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Michael Grieshofer2 years ago (3 edits) (+1)

I think there are some real design issues here. The game claims to be a puzzle game but the puzzles in it never made me think about how to beat them. The challenge in this game comes from figuring out how much energy something needs and then doing a somewhat tricky jump in most cases. A puzzle game should be about figuring out the solution to a problem and not exectuting it.
As a platformer I don't think it holds up because the movement is way too quick. All the levels are on one screen and there just is no reason to have the character move so fast. Also if you hold the jump button down, you keep jumping. I think that's an odd choice for a game like this. 

When it comes to art, like may people here said already, the game looks gorgeous. The background is amazing and the character sprite is also great. I just think the progress bars on the objects could have used some better artwork as well.

I tried to play the bonus levels but in the first one I wanted to see if you could get stuck in the wall and well... yes. So I was kinda softlocked.

But inspite of the problems I have listed this is a great entry to the jam. The theme is well integrated and the setting overall is interesting. 

I hope this feedback was somewhat useful to you.


Edit:

I saw you could select the level in the menu so I tried the bonus levels and I take back what I said earlier about not having to think about the solution. How do you beat level 14 ?

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Norodix2 years ago(+1)

In level 8 you learn that you can jump higher by starting higher even when the steam is providing some updraft. You can use this in lvl14. It is intentionally a bonus level because it is a bit unfair and does not provide all the information necessary to execute it, only hints at it. (Look left)

I see many people say the controls were difficult and too fast, I didnt notice it for myself during development even though I played it a lot. Sadly there is no chance to playtest a lot during a jam.

Some of the tricky jumps become trivial if you figure out a good approach to them, I would consider that a puzzle in itself. To tell you the truth, I am not 100% satisfied with the puzzles either, most of the time I found them too trivial, but I also know that people wont spend so much time on a jam game to figure out very difficult puzzles.

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Michael Grieshofer2 years ago

I'm not critizising the difficulty of the jumps. Off course they get easier when you learn how to do them or get more used to the specifics of movement. The problem is that they are only one half of puzzle. The other half is figuring out how much energy you need. So the learning process is "is the energy level wrong or am I just not doing the jump correctly ?" 

The quality of a puzzle ultimatly comes down to it's mechanics and the ones you have in your game are just not that easy to work with. The steam only interacts with the player. The Lava only interacts with the Player.

Maybe you should have gone the systemic route. Let's say fire powers the cauldron and the steam can be used to let objects float in the air. Then let the player pick up the fireplaces and place them down. Lava is like a fire but stationary. Then add some sort of button that needs heat and you probably can see how this opens up many possibilities for intresting puzzles that don't envolve some trivial solution followed by a platforming section. 

This is just an example though and you could probably do a lot with the energy mechanic. 

Someone in the comments below posted a link to a video by mark brown were he talks about the importance to seperate puzzles from skill based platforming.


And yes. A lot of people will not finish your game when you make the puzzles too difficult. But what's the point then. If you want to make a game then you should make what you want to make in my opinion. Even if most people are not going to finish it.  My game is a precition platformer on a timer. It's stupidly hard and super stressfull. But I put all my effort in making it the best version of that particular idea. And for the people who want to get invested in your game , they will find something worthwhile hopefully. 

That's just my opinion on that question though. 


And the hint you gave for the level kinda confuses me.  Am I supposed to go over the the top of the level ? because I tried that and I thought there was a ceiling there. But I could be wrong.

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Norodix2 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

There are parts with no ceiling that you can reach by starting your jump from the right side of the steam. Like in level 8.

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Norodix2 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

Regarding the gmtk video, I saw it a few days ago, and it was one of the few videos where I tought he got it 100% wrong. I think mixing genres like that is great. I know not everyone likes games like that, but I dont think you should not make a game because not everyone will like it. Mixing genres is fun but narrows your audience to people who like both genres. Im ok with that.

Systemic game is a great idea and would work really well with this games mechanics, but im glad I didnt choose it given how much time I had in the jam.

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