brighter.
Great jam effort!
Thank you so much! The visual and sound style were things we settled on pretty quickly so it's nice to hear it all worked together well :) There are definitely a lot of bumps to smooth out because of the time constraint, but we're planning to get all those fixes in after the voting period so we really appreciate the feedback!