itch.io

I'm not sure if this game is buggy, or trolling the player, but that whole "lose all the pages when you die" thing basically means the game must be played all the way through without dying. Because if you do die, you have to go all the way back to the beginning to get the pages.

Okay, that could be worse, you're basically playing it through without the bosses. Except...

You need to then wait until you're ready to fight the final boss to get any of the ability upgrades because they don't properly reset when you respawn (so, better beat the final boss on the first try), but it's doable. Except...

The first progress-blocking chicken-wall respawns when you do, and if you respawn past it, you might not be able to destroy it in order to go back and get the early game pages.

I've tried a few times to get the "good" ending, and I'm giving up because it's just unplayable if you're going for 100%.

But other than that (and the somewhat awkward control choice of ZXCD with D being dash - which I find makes for awkward use of jump, attack and dash in combos), a decent mini metroidvania.

Interesting idea, animation is pretty smooth. Definitely has potential. But it's practically unplayable on a laptop because of that left click/right click interface. It doesn't look like the mouse is being used for any purpose other than for two buttons, so please forget about the mouse and focus on good keyboard inputs. Not only will that make the game playable on more systems, but it's a more proper input since the mouse implies other interactions that I'm guessing the game doesn't use (although I could be wrong since I only played long enough to realize I wasn't going to be able to play it on my laptop - so maybe there's something later)

Please don't use the mouse button for attack if you don't actually need the mouse. Not only is is a bad experience on laptops, especially with touchpads, but the use of a mouse implies the ability to aim the weapon, since that's part of what a mouse affords, which makes the mouse the wrong input device.

So... just to confirm.... even though the mouse is being used to attack, the direction in which you attack is not related in any way to where your mouse cursor is?

If that's the case then please DON'T USE THE MOUSE TO ATTACK! It's an unnecessarily confusing input method that makes it feel like the controls should be different than they are. A keyboard key would make it both a more intuitive interface because it wouldn't provide the wrong "affordance" that the mouse provides by suggesting you can aim! It also is a bad experience on a laptop with a touchpad to require lots of clicking (for various reasons).

I've only played for a few minutes, so i might be missing a later mechanic that requires it, but if not... for the love of gaming NO! JUST! NO! Enough with game developers using the mouse as just a substitute button for game mechanics that don't require aiming. If a game could be designed to work perfectly well with a NINTENDO gamepad (not even a SNES gamepad) there's absolutely no reason it should ever use the mouse. Not only is it the wrong interface, because a mouse has a particular interaction paradigm - screen navigation/interaction - but it's also an absolutely awful way to interact on a laptop that has a touchpad, making it not only the wrong choice but one that reduces accessibility. This specific UX choice has become a blight on itch in particular. I don't know what started it, but please please please help end it, I'm begging you.

Other than that I will say, good work on the animation and movement, everything at least feels smooth. If there's any indication of where you respawn when you switch characters, I didn't see it. I assumed at first it might be at the globes - but that doesn't seem to be the case, so as a result I managed to get myself stuck where the two characters were respawning at different locations that neither could move on or back from. So, I think there might be some bugs to iron out, but it's got potential.

It might just be me, but the game appears unplayable using the arrow keys. While the keys do work for moving, the up-dash doesn't seem to work, which is a critical move for level 1. (WASD does work though)

I will second bigjus' comment (and thank you bigjus - I was starting to think I was alone in calling out games for that control decision). I played the game for the 3 seconds required to confirm that there wasn't an undocumented attack key, and came straight down here to make that comment.

I feel like I should comment anyway, to provide feedback from another perspective (general UX rather than just specifically the laptop limitation):

A mouse isn't just a substitute for a button, it allows an entirely different style of interaction than a keyboard or gamepad. If the additional gameplay mechanics you mention include things that require pointing/dragging/scrollwheel/etc, then obviously the mouse is the way to go. But if no such interactions are involved, the mouse isn't a particularly intuitive "button" because that's not what a mouse is. And if the concern is that the additional mechanics will need more buttons, I'd be even more concerned about using a mouse as just a button, because then you're limited to two or three buttons - but you could do more with both hands on the keyboard. (and if you are planning anything that might use left and right click at the same time, I'll mention that's not even possible on a trackpad, so the controls move from awkward to impossible at that point).

If the game really does need the mouse, then using the mouse button for attack might well make sense, since you really don't want the player to have to keep switching between mouse and keyboard. But without aimed attacks, it's difficult (for me at least) to imagine a 2D platformer game that would actually benefit from using the mouse.

Animations look pretty cute, at least the animals on level one. I can't go any further than that on my laptop because, if I understand right "right click" rotates an animal while you drag it? If so, that's not possible on a trackpad since you can't both hold a left click and hit a right click at the same time

Thanks. Gave it another shot. Not bad, the bosses have a little bit of that "Nintendo hard" flavour to them, which I assume is what you were going for. Haven't beaten the third boss yet.

First boss had a couple issues, I think - one that made it maybe unintentionally challenging, and one that made it "cheesable", which I'm not sure if that was intended. The cheesing - could walk right up, and keep kicking until it telegraphed the hammer swing, had just enough time to walk out of the way, then turn around and repeat. I assume that's intentional given how tight the timing was, but I was able to pretty much repeat that indefinitely until I won. Maybe the attacks didn't randomize as much as intended?

The challenge with the first boss is that when it's bouncing around, it's not obvious when it's coming back in for a landing, so you can think you're walking under its bounce, and then it just ends the bounce midair and reappears on top of you.

Second boss was solid, good telegraphing of attacks - pretty sure all my issues with that on were just my own skill and getting my fingers tangled around the controls.

I played it until I found out that punch and kick were bound to mouse buttons (so, not very long). This control decision makes the game nearly or completely unplayable on a laptop with a trackpad depending on that trackpad's behaviour, and doesn't provide any benefits over a fully-keyboard control scheme.

The mouse has a particular use - cursor control (ideal for interacting with objects on screen, aiming, etc), not simply a stand-in for the button part of a gamepad, and using it just as a trigger not only is an inappropriate control choice, but one that hurts the playability of a game that doesn't inherently require the control a mouse provides.

Please don't use left-click for attack when there's no aiming involved. Everyone seems to be doing this now for some reason, and it's a terrible UX. The mouse only makes sense to use when cursor positioning is involved (including aiming weapons, etc). Using it only because it has a button on it is... inappropriate. I wish I knew what's driving this recent trend so I could cut it off at the source.

There are several traditional keyboard keys that work perfectly fine and make a game more portable to laptops that may not have a mouse connected and can have terrible experiences with trying to use trackpads simultaneously with keyboard.

Added a "witty narrator" that we're expected to listen to to help figure out how to edit the headline? Would that be the narrator that seems to be mumbling under the "background" music, and so can't really be heard?

I ignored the narrator the first time because it just seemed like background noise. Realized it might be important when it took FOREVER to skip the text the second time - until the narrator stopped talking. Quit the game at that point because I can't be bothered wasting my time to strain to listen to something I can't make out in order to figure out the specific magnetic fridge poetry the dev had in mind.

Maxed out everything except the star multiplier (that gets pretty insanely expensive at higher levels - but it doesn't really matter since by the time you're close to even trying to max it out you've already bought all the star upgrades anyway).

Never figured out what the "pressure energy" was supposed to be. I got the impression from the slowly growing number on (what I assume is) the pressure power indicator that it provides a multiplier on the pressure power, but the number of cubes/second processed was always just equal to the purchased pressure power, not the number displayed in the factory UI. A bug in which number is used in the cube-subtraction loop? Or am I unclear on what the grey number under the Ready/cube counter is and what the pressure energy does?

The compass had me confused at first too. You're actually following it backwards. Either the dev was trying to leave a hint that ended up too obvious, or tried to stylize the compass and accidentally made it a bit misleading.

The indicators on the compass look like they're arrows pointing toward the center, and you're following the "arrows" I assume? That's certainly what I thought and did. You actually want to ignore that arrow shape, and follow the compass in the direction that would be obvious without the "arrows" pointing opposite.

What you've found is the "secondary" use of the compass that you'll need later.

Well, when the dev says "dark [...] platformer", I guess it doesn't get much darker than pitch black 🤣

Seriously though, same problem on a Lenovo laptop, with integrated Intel graphics running on Chrome on Windows 11, except that I actually see what I think might be a health bar, or a battery bar or something in the bottom left corner in mine that isn't in your screenshot. Otherwise, just a black screen.

A hint in the room with the rocket launcher seems to suggest that rockets can destroy some walls - but I've never been able to gets the rockets to follow me well enough to guide them to any walls, so I can't confirm that.

Can't help with your window size question, but I can give you a couple notes on the controls having tried it for just a minute. Supporting both WASD and arrow keys is definitely nice. And having a keyboard option for firing is a treat. A surprising number of platformer "game devs" (on this site especially it seems) seem to forget that platformers games don't all need mice, and just use WASD + mouse when the mouse doesn't even make sense. So kudos on providing a control scheme that's more friendly to people on laptops or who just don't want to use a mouse!

That being said, you've got a bug in the controls, so the up arrow key doesn't jump, meaning I would have to try with the WASD keys... and W for jumping with Ctrl for firing doesn't make for a good combination in a web browser 🤣

Looks like there might actually be two "solutions" (but only one "right" one). Shift the top row two spaces left, and then adjust the little details accordingly.

Cute graphics. Chicken movement seems pretty smooth. Might be a fun short platformer for someone else, but I won't play it. I played long enough to discover that attack is "left mouse click". There's no reason for that. You simply attack in the direction you're facing, which mean the mouse button is just being used as a worse alternative to any other key on the keyboard (especially on laptops with touchpads where it can be unplayable). Sorry if this sounds harsh, but it's a pet peeve of mine in these casual platformer games - developers seem to think that WASD + mouse is the ultimate universal controller. If a game could have been fully controlled with an original Nintendo controller, mouse input shouldn't even be a consideration.

Pretty cute. The game plays well, although the fact that the characters snap to grid (sometimes?) when switching sometimes throw things off if you happen to have switched at a slightly wrong time.

Somehow got 22 fruits - not sure how with 21 levels.

And I'm tempted to not mention it, since it would deprive others of the creatively abusive solutions to the puzzles, but I'm guessing the fact you can always jump immediately after switching characters is a bug?

Cute game, cute art, audio felt like a perfect fit for the gameplay and art style. Gosling follow logic worked really well for the most part - seemed a bit sticky on some corners, but that might have been a deliberate gameplay choice to make the player have to control it more carefully.

I'm not sure if I solved the last puzzle properly, if not then there's two solutions and the "wrong" one might be easier as it was the only way I found. I wish I'd realized sooner that the arrow keys also worked for movement, since I found WASD + E a bit awkward since I sometimes had to mash the E button to get the gosling around corners, and once you realize how high you can jump it really seems like you should be able to jump over the fences (it doesn't take long to realize you can't, but it's a bit misleading for a moment). But otherwise, no notes.

A very nice, casual, puzzle platformer.

Over-all, pretty good. Graphics were cute. Not particularly challenging, outside some of the timing for toggling between worlds - hard to time a moving platform that you can't see. And there were a couple "puzzles", or at least interactions that either felt like they could have been either a "shoehorned" puzzle, or a bug, and I couldn't tell which (in particular a level where I couldn't jump up platforms but could 'clip" onto them, and the fact that I couldn't carry the rock over the button, that could have been a "puzzle" or bad collision detection with the buttons)

The last level was definitely tough, but mainly because of the bug that causes the player to get knocked off the pillars. Because the timing of the platforms immediately after is so perfectly unforgiving, there are many many chances to hit that bug. I didn't find that jumping helped much - standing in the middle seemed to be the much more reliable of the solutions in my case.

Also that last level kind of "breaks" the game logic. Starting when you get the world switching ability everything that changes has two states - then on the last level the pillars have multiple states (and maybe even differing numbers of states, since I could line then up differently on different runs?) That was obviously deliberate, but it violates the world model that the previous levels built for the player.

And please please please will developers stop assuming that players want to either slowly read the game story or skip it completely. Some of us read quickly, and get very bored watching text slowly appear.

Aiming? Who needs that? ;)

There seems to be a 3 "gator" limit, so just move around them until they get grouped up then dodge them until you get as high a score as you want.

Even better is if you shoot the group by accident, you'll kill them all in one shot, and they'll respawn in a group, so once you get them grouped up you never again have to worry about having trouble with aiming or dodging.

There's "vague", then there's "Nostradamus", then there's Horoscopes, then somewhere waaaaay further along the scale are the hints from this game. And that scale might be logarithmic.

I finally beat it because I got 5 bananas and everyone who wanted one said "Potassium". Because apparently a clue referring to yellow isn't a banana (even when the only yellow thing in my inventory is a banana), and something about a nice curve isn't a banana when the only curved thing in the inventory is a banana.

Graphics are pretty cute though.

44, and it would have been 45, but 45 was a slightly-too-dark icon in the upper-left corner, which also happened to be the dark corner of the pattern. I almost thought it was, but another icon looked a bit more off to me, so I picked the wrong choice on the 50/50.

I ran into the same bug. Also, watched the walkthrough, and the solution to that level is exactly what I thought it was, but I can't perform it. For me the wall always just clips through me so I get stuck halfway up.

So I'm going to second the "good idea" opinion of Waffelnsalat - I've seen time travel mechanics in puzzle games, and there's always some potential there. But there's definitely some bugs.

Oh right, there was a "free look" control. I didn't even think to use it to pick up the things I'd dropped.  I actually saw that, tried looking around briefly, didn't see the point (and it was hard to use from my laptop because my touchpad isn't really good for "right drag") so completely forgot about it.

I'll give it another shot later (and maybe plug my mouse in) and see how it feels!

First impressions:

• Animation is smooth
• Retro graphics look good
• Interacting with environment is waaaaaaay to difficult

That third point probably needs some elaboration. Managed to figure out how to break open the crate (basically by accident), tried to pick up the wand, no indication at all of what it should do. Tried dropping it into inventory slots - none of them worked. Any time I dropped it it dropped in a location where I couldn't see it, and had to walk all around it trying from different angles until I found a position where it didn't say "too far".

Pretty good. For the most part the puzzles were interesting and the gameplay pretty smooth. The different mechanics worked well together.

My only two complaints that come to mind off hand are level 3-8 is a bit trial-and-error because you can't see the whole map, so you don't know if an initial move is going to immediately be a dead-end since there's no ability to plan ahead, and the single-space conveyors are a bit awkward. The timing on the conveyors is such that if you don't release the key quickly enough, you'll trigger a step when you get off the conveyor - which is a real problem when there's a hazard one space past the conveyor exit.

Quests aren't automatic. When you're ready to do the quest, you have to "activate" it by dropping it in the action bar (like a potion/etc), then it will summon the right enemy immediately for a fight.

I wondered if they might be multipliers when they didn't seem to have much effect. Maybe some info somewhere (or if it is there, making it more obvious, because I missed it anyway) to say what effect each thing has?

In the end, I went back and did beat it - I harvested enough mahogany and titanium to grab a few Titanium 1 axes and  picks, used that to quickly get a dozen more of each. Used that to quickly get  few dozen Titanium 1 swords and armor, and was surprised to find out I was already stronger than the other guy. Not sure if that's quite the way it was intended to be beaten ;)

Definitely sounds like you've got some ideas to play with though, so I'll be interested to see what you do with it.

And I'm afraid I still haven't figured out a reproduce for the "cant move" bug, if I do I'll let you know. And feel free to let me know if you need me to test anything.

Also also, another bug if a fight comes up when you have a travel confirmation dialog open, the game soft-locks, you can't dismiss any of the popups.

Overall an interesting base idea, but I'm afraid the implementation both in terms of refining the mechanics and the bugs needs work.

This might seem ironic to say about a clicker game, but there's a lot of unnecessary clicking. When traveling, or gathering resources, there's only one action, and there's a button for it in the corner. But clicking that button only opens another button to click. I've lost track of how many times I tried to run between locations, only to realize I was just rapidly opening and closing the actual run button popup because I was rapidly clicking on the thing that said "run". Why not have the "run" and "gather" buttons do exactly what they say on the tin, rather than being "[open the] run [dialog]"?

Did you ever solve level 9? If not, I just figured it out myself after many attempts, so here's a hint - the make or break moment for the level is when you reroute the grey connection to prepare for the green. You can set up for the end-level right there, if you don't, you have one more chance after connecting the red, before connecting the purple - but it's a lot more connection juggling.