Don't get me wrong, the game is very good. But I, personaly, don't think it fits on a Bitsy jam.

Thanks for the kind review, I'm glad you liked it!

Very deep story, and heart touching ending. The pixel art is amazing, very polished and well made. Awesome game, congrats!

he probably used tons of Bitsy Hacks but I feel like that kinda breaks the purpose of the Bitsy Game Jam...

Very well made, but needs a little polishment. Congrats and keep the good work!

Thank you! Glad you liked it.

Very well made game and well told story!

Very touching, the way the story goes, really makes you feel the pain of not having answers for something thats destroying your life day by day.

Quite fun for a week-long project! Wouldn't be better if new blue mushrooms fell on more randomized places? Also, it's not fair for them to spawn right above a red one.

I asked for happiness. It was already at home all along... Awesome game guys, very nice!

Very cool game

I got a game juice overdose. This game is awesome, congrats!

Thanks for playing, even tho this is just me testing out this tiny engine called Bitsy. The music is an 8bit version of Time, from Hans Zimmer that I found on YouTube.

First of all: your game is awesome, the idea of switching between monsters to activate certain "skills" is really cool and creative.

Now for the feedback

- I noticed there's already some sound in the game, but the introductory text says there's no sounds at all

- Was I supposed to double jump in the air when switching from the little ghost to the pink blob?

- It's not very clear what the left-mouse button skill is when you're with the ghost

- The falling leaves have an inverse behavior: when you fall, they fall faster, when you move up, they fall slower

- I got stuck for sometime on the shop menu as soon as I clicked a monster to inspect at the garden (I didn't know how to do anything else and it's not very clear what to do here, but I managed myself out of that screen when I started a mission, but I couldn't figure out how to equip or buy a monster besides the ghost and the slime)

- If you select a monster on the shop then type 1 or 2, sometimes the camera moves to position 0, 0

- There are some very hard (or impossible) parts to get by without getting damage at the meat grinder level (on the green smoke stuff)

- There should be a counter of enemies killed on levels where the mission is to kill certain amount. I played one for over 5 min and it felt like they were infinite

Overall the game is very promising, looks awesome, feels good and its very creative, with very complex routines, such as the upgrade store and mission system. Congrats, I'll sure be willing to see the full version.

Man, your point of view about reluctance is amazing, I agree with what you think about it. Its just that this way of thinking must be taken in a very cautious way, because in order to finish a game you *must* have a well defined scope, otherwise the chances are you never finish it because new ideas pop all the time. I talked about this on this old reddit post of mine. But I agree with you that sometimes it's good (and even needed) for the scope to change a little bit. I'll definetely change the levels if the jump is not good, thank you for sharing these great thoughts!

The tools I used to make this game are Phaser (TypeScript), Tiled (for the map), Piskel (for the art) and Beepbox (for the music and sfx). It's fully open source, you can check all the code here: https://github.com/diguifi/Dude-SideScroll

I'm at work right now, but I'm willing to play your game and answer your feedback post since when I saw it! Will play it soon and check your level design techniques! I'll also answer your post with some feedback :)

Yes, I do plan short maps, I plan a short game in general. It was supposed to be just a learning project (never used Phaser, nor TypeScript before) but it got so cool that I evolved the idea and started to make this game.

** MINOR SPOILER AHEAD **

I plan 2 boss encounters, but if you don't play the game "correctly" it will be only one boss.

Hi, thank you very much for taking the time to play through and writing this feedback (sorry about the bats, must have been frustrating).

Regarding the art style: all the BEAUTIFUL background and grass wasn't made by me, it was made by jesse-m and the gems were made by piclet. I made the rest: moving entities, activatables, items and music. If you have any questions on how I did it, I would be glad to share!

About the floaty jump, everyone noticed it feels weird, I was thinking about removing the delay to jump again after you fall and smoothing movements, maybe it is enough for it to "feel" better. I'm very reluctant about changing the mechanic completely (e.g. by speeding up the fall) because it would break many of the level design based on the jump (such as the large gap on level 2). But if it's still not good after removing the delay, I'll consider speeding up the fall (and modifying all levels aswell :'/ ).

The death mechanic is indeed very harsh, as suggested by Here's Andy TV, I'll modify the death system, only reseting to the begining after you lose 3 health.

About the bats: Yes! They need a lot of changes. I thought about making their movement be a sine wave, in order for it to be killed in a more easy way.  "not letting them notice the player until they're illuminated by the light" man, this is an AWESOME idea, sounds obvious now, but it simply hasn't come to my mind! I'll sure do this.

Regardings your sugestions...

... about the heart items: Yes! I was thinking about it too, maybe add some secret areas too where you can find hearts.

... about the shield as an upgrade: It sounds awesome, but I don't think it fits the game scope for now, If I finish this game and the release makes at least a little success, I would create a sequel with some new mechanics such as this one.

Again, thank you very much for your feedback and suggestions, means a lot that you took your time to try this tiny game of mine!

Very well made game!

Hi man! Thanks again for answering.

- Jump: Yes you're right, I'll try to polish the jump so it feels more responsive and natural

- Block reset: Would a floating "R" button above the block everytime it gets stuck be good? Then after pressing "R" the block respawns. The only problem with this is calculating whether the block is stuck or not :/

About the jump: Agreed, i'll remove the jump delay, maybe the game even feels smoother without it!

About lives: Here'sAndyTV also addressed these issues, and suggested a very good approach for the health system, which is: when get hit, just lose a heart without returning to the begining, but after losing all hearts, there is a number of main lives that decrease and then you returning to the begining of the level. Obviously, after all main lives are gone, its game over. Sounds way better, doesn't it?

Man, I couldn't ask for a more complete and well organized feedback, thank you very much for taking this much time to play and formulate your feedback, means a lot. I'll try to address each topic.

- About the color of the text on the cutscene: I had noticed it too, its a little annoying indeed. I will sure change it, thanks for the suggestions!

- About the speed of the dialogs: thanks for the suggestion, I would suggest the same, something like "pokemon" text transitions where you click a button to read the next sentence.

- About game volume: This is a very good observation, I have a really loud headphone, tried it on a less powerful one and the music really changes the volume too abruptly! Will make it smoother for now and add volume settings in the future.

- About being reset when hit: It was a "temporary" mechanich that ended up on the final demo version xD I also don't think that is the best way to react to a hit, but I thought it might enhance the "rouguelike" feeling. But it should be more polished and your suggestion sounds perfect, thanks! I'll sure change it.

- About the jump: As I told K-Crow Studios the jump on Dude's Quest was heavily inspired by the old Super Mario Bros (NES). I think that the one thing that ruins the jumping mechanics is in fact the delay for next jump, i'm thinking of removing it, as was also pointed by JohncoBalonco. Do you really think the whole jump should be changed, or just removing the delay is enough?

- About the next level call: Great suggestion, something like a little sign on the ground, with a drawn arrow, would be nice?

- About game options: Indeed, I though maybe it was not necessary for the demo, since it's not a very simple thing to implement, but was planning to add "pause" and ingame options on the full release.

- About the block reseting: It was a safety measure, to ensure the block doesn't get stuck, nor lost. It works like this: everytime it is out of the camera AND its not on top a switch or platform, it resets. I don't know how I would implement this safety measure in a simple way yet without disrupting the game flow :/

- About level 3: man, no need for apologies, I completely understand, It's the first thing I'm aiming to change, it's really difficult, I released it that way because I got used to it, as I played many, MANY times during development (also I know exactly where are all the bats, which gives me a huge advantage). Heres an issue I created to make the bat's eye glow, as one improvement (tho I must think of other things to change in order to balance the difficulty): link. 

I'm also thinking to not make the minimum light so small, and maybe, in order to get bats killed more easily, make them swing up and down as they chase you, to make it easier to jump on them, would this be good?

Again, thank you so much for the kind words and for this absolutely amazing feedback!

Thank you very much for this great feedback! I really appreciate the fact that you enjoyed the gameplay experience!

About the delayed jump: "but maybe it's an element that contributes to game's difficulty", indeed, it was intentionally placed, but, as K-Crow Studios pointed, this could difficult too much in certain parts of the game, I really don't know if I should keep it or not, what do you think?

About the grass lump question: It respawns on its original position everytime it is outside the camera view, unless its resting on top of a switch platform.

You enjoying the game absolutely makes my day, thank you very much for the feedback!

Thank you so much for this great feedback.
About the floaty jump: I tried to make a jumping mechanic very similar to the old Mario Bros (NES) in which he jumps really high, and the more you press the button, the higher he goes, and as you release it, he falls. Is it too bad? At first I felt like you have to get used to it, it doesn't feel so natural, but I kept it that way despite of this. Do you think it's better to change the jumping mechanics?

About the health system: Indeed it's very hard to play, and if you die (it can happen easily) you return to the begining, what might be a pain in the a** but I felt like it rewardade players who were very persistent, and also added a rouguelike feel to the game. Do you think I should change it? Maybe have a health bar that drops each time you get hit, and when it reaches 0, you lose a heart. Would this be better?

About non responsive jumping: Could you specify a little more? Maybe draw on paint what you mean.

Again, thank you very much.

I made a simple demo for a bigger idea I had for a game, but I didn't get much feedback, I have very few karma at reddit, almost no one found my post. It's really important for me to get feedback, since it's my very first demo and I must know what to change, what to improve and what to keep as it is. I already have a simple notion of things to change, such as:

• Easier level 3
• Add some game juice (more sounds and effects)

here's the game page: https://diguifi.itch.io/dudes-quest

Thank you very much in advance.

Amazing art, congratulations!

I'm using and referencing it on my game: https://github.com/diguifi/Dude-SideScroll

I'm using this BEAUTIFUL pack on my game: https://diguifi.itch.io/dudes-quest

(referenced on Readme.md file)

Congratulations to the artist, I'll absolutely donate something to support and stimulate the creation of many more amazing arts!

This game is awesome! I found a bug tho: on the rolling rock level, i fell on the rock hole (while going from right to left), but didn't die and the game just stood there and I couldn't do a thing, other than reseting it.