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A jam submission

Crow StoryView game page

A subtractive 3D platformer
Submitted by log64 (@vpromdev) — 8 hours, 34 minutes before the deadline
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Crow Story's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
MUSIC#353.9553.955
OVERALL#574.0004.000
DESIGN#703.8643.864
VISUALS#844.1364.136
SOUNDS#993.5453.545
INNOVATION#2793.1823.182
THEME#3693.0913.091

Ranked from 22 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Viewing comments 21 to 2 of 21 · Next page · Last page
(+1)

This was a challenging game! I’m not so good at platforming so the controls and mechanics took some time to get used to. I had a hard time with the wall jumps but I think every part of the game is pretty cohesive. The design is beautiful and I love the music, I can definitely see where you got your inspiration from! I love bird...

I think someone said this already but adding little pop ups or a sound for when checkpoints appear would help a lot because there were times I was afraid of failing but then realized that there was a checkpoint there after I fell lol. 

Submitted(+1)

beat my record
best game in the jam.

we need more levels.

Developer

Woah, that's pretty fast! Be on the lookout for the post-jam patch :)

P.S : I have some friends who were trying to speed run the game too, maybe I can set something up on the itch page!

Submitted

can you add the option to cap the fps im at 90% gpu usage and when im playing for a couple hours my room start being a bit hot

(1 edit)

i found a few strats to speed up the game significantly
(+1)

Really liked the game and the controls are solid. The level design is pretty loose though and it all feels a little too long to go without feeling rewarded. Small checkpoints with sound effects and visuals along the way or multiple levels could help with that.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! I will make an effort for levels to feel more cohesive in the future ^^

(+1)

The game was very intriguing, however I was having a bit of a struggle with the wall jumps. I enjoyed the music [and the bird sounds], as well as the game overall. The art style provided within this game is really nice; the character is adorable and its wings are absolutely gorgeous! The camera movement was a little confusing at first, but as soon as I understood how to play the game, I had a blast while playing.

Developer

Thanks for playing!

(+1)

The game actually took me a really long time bc of the wall jump, but I actually like the game a lot. It was challenging but I wanted to keep trying bc it was fun. I agree with the comments below about the part where the camera follows you on the spinning platforms, it makes those parts a little harder. The art style is really nice and I could see where you got your inspiration from. I appreciate how the music builds up the more you play but is also very nice and calm sounding. Btw the character is super cute!

Developer

Thank you for the play! I hope you find the wall jump and camera less annoying in the future ^^

(+1)

It was a really fun game!  I really enjoyed the intricacies and nuances of the game!

Developer

Thank you! What exactly do you mean?

Submitted(+1)

amazing game, just lacking on the theme part, i know you tried a minamalistic level design thing but the levels don't really seem minimalistic to me.

the camera was also a bit annoying.

but overall, good game

Developer

Thank you for the play! ^^

Submitted(+1)

A very polished game all in all, it was fun to play, the character design is nice and the visual feedback on when you can and can't double jump was helpful and intuitive.  Level design was pretty nice though there was a pretty big jump in difficulty just after the spinning platforms were introduced.  Some finer feedback though:

  • The fact you can wall jump was cool to see, though it seemed to have some issues triggering when in range of a wall.  Which lead to a decent amount of double jumping rather than wall jumping.  As well as the fact you can't dash into a wall and wall jump it seems, which made the dash significantly less useful for traversal, and lead to a decent amount of deaths when I tried to use a dash to recover.
  • The camera felt good most of the time, except for when on a spinning platform and a little bit weird when trying to wall jump.  I can't quite pin down why it felt weird when trying to wall jump, though I think it might be something to do with the angle and distance, I'm not sure.  As for the moving platform issue though --
  • When on the spinning platforms it seems the camera rotates with them which was a bit disorienting since you're attempting to keep the player in the general position you want, as well as trying to keep the camera oriented the same way or close.  So it become a bit of a juggling act just to be able to look the direction I wanted to go.  So maybe making the cameras rotation be separate from the platform slightly while on the them could help?
  • As for the general moving platforms though it felt like a lot of momentum was passed onto the player from them, which was sometimes good, and sometimes not so much.  There were quite a few times where a platform seemingly moved incredibly slow and slid to a stop, only to absolutely LAUNCH the player.  It's an interesting mechanic that seems like it has a bit too much power behind it depending, at least in my opinion.  So maybe lowering it down somewhere could help?  I'm unsure if it's a specific mechanic or just something built in that you could tweak?
  • The dash seemed to have most of it's utility removed due to the fact you couldn't combo it with wall jumps and it was relatively long and inaccurate it felt like.  That and the fact that right click caused you to dash, (this is more personal) lead to a lot of accidental deaths caused by it.  Adding it as a setting you can disable could help?  As well as shortening the dash possibly?

Overall this is one of the most polished platformers, let alone 3D games I've seen throughout the jam.  Plus the basic movement is interesting and with some tweaking leaves a lot of room for interesting puzzles and platforming challenges.  Definitely interested to see where this game goes if you take it farther.

Developer

Thank you for the play and feedback! On the point of the camera moving with rotating platforms, I did want to make it the camera's movement independent from the character but unfortunately did not have time to do so. Wall Jumping should be easier and I've addressed that in a post-jam patch, but will admit, did not occur to me during the week of making.

Thank you so much again for the CC! :)

Submitted(+1)

Wow... just wow. This is a very complete package of a 3d platformer. It's very polished, visually appealing, features great music, is fun and satisfying to play, and has a cute little narrative portrayed through no dialogue. Was the "less is more" in this game just its minimalist approach? Additionally, the checkpoint placement was really good throughout most of the game. There were only two cases where I felt like there could've been a check point, one of which, was the final sequence (the top of that ledge with the vertically spinning obstacle should've been a checkpoint).

That was amazing. Great job with making this. It's very impressive for being completed in only 7 days

Developer

Thank you for playing and enjoying! Yes, the theme was applied through its minimal design, but also through the fact that the second half of the game is just the same levels from the first, but with “less” geometry.

Submitted(+1)

Yeah, the second set of levels was really cool. It took me a bit to realize they were the same as the previous levels since they were changed so well.

Submitted(+1)

A fun experience that was bogged down by poor performance...

Theme:

I was not a 100% of the theme connection for this game, that doesn't mean it isn't there. I just didn't make the connection myself. Maybe a small description on the game page would help here!

Visuals:

The game did look truly gorgeous for a 1 week 3D platformer. There were plenty of pretty particle effects! I think this made the game take a hit on performance. I don't have a super high end machine, so the game ran very sluggish, which was a shame because it made it almost impossible to make any progress in the game. 

Innovation:

I think the game was fantastic, but innovation I had to consider average since it was platformer type game which is the go to type of game for jams. Again, this doesn't make it a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. 

Music/SoundFX:

The game sounded great overall! Calming music, logical soundFX that matched the game. Superb job here!

Overall:

This was an overall worthwhile experience even the massive slowdowns ruined the gameplay for me. I understand how hard it is to optimize a 3D game to make it run efficiently for not so great machines, so I don't dock any points for that. But if you have a decent machine, you should definitely give this one a shot!

Streamed here, starts at minute 13:

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thank you for such detailed feedback (and a video? *gasp*)! The theme was meant to be applied through minimal design and the fact levels are copies of each other with less geometry. I will admit I lost sight of the theme at some point though...

As for performance, I unfortunately did not have time to optimize or put in graphics settings, but all that is ready for a post-jam update so everyone can enjoy. :)

Thank you again for the comment!

Submitted

Ahh, that's why I didn't grasp the theme. That is a pretty cool idea! I wish I could have gotten a chance to play all the way through. The biggest issue I had was the performance. But then again I have what most people consider, a potato machine lol Either way I had fun, and I didn't dock points for the slow downs/performance, because I understand the difficulty of 3D optimizations.

Submitted(+1)

This game size is big, it took me a while to download but it worth the time.

Another good game here. Thanks for upload good game for us  ^^

Submitted(+1)

I absolutely adore this game. I would love this is made into a full game after the jam is over! I'd definitely buy it!

I like that it seems as though you've took inspiration from a bunch of different great platformers. The dive and subsequent bonk from Mario Odyssey, the setting of Journey, the momentum mechanics in Celeste (that could've been from a different game, but it reminded me most of Celeste), and the main character looks like Claire from A Short Hike!

Honestly I loved this game so much! Thanks for submitting it :D

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing! Yes you're right, I took my favorite parts from different games and combined them, but still tried to keep some originality as well :) There will be a post-jam update so look out!

Submitted(+1)

This game is phenomenal. You nailed everything. The game feel is fantastic. Somehow you made difficult courses with the world's smallest platforms without it being frustrating. Sound design is great. The abstract story telling was great. This is the first game of the jam I've played (I've played a little over 40) that I would without hesitation pay to buy a full version of day one.

Developer

Thank you again for the play and praise, it means a lot!

Submitted (1 edit) (+2)

OH MY GOD!! The bird Sings!!!! Hahhahahahah!!!! I am sharing this game with my friends!

It's criminal that more people haven't played it yet. I can't believe this game was made in 7 days. I love it so much. It's cute and a little mysterious. The music just takes you in and the mechanics were tight. OH MY GOD! the visuals were so good. I have to say I loved everything else except the wall jump. But, My game also has wall jump and I know how painful it is to even create a wall jump mechanic let alone making it good. I loved it more than I can describe in words honestly. Thanks for submitting such a cool game. You sir are a riot!

Please Play and Rate My game as well. I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

Developer

Ahhh thanks for all the kind words! I'll be sure to give your game a play! :)

Submitted(+1)

this is such a beautiful game (made in a short time as well) I really love  the atmosphere and the "design by subtraction" principle you carried through :)

Developer

Thank you for playing, and for noticing the subtractive design :)

(+1)

Awesome game. Movement feels great and I felt I could REALLY speed up my runs after getting used to the controls! Levels didn't seem too challenging, but the perfect difficulty to be fun yet challenging. My friend loves this game and he's a seasoned platformer! Looking forward to your future games! Good work!

Developer

Thank you for the praise! I'm glad you like the movement, I spent a majority of my prototyping on it :)

Submitted(+1)

This is a really cute platformer. And it seems like it has all the fun mechanics a solid 3D platformer has.

My only issue is I didn't get its relation with the theme.

Other than that, it is solid platformer. I especially liked that shooting stars that similar to the ones in Mario Galaxy.

Here is my rating. Keep up the good work!


Developer

Thank you for the rating! The connection to the theme was it's minimal design, focused solely on just platforming backdropped by simple music and narrative. You also return to your levels, but with less geometry, thereby making them more difficult. But you are also armed with developed skills and knowledge of the mechanics and levels.

Submitted(+1)

Really cute game!! And, for once, even tho it's done in unreal Engine the game dosen't lag super hard (my pc is sh*t, so almost all of unreal games are too heavy for my pc to handle sadly :/. But not this one fortunatelly)

I stopped at the room where you have to wall jump on the pillars to reach the jumpy boost thing because for me doing walljumps is basically impossible :/

Full 5 stars!! You deserve them!!

Developer

Thank you so much! I'm glad you got to experience my game ^^

Submitted(+1)

awesome game, want to lurn and speedrun it

Developer

I'd like to see that :) I think my personal best was around 20 min when play testing myself

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

I liked this game's atmosphere, very soothing. The platforming is fun but very difficult, i throw my hat at the zigzag floating wall on the second level. It would be nice to get control instruction at the start of the game, checking the game page in the middle of the game is a bit of hassle. 

Developer

Thanks for the feedback, I'll include that in a post-jam patch! I think my playtesters will agree with you that some parts of the game are rather difficult haha

Viewing comments 21 to 2 of 21 · Next page · Last page