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(4 edits)

Aaawww that's a cool one, despite the short living.

The robot is adorable, I love it's silly R.O.B face and hands!  And the way it ledge grabs by having no animation at all is actually very amusing and fits it so perfectly x)

I also love the tutorial drawings. My "lame critical thinking side" tells me they look the way they do because you didn't have time to do proper tutorials, but I fricking love them, it's so silly but so cute xD

Also, props for having keybinding options! I will always encourage devs on implementing those,  a lot of people overlook that just because "it's a jam, I won't have time for this!" when in reality I really do believe that's a crucial thing to have in any game.


I like the platform zapping mechanic, but I will admit, I was extremelly confused about them. I didn't understand why everyone of the always-lit platforms just did a tiny nudge upwards instead of taking me somewhere like the bigger zap-timed ones, so I actually thought my game was glitched, it was only after I came to the comments to see if anyone else had this problem that I realized they were supposed to be springs. After that I went back to it, and you be sure I had  a blast! That's an amazing mechanic and it's super fun to play with it! Wich is very sad how little indication you actually have that that's how they're suppposed to work....

There are quite a few ways to fix that:

1 - Make the place you get the zapping a deep hole with one of those down there, so the only way to get out is by using it's impulse. This would make it way more intuitive that this is how physics works here, since instead on the actual game we only interact with those platforms out in the open where it's not really clear the way to go is upwards. (In fact, everywhere those platforms show up it actually looks like the path to progress is very horizontal, and since the zap-timed plats do help you travel more horizontally instead of vertically, that adds to the confusion)

2 - Tweak the animation a little bit. Right now all the platform does is just... gently nudge  you upwards. It doesn't feel like something that can launch you away. Make it agressive! That platform doesn't want you to stay on it! It wants you very far away into space!! Bonus points if you make it actually nudge a tiny bit downwards before launching you up, since you know, that indicates momentum!

3 - Just make them look significantly more different than the zap-timed ones. Yeah that one is lame and easy, but hey it works! xD
 

Ideally, the solution is actually all three of the above, but I still wanted to mention them out in topics like that because it felt fitting x3


And I think that's kinda it, there's not a lot to comment on here other than that issue in specific, but still, that was simple but sweet. Thanks for sharing it with the class <3


(Btw, why didn't you call it "Biomimetics" here on the game page? An actual title is way more inviting than just a... ID tag... Plus the name is very cool)


(edit: I just noticed one of the gifs on the page actually  shows you using  the platofrms properly. oopsie! But still, you should never let your players rely on stuff outside of the game itself)

(+1)

Thanks for playing and going back again, I really appreciate it! You might have seen other comments on how explanations are my weakest point. I think my games are generally very low in terms of code-bugs/unintended jank, but have a lot more design-bugs than I’d like which end up feeling like jank anyways. Regarding your points:

1- I meant to do that, sink in the portion after you jump into cave so the trolley is the only way out but just forgot with all the other last minutes fixes.

2- Total agreement, I wanted to make a big air whoosh/speedlines effect for the platform thrust, as well as some speed lines trailing the character but ran out of time. Doing a coil anim would have been really quick, wish I would of that 6 days ago.

3- Again, you’re right! To go along with the thruster vfx above, I wanted to make a thruster but thought how lame it would be without the vfx but it still would have signaled the uniqueness. Been mulling around some other ideas since uploads got locked so hopefully I a)update it at all and b) things look clearer.

RE the name, I didn’t have a name till I uploaded it, then forgot to update the page (which I just did). My brain is pretty mushy at the end of a jam and I never have cover art or screenshots ready, trying to get them up within the first few days. I’m not saying this is a good process, just what happens. Again, I completely agree, the instructions/gifs on the game page shouldn’t be relied on but it’s the only option with locked uploads so I figured I’d put them up just in case.

Thanks again for the detailed feedback! (I wonder if you might be interesting in possibly playtesting for a future jam? I assume you’re a busy person but figured I’d mention it just in case, this was very very helpful!)

I'm always down for playtesting jam games whenever I have the time to, specially if it's MvM <3

Just hit me up on the mvm Discord! I'm fairly aactive there, I'm the one person with a japanese nickname x) (Pielloww)