A bite-sized puzzle platformer with some innovative mechanics, perfectly suited for Itch.
The difficulty curve is well-balanced and the later levels are challenging without being annoying. The controls and mechanics are simple but with a lot of depth and are utilized very well for the puzzles.
As others have said it is possible to beat some levels in seemingly unintended ways, though this personally doesn't bother me, if anything its a good example of emergent game-play which speaks to the quality of the basic mechanics. There is a certain satisfaction to feeling like I outsmarted the developer.
My only real complaints are that the tokens are too easily collectable, rather than being an extra challenge on top of completing the level they feel more like collectables that you just have to remember to pick up, I think having them be more difficult to reach than the level exit would allow for some extra challenge and replayability.
I also think that certain levels relied a little too much on precision platforming after asking the player to figure out where to place objects, these were the only levels I found to be frustrating as I felt I had to repeat a lot of easy gameplay just to take another go at a difficult jump.
A very neat new platformer where you need to throw a spear to climb walls and exit the level. The game crashed after a few minutes, which is why the recording was so short, but I was able to restart the game and play a few more levels without issues. The levels become more and more complex and it's quite fun! Give it a try, I recommend it!
The hazard of having so few testers on a puzzle game is there are bound to be alternate solutions that don't get caught. By the end of the game it felt like 50-50 odds that a level would be beatable without using all the pieces, even while getting the emblems... even 4-24 and 4-25 had easier solutions. Also the very frequent Custom([file_write,stderr]) crashes were a bother, though fortunately they never lost me any progress. But when it's working, it's working well. Good readable graphics and good commitment to a single moveset. I had fun 105%ing this.
Just beat World 3. Some feedback as to how the game could be improved:
- Increase the player's jump height ever so slightly. Some of the jumps in the later levels get annoyingly precise to the point of demanding literal pixel-perfect precision, which isn't particularly fun. A slight increase in the player's jump height would alleviate some of that.
- If a destructible wall hasn't been destroyed, have barrels respawn at their original location when they explode. This way, the player could try the shot again without having to reset the entire level.
- The above would also apply to the green things that let you shoot your spear onto metal walls, but I'm not sure how respawning them would work while ensuring they can't be abused.
Other than that, game's pretty fun. The music is a highlight for me. :)
Thanks for contributing Speer to the itch racial justice bundle way back in 2020! I've been slowly going down that rabbit hole and had a fun time with Speer.
Wow, you've got your work cut out for you! Thanks for the review, appreciate it. I agree that the resetting can be harsh, which is why in the improved [Speer DX] you can place checkpoints wherever you want. Seemed like the only fair option, really.
Despite some frustrating levels at the end, this game was overall very nice and cozy. The gameplay, graphics, and music all worked together really well. I found a decent amount of ways to cheat the levels, but that made it more fun!
woah nice page which means that this game looks cool. ill play this after i finish downloading the other interesting looking games in the ukraine bundle
Fun little game! The pacing is not as fast as expected, so it is likely harder than it may seem at first. The game suffers from fiddly mechanics and occasional pixel-perfect jumps, but the level design is very promising.
I did 100% completion (105% if you will :>) and it was a very enjoyable experience! Sure, it was frustrating at times, but the "Frustrated?" warnings imply I may not complain.
The puzzles were such a perfect balance of challenging yet doable. I absolutely adored the soundtrack; the graphics are cute and charming; the gameplay was very satisfying too. Sometimes the action button being bound to the spear button was a bit problematic but it didn't happen so often that it frustrated me, just hit reset and try again (edit: took me too long to realise you could remap these buttons ;_; ).
![[Speer]](https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzEzMTUzNTIucG5n/original/ie1ceE.png)
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Great little game. I got it as part of the BLM bundle years ago and never got around to playing it until now. Glad I did!
A bite-sized puzzle platformer with some innovative mechanics, perfectly suited for Itch.
The difficulty curve is well-balanced and the later levels are challenging without being annoying. The controls and mechanics are simple but with a lot of depth and are utilized very well for the puzzles.
As others have said it is possible to beat some levels in seemingly unintended ways, though this personally doesn't bother me, if anything its a good example of emergent game-play which speaks to the quality of the basic mechanics. There is a certain satisfaction to feeling like I outsmarted the developer.
My only real complaints are that the tokens are too easily collectable, rather than being an extra challenge on top of completing the level they feel more like collectables that you just have to remember to pick up, I think having them be more difficult to reach than the level exit would allow for some extra challenge and replayability.
I also think that certain levels relied a little too much on precision platforming after asking the player to figure out where to place objects, these were the only levels I found to be frustrating as I felt I had to repeat a lot of easy gameplay just to take another go at a difficult jump.
A very neat new platformer where you need to throw a spear to climb walls and exit the level. The game crashed after a few minutes, which is why the recording was so short, but I was able to restart the game and play a few more levels without issues. The levels become more and more complex and it's quite fun! Give it a try, I recommend it!
The hazard of having so few testers on a puzzle game is there are bound to be alternate solutions that don't get caught. By the end of the game it felt like 50-50 odds that a level would be beatable without using all the pieces, even while getting the emblems... even 4-24 and 4-25 had easier solutions. Also the very frequent Custom([file_write,stderr]) crashes were a bother, though fortunately they never lost me any progress. But when it's working, it's working well. Good readable graphics and good commitment to a single moveset. I had fun 105%ing this.
Just beat World 3. Some feedback as to how the game could be improved:
- Increase the player's jump height ever so slightly. Some of the jumps in the later levels get annoyingly precise to the point of demanding literal pixel-perfect precision, which isn't particularly fun. A slight increase in the player's jump height would alleviate some of that.
- If a destructible wall hasn't been destroyed, have barrels respawn at their original location when they explode. This way, the player could try the shot again without having to reset the entire level.
- The above would also apply to the green things that let you shoot your spear onto metal walls, but I'm not sure how respawning them would work while ensuring they can't be abused.
Other than that, game's pretty fun. The music is a highlight for me. :)
this game support MacOS 64 bit?
Thanks for contributing Speer to the itch racial justice bundle way back in 2020! I've been slowly going down that rabbit hole and had a fun time with Speer.
Posted a review on my website: https://knavegaming.com/speer-review/
Wow, you've got your work cut out for you! Thanks for the review, appreciate it. I agree that the resetting can be harsh, which is why in the improved [Speer DX] you can place checkpoints wherever you want. Seemed like the only fair option, really.
Good luck getting through the rest of the games!
Can you release Speer DX on itch?
Hello?
I'll have to look into it, as it would be extra work. But I'm not opposed to the idea! I'll post an update once I have something to share.
Amazing single-room puzzle platformer of perfect length, tho the difficulty of the final four levels was too much for me.
I keep getting an error popup at the end of the first level, is there any way to prevent this?
I would hope so... what does it say? And what platform are you playing the game on?
Downloaded the windows version from a bundle, the error says Custom([file_write,stderr])
Despite some frustrating levels at the end, this game was overall very nice and cozy. The gameplay, graphics, and music all worked together really well. I found a decent amount of ways to cheat the levels, but that made it more fun!
The game is very good. Unfortunately on Win 11 it crashes quite often with the error message Custom(file_write, stderr).
woah nice page which means that this game looks cool. ill play this after i finish downloading the other interesting looking games in the ukraine bundle
Just finished it! Lot of great ideas: the gems mechanism, the interaction between items, the grid background... That was really fun to play!
Fun little game! The pacing is not as fast as expected, so it is likely harder than it may seem at first. The game suffers from fiddly mechanics and occasional pixel-perfect jumps, but the level design is very promising.
I did 100% completion (105% if you will :>) and it was a very enjoyable experience! Sure, it was frustrating at times, but the "Frustrated?" warnings imply I may not complain.
The puzzles were such a perfect balance of challenging yet doable. I absolutely adored the soundtrack; the graphics are cute and charming; the gameplay was very satisfying too. Sometimes the action button being bound to the spear button was a bit problematic but it didn't happen so often that it frustrated me, just hit reset and try again (edit: took me too long to realise you could remap these buttons ;_; ).
Highly recommend this absolute gem.
One of the best puzzle platformers around...period!