itch.io

Ah, that makes sense. Very unfortunate that it had to support keyboard, since that's what I ended up playing it with. Definitely see how it would feel a lot more interesting on a controller.

Really neat, love the aesthetic and the theming. I do think it feels a bit more like a 2 player game that 1 player is being made to play, however.

Neat as an overall package, like a series of little minigames/puzzles. Unfortunately it was all bit too simple and didn't introduce any novel mechanics.

The premise of this game has to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Love it!

I can't believe this only has 12 ratings. Will spread the word, this game is amazing and deserves a fair shot at top 100!

Really cool game representation of an awesome real life concept. Instantly compelling and complex spatial reasoning puzzle.

Would love to see this with a lot more polish, and significantly better simulations for incorrect answers, rather than just seemingly bouncing off for no reason, especially when the first piece would fit fine, and it's only followup pieces that would run into issues.

Hope to see more!

Really cool idea, was a little disappointed when combining certain words didn't do anything, but it is just a jam after all. Tons of potential!

Oh my god this game is so much better than I thought it would be. Seriously REALLY good job here. I'm going to share it around so more people play it. The biggest issue by far is the lack of tutorialization, and your itch page has a pretty rough description of the controls. Once I figured it out though, I was floored by how awesome the mechanics are.

The only gripe I had with the mechanics is that it feels a bit too powerful for Star to be able to essentially fly anywhere at all by repeatedly moving a block upwards while you jump around. Other than that, it all seemed incredible. Seriously. Partner with an artist, get a team together, build out this game in full with way more levels and a much more gradual progression curve of mechanics.

This has so much potential.

Love the mechanic and implementation of the donut county mechanic. Would be great to see it developed further!

I really really wanted to love this game because I know how much work goes into physics and mechanics like this, but unfortunately the controls, level design, and lack of a sense of progression or purpose detracted from my experience.

Super hyped to see this developed more, and glad to see you're doing a post-jam version though!

No problem! Keep in mind that art style in games is not limited to just illustrations. Animations, models, particle effects, shaders, and other VFX can all play extremely important roles as well. Good luck in the future!

Really cool visual effects. What do you use to achieve the glows? Emissive textures with a lot of bloom?

Such a simple idea, yet a stunningly powerful, unique mechanic. Amazing work.

Wow that merge mechanic has so much crazy cool potential. The visuals alone are really awesome. How did you implement those partial merges? Any other games with a similar mechanic?

Loved that tether effect, it looks really cool!

You're very welcome! I wanted to make an impact on some folks with this game, and I'm super glad to hear that it landed with you. Thanks for playing!

Thanks! Not sure if you were able to finish the experience, but this is a concept I tried to explore.

"You are Cruel | You are Kind" offers the player significantly stronger control over the outcome, as a representation of aspects of oneself that are easier to separate.

"You are Wise | You are Foolish" follows immediately afterwards, and presents a significantly smaller board with extremely little control over the outcome, as a representation of traits that many of us share at the same time, however opposing they may seem.

The way we and others perceive ourselves may not always match the way we wish to perceive ourselves.

Really fun and stylish. The logo is super striking as well! KILLFALLDANCEDIE!

But... there's more than 4 haha

Thanks! Were you able to get to the portion of the game with more puzzle mechanics involved? All in all, it's a short game that should only take around 10 minutes to play through the full experience.

Amazing idea! Like others have mentioned, the onboarding process a rough point, but the mechanics are great! Hope to see a post-jam version!

Great game! I got all the way through to the final portion, and then ended up having to brute force the solution. Not sure if there were supposed to be more clues for the final order of the five words.

Wow, this is some seriously impressive art for a 48 hour jam. Really well done.

Short, but definitely presents some good ideas.

I think you have a good sense of aesthetics, and actually come fairly close to strong minimalistic art style. The gradient shading/lighting following the main character adds a lot. Unfortunately, this aesthetic is broken by the menu UI, and the off-screen background.

Another powerful characteristic of strong minimalistic art is having consistent sizing and spacing. If you don't have beautiful illustrations, you can embrace the beauty of geometric perfection.

For what it's worth, you aren't supposed to jump to the vent, you're supposed to open the filing cabinets underneath in order to climb up. Haha.

That being said, the level design likely should have been set up in a such a way that it is extremely clear that it is impossible to jump there at all.

Really excellent entry!

I was absolutely dying for some closure though.

Also perhaps a minor bug, but once the messages go garbled, the fall messages stay ungarbled, just fyi.

Hope to see this developed further and released as a full game!

I downloaded the game and was disappointed that it didn't actually close the game when the babybots ran out :P

#1 and #2 certainly, and I'd say they felt more stiff than choppy. In particular, I think the fact that the main character animated the same no matter how fast your character was moving, or if your character was moving at all added to the stiff feeling.

The shadow monster didn't feel particularly dynamic because the sprites seemed to just constantly rotate in a circle at a fixed speed, as opposed to potentially slightly more varied movements.

I think you have a pretty significant choice to make in terms of the direction of your game. Do you want it to be a level based puzzler using possession mechanics, or do you want it to be more of a steeple chase, where you constantly are passing the torch?

I'd lean towards embracing the latter, simply because I think that one interaction has a lot of emotional impact that can potentially be built upon in tons of interesting and varied ways.

If you lean towards the puzzle genre, one potential mechanic that might work well could be to make the darkness only move when you do. That way, the player has time to think about their next move, but also has a constant impending sense of doom.

I will be mad if this game does not get top 20

whale done

Love it. A very original and excellent take on the theme. Takes a classic concept and gamifies in an extremely charming way. Well done!

100% agree, the most satisfying moments of the game happened when you were leading enemies on a big chase, and watching the ball blow them up.

Not much risk of getting hit by the ball I admit, but maybe it would have been even cooler to just embrace the fun of that mechanic, and do away with the self damage entirely. Different concept in the end though for sure, that would probably look more like an arcade game in the Geometry Wars style, or something similar.

An outstanding platform puzzler! Graphics and music are top notch, and I absolute adore the animation of the rat magnetizing things below.

The mechanic is great, and seeing it happen is super satisfying. Definitely one of the best games I've seen so far. Hopefully more people get to see it!

For improvements, I noticed that the physics were a little wonky, and it was easy for blocks to get stuck in somewhat diagonal positions.

The level designs were interesting, but on a few of them, I solved them without using all of the level's elements. On the one level with the long passageway leading to the two sets of magnetic platform blocks, I skipped a huge part of the level by just managing to immediately get the jump boost block down below and jump up to the top right away.

The biggest suggestion for the mechanics would be to not consume the projectile ammo unless it actually connects with something. Consuming it upon hitting the wall seemed overly punishing for a puzzle game, and just required a level restart for no good reason.

Not at all! I appreciate any feedback. Definitely had a tough time trying to strike a balance between:
1. The joy of the physics playground
2. The emotional experience of messages, and the meaning behind choice or the lack thereof
3. The mechanical puzzle aspects

Your comments definitely highlight the struggle, and it might have been better to try to cut one of those three aspects entirely, and just focus on two.

Controls are really tight. I appreciate the speed of the animations in keeping with the hardcore pace of the game. This is a very specific type of game, with a specific niche, but there's definitely an audience for this kind of thing. I don't necessarily agree with the comments saying to make it easier, but this definitely isn't, nor should it be, as mass crowd pleaser type of game. Could definitely use some in-game tutorialization to at least introduce you to which characters can deal with which obstacles though.

With these kinds of games though, I think presentation is a huge part of what makes or breaks them. It's important to be able to get players into a trance-like flow state, and the art and music will play a huge part in that if you keep iterating on this project.

Cute take on a Reigns clone. Content is well put together, and I quite enjoyed some of the cards.

Getting the same card multiple times in a single run was a little bit of a bummer, but with only 48 hours there's only so much content that could have been created.

Thanks for the feedback! For most of the game, from a mechanical perspective, it really doesn't matter which side you focus on. Mostly, it's a narrative device for players who care about which of the two traits remain. It only starts to really matter towards the end, as more puzzle-esque mechanics are introduced.

Short and sweet.

Really enjoyed the concepts and the theming, but admittedly was unfortunately not a huge fan of the execution.

Really shines at the start, where you are passing the light just as the darkness is about to engulf you, in a noble sacrifice.

In terms of game design, was definitely expecting a lot more puzzle style mechanics, as well as the possessing of multiple types of characters with different abilities. In the end, unfortunately it just ended up being a fairly straightforward platformer, just with one checkpoint-esque mechanic in the light tossing.

Technically speaking, I was quite satisfied with the intelligent arcs the light was passed in depending on the positions of the two entities. Unfortunately I had lot of performance issues whenever I respawned, leading to a lot of failed inputs on jumps shortly after respawning.

The art style felt a bit inconsistent to me though. Some things were detailed, while others weren't. Some things looked too realistic while other things looked too stylized. The animations felt a bit stiff and choppy at times.

Quite enjoyed the audio on its own, though maybe a little too heavy on the ambient sounds given the style of game. Wasn't expecting that much ambience in a 2d platformer. From a mood perspective though, it didn't feel like it quite matched the gameplay either, which felt like a frantic scramble to safety, versus a mysterious adventure through the woods.