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A jam submission

Totem ClimberView game page

Spinning Platformer Puzzle Game
Submitted by Johnny Dalvi (@JohnnyDalvi) — 5 hours, 35 minutes before the deadline
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Play Totem Climber

Totem Climber's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Visuals#14.4744.474
Gameplay#33.8423.842
Overall#33.8773.877
Audio#63.3163.316

Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Source:
https://mega.nz/#!5NBVxYoR!gVkgBY_tMbczCew6iYFEYrWmhyWAqV7e6dX2rvS0t34

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Comments

(+1)

Really good work - everything fits togetherto create a distinct and coherent feel (could I be any more vague?) - the color palette, the out of focus surroundings, the ambient sound FX all just seem right. And so for the first couple of levels you think "oh nice, a pretty zen puzzle platformer"... Three mins later: "I WAS SO F****** CLOSE THAT TIME!!! WHY DO THE GODS HATE ME SO??? JUST ONE MORE TRY..."

It does still have that feeling that sometimes as a player you're being defeated by the physics engine as opposed to the challenge created by the developer - but that happens in games that have been tweaked and balanced for months/years. To get to this stage in just two weeks is really impressive.

Developer

Thanks for the awesome feedback and for taking the time to play it Rev, I'm happy to know that it was able to create the feel that I wanted it to have :D

The physics doesn't help sometimes, I still need to do some tweaking in order to get it right. Any further detail about aspects that I could improve upon regarding the physics? 


Thanks :D

(+1)

<Plays game again to try and figure out whether he was just being lame...> I think it is the way the left and right controls work - the fact that even on the static base level moving left and right also moves you "outwards" - where if you just hold down left at the start you move in a slow spiral outwards until you fall off the platform. My brain  expects it to move in an exact circle around the totem - even though though that isn't remotely realistic.

Once you're on a totem platform it feels absolutely fine that you're being thrown outwards by the force of the spin - where if you jump straight up and down a couple of times you end up falling off the outer edge of the platform. But when you combine the two factors in a jump to the left or right from one platform to another my brain seems to fall over trying to account for both factors at the same time - the outward motion from the moving platform and the extra outward "kick" from holding left or right.

I guess most of this is down to me having certain expectations from a lifetime of unrealistic game physics rather than anything "wrong" with the game, but yeah, that was the best I could come up with (other than me being lame...)

Did I mention I'm really, really bad at giving short answers? I probably should have said that first...

Oh, and a couple of times on the fourth level I managed to wedge myself between two of the wooden discs :D

Developer

Thanks for the valuable feedback.


I agree, since I'm using the default physics, it retain the speed of the previous movement, which makes it slowly moves outwards, I need to try a few things to see if I can fix it while still moving using the physics instead of moving using the transform

Submitted(+1)

I see you've tagged the entry as a Mac entry, but unfortunately your zip appears to only have an .exe in the folder.

Let me know if you get a chance to do a macOS build, as this game looks stunning.  I'd love to leave some feedback and give it a rating!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for noting josyide, I`ll fix it tomorrow evening and update it here, I don`t have access to the PC with the project now =/
Thanks!!

Submitted(+1)

Looking forward to it!

Developer

Hey, I've updated a Mac version, but I don't own a Mac to try it, would you mind trying it and letting me know if it actually works?

Submitted(+1)

Wow, what a game!
Fantastic work.  Very atmospheric and beautiful.  The visual style and feel was great.

Extremely challenging gameplay, but addictive.  You make a mistake and you just want to try again and again until you get it.

Only criticism is perhaps it might have been nice to have some music.  Something subtle I think – although, I'm not too sure, because visually I think it calls for a relaxing and subtle tune, but the gameplay is more tense and frustrating than that, so perhaps they'd be at odds.  I'd be interested to hear it with music and see how it affects the mood.  As I think about it, it's not even a criticism, it's more of a "I wonder if?"

Congrats on the great entry.

Developer

thanks for playing it, it's good that it is running on Mac now.

Happy to know that you enjoyed it. I do think that I need to add music and more sound effects, eventually I will do that.


Thanks for the feedback :D

Submitted(+1)

nice, really nice. 

good visuals, they fit well, and they blend extremely well with the theme of the game. great work. 

couldn't find many thins to point on, other than that, the cube sometimes rotates on its own. and it is also a nice touch, that the platforms, when you jump on them, you do remain moving, relative to their position, as opposed to reality, where if something is moving, and you jump vertical, well, you'd fall :D.

it was a nice unrealistic addition. that made the game easier, and nicer to play. good work.

Developer

Hey GrassWhooper :D

Thank you for playing my entry, it means a lot!
I'm really glad you liked the graphics on this, it was the main reason why I've choosen to build for PC instead of WebGL (I wanted to make use of the lightning system and post-processing), so it's good to know that people appreciated the visual.

You're right regarding the cube rotating on it's own sometimes, thanks for remembering me of that, I've forgotten to add it to my ToDo lists, this was one of those things that I didn't wanted to sink my time in since I had to finish a few other aspects, I'll make sure to fix it for the next version (if I actually continue developing it).

shh.. No one needs to know that it is unrealistic!! LOL just kidding
I need to make it even more unrealisit by making it rotate around the totem more even while airborn, I think it should help to improve the controls a bit.

Thanks for the feedback buddy!

Submitted(+1)

Great job!  Visually this game looks stunning.  My personal preference would be to have the jump command on key down, rather than key up.  But I had fun playing!

Developer

Thanks for the valuable feedback!

I`m glad you liked the visuals and that you had fun playing it. I agree that the jump should be on KeyDown instead, I made it on keyup because I wanted it to be able to have variable jump height, I`ll try another approach to be able to have both (I`ll try to add force after it jumps if the player keep holding the jump button).

Developer

just made this change as you guys suggested, thanks again :)

(+1)

Nice work on this game (one of the few I saw in development).

The visuals are really nice, the audio is well mixed and the concept is cool.  The only real problem is the controls. 
Personally I found them quite sluggish, which made timing jumps quite difficult.  I also noticed that you move left and right around the circle but jumping kicks you out towards the edge.  This adds some extra difficulty, which is fine, but I'm not sure whether that was intended. 

Overall though, a really great game and I look forward to seeing where it goes in the future. 

Developer(+1)

Thanks for your support Gary!!
I'm really glad you liked it! I totally agree regarding the controls, I had some problems trying to use physics while making it rotate around the totem instead of moving linearly, I will create a more robust system to handle it better, the jump kicking the player towards the edge is more realistic, but I think that it's not worth keeping realistic physics if it will make the controls sluggish, I'll make sure to address it while fixing the controls.

Thanks for the valuable feedback my friend. 

(+1)

Bão

Developer(+1)

Obrigado amigo!