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Totally valid. Thanks for taking the time to play! Your feedback will only help make the game better. We’re actively in the process of dialing in the difficulty for a more fair and engaging experience. Appreciate you!

Ciao Roboticy! Thanks for your feedback! We're delighted you enjoyed.

Agreed that the current iteration of the health and reset system is frustrating. It's a solid prototype and enough to capture that addictive "just one more try" feel a lot of players are expressing enjoyment for, but it needs more work. Which is great, because that's exactly what we're going to give it!

In the full version, the health system will probably be in bar form, allowing for more scalability with upgrades and greater failure lenience in the first area. Resets will still wipe some progress (as this is a core feature of roguelite design), but similar to what you're suggesting, not all progress. Another issue in the current iteration is that replays don't have a lot to distinguish themselves from one another, which is also core to a roguelite experience. Stuff like additional powers, stat modifiers, and other resources. So the runs feel too similar even with procedural levels. Finally, I think the overall difficulty is too high in general for a first-time player. Again, a consequence of jam time having only a handful of external playtesting sessions for design iteration. While those kinds of changes and systems were way beyond scope for a jam with everything else we wanted to deliver, we definitely hear you, and they will be a major focus moving forward.

Oh, so that I can update my bug tracker, could you let me know which bug stopped you from finishing? 

Thanks for helping us make the game better!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! We’ll make sure to iron out those bugs and have controller support along with key remapping in the full thing.

Sick, I didn't even know I could do that. Yeah, that's much easier. I'd love it if you taught me that by putting me in a room with no way out and a single mushroom with a cliff edge I could only reach by performing that move + tutorial text. I think part of the difficulty too is that the bouncing feedback implies that I can bounce higher with jump and that that is the correct way to approach mushrooms, when it is actually not. Mushrooms at least twice as big I think would also help. And teaching in a death-free area so I can get a feel for the mechanic before dealing with pressure. Also also, can I still perform that downward swing after getting the punch-y hands?

I'm super jealous you know how to make 3D games! I've only done a couple and my company needs to transition to Unreal sooner rather than later for 3D games. Alas! BucketHead first.

I think you're in a great position if you want to pursue making indie games. You could probably do some cool stuff with this game if you tighten up traversal and combat, deepen your upgrades, maybe deep dive on how Hyper Light Drifter handles those, then translate it into your context / in 3D. Your game reminds me a bit of Psuedoregalia in a good way.

Here's to the dream!

Works on Mac! If I input it incorrectly, it still does the grey screen thing, but when done correctly it will download and let me play. I triple checked on Windows, but no matter what I seem to get a grey screen.

Into the Hive felt more controlled. I still found myself getting lost and not knowing where to go. I wonder if fog of war on the maps, only revealing as I go would help.

I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the teams efforts! Everyone worked so hard.

Completely agree about the boss fight, it needs a little more time in the oven for polish.

Same with the energy system and resets! We very much designed that for the scope of a game jam, and they also could’ve used some more iteration. They’re on the slate to be completely reworked and expanded on for the full commercial version with the goal of making replays fresh and exciting, rather than frustrating. There’s a lot of fun stuff we can play with there.

I sincerely appreciate your feedback! It’ll help make a better game.

Thanks for playing!

Appreciate the feedback on power clarity. I’ll revamp that part of the tutorial on the commercial version. Alas, no dice on complete gamepad support in jam time. 😭

Definitely agree that the game is difficult without upgrades. We found in playtesting that the difficulty increased engagement by providing stronger motivation for the collection / upgrade purchasing loop, better power enhancement instinct fulfillment, and creating interesting risk versus reward decision-making on how long to continue a run. To balance that difficulty, we opted to make the first health upgrade and dash very affordable, as well as letting the player keep a small amount of collectibles even on death. In the end, difficulty was something I seriously considered reducing, but my playtesters consistently indicated that they didn’t want that. Sharing in case you’re curious behind the design process that led to that! The health system will probably be reworked entirely for the commercial version. 

Once again, I appreciate your feedback! It’ll help make a better game.

Props to you from another project manager! That’s no easy feat on top of everything else. I’m delighted it was a great experience.

meow, good sirs/madams. meow

🙌

You bet! We had a blast developing a completely new and different experience, one that we think is a lot more entertaining, around the character.

That one was Windows. I can also try Mac if you’d like. 

Got it! Well, that’s what I get for zooming past tutorials.
I really like that the structure of that room locks you in it, so you’re forced to learn the mechanic rather than bouncing off and exploring in the wrong direction. Here’s a few things I think could make it more intuitive:

• Pickaxes don’t naturally signify climbing, so you could change it to some other item that does (but I like the pickaxe and it fits your theming)
• You could use mental priming by having another pickaxe (or a few) (possibly broken for styling) wedged up and down that vertical corridor you want players to climb up
• You could mention climbing as the first part of the tutorial so players like me who are fast skip will at least see that. Then move the rock into a position where they must break it after climbing. Because a pickaxe DOES naturally signify breaking rocks, and I’m a lot more likely to try that intuitively even if I missed tutorial text. Essentially, give me the important, less intuitive stuff in text format first so I don’t miss it.
• Video tutorial (show me climbing with the pickaxe)

There’s probably some more stuff you could do here with iteration, but that’s some stuff just off the top of my head.  Thanks for the experience!

ooooh! Cool. Did I just completely miss that in the tutorial? Woops.

Thanks Spooky! I'm glad you enjoyed and that all those hours of bugfixing and polishing weren't wasted. So many bugfixing. :')

The art style is a hard YES. Nice stuff.

I'm confused about the comment for hitting spikes to launch into the air. I hit them with the sword and nothing happens. I hit them with my face and I get a headache.

Those platform ghost things were AWESOME. I loved the idea of having a living platform and the visual design was cool.

LEG DAAAAAAYY!

Thanks for that! Fun little mechanic wrapped in a short but sweet package. I would've loved more music throughout the experience, but still enjoyed nonetheless.

I've been looking forward to this one! Woo! Finally made it to yours guys'.

Some seriously smooth effects here and great lore building. Also nice use of micro-reward to keep me hooked towards my overall goal.

I think my own personal hell would be a room with an army of red lizard dudes.

I got stuck after getting the pickaxe and couldn't get out of the room.

I always like seeing enemy variety in a way that makes me move or engage in interesting ways. Thanks for that! And impressive that you got multiple biomes in with the time you had. Ah, the nostalgia.

Love to hear teams having a great experience! That warms my heart.

Ooo, hope you enjoy BucketHead: Infinite!

Dude, building an engine from scratch and also finishing a game in thirty days is insane. Mad props to you.

I can't get past the floaty winds with spikes at the bottom. I will have to find Distant Paradise... in the afterlife...

Oh! I also enjoyed the lore drops. Very intriguing.

lololol I, too, find doors to be my sworn nemesis. Somehow, they always win in the end...

Thank you for the kind words, and I'm delighted you enjoyed! I'll loop back and get you a free key as a thanks for being an early playtester once we've got the full commercial version built and released on Steam.

Thanks for the tip! I'll keep an eye out for that next time. So funny that I've made this many games and still don't know that. xD

And re: Cactus Cowboy, I definitely did. :D

Like everyone else, I'm a fan of the art and music. The first time I saw the cat in the mech was WOW. More games with cats please.

In case it's useful to you on this or future projects, here's a few level design tips I've picked up from industry professionals:

• Composition: stick to the same rules of art composition so the level is visually pleasing
• Guidance: use light, leading lines, pickups/rewards/collectibles, locks (interesting things the player cannot get past) leading lines, and weenies (large or extremely visually distinct objects) to guide the player through the experience
• A-B Encounter Design: introduce one enemy at a time so the player can get familiar with them, then you can start pairing after they're familiar. Enemies that pair together in interesting ways that force interesting choices, tradeoffs, or new ways of playing keep the experience fresh throughout.
  
• Difficulty Curves: basic AAA challenge structure (which works really well and feels great to players) is easy-easy-medium, followed by easy-easy-hard. This lets people feel good about themselves, but applies pressure over time and as their skills ramp.
• Verticality: use varying heights to mix up the experience and alter power levels.

If you improve your levels, you could really do some amazing stuff.

Here's to making something great!

These characters are insane! Neat stuff and the CRT was a fun call. Also that music fits perfectly. I felt like a lot of attacks were hard or impossible to dodge, which took me out of it some. Thanks for the experience! It was extremely unique.

This character design is next level. Some neat enemy mechanics, too. And good use of level shortcuts! That's a rare one in jam games. If you polished up your backgrounds, added some slick game feel, more micro reward, some post-processing, bug fixing, and maybe more lore (because a world of cacti people is fun), I think you could make a commercial version.

I'm trying to click the first card and play it, but it just keeps returning to my inventory, so I can't get out of the first area. I am, alas, the most incompetent of tanks. Please send backup.

What's better than a slime? An ASCII slime. Way to knock out a prototype!

Eyyy, I know that guy.

There's some neat world lore here!

Proper nouns, meet my death cannon. Oh wait, where's my death cannon? I'm getting kulingaed hard over here. It took me three replays to realize it was in that first crate. I think your level design would work a lot better if you blocked progression with a destructible of some sort and had the crate right in front of it, so the player couldn't progress until (1) learning how to interact and (2) get the weapon.

Your dynamic music system is killer.

I'd love to see a version of this with a bunch more game juice and some cool dodge mechanics for encounters.

Neat concept! Who ran your project management for a team of that size? That's a ton of people! I hope you all had a blast making this.

30 day game jam? 5 hours good enough to fulfill the fantasies I didn't know I had to become the world's most athletic worm. Gotta agree about that music, it's bopping. Also love your twist on jumping, which totally makes sense for a worm. I wish I could use the 3-long spikes as a moving platform. This is really good for 5 hours. If I tried that, my game would look and play like Bubsy 3D as made by a kindergartner in MS Paint.  Color me impressed!

Your ending is 100/10. I was crying laughing. Very satisfying.

Very ambitious including companion AI in a jam game! Nice. I really wish I kept my normal move speed while using telekinesis so it would feel a ton better. Took me a bit to realize I could open the red things; an onscreen prompt like the ladders would help. I would love to see more use of the telekinesis and friends together!

I'm sold. Your themeing? 4/2.75 bananas. Me brain good. I love that you can't even walk at first. So good. Good backtracking design where when I return over that initial area, it's with the jump so it feels fresh. Nice mix of challenges.

Your logo and cover design are siiiiiick. Those wall crawlers are going to give me nightmares. I got stuck in the room with the army of square hoppers on small platforms over the spike pit. I died, then kept respawning and getting torn apart by one of them that was spawn camping me. How do I report the square hopper for bullying?

I didn't realize there was community level creation/downloading. Neat! I tried downloading into the hive, but it just stalls onto a grey screen for me.

lololol Sometimes I feel like a game jam is just a long line of those moments.

Wicked! Thanks for the tip.

Oh neat! It's fun to see your evolution as a creator there as they are vaguely similar concepts where you play a robot trying to collect powers to progress in a 3D platforming environment. Keep it up!

Dang deadlines. 
Great job getting that much done as a team of one!

Haha! Oh cool! Gimme a link, I’ll try that one for fun, too.

It is kind of unusual to do that, huh? My game system designer and I disagreed on jump as an upgrade, but in the end we opted to do it because it’s good tutorial fodder in this context.