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A jam submission

TerrazoicView game page

Submitted by littler fish — 3 hours, 56 minutes before the deadline
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Play Terrazoic

Terrazoic's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Enjoyment#233.6003.600
Metroidvania#243.6673.667
Execution#273.6003.600
Overall#303.4503.450
Sensory#492.9332.933

Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Engine
Godot

Team/Developer
Jacob Fish & Jeremy Little

External assets
All assets are by us

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Comments

Submitted

I really like the combat, I think it would be fun to master and I like the possibilities with combos n shtuff. The platforming could have been better, it was harder for me to grasp. But there are some points that seem more challenging than others, it seemed like a long ways to travel to get to the velociraptor boss again and there were some parts I wasn't sure how to get to like releasing the big rock into the lava.. But I did enjoy what I got to a lot, nice work.

Submitted

Your dash attack teaching moment made me verbally exclaim, "Oh f*** yeah." (This is the only time something from the jam got that much of a rise from me, so I don't share this lightly.) While the graphics are simple, the setting is a fun choice for a game, the music is boppin, and I like what you've done from a gameplay standpoint.

To improve this, I would suggest focusing on how the game introduces challenges and mechanics. It's too much too fast. Give me more time to learn and familiarize myself with one mechanic across several sections designed to showcase its utility before giving me the next one. Then start mixing and matching once I'm comfortable with it to keep up the challenge and variety. The same applies to the enemies, albeit in a different way. You've got sections that have a boatload of the velociraptor guys, but they're all horizontal runner types, which makes the space feel messy and cramped as opposed to a fun, interesting challenge. Take a look at how Hollow Knight handles high enemy counts. They do this with variety, maybe throwing a runner type, a jumper type, and a bunch of floater/fliers to force you to move and attack in fascinating ways. (Granted, time is limited in a jam, so finding ways to make use of what you have in varied, intentional ways becomes the name of the game. In this context, a high count of fliers moving in semi-random patterns works a lot better to present a fair challenge than an army of horizontally moving baddies running at me in a straight line from both directions with no room to dodge.)

I wish I had more time to finish this as you've got some good stuff going here!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for such great feedback! To be honest, we had a few more enemy designs that were on the fence to be included (different fliers, jumpers, spitters, etc) but because of time we ended up going with a smaller amount of unique enemies. We'd love to achieve that balance that Hollow Knight reaches - where any combat situation could evolve into something chaotic and fun. In the future I think our game could include a bunch more diversity to interact with.

Your dash attack comment put such a smile on my face! I think we have a long way to go in figuring out the best way to teach players to engage, and it's so great to hear that what we did was effective.

If you get the time, it would be great if you tried out the rest of the game - we have a ton more content in the second half. Again, thank you so much for playing and commenting! Buckethead was such a cool submission and it really means a lot to us.

Submitted

Happy to share! Also, I'm glad you enjoyed BucketHead; the team worked tremendously hard on it.

Submitted

Been wanting to play this for a few days - finally got around to doing it. I like your setting the most out of all the games in this jam. Like everyone else, I like your movement the most too!

I think two things could've been done:

  1. Narrative - I know its a game jam and we don't bother much with stories in jams, but its such a core component of what makes a game a game, that imo it should be a part of any game. Something simple - some directive to get the player moving towards a goal. I personally feel like even in a game jam, some narrative is a non-negotiable. It could be something simple - "need food for my family", or "I must kill all dinosaurs" - but the fundamental function is to give the player some reason to explore. That's just my 2c.
  2. Level design - the playing space was elegantly designed from a mechanical standpoint, but visually they ended up feeling unmemorable. Unmemorable doesn't mean unfun. It was fun for sure. Unmemorable means that there were no rooms that stuck out as locations for me to recognise and remember. Having one memorable room per region helps players memorise the map and increases immersion. Think of rooms like that giant room of platforms in the forgotten crossroads in hollow knight. It's difficult to forget that room, and every player knows what's to the left of it and what's to the right of it. So some ways to do that are using the shape of the room (horizontal, vertical), use repetition (many many flowers, or many many of those round spiky things), use symmetry (what's on the left side could be on the right side), use some architectural component (maybe a gigantic archway or something) - basically anything that makes the room stand out.

These are minor nitpicks in what was overall a super fun experience. Well done!

Developer

Thank you so much for playing our game! This is really great feedback - we've been having a lot of discussions about Narrative recently, and we agree that it could be a lot stronger in this project.

The Hollow Knight example of level design is also such a good point. Our levels were made with our mechanics in mind like you said, but they could absolutely use more landmarks/visual difference to keep players engaged in the world. It would be a dream come true to create memorable rooms like the Crossroads vertical platform area. (I immediately knew what you were talking about, and what is around it!)

Hopefully you were able to see all that we had to offer! The Caves area that you start in can be a bit long, but afterwards we have a few different areas that are visually distinct, with some fun new mechanics to find. 

Submitted

Here are my feedbacks on the game :

Cons : 

- The game seems too punishing for nothing at some times, for example on the dash & attack tuto, there is peaks so if you fail by trying this ability you get one health removed. But i didn't managed to understand how to use it properly at begining so i had to restart 3 4 times this tutorial before being able to pass and it frustated me to be killed by a tutorial

- The Camera don't follow the player and is stuck at some rooms so you don't see clearly what come next and when you enter a room you get like directly hit by an enemy, this was really annoying sometimes

- The game seems to lack of risk reward system on the micro level design, there is rooms were i can get healing plant but to do so i have to pass and beat enemies but i have no interest to risk to lose health .. to get health ! Or maybe those plantrs were te the healing upgrade ? beceaus i saw you were mentioning them but i dind't find them or understand what are they 

- No clear sensation of progression, we do not discover new abilities we have them all from the start and I didn't find any health upgrade after 20 mn of gameplay so i feel like not rewarded for my exploration

- Maybe the Macro level design is not enough dirigist to clearly guide the player where he have to go, i was pretty lmost and i din't found any bosses in my 20 mn of gameplay, maybe i was to stuck won some rooms or i was bad at this game hahaha

Pros : 

- Clear and good tutorials to explain the abilities to the players

- The movement system of the character is the best one i have seen so far in the jam woah ! Really the game shine from it ! It is so smooth, we really get the velocity sensation of the jump and dash, it is so fun to move with this character

- The atmosphere of being n in the prehistory with dinosaurs is great, we feel it in the musics and the visuals we get directly the mood of it !

- Good overall feeedback to the players, we feel like the game is polished as a finished one 

- I wasn't really a big fan of the visual, but i have to say there was a lot of diversity and, layering decoration to give a sensation of depth, to say it works well !

- Good overall diversity in terms of pacing in the level designs, we have to switch between the different abilities we have pretty often and this bring diversity in the game, there was different enemies, obstacles, etc

- A MAP !!!

Anyway, for the cons part pleas take it professionaly and not personaly, it's my oppinion and also my experience differe from other as i didnt find any upgrade or bosses after 20 mn of gameplay so i felt frustated at the end, maybe this was only me and i was bad to your game haha
But despite that you have really something serious in you hand and really I think yoput work deserve a good place in this jam !
Congratulations for the work done, keep up the good work :D !


Developer(+1)

Comments like these make us so happy to see - this is full of incredible feedback. Almost wish the Cons were even longer, it's more for us to focus on in the future!

Our level design was meant to encourage exploration and give the player time to learn the mechanics, but it's true we could've made the environment a little clearer to navigate. There's actually a ton more content in our game, but it is really easy to get stuck in the starting area before you're able to see any more of the world. If you get the time, we'd love to know you gave it another shot!

Thank you so much for the comment!

Submitted

Really cool game! My game session was unfortunately interrupted by the family after dying to the big dino, lmk if I missed anything super vital to the game experience as a whole, though what I have seen so far is pretty good.

Gameplay! Your player movement is easily the best out of the jam, it's exhilarating to zoom through rooms and dash attack through enemies in a similar speed to a fighting game character. I didn't like the combat aspect of it so much, it felt kind of inconsistent when enemies hit you and when they don't, but it's fine, your movement makes up for it.

I think your weakest area in this was graphics, the mixed pixel sizes and partially weirdly scaled assets look out of place. Your audio is great though! Sound effects are super fitting, music is a tad repetetive but it sounds great.

Good job on making this, you can definitely steal some aspects of this movement for later games!

Developer(+1)

Wow! Thank you so much for playing and recording. It's such a treat to be able to see people play our game. And thank you for the feedback! We're really proud of what we were able to get together, and agree there are some aspects we could use some work polishing up.

If you get the time, there's a lot more world to discover after beating the big dino. We have 3 other visually distinct areas to explore, with more special upgrades to find.

Again thank you so much. It means the world to see someone play the game. And we were big fans of Permawilt too - the planting mechanic was genius!

Submitted

The movement and attacks are definitely the highlight of the game for me! Unfortunately it was crashing for me on the browser version occasionally but it was still a fun experience. Similarly to Joseph it reminded me of the smash moveset with the different types of attacks. It made the combat very entertaining! Great job

Developer

Thanks so much for coming back to it! Your game was a favorite for us and super entertaining as well.

Where did you experience the crash on the browser? We know about a problem with doors in the Windows build, but thought it was taken care of in the browser.

Submitted

Hello,

I have had a blast playing your game! The thing I appreciate the most is the moveset. It reminds me Super Smash Bros, with the grounded tilts and directional aerial attacks. So refreshing to see. It is well implemented and I have been using them a lot.

I loved the moment when dropping the rock on the mosquito and some other clever moments in level design, with horizontal and vertical spikes and flowers launching those balls. Also, the map image in the Pause Menu and the pixels with different sizes just have great charisma.

A couple of moments, mostly at the beginning, the jumps and wall jumps felt a bit clunky, but nothing to pull me off the great experience. 

Congratulations!

Cheers

PS: don't hesitate to try and finish our game :)

Developer

We were inspired by Smash to create a lot of the movements, so that's really great to hear! Thanks for the good feedback.

And PS: We'll be playing through Meteora again for sure :)

Submitted

Really liked the movement and the little puzzles. The dinosaur mount was fun to ride, I was just somewhat confused when I got to the place where you get it from the wrong side without beating the boss and the dinosaur was not there. Maybe have a rock wall there that you couldn't pass without the dinosaur? Gotta say that the graphics were quite uneven due to there being different sizes of pixels, they really should be the same size. The challenge was overall just right for me, got a time of 1929!

Developer

Oh wow, we missed that dinosaur problem in development. Good idea with the rock wall - we could've used another pass to catch stuff like that.

Incredible that you played it through to the end! That's really great to hear - nice job on the 1929!

Developer

Hi all, thank you so much for playing. There is a known bug in the windows build that seems to be crashing the game. Please play in Browser. Thank you thank you <3

Submitted

Surviving the ancient time is surely hard :D
I really liked the concept and boss fights. And mosquitos, they were especially awesome

Developer

Thanks so much for playing! We were really excited to put giant mosquitos in it lol

Here's a recording of my feedback and play

Developer

Thank you so much for doing this! We really wish the Windows build wouldn't have crashed like that - there's a ton more to the game we would've loved for you to see! The fact that you stuck around and gave the browser version the time that you did is miraculous - thank you thank you.

In the future we're hoping to get a grasp on a more cohesive art style.  Your feedback about the level design was something we had thought a lot about - how much space to give the player to explore right off the bat. We wanted to make sure to give the player space to move and learn how everything works. Thankfully you were able to make it to the first boss in your playthrough, which we were proud to be able to include. And on the dark room note - you do actually discover fire later in the game, allowing you to traverse dark areas easier (as well as a bow & arrow). If you feel so inspired as to revisit we would love to hear your thoughts on the rest of the game.

Again thank you so much for working through the crashes. It means the world to see someone play this.

No problem! Yeah, I could tell the beginning area was about giving the player ample time/room to learn the controls and movement. I definitely think keeping that type of area linear is more beneficial than having different paths. This is one of the games I've put down on the play again list after the jam is over. The player mechanics were so much fun!

Submitted

Great game! It's so fun doing this whole dinosaur adventure. Dropping the huge rock was a really fun moment! There were a lot of parts I struggled with but I persevered and I think I've done almost everything, but I'm not sure when it's over. I'm not sure how to get to the area you have in the lower left screen shot of you pogo-ing over the lava (which looks really hard!) I beat both bosses, got the fire and the bow and arrow, but I'm not really sure which direction I should go. Oh man, the ice level took me so long, I've never been happier to see a save point TTvTT

Developer(+1)

What an absolute compliment! It's great to hear that you were able to get through just about everything. We tried to add a lot of fun stuff to do, but admittedly some of it is pretty well hidden. There are some secrets to find if you're able to get back into the starting Caves area again (including a secret route with a hidden ability).

We should have made it easier to find the ending! After you finish getting fire/getting the bow, there is a route that becomes passable from the Jungle highway levels to go further downward. On the right side, there is an ice cube that can be melted, and on the left there is a switch that can toggle a gate with your bow. If you take one of these doors further down on the map, you can find that Lava Pogo puzzle and the final area of the demo.

Congrats on your game as well! We were really inspired by your art style and fantastic use of the camera.

Submitted

Aha! ok I was a little too hasty riding around on my dino friend yesterday... It was fine finding the other areas :)

The pogo area is really tough, it's hard to get a good feel for the momentum, but I'll get there eventually I think haha  

Submitted

this is super good, only complaint are mixels and also the speed of the wallslide, feels a little to slow and made the movement feel kinda clunky, but thats about it awsome game!!

Developer

First off, mixels. Thank you for altering our vocabulary forever! We weren't aware of that term haha. We definitely have a long way to go in terms of visual fidelity, and knowing what it all means. Thanks so much for playing!

Submitted

Really fun game. The movement is smooth. The visuals are a little bit confusing sometimes, but overall, it's still very good.

Developer

Thank you so much! We focused a lot of attention on the detail of the movement. Your game stood out as having tight movement control as well! Congrats to you!

Submitted

I like it! I love the puzzles, and the dinosaur riding mechanic! The atmosphere and exploration is nice too. The tiny raptors kinda scared me when they flew towards me, I wasn't expecting that lol

Developer

Yeah the raptors scared us when they started moving that way too haha. We really liked the atmosphere of your game as well - congrats on a great project!

Submitted

This is nice so far! The movement and variety of attacks is really interesting but takes a second to get the hang off. Ill be sure to play this through and come back to rate it when I'm done. Im also vibing with the music!

Developer

Hey thanks for checking it out! We tried making the combat bouncy in an interesting way, and the variety of moves hopefully encourages that kind of movement. Playing your game, it seems like you were after something similar, and you were absolutely successful!