I like the art style and music. I was expecting to be able to bounce and goomba-stomp enemies in addition to using the sword slash. It would have been interesting to see the sword have more utility aside from purely attacking.
The levels were extremely challenging, and the level design feels as though it's supposed to guide them to the correct solution. However, I feel that most of the levels have extremely slim margins of errors such that it ends up feeling as though you are brute forcing your way to the precise solution.
A good example is progressing from Area 1 to 2, and contrasting with progressing from Area 3 to 4:
- For getting to Area 2, you need to position the captain such that the apex of the jump clears and lands on the target platform. I found only one precise set up that would consistently work. If I was off from the optimal position by a few pixels, I would slam into the side and fall. The theoretical alternative is a mid-level power jump, but it's hard to consistently gauge mid-level jumps.
- For getting to Area 4, I found 2 potential ways. One method involved jumping onto the far right platform in Area 3. The other method (described below) involves bouncing off the wall on the furthest left side. Both methods have the benefit of having larger platforms that make the jumps a little more forgiving.
From the comparisons, Area 3 felt more forgiving than Area 1 as I had more breathing room to work with.
As Jump-King was an inspiration for this, I did take a look at a video of Jump-King. One thing that could be useful for you game is that earlier sections of Jump King had large platforms to ease the player into the jump controls, and then a section that forces the player to use the low power jump alongside higher power jumps. Would it be possible to have the earlier areas based around these two jump levels (low and full power), with more precise positioning and mid-level jumping in later areas? Having an antechamber type area may help function as an implicit tutorial.
Overall, the inspiration that the game drew from is very clear, and just requires fine-tuning.
In case anyone is curious about the possible solutions to move through the areas:
- Area 1 (Area with the boat):
- On the island with 4 trees, stand facing right such that the captain's left-most eye is just on the boundary of the foreground tree. Perform a full power rightward jump. If done correctly, you'll slam into and then bounce off of the the rightmost platform and land on the lowest platform of Area 2.
- Area 2:
- Perform a full power jump right-ward. You should land on the platform above the starting platform.
- Perform a low power jump to the rightmost platform. There should be four blades of grass. Stand between the grass such that 2 blade are on either side of the captain. Perform a full power left-ward jump. You should land in the corner of the leftmost platform.
- Perform a low power jump to the island with the tree sticking out of the right-hand side. There are 4 blades of grass. Position the captain so that the middle 2 pieces of grass are between the pirates legs. Perform a full powered right-ward jump. If done correctly, you will bounce of the lower right platform of Area 3, and land on the lower left platform.
- Area 3 (Area with the first enemy):
- Assuming that you start on the lower left platform, move the captain to the leftmost half of that platform. Perform a low power jump to the platform on the right.
- Move the pirate to the right until half of the body is off the edge. Perform a full power jump to the right. You should land on the large centre platform.
- Kill the enemy to make this step easier. Move the captain until it he is half-off the leftmost edge. Perform a full power jump left-ward. If done correctly, you will bounce off the wall whilst avoiding hitting the upper platform of Area 4, and land on the upper platform of Area 3.
- Area 4 (Area with the skull):
- There are 2 vertical formations of walls in the middle. Assuming that you started on the lowest left platform (technically Area 3's platform), walk underneath the left most formation. Perform a low power right-ward jump to land on the right platform (Area 3 platform).
- Move the captain so that they are halfway off of the right most formation. Perform a full power left-ward jump. If done correctly, you will bound off the left formation and onto the platform with the tree.
- Move to the right until the captain is three-quarter of the way off the right most edge. Perform a low power jump left-ward. You should be in the lower most gap of the left formation.
- Move the captain until they are halfway off the right most edge. Perform a full power jump right-ward. If done correctly, you will bounce off the right formation and land on the top most of the left formation.
- If you want to touch the skull, perform a low power jump onto the right formation. Move the captain until they are half way off the edge. Perform a full power jump left-ward. If done correctly, you'll know.
- If you don't want to touch the skull, perform a full power jump left-ward from the left formation. If done correctly, you'll bounce off the leftmost wall and land on the platform of Area 5
- Area 5:
- Move the captain right until they are at the edge. Perform a full power jump rightward. You should land on the upper right platform.
- After this, I couldn't get a solution.
- The snail wasn't useful - I did use the snail jump to go through the ceiling in Area 6, but nothing appeared to happen (I had the key at the time).
- Any full power jump from the right most platform in Area 5 would either cause the captain to sail over the left most platform in Area 6 or smack the underside of the middle platform and fall down to Area 3.
- Bouncing off of the right most wall did not help.
- The left most platform of Area 5 is not high enough to reach a platform in Area 6.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.