Checkpoints are a nice touch!
8 Bit Simple
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Thanks for playing! And for the very concise feedback :D
I'm very happy people enjoyed the visuals and music at the minimum; I'm really weak at those two things so I wanted to push myself this time around with them. Unfortunately likely at the expense of the more fundamentals.
I wanted the SFX for the most part not detract from the songs but blend into them; so I used snares, kicks; and other drum parts with some effects for them. I'm pretty sure I even used some in the actual songs so they blended in nicer.
The fact you played it past the intro mission is honestly amazing! I'm working on a very different vertical arcade shooter as a commercial project; so this one going well gives me faith the other one is also fun. I do have to give some credit to a lost in time cartoon "Moonbeam City" for some of the ideas. The show uses neon power as the driving force behind innovation; which I used as a concept into everything.
I'm working on a couple updates coming out through the next month or two before Summer that'll feature a lot of polish and new enemies :D
I wanted to add a space cop chase but knew I wouldn't make the cut for it.
Accessibility settings specifically for a lot of customization in the flashing effects and colors.
For the lag during the storms there's a lot of particles, which was due to lack of time to figure out a more efficient way to make the effect. Another thing I have to optimize in a future update :)
Once again thanks for playing!
I'll be updating the game while I finish my first Steam game, I'm hoping this game will become a bigger project/more finished small game over the Summer :)
Thanks for playing! Style was definitely the big thing I knew it had to have for the style. Unfortunately most of the art got different levels of polish.
The title had the most polish, the car in the actual gameplay was the test style drawing for the car; and just never got to finish it. The job select was the last thing drawn but it got it's own style since I didn't get past a rough sketch.
I actually have a cool idea with going into hyperspace and out to handle the narrative better for more story moments that I had a hard time fitting in. But much faster combat segments so everything blends together better. The speed was something I realized too late was going to be a huge issue since it's all about travelling around solar systems not a few blocks.
I've been thinking about how to handle the whole audio situation and hopefully in a week or two will have it along with speed and some of the art brought up to a nice update :)
Thanks for playing and leaving feedback! I really hope to get to work on it as a more Steam level project this Summer :D
The graphics are very unique and interesting! The music also fits the game really well.
The only issue I had was that the camera movement often felt like it was pulling back making a very jarring time.
Movement with no diagonal directions made things a little more difficult; and the colliders seem to repel you and feel inconsistent. Which made things overall a lot more difficult to navigate.
But, it was a very interesting and cool game :)
It's an interesting game, never had a key bat mechanic before in a game; and it definitely has potential for really cool puzzles.
For me personally, a chunk of the time the jumps felt impossible or very unlikely I'd make them. A few key shots in and I couldn't get the jump down.
The movement feels glidey, like the character is walking on ice. The deceleration doesn't feel high enough. I didn't face any precise platforming which made this more of an issue of moving around than overcoming obstacles.
The character collider also looks like it's a little too big; the player stands off the ground by a pixel or two.
You can also trigger narrative more than once if you go back. I found this out after getting the key bat and wondering if I could open the chest at the start. Then retriggered multiple NPC narratives.
The music is really good and fitting; absolutely enjoyed it! The art is also very nice and has some character to it which is great. I'm not in love with the text color and textbox design; but it passes through.
So, I just put down Daemon X Machina because it kept with it's "Time is coming for you" narrative; and I didn't need that energy right now.
Then I run this game, also trying to give me an existential crisis. Games are trying to make me go outside today.
The silhouette art is very nice and the swapping between sides was fun and interesting. It reminded me a lot of this one game my professor showed me once where you walk through life getting older. And you can end up getting a girlfriend and then life becomes more interesting as you maneuver two people through it as a dark mass slowly engulfs you.
Really well done!
This is definitely a very weird experience; but it was entertaining!
It felt like reading a bizzarro fiction book in pixel format.
The only thing I had an issue with was that there's sometimes (possibly lighting/texture tearing?) black mass that will pop up for a second on the side before going away.
It was really nice to see everything in monochromatic even though Blue describes it with color. I guess that's what people who are colorblind must experience pretty often. I know my fiancée sees blues, purples, and greens as greyscale. Not sure if it was intentional but it's a really nice touch!
The audio design was also very fitting.
Thanks for playing!
I'm glad you like the graphics and music! I was skeptical if I'd pull it off; but the results were nice :)
And originally there wasn't a music selection, but I know most musicians play their music in car rides to see how it plays in a real life scenario. So, I figured it'd be a great way to showcase that in-game and so players could pick their cruise vibe.
What parts were unsmooth and how? I definitely want to fix it up so it's as smooth and playable as possible in the future.
The concept is 10/10 would love to see this is as a full game! The controls of walking around feel nice too and the camera angle feels perfect! The art is great! I love the portrait art it reminds me "Cells at Work" a little bit and the 2D/3D art mix is something that gets me everytime.
The dialogue is funny and has that nice slice of life anime feel to it; would love to see more of it.
The card game imagined was pretty fun; but I'm sure the real card game will be more fun! Honestly I enjoyed the funny inserts between scenes as much as I probably would've the actual gameplay. It was well done and I think definitely better than just empty slates. Plus probably a lot easier to know what needs to go there later on if you guys work on it more.
You guys have a seriously cool proof of concept though and I hope to see more from it!
This was a very interesting project!
The use of portrait art was really interesting and fun. I think something like this would be great for teaching history without being super expensive to do.
The story is wacky and humorous! Jabbing and making general commentary on the art styles was fun to read. I like things that are wacky but in the best way possible; and this is a few controversial decisions to could be an Adult Swim styled cartoon.
Thanks for playing!
The sound effects unfortunately were mainly placed in last; especially the voice over bits resulting in the issue of audio clutter I didn't have time to fix. But! I've been thinking of a smart system to fix the issue, likely by adding more position based sounds; as well as importance volume modifiers.
And the death bug is interesting; I'll have to make sure the player can't die after winning a round. And probably make it so you're not in a fight at the end too. I wanted to add in slow sections for the story moments and then faster "hyperspace" sequences for the combat to keep things nicely paced, visually interesting; and altogether more fun. Unfortunately that thought came to my brain in a dream where I worked on the game more after I crashed once my end point in the jam came.
Thanks for the thumbs up to the music! I'm not the most confident in music and since the story came up as "Ah yes this is my music that I'm trying to get published across the universe!" music became a bigger point than originally planned. And the whole cheesy feeling is 100% intended so I'm glad you liked it! The entire game was inspired by a lost to time cartoon called "Moonbeam City" which has a ton over the top cheesy yet enjoyable 80s references/style/humor; which I really love.
I'm planning on a post-jam update in the week or so; as well as a more long term plan. But there's a lot of planning to do past the post-jam update.
I love it! Short and sweet but very captivating.
The art is really nice and nostalgic; plus the color palette is really nice! It blends in really nicely with the music and story that has that 80s/90s touch to it.
I think the biggest thing that would've been nice is having to click around the environment to search; maybe even have Celeste walk to where you click in the area. It'd add the little extra bit of interactivity. But other than that it's really nice!
Thanks for playing! Just woke from my slumber after my overnight job shift; sorry for the wait!
My fiancée has vertigo amongst other disorders with visuals so I try my best to fit in warnings when I can; or settings on full projects/jam updates. I'm glad you got to enjoy it some before you had to turn it off! I do plan to do extensive accessibility options down the line.
The music was one of my more scared points so thank you! I'm not the best musician so getting a few bops together for an audio heavy game was; terrifying.
Thank you so much! I've been working on a bigger vertical shooter project; so trying to make a shooter fun and enjoyable has been my research and trial project for the past couple months now. I'm glad you found it fun!
Story-wise I had so much written and so much narrative to tell. But I definitely feel the game took a hit in that narrative mainly being stuck on paper. I got the title little intro to the story with the voice acting; that hopefully ran in the exported build. And some sense of the world through other interaction based voice dialogue played. But, all the level story was almost non-existent past the little description some of them have. Something I will have completely changed in future updates. I have so much story and cool lore I was hoping and plan to weave into the game more.
Time management was great until halfway through when my day job picked up; that's been the bane of my indie existence I still gotta figure out. That's when my brain frizzled out to "can I even finish the gameplay?!".
I hope you check it out in the future!
Right now I'm just cooling down with some gaming and some light work on my commercial project. After some time the first update I want to do is finish the other jobs, add in the full extent of story I had written, add in some basic if not more extensive accessibility settings (and settings in general); and generally a more finished vertical slice of a slightly bigger project down the line.
Thanks again for playing! Getting plays and feedback is the best part of jams :D
Thank you so much! The blend was an effort of trying out different things and looking some games like Paper Mario and Octopath. The effects I wasn't too crazy about, something felt missing; and I think you're right with the 2D being what's missing in them.
The map generation was probably the bane of my existence the last day lol but thank you :)
I also did add a little track into the version coming out today that resolved all known issues! Not a super bop but a little something to vibe to.
Unfortunately I knowingly put out a near broken project. Mainly knew if I didn't it'd probably just die in my hard drive grave yard of "what could've been games". But! Hopefully I make it up to some people with the work I've been doing on the post-jam update coming out today!
Thanks! I'm hoping to make a full game out of it; right now I'm more into building a framework sandbox project until I find the right game to pair it with :)
I am putting an update out though today (I believe the jam ends today or has in general ended) that'll fix all current issues I've found in this version. Welcoming new bugs to pop up :D
Sorry about it not running, it was running for me but I know it's a very unstable version. And a lot of people have had mostly bad results in running it. I really didn't want to upload it but I knew I needed to or else it'd probably just gotten buried on my hard drive.
I am putting out an update today (I'm pretty sure I can today) and it's a vastly improved prototype from this version :)
That's weird, the browser version hasn't been working for some reason; but the Windows downloaded version should be working.
It might be an uncommon bug but this version of the project is quite unstable.
If you're interested in the game I will have a post-jam update after this jam ends that fixes all the issues I've currently noted and adds some more content :)
Thanks! Yeah unfortunately the main mechanic was getting done and then an issue I hadn't considered popped up; requiring a more work heavy workaround. Resulting in more of a tech demo of what could be rather than what is.
I'm working on an post-jam update though so that I can fix it up and hopefully have more of the intended game after the jam ends :)
Hey! Just wanted to let you know there's a new update for the game if you want to try it again.
I added in a proper health system which will hopefully reduce the difficulty in a fun way.
I'm also adding run modifiers later on next week which will include checkpoints for a more fun and less punishing experience.
Thanks! It really means a lot! I was hoping to make it emotional in some way, and it's actually only my 2nd project making my own art so I'm glad it fits together nicely!
Everyone has mentioned the difficulty and while I want it to be difficult; making it too difficult seems to be the issue. I'm actually moving forward with updates to the project including a health system and after a game mode with checkpoints for a more fun experience. I'll be publishing them once the rating for this jam has ended :)
It's a fun dungeon crawler, the art is pretty good and the controls work fine. Having a little bow icon would be nice for lining up shots. Or if you have a hold and release for different power strengths for the bow that could be a really nice thing to implement.
The lack of sounds was probably the biggest thing for me honestly. Audio is usually the hardest thing to get into a jam game due to the time constraints and needing to work on the gameplay. But even a few sounds goes a long way; or even just a royalty free tune for the background.
Other than that having a different color background I think would also be a great update for the game. The blue just gives me "default" feelings and I feel like the game deserves to have a better color even if it's an old school black or grey. Even a basic gradient would be awesome.
Good job at finishing though doods! And hopefully Subway steps up their game next time :D
I like the retro first-person dungeon crawler experience with the retro textures and everything.
The looking around sensitivity I wish was a little higher or customizable as I had to whip my mouse in a direction a couple times to get a nice turn going.
Enemies also one-shotting you isn't super fun since they take 4 hits to die. After a few runs though I got the back up and hit them technique down pretty good.?
If you wanna go for a fast paced action crawler one shotting for both enemies and players, plus bumping up movement speed and look sensitivity some would go a long way.