itch.io

I enjoyed this. Here's some notes/feedback:

• I think you guys have a great visual style here and it really makes this entry standout. The music was quite good. I also think the sound design is decent for a jam. 
• Are the characters 3D models ? Just curious.
• The movement is off. You move way too fast imo. My girlfriend was watching me play and it made her a bit motion sick. I would reduce the top speed of the character and introduce another way to go fast. Perhaps have the dodge be a proper dash and have it be a metroidvania upgrade.
• Combat is another thing that is a weakpoint of the project imo. I understand it's a jam, but it needs a lot of work for the next version.
• It was cool that the zoom factor would change depending on the room. It gave a very cinematic feel to the game when needed.
• Story and vibe was actually quite well done. You also managed a neat plot twist in the small timeframe of the game. Solid stuff !

All in all, there is potential here, but the combat and movement have to be improved. That said, I enjoyed my time !

I did not finish, but this is a cool project. The presentation is great and the sound design is fantastic. I love the voice acting and it's actually quite good. Punching things has some satisfying sounds. Good work !

One of my favorite entries ! This is a very polished little game with great audiovisual presentation. I love the work you've put in here.

Gameplay wise, it's mostly very good. The bumping and auto-attacking works really well and fits the jam theme perfectly. The cursed sword was the first upgrade I found and I actually quite enjoyed one-shotting most enemies. Most upgrades were good. I will say that the wall jump felt off though.

I enjoyed the metroidvania structure and level design. It worked quite well. My only major criticism would be the going up to the final ability room and the combat in that room being overtuned.

Great job honestly ! 

I enjoyed this ! Neat game ! 

• The bosses had very cool designs and combat was surprisingly decently fun.
• Exploration was solid and the looping world was trippy in a good way.
• I enjoyed the movement (though I wish controller worked as the control scheme was uncomfortable). Swinging was a fun mechanic. 
• My biggest criticism would be related to the platforming asked of the player to reach what I assume is the final boss (the giant with two eyeballs). It was very unintuitive and even when I figured it was the only thing I could do, I struggled to actually do it.
• I made it to the top of the castle, but there was no end state ?

Good stuff overall !

This is a really interesting concept for which I probably need to sit down with a pen & paper to map it out and figure out what to do. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the mood for it.  I made it to the area with the TVs and stopped there. 

A point of friction is that I found myself clicking all over the screen in an attempt to eco-locate things. Perhaps, the pointer should have a bigger range to trigger. In addition, it'd be nice for the eco-location to linger for one more second to give you more time to read the text. 

I find it quite interesting that the game is available in so many languages. I speak french so I should consider giving it a shot in that language.

I love the vibe, visuals and sound design of the project. You were very successful in achieving the mood you desired.

I may come back to this one later as I feel like I haven't given it a full proper shot, but I'm intrigued and it's neat.

Alright, this is a really cool idea. Unfortunately, the project suffers from a lot of navigational issue. It's hard to tell where you've been and where you should go. It's also difficult to be able to tell what each object does. If you could manage to improve on those points, I think you'd have a good game on your hands. 

I made it to the organic zone (mostly by luck) and I stopped there. Maybe the solution is to have a map that indicates the links between the different loops better as well as adding landmarks to each loop.

I enjoyed this little metroidvania !

Some notes:

• Cool movement. Some people said it's a bit slippery, but I think it's because you're going for something very momentum based which I appreciate. One thing to note is that your ledge grabbing does not exist. Instead, you seem to extend the height of a jump near a ledge so it acts as a pseudo ledge grab. Interesting way to do it. There were different jump animations I was triggering, but I wasn't sure what they were doing different from a regular jump. My final note would be that the wall jump is probably too strong. I'd find a way to nerf a bit.
• Sound effects were really missing here. They're so important to movement game feel. I'm sure you know this, but the fact that they were missing really hurt the project.
• Character animation is really good ! I also like your character design and all the vfx you had for the movement. 
• Overall, I liked the visual style, but it was a bit tough to navigate at times.
• The music was solid.
• Props to you for the polished UI. It looked good. Nice transition from the main menu too !
• Lvl design wise, it was alright. I wish there were more interesting platforming challenges utilizing the momentum based gameplay as well as encouraging exploration.
• Please implement controller controls in the future. This kind of game is best played on controller.

Good job !

First off, I want to commend the visuals of this game. It looks fantastic ! I love the color palette, the pixelated textures and the low poly look of the world. Fantastic job on that front ! The vfx and feedback for combat also looks great !

Unfortunately, I feel like combat is very much dragging down the game. In particular, the flying enemies are quite frustrating for reasons already listed in other comments. They got me to drop the game.

Movement is mostly solid. Though, I feel like the character's jump is too high and the roll is broken (you can spam it in the air forever to essentially glide). I would investigate way to design more interesting platforming challenges. The one at the start for the health upgrade is interesting, but it feels like a late game challenge rather than one you would do at the start of the game. In general, the difficulty curve need another pass on the project.

There's potential here and I hope you keep working on it ! These visuals really sell the world and its vibe !

Very well scoped for the jam ! It was an interesting concept and it had solid execution. I had fun ! Though, I agree with comments saying the gravity switching was underutilized.

This is my favorite game of the jam (out of the 30 of so I've played). Maaaan, what a cool little game ! With some improvements here and there + expanding it a bit, you could definitely put this up on steam for 5$. I'd buy it honestly !

So this is a 3D metroidvania zelda-like which is extremely cool ! Each ability impacts in a significant way how you interact with the world and allows you to discover plenty of secrets. Secrets being the key here ! On top of being a metroidvania, this is also a metroidbrainia (sorta like Outer Wilds) which is a genre I absolutely love. Discovering how to go for the 0% run was a treat. Though, I would recommend not telling the player at the start that a 0% run is possible. Perhaps that could be a secret to uncover within the game itself.

Now, I've had glowing praise for this and I've rated the game fairly highly, but there are issues here. One of the issues is related to the movement. Ground and air movement felt fine, but the jump was perhaps a bit too floaty. My main issue likes with the dash and the wall jumping which both feel janky. The dash maintains your vertical speed which gives you a variety of results. This would work well in something like a Sonic game, but here it gives you unreliable results. Furthermore, if you dash without the full bar, you'll get a partial dash which also contribute to it feeling unreliable (despite the reason why that's the case being apparent). The wall jump worked, but it feels janky. Perhaps a wall slide animation could improve it. I'd also add in a ledge grab.

My main issue with the game is the combat and I feel like it is the main thing holding it back from a full release. It feels hard to hit enemies due to the low range of the staff (and lack of lock-on ?). They move in weird ways. They'll suddenly gain a lot of speed and it doesn't feel very natural. One fight in particular was frustrating: the fire yokai. For this, I'd recommend going all in on the inspiration from 3D Zelda and take its combat system. Adding a lock-on feature and all. Also, enemies should not respawn unless you ring a bell imo.

I also really like the presentation. The NPCs added life to the game and had neat little designs with their own masks and colors. Some of the animations need work, but it worked for the jam. I also enjoyed the music. Solid stuff !

To conclude, it says a lot about the core of the game that I enjoyed the game as much as I did despite my issues with the combat/movement. Keep working on this ! It's really cool and I'd buy it ! Also, extra cool that this is your own engine !

I like where you're going with the general idea. It's almost like a game-wide timer to reach the end. It matches with the theme well.

However, I feel like there isn't any objective for the game in this build ? I killed a variety of enemies, but nothing happened. The different swords have different effects, but they don't seem to truly impact how you play and how you interact with world like you'd expect from a metroidvania.

All of that said, I think it's clear a lot is missing from the game and I'd need to see an updated version to be able to give my full judgment. Keep at it !

Ah, this is an issue with framerate I have. If you lock your monitor's framerate to 60 fps, it will resolve the input issue.

Regarding camera control, I recommend using a controller as the game was designed for one.

Thanks for giving it a shot !

The movement felt quite slippery and slow to accelerate at the same time. A lot of the platforming jumps felt too tight as well. I often felt like it must not be the intended solution.

I also got myself into a soft lock I believe. I somehow found my way into a room with an upgrade that seemed to say I could relocate myself ? However, I couldn't figure out what the command for it was and trying to leave manually was impossible.

Really cool concept and execution for the most part (controls and platforming could be improved). The main gimmick and its presentation is simply phenomenal though. Really good entry !

This is a really cool concept and I'd love to see it expanded in a full game ! I think I got a softlock though.

I had a lot of trouble with the combat for this one. I eventually figure out how it works due to a comment on this page. My recommendation would be to let the player learn the controls for combat outside of an arena (or at least not one shot you). Furthermore, not being able to press an opposite key to trigger an attack makes it seem unresponsive. I get that you can't pick your arc that way, but I'd almost prefer a random arc to the opposite side than nothing.

I ended up getting like 20-30 corpses sitting there (which is pretty cool to be fair) before figuring out the combat and being able to clear a few rooms. I really like the idea of your corpses remaining on the field. I love the animation to get your sword out as well as a bunch of the other animations. I imagine you use IK here for a few things ? It works well ! 

Lots of cool ideas and I'd like to play more, but some of the enemy rooms were too challenging for me and I could not make it further unfortunately.

Very neat concept and good presentation though. Lots of little details in here + UI integrated into the world/character is something I really appreciate. 

Sorry about the save system. It's actually one of the first thing I worked on for this project and most of it works... though I decided to cut it because it wasn't saving everything(had an issue with dictionaries). Part of me feels like I should have kept it in, but releasing this in its current state came down to the wire so I didn't have that much wiggle room. Though, even just saving your abilities and your last respawn point would have been pretty beneficial for the length of the game.

Regarding the softlock, I noticed that one and for some reason, my brain thought I had already fixed it (by adding a red bouncing platform to send you back.... Guess I didn't actually do it haha.

It's crazy you actually spent 7hrs playing what is essentially my first game (though, the movement is something I've been working on for longer) . Thank you so much for sticking with it !

Thanks for playing ! Glad you enjoyed the movement and exploration haha !

Regarding the minimalist theme, we wanted to have a story/thematic take on the theme instead of a gameplay one. A minimalist wants to get rid of their excess material possessions so getting rid of the armor to really only keep what you need is what we went for thematically. 

Oh wow. I did think this felt very similar to something I played recently. I'm really happy to see your project has improved ! If you ever have another build you want to share for feedback, don't hesitate to ping me !

Presentation for this is really good ! I love the aesthetic ! The main character and yokai designs are inspired and well animated. My only note on the presentation would be that the music could have been a bit louder though. 

Control wise, this is actually fairly solid. My only note would be that there is no jump buffering. Good work on implementing coyote time though.

There's a lot of potential here, but I feel like the level design is a big weak point of the project. The set dressing for the level design is great, but the actual gameplay of it is not very interesting. First of all, the world is too big. The sprint ability feels like it should have been the default run speed and even that feels too slow. As such, things are very spread out which results in many negative things: enemies aren't a threat and can easily be avoided; it takes a long time to get anywhere to explore and find abilities (finding abilities in metroidvania is what makes the player want to keep going); etc. The size of the world means the player will more easily get bored if they can't traverse it fast enough. My next critique would be regarding the fact that the platforming challenges are not very interesting. There is a lot of repetition in the platforming imo. 

Despite all of the above, there's some inspired world design stuff though. For example, the ability hidden in the well was quite neat.

Side note: I do not feel like the minimalist theme was very much used in this entry.

Overall, I think there's potential here: you've nailed the vibe/aesthetic and the controls are fairly solid. Now, you gotta work on making the level design more interesting. Good work !

Thanks for playing! Yeah, I know the camera is rough. Sorry it made your motion sick.

I played it ! I left a comment ! Very unique mechanic/premise !

First of all, I really want to commend the polish on this entry. Everything has a sound and you can even interact with some of the environment (the lights and foliage). The menu and UI is also very clean ! Fantastic job on that front !

I must admit it took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure out what the gimmick of the game was. I uncovered the entire map and ran around for a while before I found my first ability. Then, I was confused once I lost my ability to get a new one. Eventually I figured it out and I gathered most collectibles, but I did not finish. Very unique and unexpected mechanic ! I enjoyed it. Though, I think it would have benefitted from a bit more guidance to point the player in its direction.

Regarding level design, I think it is a bit on the difficult side and I found myself dying quite a bit. It could be a skill issue though.

Finally, I would like to commend the 2d character controller. It controls perfectly ! Great job !

Really neat and unique little entry imo !

I actually really like the idea of the slow and methodical movement this game has. It's very unique and it can potentially work. However, the rough checkpoint spacing of this game means it becomes frustrating quickly. I ended up making it to the attack upgrade, but not further.

The audiovisual presentation is fantastic though ! 

I enjoyed this ! It has some nicely handrawn 2d animated characters/enemies which I appreciate. The aesthetic is appropriately minimalist. I want to also note the nice vfx when the gun projectile hits enemies and walls.

Gameplay wise, this was fairly solid. Combat could be more in-depth, but it works for a jam and the final boss requiring you to parry it to keep your life meter up was interesting. Though, I will note that imo, you should be able to shoot while sliding and the slide should go in the direction of your input instead of the gun reticle. It was also not very obvious that the parry had to be used on the shielded enemy to proceed.

Lots to like here overall though ! Nice job !

The art direction is fantastic and perfectly fits the theme. Great work ! I like where you were going with the SFX for footsteps, but I feel like they were not loud enough. There was also some missing for certain actions.

Regarding level design, there were distinct areas. However, it was hard to navigate and understand where I was.

Gameplay wise, the wall run is way too strong and negates most platforming challenges once you get it. I had fun with the movement overall though.

Props on the functioning save system !

Overall, I'd say this is a pretty good entry ! Good job !

This one wasn't really for me unfortunately. It feels extremely polished though ! I really appreciate all the little touches. The game feel is really good !

However, it felt a bit too big/spaced out and I got lost a lot.

There's some good potential here though.

Glad you enjoyed yourself !

We were originally going to implement checkpoints and most of the save/load logic was ready, but there was a bug with it so it got scrapped for the jam unfortunately. We might implement in an update post jam.

Thank you ! It will help me rework the mechanic.

Thank you for the feedback ! It's greatly appreciated !

I'm happy you enjoyed it to the point of completing haha. I'm glad you liked the vibe. The pillar area was the last addition to the game and we considered removing it from the scope, but I'm very happy we kept it in as it does seem to be the highlight for multiple people haha.

Props to you for the visual style, animations, SFX and VFX. However, it was very hard to parse the action. I would recommend zooming out the camera for better visibility.

Hitting stuff in this game feels awesome. There's also a good variety of enemies which is pretty neat. I like that you seem to be taking the combat into a bit of a 3d bullet hell direction. That said, combat was pretty mindless in this iteration. The air combo also seems broken. You can use it to just hover indefinitely and move forward which seems to me like it would break level design.

I only got far enough to get the dash. I feel like the game world is way too big. Almost as if it was designed for you to have the dash from the beginning. However, this makes the dash feel like it's the regular running option instead of a true upgrade if that makes sense. I would scale things down. It would also allow you to give breadcrumbs (abilities) to the players to keep them interested instead of spacing them so far apart.

There's a lot of potential here so I hope you build on it.

Props to you for the visual style, animations, SFX and VFX. However, it was very hard to parse the action. I would recommend zooming out the camera for better visibility.

Hitting stuff in this game feels awesome. There's also a good variety of enemies which is pretty neat. I like that you seem to be taking the combat into a bit of a 3d bullet hell direction. That said, combat was pretty mindless in this iteration. The air combo also seems broken. You can use it to just hover indefinitely and move forward which seems to me like it would break level design.

I only got far enough to get the dash. I feel like the game world is way too big. Almost as if it was designed for you to have the dash from the beginning. However, this makes the dash feel like it's the regular running option instead of a true upgrade if that makes sense. I would scale things down. It would also allow you to give breadcrumbs (abilities) to the players to keep them interested instead of spacing them so far apart.

There's a lot of potential here so I hope you build on it.

You got a cute character going for this ! I like the small little touch of having the idle animation. I also like that the double jump is contextualized by the character shooting the ground.

I ended up playing 15 minutes or so, but I had to stop because I got frustrated at one of the double jumping platforming challenge. You actually did a great job with your special platforms up to that point. You had a lot visual telegraphing telling you when something was gonna change (though, sfx would have been nice), but at some point, you had platforms alternating every 5 seconds without any tell. I could not make it through that part. It was also frustrating because the checkpoint was so far back.

Movement in general was not bad, but it did feel too slippery. Perhaps having a slower acceleration to top speed would help. Some stuff like jump buffering and coyote time would do a lot too.

Shooting worked well for the breakable doors, but for ground enemies, it felt like the projectiles got blocked by the ground. 

I know I have been very critical, but it's still good work ! There's small little details here that do make things better !

Agreed on comments saying the model and animations are pretty good. 

The lack of SFX hurts game feel a lot.

Imo, the movement needs work. I would recommend looking into jump buffering and coyote time to improve game feel. The wall stuff feels like it's not quite there. It's a good idea, but it needs more polished to be intuitive and reliable. Jumping off a wall run should maintain your momentum.

Metroidvania wise, this felt fairly linear too.

Overall, there's potential here, but more work needs to be done to unlock it. Keep at it !

Thanks for the feedback ! The movement was essentially taken from another project I've been working on. This jam was a good opportunity to make a full game out of it and learn how to make level design. If you have any additional thoughts on the grapple, I'd love to hear them. I've been struggling on how to make it accessible/learnable for players because it's a very complex mechanic.

The drop shadow is a good call. I had one but removed it because of some build errors I didn't want to bother investigating lol.

Some of the difficulty spikes definitely needed some rebalancing I agree.

On the music looping issue.  I fixed it on 1.4.1 I believe. If it's with regards to the loop not being seamless, that's due to us using mp3 files instead of wav files. Mp3 files don't work for seamless looping unfortunately.

What do you mean by protogen ?

Honestly, this was really good except for some annoying difficulty spikes and some jank with the ledge grab mechanic. It's a simple solid platformer that feels good with a familiar, but solid metroidvania structure. My biggest criticism is that the save points where too far apart. I almost quit on the blue area and I eventually did in the yellow one so I couldn't finish. Still think this was good overall.

This game looks good ! I love what you guys did with the minimalist theme and how the environment evolves to add color. Feels very polished ! The music and sound design also worked well.

One of the best entries I've played yet !

I like this one's vibe, but I got lost at some point after getting the dash. I couldn't progress anymore. 

A couple notes:

- Basic movement felt solid for a 3d platformer.

- The camera turning speed was too slow.

- Nice sfx. Not always a given in a jam.

- The money system left me confused as to what its use was.

- I like the character design and the rest of the aesthetic.

This was very cute !

The movement feels fairly solid ! Obviously, there are still things to work on, but I quite enjoyed it. Dashing into walls to wall jump is a cool idea ! If you'd like I could give you a full breakdown of my thoughts on the movement, but here are a few random notes:

- Ground & air control feel good

-  The jumping basics seem to be all good. You got jump buffering and coyote time in there. It also feels satisfying.

-  The way the grapple interacts with the ground feels off.  In general, the grapple is solid but it needs more polish.

- The ledge grab being automatic leaves me conflicted. It made me feel like I didn't have control.

- I'd look into incorporating the shooting with movement somehow.

- Props for the drop shadow (especially in Unity... I struggle with that myself (I'm the dev of Reliance Undone. Thanks for playing btw).

On the topic of vibes, visuals and sound, I quite like what you had going on. The fog might have been a bit too overdone, but it gave a neat vibe. The music was simple but it worked well for the project and I liked your character design. Everything worked well with the minimalist aesthetic. Oh, and you had some SFX and VFX which contributed a lot to game feel. 

Metroidvania wise, this is very short and fairly linear, but the basics were there.  Though, I will say that getting the last 2 collectibles required some bravery on the player's part. It wasn't quite obvious what to do there.

Good work ! 

Didn't have time for a longer comment earlier, but I want to acknowledge your 2d character controller is actually fairly solid. You got jump buffering and coyote time in there if I'm not mistaken. It's rare for a first game so props to you!

I also like the knight's walking animation. It's cute!

If I had to make a recommendation, it'd be to add sfx in the future. It makes a big difference for gams feel.

Good job and keep at it!