itch.io

What I liked: 

-Art style and animations were high quality, especially with the pixelated style and the different color palettes of the rooms being tied together with cogs and clocks

-Power ups functioned and using them to reach previous out of bounds areas felt satisfying

-Collectibles provided optional challenge and provoked thought on how to reach them if they seemed impossible 

-The flying bugs go ! before flying at you which is really nice

-UI is pretty

-Overall theming is excellent

-Controls screen is cool looking too

What I didn't like:

-There is no audio, which is a shame because i feel like you had an easy layup with anything clock related. Tubular bell bgm would immediately and drastically improve this game. Even a ticking sfx for the pressure mechanic would help loads, because...

-I didn't even know the pressure mechanic was a thing until I died to it 15 minutes after starting to play. I think I looked at the UI once and thought it was just a clock and didn't have meaning. I still don't know which color kills you, is it all the way around or just partially?

-This game lacks gameplay direction, as in other than trying to get power ups I have no idea what the objective is.

-The furnace section in particular is visually cluttered and lacks visual clarity between the background and the platforms, which is important in a game with as much platforming as this one

-The player's attack is very disconnected from its animation, to the point where I found myself just avoiding enemies instead of fighting them. There is no hitbox above the player, even though the arc makes it look like there is. Also, the front hitbox comes out instantly rather than what the slow start up of the attack suggests.

Bugs found:

-Flying bugs will aggress through walls

-It is very easy to get stuck on a corner of a platform

-Entering Clock Central will always place you at the same location instead of depending on where you enter from (I don't know if this is actually a bug or not)

This game has so much potential to be more than a simple university project, but there are some small pieces of the game that could be implemented better (or implemented at all).

Update 1.1 Patch Notes (12/12/25)

-changed all enemy models to be skeletons

-Big enemy max hp increased from 1 to 3

-Stealth enemy speed increased from 5 to 7

-Player invulnerability timer decreased from 999 to 1 (this was a bug)

-Fixed a bug where puzzle boxes fell through the floor, making the level impossible

-Deleted one of the walls in the maze to make it less annoying

-changed all enemies in the parkour level to be big enemies

-increased the number of parkour enemies from 3 to 4

-buffed the blue parkour to make the final few jumps more difficult

-changed the color of the walls and floor in the puzzle room to be less offensive on the eyes

What I liked:

-Clearly a ton of effort was put into all of the art, because all of it was spot on, even the sandwich png just made sense

-UI functioned and was clear

-Cat!

-Lighting for the rooms had great attention to detail, specifically lighting and unlighting rooms as you went in and out of them

What I didn't like:

-No audio at all made me lose engagement, especially since getting kills, shooting or anything else provided no auditory satisfaction

-The enemies lacked variety other than the two types you had; it got very repetitive to face the same enemies over and over again

-The game tests your ability to mash the left click above anything else, which is not particularly interesting gameplay-wise since the dominant strategy is to turn your brain off and click as fast as possible without any downside other than physical discomfort

-As others have stated, the level 2 boss simply isn't fun

-The player feels sluggish compared to the average number of rooms expected to be traversed

-Taking damage was highly inconsistent; on several occasions enemies would simply bounce off of me, even if i didn't shoot them. The only time i died was the level 2 boss which is because i got swarmed on sight

-The medium health enemies are the same speed as you, meaning it is incredibly easy to kite them and take 0 damage

Overall, the art side is completely there, and the game is playable. The only issues are a lack of variety in the gameplay and a lack of audio of any kind. Both of those issues would drastically improve this game if fixed.

What i liked:

-The ally system is well thought out and functions well (occasionally their pathfinding breaks a little)

-The opening music track is good

-The art style was quite humorous, but matched the theming very well

-Dialogue system was cool

What I didn't like (nitpicks):

-The aim cursor seemed inconsistent at best, and the cooldown not being visual was a little annoying

-The bullies are not challenging, especially since you can see them approach and just run away and stall long enough for your cooldown to finish (or the allies will bop it for you)

-Parts of the map had visual bugs, and one of the pipes in the corner over by john was a one way wall for some reason, meaning i got jumpscared by some bullies passing through a wall and couldn't react in time

-I know the theming of the game is shrunken students, but the scale is too small and the characters move too slowly to me. Moving from character to character takes way too long, especially if there aren't any bullies in the way. I already know where I need to go, it just takes forever to actually get there.

-As others have noted, pressing f to skip dialogue makes it read backwards

-The audio after the first track ends is extremely quiet (probably a bug)

Overall I like the concept of the ally system and the theming, but the execution had some minor bumps. I think altering the scale a little bit, not so much as to ruin the theming, but enough to eliminate some of the mindless traveling, would go a long way.

What i liked:

-The art style is quite cool, and the animations of both the player and enemies are well done

-The weapon icons changing depending on which weapon you hold is a nice touch

What I didn't like:

-The animations don't change based on what weapon is used, which is odd because to me it seems like they were designed to

-No audio at all, which kind of kills the engagement since your actions don't have audible consequences

-The purpose of the key is not given; i couldn't tell if it was to open the chests or the gates

-Dying and choosing replay seemingly doesn't reset the scene, as player health remains at 0 which causes some unintended behavior

-The camera angle causes walls to disappear at times

Overall the main focus should be fixing the major issues like ensuring replay functions as intended, but there are some easy small fixes that could be implemented to improve the polish.

What i liked:

- Sound effects were all there. The shotgun was too loud but otherwise they were excellent

- movement was clean and responsive

- UI was functional and informative

- Cat running animation was a nice touch

- Shop system was cool and worked properly

-The different kinds of projectiles with their different sfx was a great choice

-Visual spawner locations made enemy jumpscares nonexistent

What I didn't like (nitpicks):

-No music. Lack of music caused boredom when running through hallways without anything interesting happening. Edit: the multishot also has no sfx, even though the other two weapons do.

-Running into walls causes the screen to tear and shake aggressively

-Lots of large hallways and rooms with nothing interesting happening, i think the scale of the map was too large for the content within it.

-No real direction for progress, I don't even think fighting the enemies was mandatory since you could just run past them (which is boring, but possible)

-All the numbers being hidden apart from player hp made choosing what to buy at the shop a crap shoot half of the time, since it was hard to determine what would be best without knowing stats and how upgrades affected them

-The shotgun is either borderline useless or overpowered with projectile damage upgrades. In the early levels it does nothing unless you are extremely close to the enemies, which is a problem because...

-The enemies have no indicator of when they will attack, meaning if you are really close to an enemy or happen to change directions when they shoot you are almost guaranteed to take damage.

-No visual indicator for taking damage. I had multiple instances where i would wipe a squad only to realize i had taken 70 damage from seemingly nowhere.

Overall, the mechanics are fleshed out and the gameplay was entertaining, but some minor tweaks would make this game way more enjoyable.

What i liked:

- The level 3 effects were simply a peak experience. The cinematic after beating is life changing. The particle effect on shooting your laser circle looks sick. Even lighting the wires looks and feels satisfying, as odd as that sounds

- The snail rotates in the direction he glides, fire detail

- The levels were not empty, and it seemed like care was taken to make it not empty (big spikes, plants, lights)

- The obstacles in level 1 are salt mounds, which is a nice touch

-The snail dude is gas

What I didn't like:

-There is 0 sound. Some sort of bgm would go a long way, and there should totally be a cartoony space laser sfx in level 3.

-The physics and controls of the snail are inconsistent and at times highly frustrating. You only have any air control in level 3 for some reason, in the other levels you better plan your jump all the way or else you will miss the platform and die. 

-The snail can only rotate while moving, which made doing turnarounds and unnecessary pain.

- The camera would frequently clip behind walls, forcing me to keep the camera in a suboptimal location just so i could actually see the snail.

- Any platforming that was required was more pain than it was worth. Levels 1 and 4 felt like a rage game because the controls felt uncoordinated and worked against you.

- I completely cheesed level 2, to the point that I still don't know what the intended solution was. The gravity change happens so slowly and the snail is so floaty that i simply levitated all the way to the end.

Overall, I think the game would benefit from one fully fleshed out mechanic (laser shooting, gliding, or gravity) rather than multiple short minigames with mechanics that get discarded immediately. If the controls were more intuitive and smoother, this game would immediately become highly enjoyable.

What i liked:

- Art and audio was high quality. The ambient looping track did get old after a while, and definitely could've used some variety in later sections, such as during the horse section or the axes section. Footsteps were great, and collecting sfx were perfect.

- UI was clear, pleasing and had no issues. 

-  The time slow mechanic worked as intended.

- I had no issues collecting anything, like potions or lockpicks

- I didn't find any bugs, save for the occasional instance of hugging a wall while airborne causing reduced fall speed, which didn't break anything

-The lockpicking being random every time (i think) is a nice touch

What I didn't like (nitpicks):

- Collecting individual coin piles lost meaning very quickly, especially since the goal switched from "make number go up" to "survive". Also, collecting the piles felt way less satisfying than collecting the huge gold heaps on the ground.

- The health system was unclear. It was unclear as to how much damage things would do unless you tested it.

- The horse, while interesting at first, lacked any challenge whatsoever, since the player is faster than it by default. After I realized that, the mild threat he possessed disappeared instantly. He also doesn't kill you instantly (which i think he should). I also think the horse sfx that plays should be more direction based rather than omnipotent, but that's just a personal opinion

- I found myself deliberately avoiding the slowdown mechanic unless it was absolutely required, which happened only once (swinging axes section towards the end, specifically the final narrow bridge). It took away any semblance of challenge. I don't think it's a bad mechanic, but I do think some sections should rely on it more. 

- The lockpicking mechanic is extremely finicky, to the point where i would attempt to pick it, fail, go to seemingly the exact same spot, and then it would work. I think it would do better to have slightly more forgiveness in order to combat frustration. 

- The lockpicking mechanic is required exactly one time, which is a shame because aside from the precision required it is executed really well. I found myself disappointed that more often than not the only thing behind the locked door was some coins and the occasional mana refresh.

- The board with the horse was too large and empty to me, I wandered around for a long time before finally finding the path forward. I think the game would benefit from some very minor hints at direction that the player can choose to ignore, rather than offering nothing at all.

Overall, this game is incredibly polished for how short of time you had to work on it. I think all it needs to be spotless is some minor tweaks to emphasize the use of the mechanics more, but the main concepts are all there.

KNOWN BUGS

• Pushable blocks go through walls and blocks; I spent 10 hours trying to fix collisions and failed, so please consider using the restart button if that happens

Game loads now! the golden look is definitely a choice, but it works. The jump key, on the other hand, doesn't, meaning a trash bag in the second area is unreachable thus rendering it impossible. idk why that happens.

physics felt nice, and i liked that you didn't actually have to go through the gates if you didn't feel like it. you also don't have to do the last mission as you can just go to the end, do some parkour, and jump onto the wall and around the gate. satisfying to cheese the game even if that was intentional.

signs were fire. loved that. kinda forgot how many weeds there were so i tried to leave before getting all 10. park was beautiful

the park was very large and the player was not very fast, but other han thati really enjoyed the game. unique premise

really appreciated that you could just kick the ball in from the side, it made life way easier. the 9th trash bag took me 2 of the 4 minutes i spent playing this game. enivronment was fire though 

somehow got 4/3 trash bags in area 1. kicking the ball was not painful at all thankfully, and i really liked the idea of having to return to a previous area to complete a mission. fountain was a nice touch, and the UI functioned!!! great game.

LOVED the timing element. I think it was really forgiving considering how easy sections 1 and 3 were but still an excellent edition. i had the most fun with section 2 as there was one dumb can i couldn't find for a solid minute. simple gameplay but still effective.

ui close button didn't work, so i didn't know the objectives. i had to read the objectives on the page itself in order to know what to do. color coded trash cans were cool, but the game felt too easy as all the trash was out in the open. i also didn't know how to finish the game as nothing happened after getting all the trees into the trash cans and i didn't see a gate. other than that the game worked as intended and the water section was unique. 

floating trees. 10/10.

if you push one of the big balls into the corner and jump on it, it bugs out and you end up on the walls. idk how that happened.

the balls were unreasonably large and difficult to herd into the small openings. i also wish there was a sound effect for picking up trash as i picked up one in a corner, didn't know because there was no sound or visual indication, and then couldn't pick up more because of the 2 bag limit. overall fun besides that.

concur

i wasn't sure of what to do in the second section because the ui didn't change until i accidentally walked over a blue can which caused the ui to update. once that happened it was my favorite section, and the colored trash cans were a nice touch. the environment was well put together.

Loved the parkour challenges, and collecting all the trash at once was quite satisfying. the door sound effect playing on awake and every time you get close to the gate was a little annoying, but definitely didn't subtract from the enjoyment.