Strange game design choice. Basically, if you interpret the lies correctly and you choose the correct path, you remove platforming from the platformer. So at that point it becomes a press D simulator, with the occasional press Space moment.
However, if you choose the platforming instead, then you get a fairly difficult game, made more difficult by the fact that the jump is really high, and cannot be modulated. Further, if you take two hits of damage, you die. What happens when you die? Start over. I quit the first time I died. I wasn't going to subject myself to replaying the same 8 forks in the road again. I think it would have been a much better decision to put a checkpoint before each fork.
The theme is explored somewhat, but in the end of the day it's not the game lying, it's Navi.
The aesthetics are odd. There are some blurry repeated textures (like the brown ground texture), some sharp drawings, like the main character, a blurry pfx, like Navi, and a stylised background. The obstacles are very narrow, and the spikes are dark in colour, so they are somewhat hard to distinguish from the walkable areas. Character animations are peculiar as well. She will walk while jumping, for instance.
I thought the piano notes, like C3 when jumping, C2 when landing, and another note I can't remember when taking damage was interesting. A bit obnoxious if the player jumps in corridors, but that's their decision.
An alright entry, damaged from my perspective by the full restart on death.
Viewing post in Foxy Tales jam comments
Thanks for playing and that's a really good analysis.
I agree to the following points:
- You're right that it would be better to modulate the jump high with the jump button itself, instead of pressing S or arrow down to fall faster.
- The jump animation of the character is indeed one frame of the walking animation. You have a good eye for that. We decided it to spare a bit of time for other things.
- The big ground texture is definitely something we have to change.
- You can also be very lucky and avoid a lot of platforming. That's definitely true.
- And yes the piano sounds from jumping/landing can be annoying over time.
But I disagree in the following:
- If you know the end of the game, you will understand why we didn't created checkpoints. It's also some kind of roguelike feature. The game is short enough to finish it in one run.
- This in mind, the game is not only lying through the Navi "Wisp". This is only the smaller lie. The bigger one comes at the end.
- Some spikes are more visible than other, but that's intentional to punish careless players. It is, because the spikes are enlighten by a 3D directional light and the platforms cast shadows on it.
So a big thank you for this awesome crticism.