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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
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!
I really like the art, and the cat riding the broom was a nice touch. Though I often found the cat couldn't keep up and I'd wait for it jump on (when it couldn't) whenever I tried to dash. I wish the controls and movement felt a bit tighter. But really nice game, kudos!
Glad you like it! There’s a bit of a hiccup in the flying action and some controls since it was designed for a short time and we moved on to implement other things. We definitely could make use of some refinement over that matter! That said, you can teleport Paka to your location by petting him if he ever did get stuck :D
Lovely art and music! I enjoyed the cat and witch duo, also being able to pet paka was 10/10 haha
took a minute to get the hang of the flying mechanic, but I really liked the constellation drawing - lots of good attention to detail! Unfortunately the game froze after completing the little dipper constellation D: maybe because I accidentally hit the flying button, then entered the constellation mode?
We appreciate the kind words! Petting Paka is our joy!
And sorry to hear the game broke after completing the constellation. The game right now is in a delicate stage, there are problems when keys are pressed when they aren't in the right context. Hope you managed to complete the game!
Such a beautiful game! Really nailed the children's illustration vibe! Challenging but fun experience! Amazing work!!
Thank you! The style was very experimental for me and drew on inspiration from children’s storybooks and fairytales, so I’m glad I was able to capture that vibe. Glad you enjoyed our game <3
It's like I am in a children's book, I love the art style! I want to unravel the story more and learn about the world but I got stuck in the first quest to bind the star :( I am not very good at platformer games, but I also found the controls little tricky. How can I jump super far? I didn't got it working :(
Glad you like the art! <3 No worries, we know our game could use some improvement and polishing and we intend to do so after the voting period ends. There’s a fly mechanic in the game that helps you cross larger gaps and get up to higher areas. If it’s not working, don’t hesitate to let us know.
I was using the flying mechanic, but I couldn't go far. Should I run - jump- fly? Because I tried that but the flying wasn't enabled.
Ah, yeah it takes a bit of effort. You can’t run and fly right after, you need to be stationary. For some it’s a close time window, so I would suggest standing as close to each edge as you can. Once the cat jumps on the broom, you can use the controls to move up and sideways at the same time. Hope that helps!
Love the aesthetics! Neat little mystery :)
Thanks! I played your game too and it was nice!
I like how Paka follows around and jumps on the broom!
Thank you! Paka is awesome HAHHA!
This is one of the coolest menus I've ever seen, super cool visual style for this game props to whoever did the art! The piano is also really good, definitely one of my favorite games in the jam so far nice job :)
Thank you, we're glad you enjoyed it! :) (and those props fully go to Haz who did all the art and came up with the layout/design!)
Hey! My team and I just tried out your game! It's lovely, we love the color palette and the story! Also, that piano - So cool!!!! Good job!!!
Thank you, happy you enjoyed it!!
The art is beautiful! I love that the characters are just silhouettes! The animations are so cute and I like the idea of having my cat help me out and join me in the adventure!! Very pretty game :)
Thank you so much! We would have liked to have the cat do more, but unfortunately we ran out of time.
I loved your game as well, wonderful use of visuals and color, kudos to you and your team~
Couldn't believe how beautiful the game was, from the narrative to the art to the setting
Thank you for your kind words <3
I love the following eyes graphics and the storybook like artstyle! Reminds me of fairytales. Really fitting mechanic too
Thank you! The visuals were very fun to design — big fan of fairytales — so I'm glad you liked them~
Have never seen this kind of art style, it's really pretty! I unlocked the first 2 constellations and then got lost, but I had a lot of fun. The music was really beautiful as well.
Thank you, we’re glad you liked it! After completing the constellations and grabbing the pieces, you gotta go back to the star at the bottom.
Hi! Nice art! BTW, how can I leave the first scene?
Hello! You can press Z to interact with the door :)