This is excellent design! Brings me back to the Tony Hawk Pro Skater days, when I was trying to pull off crazy tricks to find those collectibles. The gritty sci-fi aesthetic vibes perfectly with the gameplay direction. I feel a connection with classic anime like Cowboy Bebop and Megalo Box.
The character dialogue hints that there's something more beneath the clouds. I'm curious to know more. Why do they live so high in the sky? What do they use all this tech for? Why is the dog's medicine hanging out on the power lines?
The controls were intuitive and responsive. I even got a sense that I could swing out more by holding the back button even when facing up which is really thoughtful as I would have been the kind of player to get stuck under a roof with the zipline. I can imagine you could make some really creative levels with these mechanics to explore. Maybe even a series of entire maps. I love the direction on this one and I hope to see more in the future!
Viewing post in Solar Express: High Velocity Mail Delivery jam comments
Thank you so much for the thoughtful comment! We're super glad you enjoyed the game! As the member who really wanted to give lore and meaning to out world, it makes me super happy that you have such thoughtful questions! We actually had quite a few worldbuilding sessions during the jam and have answers to the majority of the questions you asked! That dialogue option was a nod to the full lore behind our project as we didn't quite have enough time to implement all of the lore and worldbuilding in the way we wanted to for this jam, but if you (or anyone else who stumbles upon this thread) wants to know more about the world we've created, I would be more than happy to answer anyone's questions here or on discord! (my user is the same as my itch user.)
I’m glad you were able to experience some of the hidden depth of the grappling/air movement! Most of it is relying on janky implementations of Source Engine style movement, so there’s definitely a lot of maneuvering you can do with the grapple once you get the hang of it
The Tony Hawk/Cowboy Bebop comparisons made my day! I grew up with those, so even if it wasn’t on purpose its neat to see my inspirations coming through <3 Thank you so much for the detailed notes!