Definitely a STRONG contender for top. Also I don’t know if it’s just me or what, but damn this game is BRUTAL past level 3. I managed to finish the whole thing in one sitting but it took me 2 hours, and honestly felt harder than Veni Vidi Vici XD
For mechanics, that’s kinda where most of my suggestions sit LOL. The FoV imo is a bit narrow, I personally would have preferred a wider FoV. The double jump mechanic felt awkward at times, as if you jump too close to the edge, one of the two jumps gets “eaten” per se. Some grace frames around the ledges would have made it a lot more consistent IMO.
I do wish that the beat indicator was synced to the beat of the music. That way I wouldn’t have to stare at both the beat indicator and the gameplay. For much of the game I had to focus entirely on the beat indicator (since I had no other way to tell when to click and when not to), which beyond the fact that it took away from my ability to enjoy the graphics, it also meant I had to assume where I was going and hope I was right (half the time, I wasn’t…). This became particularly annoying in the last level where i needed to stare at the indicator while also looking where I was clicking, to click on the sticky platforms. Perhaps this could be improved in a future update?
The last thing in terms of mechanics which I feel should be improved is the red square which slowly rises and eats the whole level. To me, it’s not very obvious what it’s doing, and up until the last level, I thought the game was bugged and that the level would randomly disappear after a while. Even after I realized what was going on, I found that the perspective made it almost impossible to gauge how much of the level is eaten and how much is left to go. I’d have replaced it with something like a red plane what sits at the bottom of the current floor (and perhaps consider keeping the bottom part of the level intact, only raising the plane), as that IMO would be a lot more friendly on the perspective.
The art in this game, for a 48 hour game is absolutely stellar. The laser things from the sky felt weird when you look up though, maybe some kind of cloud effect could help the top be a bit clearer though. The rest of the art was beyond 48 hour standards, though. I loved the subtle shift between a bluish hue and a reddish hue as time progressed.
The sound effect and music in this game are nice. The music got a little repetitive after a while, though that’s probably more due to the fact that I listened to it for 2 hours straight LOL. As mentioned before, I do wish that the beat indicator was synced to the beat of the music.
Overall, this is among my favourite games, if not my favourite game from this jam. Impressive graphics paired with solid controls and volcanic anger make for an extremely fun and distinct experience.