Play game
The Generous Muskoom's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Community's Voice | #95 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
Ranked from 18 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
I wanted to make a paper theater type art style but the mechanics began to evolve into a bit more and I enjoyed having the cute animations for the main character so I decided to make this a literal play to teach that being generous can open new doors and doesn't have to stop you from helping others AND getting to your own goal. The word muskoom comes from the weird language my cousin and I would (and still speak) to each other as kids. I hope you enjoy the play!!
You play as a creature called a Muskoom, creatures not known for being very generous due to a weird enzyme. This enzyme makes them switch movement direction on contact, thus, many Muskooms don't hang out with each other for fear they may get stuck.
However, in this play, you are a generous Muskoom, one who isn't afraid of helping others even at the cost of your own movement direction; maybe helping others will open up new paths for you.
To pass each level, the player must help all of the other Muskooms in the level even if it means going the wrong direction at first.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Very charming artworks, I love the fact you've done it all in traditional media! I got stuck in one puzzle, perhaps I just didn't understand it well enough (2 muskooms when you start with the UP move only, 1 muskoom unlocking LEFT, the other locking everything apart from DOWN). I do find the physics pretty cool (wavy vines!) and getting NPCs "home" is a way of being generous in video games, the limited movement adding an interesting twist!
Awesome game with really interesting puzzles. I love the theater aesthetic, and the hand drawn art is beautiful! There were two main things I had difficulty with:
1. I made the incorrect assumption that you could only press up to "jump" when you're on the ground. This lead to me getting stuck on the level below for a while until I realised you could spam the up button.
2. As 497f pointed out, the inconsistency with how pressing 'E' worked was confusing. Sometimes it affected the other Muskoom globally, sometimes within a range, and for another level it didn't seem to do anything until after you bumped into another Muskoom.
The use of the vine platforms with a wavy collider was cool, it made for some more unique physics interactions. It felt nice being able to help all the Muskrooms get to the exit. Great work!
Thank you for playing!! I left in the spam jumping because I had to increase gravity on certain levels to keep the Muskooms from getting stuck and not falling down to the next platform fast enough. If I continue the game after this jam, I would fix that problem.
At first, I couldn't figure out why some Muskooms were being globally affected while others weren't then I remembered I literally made a script to keep them from being affected because it would cause issues with the drop down mechanics lol, I goofed and forgot to fix it before the jam ended.
Thank you for the art compliments! And I really liked my wavy vines so I'm glad someone else enjoyed them too!!
so much originality in the art and title; I think I remember you from discord - you felt strongly against AI generated assets, and your respect for authenticity really shows here! the setting as a theatre is so charming, I don't think I have played a game like this. I did keep getting stuck, and I couldn't completely follow how the mechanics worked - I realised you get to switch movement direction on contact with another muskoom; but everytime I pressed the down arrow towards the green flag in the very first level; it kept getting reset? maybe i am missing something?
you have gotten yourself a little gem - i am sure you are already aware the gameplay part can be further polished!
Thank you so much for playing! Im glad you liked all the artwork, I only wish I had more time to polish both the art and the gameplay (gameplay definitely needs polishing lol).
You said you were getting stuck in the first level? Or the 4th level (which i think is the first one where you dont have the scrolls giving instructions). I know one of thr later levels, can't remember the exact one, there is a problem with the down movement just not working sometimes but idk why it does that because it doesn't happen every time so maybe its happening in other levels and I just havent seen it yet in the other levels.
hey, considering you did it solo, you did so wellll! but i understand, we also fell short because of time.
Oh wait maybe it was one of the later levels after all? The initial levels seemed straightforward hmm.
I'm sure you'll figure it out, Bryanna!
hi Bryanna it's Chris -
Wow we have something budding here. Puzzles seems so hard to me to make, but I really enjoyed The Generous Muskoom. The mechanics and how much thought you put in the visual presentation along with level design reminds me of Braid. I loved the sound effects you used as well as how easy it was to reset the level (instantly after pressing R). It was very thoughtful. I would just say that the biggest barrier to experiencing the game is technical: fixing all unintended bugs will allow your puzzles and levels to reach more audience and informing you of stuff about theme, narrative, polish, etc.
I saw your comments saying that you made this solo, and that your biggest challenge is programming. That being said, I thought you managed well. In the future, as you keep improving, if you chance upon a collaboration with a programmer, I have a feeling your puzzle design will get the chance to be in the spotlight!
Wonderful effort for the jam!
Thank you so much for playing and giving me all this feedback!! I would love to work with others but sometimes things happen and I get busy and have to drop out of a jam. Im glad you liked my puzzles because I was really worried they might have been too easy/simple.
Cool art style and presentation! I really enjoyed the puzzles.
Very cool game! Has a lot of personality and I think the idea of limiting the directional input is really interesting. Cool blend of physical media too. Well done!
I loved the challenge of this game! The puzzles are a really satisfying balance of challenging and play. It feels super rewarding figuring out the mechanics and finishing a level. Seeing traditional media in games is always refreshing, and it suits the jam theme and whimsical style of your submission. Well done! Out of curiosity, what other words do you use in your madeup language? Seems like a lot of fun :D
Thank you for playing! Im glad you enjoyed the puzzles. And my cousin calls me muskoomaha, I call her muskoomahee. We've also given names to other family members but I can't remember them. 😂
A really interesting and strange game---very bold of you to make it a physics game :D
I do think it may play better in a grid with precise actions, and maybe a way to tell the player how their available actions will change when touching whichever muskoom---though there is charm in rolling them like a hay bale!
Amazing the art was done traditionally, super cool
Thank you for playing!! It didnt start out as a physics game but during the development time, kinda became one on accident 😅
And, there is actually a way to tell which direction the muskooms will let you go but I didnt have time to make it as clear as I would have liked. If you can see their hair/stem, it points the directions they go, but, its hard to see
Ah, I see now! That's actually a game changer, it makes the game much easier to play
Hi! The game’s visuals are so pretty! The hand-painted characters and decorations are amazing! It all works amazingly with the theater frame! Very cute!
Love love love the direction of the artstlye! I love seeing some photography/ physical animation integrated into games. The controls were a little messy but overall a cute well designed experience!
Interesting idea and setting, fun to play and the puzzles where well designed.
My only gripe is that the controls didn’t really feel consistent. For example, on some levels E would interact with the other Muskoom throughout the whole stage, while on other levels it would have a limited range.
I noticed that the final day of the jam but wasn't able to fix it. I had to alter some of the code in other parts to even make sure the puzzles would work too, definitely created a setback.
Thank you so much for playing!!!
Still a very cool project though. Would love to see it taken further after the jam!
The settings are great, platforming combined with theatre works very well. I didn't get all mechanics though, sometimes the control tip says I can go down but I cannot. Other than that, it's a really cute game, nice work!
PS - I would love to have you reviewing my game, thanks!
I really enjoyed this game and it surprised me with how challenging it got! I loved the theater aesthetic, and the fact that you used chalk to create assets is awesome! Having the curtains present for the entire experience was a great choice, it really feels like a stage. I beat the game, but it took me a while to figure out, which is a good thing in this case! Great stuff!
Thank you for playing! I'm glad you liked the curtains, I thought they added a little something special to the game and made each level a bit more cohesive with one another. I'm also happy you beat the game and overcame the funky physics and beat all the puzzles; it's a bit hard to gauge the difficulty of a puzzle when you design it so I wasn't sure if they were too easy or too hard.
Story - I really love this concept! A little play about cute friends helping their cute friends achieve their goals is super adorable. Really nice work.
Mechanics - Kind of strange, but they made sense when they made sense (if that makes sense). I got stuck on the third or fourth level (the one in your fourth screenshot there) and couldn't figure out how to get under the vine. I spent a good 10 minutes rolling the other little guy around before I just kinda gave up. Not sure if there was a secret mechanic I was missing to bypassing the vines, but I couldn't figure it out even after resetting a bunch.
Theme - On point! I love that you can't complete the level without helping your little buddies along! Such a cute idea.
Audio/Visual - Pretty great audio and visual. I would have loved a little bit of music that plays throughout the game to set the tone during the levels. But the drums smashing as I bonk my buddies around made me laugh. Also I love the paper cutout! Some of the text was hidden behind the curtains a few times, and the text looked a little smushed, but overall the effect was great.
Overall - Fun little puzzle game that really reminded me of Braid! The mechanics were a little head-scratching at times, but you know this. I loved how you brought the themes into it and the art style made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Great job!
Thank you so much for this feedback!! That level is passed by pressing E to lower the Muskoom down the vine to the floor then just pressing down and pushing him to the other side with the goal. I'm glad you said the theme was "on point" because I ended up adding getting the muskooms to the goal like a day before it was due because before that, the game didn't feel 'generous' enough to me.
I wanted to get music added so bad but then just ran out of time and hoped that having at least some sound effects would help. I'm glad the sound effects I made for them hitting into each other was funny, it made me giggle when I implemented it for the first time so I'm happy someone else found it as fun as I did. And yeah, the text was squished cause I did it all in Krita then imported it instead of just adding text to the scroll image like I should have lol.
Thank you so much again for playing and giving me all this feedback!!
Really unique puzzle mechanics! Had me strategizing and everything! The art and visuals are super cute, and I also really like the SFX!
The Muskrooms are so cute, and the puzzles are fun. I did feel like I was fighting with the controls at points but I understand why it's setup the way it is. The theater theme is super well done!
Thank you for playing! If I had more time, I would love to fix the physics system but programming is my most difficult game dev skill and I had to sacrifice some stuff for the jam just to get it finished. Some levels work with the wonky physics a lot better than others.