Fun. I felt the game was already good overall such as weapon-based actions, unique boss, good player controls and good sounds.
If I suggest improvements, I want to use more actions early on, and I want to warp the map.
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YesterSol's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #1 | 4.231 | 4.231 |
| Fun | #1 | 4.154 | 4.154 |
| Polish | #1 | 4.308 | 4.308 |
| Overall | #2 | 3.962 | 3.962 |
| Graphics | #5 | 3.923 | 3.923 |
| Progress | #5 | 3.769 | 3.769 |
| Innovation | #15 | 3.385 | 3.385 |
Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
pre-jam devlog (optional)
I have been working on this minimalistic metroidvania for 2 years.
Post-Jam Devlog | Post-Mortem (optional)
I'm trying to build out the world, and when parts and paths get finalized I add story elements. I would love any playtests and suggestions, especially if you're a metroidvania fan! I've fixed a lot of bugs, but I'm sure there are more hidden, so any playtesting is greatly appreciated!
Comments
This game is Neat ;)
- It feels very fleshed out with lots of content; your 2 years of work definitely shows in the game
- Beautiful graphics with soothing color schemes
- Fun bosses with interesting mechanics
- Interesting world that makes me want to keep exploring
- The difficulty feels good (coming from someone who doesn't play metroidvania's mind you)
A couple humble suggestions:
- Remappable buttons (I used an Xbox controller and it felt unconventional to press Y for interact and B for melee)
- Ability to re-initiate dialog (in case you forgot what the NPC said)
- The beetle is a cool enemy; it would add a little interest if it could only be damaged from the rear since its face looks pretty tough and armored
- The graphics are beautiful; I understand the aesthetic you're going for, but perhaps adding more contrast to a small number of elements may help it pop out in the screenshots (this is assuming you're going for a commercial release)
- A quality of life feature would be to have the interaction button hints match your current control scheme (when I play with gamepad the hints are for the keyboard keys). I saw a tutorial on this the other day:
Submitted
FoodgitivesThis game is very polished, the mechanic is cool and everything works perfectly. I would not call it "pre-alpha" :)
It is not my genre (I never played another metriodvania - had to look it up on wikipedia) so it is hard for me to give you any advice. There are no obvious shortcomings ...
What I liked most where the boss fights - figuring out the mechanic and then applying the "win"-strategy was engaging.
Unfortunately I'm on a Mac, so I'm not able to do the Windows download. But I just wanted to comment to say that I remember seeing posts about your game on Reddit a while back, so the mechanic was definitely interesting enough to me that I remember it after all this time! Looks like an interesting and fun concept!
Submitted
Apocalyptic BurritoUnfortunately I can't seem to open the Mac version. I've only ever done Web builds, so I'm not sure what the problem might be. I found some steps online saying to run "chmod +x" on the application, and that changed the error from "The application 'YesterSol Free Pre-Alpha MAC firstTry' can't be opened" to a new error that says "'YesterSol' cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer. macOS cannot verify that this app is free from malware"
No worries though - I know publishing for Mac is a big headache
Honestly, your game is good. I think the biggest issue you're going to face as far as a commercial release goes is that even if your game is good, the competition in the platformer/metroidvania genre is the highest bar possible.
That being said, I do think you've cooked up something quite nice here. The actual mechanics feel really good and exploring is fun. The enemy designs were interesting too. If there was anything I had to say was wrong with it, it'd have to be the protagonist not really looking interesting. I didn't play very far (I killed the spitting beetle boss guy and got acorn mode) but I hope there's unique biomes later in the game too.
See it through to the end! Good luck!
Submitted
Virus Busters!Thanks for playing! Yeah metroidvanias are a niche genre, that always gets new ones haha. I did a bunch of research and most metroidvanias, if they reach the genre standards and are decently good, make 20k to 100k just because metroidvania fans like to try a bunch of them. Only the top 5% make more. I have a list of 5 metroidvanias by solo devs and I'm trying to match their scope/size/ratings and they all made over 50K :D (which is my goal heh) I have a day job, so just trying to make some extra money from a hobby, but it would be nice to make more!
I was just about to ask you how much time you spent on it and 2 years is crazy! It's an amazing game very smooth. Amazing gameplay and the dialogue system too. Did you use any libraries to help you speed up development?
Submitted
Clean Master
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