itch.io

Ah, the classic "I ran out of time to implement that, so I'm implementing a smart hack to get it done on time".

I enjoy those situations, since they force people to come up with novel and interesting solutions. I think using kanji was a good solution to your problem.

This is exactly how you get good at game design, by trying a bunch of small experiments, and learning what ideas are good, and what ideas are bad. I'm sure you'll remember the valuable lessons this game jam taught you about how to manage player controls, without accidentally spending several months learning those lessons while working on an important project. With the skills you're acquiring, I'd love to see what games you build in the future!

There are too many games, and not enough people to rate them all, so I figure I can put in some good effort to rate and review as many as I can :)

Out of curiosity, why go with kanji for the players an enemies?

I've beaten Ink, and it's pretty fun. After playing this game, I found that it's basically a less polished version of Ink. No major differences in gameplay, mechanics, or art style.

Like I said, it's interesting how different people can come up with nearly identical copies of the same idea. (Like Newton and Leibniz both discovering calculus) 

I fell in love with this game when I heard the music and saw hat man's dialog, but the level of humor and the quirky nature of the game thoroughly entertained me.

If I had more time, I would pick my favorite 5 quotes from the game and share them here. But I'll leave other people to discover those gems.

This is awesome. The theme is stretched to its limits, but the result is a unique and interesting game, very different than any other game I've seen. The player is always looking for the *one* thing, and it makes the game that much better.

The level of polish is off the charts. This is one of the few games that has a smooth transition to the main screen, and the use of your character to select the level is a nice and simple solution that never breaks the flow of gameplay. The sounds are perfect, and the quirky and simple nature of the 3D objects makes everything fit together so nicely.

No worries, that's the majority of games in the game jam. You did good anyways :)

You've already mentioned some of the flaws of having a single button with a precise platformer, but you did a good job on capitalizing on some solid level design to test the limits of one-button controls.

I was torn on how much to rate you for design, because the individual levels show some really good combinations of different obstacles, but there are some obvious design flaws in just using a single button. Considering how well you designed the levels in spite of the forced restrictions, I feel that this game needs to be mentioned by GMTK, due to the lessons this game can teach about design. I'm giving full points for design, theme, and original use of the restrictions.

All that said, this was a truly terrible game. I'm glad I'll never have to play it again. You're an amazing level designer to get me to finish something with controls this bad.

A+ material. The best designed an executed game I've played so far. Everything is near perfect for 48 hours of work.

Design within the theme is amazing, one star, one planet, one moon, one color, one button, and one objective. Nothing seemed out of place, and all the elements fit together.

The gameplay is awesome too. It ramps up from peaceful to frantic, and there's a bit of strategy to defending, since it's easier to hit things on the far side of the star, and exploding bullets mean you get benefits from letting stuff clump up, but it's risky because the chain explosions may not hit everything.

Then, there's the polish. Lots of little particles, simple sound effects when stuff explodes, a very nice difficulty ramp, and the amazing intro. Seriously, that intro sold the game to me before I even started playing.

Whops! Looks like the web player doesn't show the entire screen. That's unfortunate. Either way, I'm glad you participated in the game jam. Building games with everyone was awesome.

Other than the technical problems, the game is okay. Some puns with the ones, but not super unique or exciting.

Solid game. It's a nice combination of frantic game-play and puzzling, due to constantly having to stay in motion. I think the one button controls worked very well for this game.

This idea is amazing, and the execution is pretty amazing. (Good juice on shooting) Definitely one of the better games so far. The main mechanic is so awesome that I'd be disappointed if this doesn't get mentioned.

However, the difficulty is a bit too high because the controls aren't very refined. Mostly, the difficulty comes from the player falling quickly, and not having a high enough jump to move between some of the platforms. Small platforms with too much vertical room in between increases the movement problems. I would have played for a long time, but those simple problems would need fixed first. The more technically complex problem to solve is when you shoot a platform your character is clipping through, and the platform becomes solid, but you still fall through it. I died to that more than the enemies.

As for the design, I think the enemies should prefer to enter on the top half of the map, for a few reasons. First, enemies that come from the bottom are very difficult to kill, since you cannot shoot below the platform you are standing on. Having lots of easy to kill enemies gives the player more fun things to shoot at. Next, having enemies above the player increases the likelihood that a player will shoot a platform above them, which is a fun way to die. (Dying to a personal mistake offers players a chance to learn, and it makes people want to try again, which is always good.)

This game gave me vibes from A Dark Room (playable here).  Unfolding games are thoroughly enjoyable, but I would have enjoyed it if there was more to discover, or more interactions from the button.

This is really neat. I had thought of the same idea, but I didn't think I had the programming/art/design skills to implement this within the time limit. I'm glad someone tried this idea.

Even though the game was short, when the pickax opened up the path to the previous items, I got a small bit of that wonderful indescribable feeling when you finally find a safe bonfire after a long time of searching.

This looks nearly identical to Ink, an indie game already on steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/385710/INK/

It's impressive how two people can stumble onto the same idea.