Post by Dragon's Isle Software in Profondeurs jam comments

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Shortly after starting nearly everything faded to black, giving just a small glimpse of the dangers ahead. Without that initial glimpse, I'd have had no clue what was there to deal with and likely would have stopped sooner out of frustration. After that, only a very tiny area around the character was visible. I lost a bunch, until I started to tap the right arrow to move very slowly forward, looking for an edge or the start of spikes, and jumping over them. Eventually I got to a ledge beyond the area I had glimpsed. I jumped and hit a wall. I tried to jump off it, but did not see anything to land on, and instead started to fall. At this point I was going down, but could not see what was a safe path down, and what was an endless drop. I jumped, holding right, and kept tapping jump to climb any walls I found, though mostly ended up continuing downward. I used this method to get through to the point where I saw 2 large bubbles with text, one saying something about gaining an air jump, but I seem to have paid too much attention to it as I then fell down a hole and had to restart.

I'm not really a fan of the gameplay. The area of light around the character is far too small. It feels like you have to inch your way through slowly, and then rely on luck, and repeated tries, memorizing the dangers you can't see. If there is a way to enlarge the light, or other mechanic to get through other than what I did, then I missed it. Personally, I'd like a larger radius of light, even if it was an ability, or had limits, such as a power meter that you use up. Another option could be a flashlight that you can point around you (maybe with the mouse). It can still be short range, but enough to give the player some clue as to what is ahead.

The music is overall decent for the game, except for the part where it beeps like you are getting closer to danger. When you are in the dark, having something audible to warn you of danger like that could be useful, and with little visual to work with, sound becomes more important. I would use a different track without that approaching danger warning sound.

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Jack Mordred2 days ago (2 edits) (+1)

The dark cave without the torchlight is too dangerous so the player is supposed to try go left at the beginning when he understand that is too hard in the caves. If you die in the cave, it is killed by the spikes, you fall through the ground when you die. You will find a platform if you go to the left at the beginning then you will find the torchlight. I will try to add a clue if the player dies to often to help the player. You are really good to nearly access to the double jump without the torchlight. Too good for your own good, I guess :) . Thank you for playing the game and thank you for the feedback. I will remake the level design part one day, follow me on itch.io (there is a button for that) if you want to give an other shot. Or try to go to the left today if you want :)

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Dragon's Isle Software2 days ago

I pulled it back up to see what I had missed. I think the issue for me was the blue to the left of the ship looked like a wall/barrier. I should have thought to check that way, but got too focused on the darkness being the challenge. I would definitely add something to indicate to players to head that way. I'd also suggest altering the area to the left of the ship to not be a straight line going up, so it looks less like a stopping point, and more inviting of exploration. The text to the right also draws the eye and encourages players to move that way to learn how to play, reducing the likelihood of looking left.

I got the light and redid the area. I think that the light is positioned a bit high when pointing to the side. I'd drop it down closer to chest level instead of around head level. I found that i was still largely using a similar strategy of inching forward, but with an added step of pointing the light down. In some ways it made the spikes a bit harder. You could see them ahead at a distance, but as you got closer, it was harder to judge when you were near the start for timing the jump due to the bright spot being above the spike and making the darker area right in front of your feet harder to see. Similarly, looking down the edge was harder to see, but the light did let me know when there was a ledge below. It might not hurt to widen the narrow part of the light a bit as well, though I think just lowering it so you can better see what is right in front of you would be the most helpful.

The greys can work to give the feel of the environment, though then the colored slopes feel a bit odd. However, I did like the contrast of the colors, as they made the ground easier to see. Personally, I'd like to see the top layer of all the ground tiles having a bit more color to help them stand out.

I kept playing and reached the end. I got multiple boot, suit, and torch upgrades. The first suit upgrade was really the most valuable for vision. That made everything so much nicer. Getting everything actually made the upper areas harder as it was too bright. Is there a way to turn off the lights? I don't recall seeing it, though I'm a bit tired and may have missed it. You may want to just turn the light off automatically once the player reaches the surface, or even fade it as they get to brighter areas. Another thing to consider is experimenting with the various options and mixing modes for lights. Some settings work better to not over-brighten already bright areas.

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