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A jam submission

Metroidvania Month 16 entry test (arachnophobia warning)View game page

Submitted by 514 — 9 days, 17 hours before the deadline
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Metroidvania Month 16 entry test (arachnophobia warning)'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Design#342.6922.692
Overall#532.1732.173
Enjoyment#571.9231.923
Presentation#582.2312.231
Metroidvania#591.8461.846

Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Engine
Unity

Team/Developer
514

External assets
All pixelart done by me. Not a programmer so I owe most of the solutions to online tutorials.

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Comments

Submitted

the art was nice... the premise was interesting, I think the game itself needs a little more work (but then don't all of our Jam entries). It wasn't always clear what was happening (ie was I doing  any damage to the spider was it doing any damage to me), but, it's a really nice start especially for a first project "That's the first project I feel like I could call somewhat acceptable at least in its prototype phase".

It's obvious you have some great ideas and a lot of artistic and game design talent that with more honing will make some really kick ass gams!

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for all the kind words! <3
I'll make sure to consider clarity in the future attempts!
Cheers :)

Submitted

I liked the art, but there were a lot of things that stuck out and made it hard to keep my attention. Since you're new to programming, I recommend you keep practicing and learning. With experience in pixel art, I can see you making some solid jam games in the future.

Some things to keep in mind for the future

  • Feedback to the player - A player wants to know if they're doing something successfully (or unsuccessfully). If I'm attacking something, I want to know that my hits are confirming or if I'm being hit for example. Not only is it helpful to the player, but it can be satisfying as well. So in this case, sound and visual effect really come into play here. I'd argue that, for game jams, having that is more important than having music.
  • Camera placement - in any kind of platformer, you want to make sure the player can see enough around them so they can assess where obstacles/platforms/enemies are at. Player's don't like making "leaps of faith" because they can't see anything below them that they have to drop/jump to.
  • Guiding the player - You want to make sure that the player doesn't spend time trying to figure out your basic mechanics. If you have something that isn't immediately clear, you need to convey the information in some kind of way. Like when you get an unlock, it's nice to have something that tells you what you unlocked, what it's main function is, and maybe a little hint at what it could also do that may be part of a puzzle down the road. In your game, I had no clue what was going on with the attack/jump. If i was in water, I shot projectiles, but out of water, I could jump. However, I had no idea how that mechanic was going to be used.

These are just a couple pieces of advice that immediately come to mind. If you keep this kind of feedback in mind, you'll get better at this. Congrats on submitting, though! I hope you keep working on developing your skills!

Developer

Hey, thank you so much for all the advices!

That is indeed my plan to practice and learn - that aside from trying something new and having fun with it was my main reason for joining the jam :) I absolutely agree with your opinion on putting sound effects above music and I'll keep in mind all the points you've made.

Once again, thank you for the feedback and I wish you a lot of motivation and energy for new projects!

Submitted

the animation of the main character was very good

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted

This was cool, good job on the art. I played as much as I could but it just wasn't engaging or really fun. I'm a stickler for sound and there was none, so it kinda hurt my overall enjoyment. Still, good job getting something playable and submitting it, that's a lot for game jams. Don't give up! I bet this could be killer if you finish it and get some sounds in there.

Developer

Thank you so much for the feedback!
I suppose I should find the courage to look for some sound artists to team up with in the future. I didn't want to take anyone's time for a little test project like this and I sure am happy I just managed to submit it. Like you said it's a lot for a game jams but means even more for me personally!
Best regards and I wish you a nice day :)

Submitted

Cool work you have all the basic thing for platformer game, try to view some tutorial to make a better physics. Cool to have a boss for the end of the game.

Developer

Oh I wouldn't make a single move in programming if it wasn't for all the great tutorials online :) I only hope to do stuff a bit better on every attempt and maybe one day - after even more tutorials - my physics might be just right.
Thank you for your time and the feedback!

Submitted (1 edit)

That is some *beautiful* sprite work in your art, especially for a beginner. Unfortunately I couldn't play the game (web version)--I clicked "run game" and none of the inputs worked, so I can't rate gameplay. 

Played the game, and I like the swapping-powerups idea, but it had the effect of making the non-powered character movement feel sluggish and 'not fun', which made me not want to use the poison powerup that much. 

Might I offer some pixel art advice? Use a consistent scale--make sure the sprites, background, and any other objects use the same pixel count per tile. It'll make your art look even better, first of all, and will also be more authentic. Shading is also important, as is learning what objects look like IRL to be able to better duplicate them digitally.

Developer

Hi, thank you for the feedback! Glad the game worked in the end.

I'll keep in mind not to overdo slows in the future.
Thank you for the art tip! I'll remember that next time I do higher resolution sprites for the background or maybe just practice pixel backgrounds alone. I really should do it at some point in the future and advices like this will keep me motivated for it.

Cheers and thank you for your time!

Submitted

It's such an interesting game ! I'm in love with the main mechanic. I'm not sure how I managed to beat the spider boss but it was a nice experience overall. The camera is a little bit too zoomed in. That makes the game claustrophobic but it's kind of a good thing I think.

Developer

Thank you so much for checking it out and feedback!

Good job on beating him! (he takes 3 hits from his own poison before he's washed off the screen)

To be honest, the camera zoom was a happy little accident while trying to find the right distance to show the player at - but you found the perfect word for why I felt like leaving it this way in the end. "Claustrophobic" zoom sure does go well with spiders in spooky places. 

Thank you for this precise wording, I really appreciate it and I'm just so happy to read you enjoyed it :) Cheers!