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A jam submission

RecoveryView game page

A metroidvania that takes place in the ancient ruins of a war-ravaged cicilization.
Submitted by Cardvark — 1 day, 9 hours before the deadline
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Recovery's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Metroidvania#93.6323.632
Design#113.4213.421
Overall#123.3553.355
Enjoyment#173.0003.000
Presentation#223.3683.368

Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Engine
Construct 2

Team/Developer
cardvark61

External assets
Every single graphic was from another source, except for the tiny little glint that appears at the end of the game.

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Comments

Submitted

This game looks great and the mechanics work well! I also enjoyed the little bits of lore dotted around, I think that narrative approach works really well in this genre.

A couple of feedback points to make things even better~

- Pretty easy fix I think. When fighting the boss before unlocking the claws, the first time after beating the boss I walked off the platform to the left and fell out of the map / had to reset

- The screen transition works well, but I wish it was a little faster so I didn't have to wait for the camera to catch up to my player

Overall though, excellent work, especially for 30 days!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for your suggestions! It's funny that you mentioned the issue with the boss, since I just noticed it recently and fixed it. I am also working on trying to smooth and speed up the camera.

Submitted (1 edit)

Good level design and mostly well done mechanics! The graphics were from elsewhere but they were good.

Some critical feedback:

-The view was all over the place - sometimes too close to the player, sometimes the player was too close to the edge of the screen and it twitched around constantly. Fixing this would already improve the game a lot.

-No sound sadly, just some music and a shooting sound effect would have had a big impact.

-Somewhat unclear environment and enemies - the breakable objects didn't look like they could be destroyed, some background objects looked like they were solid ones and the enemies didn't look like they were taking damage when shot. The save points are very unclear too, had to read other comments to realize there was a saving function.

I encountered three big robots, I was able to stop them but not destroy. After them there were some blocks, I was only able to destroy some of them so that's where my run ended. The design is so good I want to like this but the view makes this a chore to play, sadly.

Developer

Thanks for your comments! The camera is currently one of the things at the top of my list, along with SFX. I know about the glitch with the big robots, and I am also trying to fix it. As for the blocks that you couldn't destroy, that was intentional (I should have made it clearer). If you want to, you can explore some of the starting areas to see if you can access any new rooms, but there isn't much beyond that anyway. Thanks again!

Submitted

The Small things count screen shake effect hit knockback all them made the combat system cool.

and parallax and other bg element gave it a very cool presentation!

The player movement was a little glitchy and not easy to control and camera was zomming in and out that made my focus go wild, was not able to understand the map because of it

Good Luck! Hope you work on it after the JAM

Developer(+1)

Thanks for your comment! I will upload an improved version after the jam with various fixes, like slowing down the player.

Submitted

nice game, I liked the level design lots of fun.... I reached (so far) the point with 2 flying bosses, and they kill me so quickly (to be honest I struggled with just the one!) Might come back to it though I suspect just to get killed again over and over, loved the way the world opens up with each new power up, and destroying the brown walls was a nice touch (even if is not clear those walls should hurt them if you touch them otherwise).


I know you have used existing assets but you've done it nicely! Good job overall!

Developer(+1)

For the flying bosses, I recommend to, when you are beginning to get low on health, going back the way you came and saving. Alternatively, you can simply skip them (they are not required for progression) by wall-jumping up the right wall, and then jumping left at the top of the screen. After the jam, I also plan on adding optional upgrades in hidden areas, which will make things easier too. Thanks for your comment!

Submitted

I liked overall aesthetics of the game.

Shooting is fun, exploding mech effect and fire on it is cool, backgrounds are nice and atmospherics, locations are clearly distinguishable. Effect of acquiring powerup is nice.

I played through to the fly boss and didn't find where to go further.

The game lacks music and sounds, they can boost atmosphere even more. 

A small irritating bug I've noticed: character stucks on some edges where it seems unnecessary to jump, on screenshot I'm pressing right arrow button but not moving


Camera motion feels very jumpy. I can be shot from another screen or need to jump to nowhere because camera doesn't move. It's ok to keep camera still on each location but then location transitions should be rethought in some places. Also, it is unclear where is a chasm and where it is a safe fall. But it's forgiving because it doesn't take too much health.

Movement is a bit too fast to my taste, jumps feel a bit off, but it can be just me, so doesn't matter much. Moreover I get used to it fast, because platforming is easy here.

Text is a bit fast to disappear as for me, but I'm not native speaker, so I had to pass the place triggering text twice to fully read it.

It's sad to lost acquired abilities after death. I didn't notice checkpoints at first, but after first death recalled description on the game page where you explain checkpoints and after that looked for them more carefully. It would be greate to make checkpoints more obvious.

I also noticed invisible walls, kinda makes you fall of the game flow.

In general, I liked the idea and implementation, it just not finished, but very fun to play!

Developer

Thanks for your tips! I am working on positioning camera zones in better areas and fixing the breakable walls. 

After the fly boss, I recommend using grenades to break the walls on the far-right side of the arena.

Submitted (1 edit)

Oops, then sorry for the "it just not finished" comment, my fault. I didn't guess I can break wall.

Submitted

Firstly the movement is crunchy and responsive. and it only felt better with every upgrade.
However sometimes platforming would be required between rooms and the camera would only end up getting in the way there, since you'd hit the wall and the camera would then move abruptly throwing off your jump. I also felt like the camera was a little too close for the speed the character would move at. 
Awesome job, hope you continue with this one.

Developer

Thanks for telling me! I have already improved the camera and slowed down the player and will update the game after the jam. I will also work on rearranging the camera zones to make them less annoying. Thanks again.

Submitted

Woah, this is actually inspiring in its presentation. Even with no original graphics, you made it have a very distinct style with the camera work and the text layouts and the feedback/sfx when you get a new item... very impressive. I think the camera stuff could use some refinement, but you're definitely onto something. I really want to try experimenting with camera work myself now!

At the moment though it does seem to be a little unstable, with some camera jitter. Got a little motion sick, ngl lol. The powerups were pretty standard but I'd say they were solidly executed, wall jumping was satisfying especially I think.

Good stuff!

Developer(+1)

Thanks! I am currently working on smoothing out the camera and after the jam I will post the updated version.

Submitted

I love the actual interconnected design of your level, giving the true meaning of Metroidvania, and the fact you lose everything after death like RogueLike is like icing on the cake. Such a beautiful visual; it definitely has me imagining the sound that goes with it. Just one small piece of feedback, maybe either lessen the video shake a little or add a control where we increase or decrease the intensity of the video shake. 

Developer

Thanks! I have decreased the screen shake when the player is damaged, but I can add a control for all screen shake effects. Thanks for the suggestion!

Submitted

I really liked the aesthetic to this game. I thought the cinematic camera was really cool and the level design was well done. The game moves a bit quick for me on keyboard and I felt that the screen shakes were a bit too intense.  

Developer

Thanks for your comment! I will slow down the player a bit. When did the screen shakes occur?

Submitted

No problem, and sorry I should have been more specific, I was referring to when the player gets damaged.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for telling me. I have decreased the screen shake when hitting enemies.

Submitted

Very good level design and smooth character controls. I also loved the zoom in/out mechanic.

On the downside, apart from the camera issues, the character sometimes stays offscreen for a substantial amount of time. Also I sometimes got hurt just by touching a wall or something...

Finally, I think the game needs more metroidvania features. It felt a bit linear to me.

Other than that, very good work!

Developer

I do agree about the linear aspects. I wish that it had more backtracking and upgrade. I also plan on working to smooth out the camera some more. Was it a destructible wall that damaged you?

Submitted

I never destroyed any wall, so I wouldn't know... sorry, I wish I could be more helpful.

Submitted

Cool! Liked the mechanics and the graphics. A little bit glitchy but good job!

Developer(+1)

Thanks!

Submitted

Cool! Liked the mechanics and the graphics. A little bit glitchy but good job!