Well done! That's a pretty interesting and challenging metroidvania!

The controls are (as expected) part of the challenge, though I've only tried keyboard and mouse so far. I might give it a shot with a gamepad to see if I can have a better control (I found doing multiple suck in-shoot cycles with jellies to jump over a big gap quite challenging with the mouse, especially since the shoot angle moves at 45° and this can change while I'm jumping if I don't move my mouse properly).

Kudos on all the artistic aspects, it's a pretty good job for a solo game! And it's nice to see everything is properly licensed :)

Gameplay: It took a bit to get used to the controls (but I know thats intentional). The level design was nice. It would have been better it the shooting rotated towards your mouse not just at certain rotations. Also it could be better to press and hold the mouse to shoot not click a bunch.

Graphics: The graphics were good. The art all fit with the color scheme.

Audio: The SFX were really good. The music was decent too.

Innovation: Pretty innovative gameplay. 

Theme: Metroidvania with no upgrades and an unusual control scheme.

Overall: Really nice game!!! 

Can you try (and review) my game?

I love this game! Great movement options and fascinating mechanics. xPhere’s description is spot-on: the upgrades are in your head, as you learn more and more.

A few minor issues:

• I couldn’t make it full-screen on Windows. That would be really good, so I can stop accidentally clicking on the window frame instead.
• Collision detection near walls is a bit dodgy, with my shots (or enemy shots) disappearing, and with spikes atop a wall hurting me when I’m on the side of the same wall.
• An autofire option would be fantastic. I get that fast-clicking is probably intended to be part of the challenge, but I found it really hard to do—and I don’t have any particular problems or disabilities. Someone with joint pain, say, would be unable to enjoy this fantastic game. That’s why I suggest making autofire an option, preserving the challenge for those who want it but making it accessible to others, too.

Wow, amazing entry! It felt like a metroidvania was running inside my head, with my brain leveling instead of the character. Haven't felt like that since The Witness. The level design is awesome, but the final levels... Oh, mamma. Can't lie here, I cheated a bit. One of the best games of the jam, for sure. Congrats!!

Hey this game was really well done! I had to get used to the controls at the beginning but it kept me hooked throughout the game! At some point I had to backtrack quite a bit though and the wall jump was sometimes rather annoying to get used to haha (same in my game though). Please find y video review below:

02:39 From the Core

I played From the Core, good stuff.

It was enjoyable to figure out how to use the apparently simple mechanics we start with at the beginning to learn how to do more and more with it. I actually wish there wasn't any hint, because it felt much better when I figured out a mechanic by myself rather than when it was explained to me.

My main criticism is toward the controls. I suppose it was made to feel like the old style metroid games (and maybe also to make sure the player can easily aim straight down when jumping?), but being able to only shoot in 8 directions was a bit annoying. It makes aiming extra hard in some situations, in the wrong way imo. The character movements felt heavy and slow, and the charge shot also felt pretty long.

I couldn't play with the controller because my mouse was conflicting with it, and it was hard to place the mouse relative to the character to aim correctly. Maybe use the mouse position relative to the center of the screen, that way when doing a long jump for example, we don't have to move the mouse along with the character.

I'm not a huge fan of the aesthetic, but I guess it's an homage and that will really be a personal preference :)

I definitely felt the sense of progression without power ups that you are talking about, so great job on that!

Really amazing experience! I’ve had a lot of fun going through the whole game, even in the most challenging part, for me it was the climbing with spikes helped by the jellyfishes part.

Good difficulty progression, very nice learning mechanics experience, having all the character’s skills available to explore at your own pace. I love the concept!

The climbing mechanic was a bit difficult to grasp at the beginning and even more combining it with the jumping since you have to press fire + jump. Just as a suggestion maybe using only the jump action would be enough, avoiding shooting the wall and possibly falling down.

This is a great submission! Well done!

PS: I’ve attached the proof that I reached the end (I did 5/5 and 5/5 as well) :)

Wow, this is really good!

I was unable finish it, I just couldn't work out exactly what to do in the room with the spike cubes and the jelly fish. I was trying to wall climb between them, but the spike hitboxes seemed to overlap the wall slightly, making it really hard.

The jelly fish climb before that was super fun, if frustrating to fall a few times!

I think you definitely nailed not having powerups too, the level design introduced the mechanics and the ways they could be used together in a way that made it feel like you were getting powerups, even though you had all the tools at the beginning, great work! 

Same thing that in other comments, sfx are played only in left channel and the game crashed when trying to vacuum an already dead jellyfish

The game seems to be quite polished though ! The game really looks like an old metroidvania and the mechanics (both flying when shooting and vacuuming stuff) are really cool :D

I really liked the mechanics of pulling/shooting things, it was fun to use enemies as projectiles. For me the shooting/moving audio only played in the left channel which was a little annoying. The game also crashes every time at the big room with the platforms (where jellyfishes come floating from the left) Fun idea, would play more if it didn't crash!