I'm glad you enjoyed the games! ;)
I don't think I will ever port Lunar Wake to the GBA, as it was made as a full PC game and porting it to a more restricted platform would be difficult (Sleeping Azure was made directly for the GBA and was later extended and improved for PC).
That being said, I don't entirely rule out making brand new games on the GBA. It's not my current focus, but it could happen ;)
I've looked into it and it's surprisingly not trivial to do. But I may have a solution. Can you confirm you have a Nvidia Optimus or AMD Enduro setup? (I hope there isn't a newer dual-GPE scheme out there requiring a different solution...)
And thanks for taking the time to switch profiles manually and checking out the game! ;)
The pixel art for this game is incredible, something to study. The SNES vibes are immaculate, I love it.
I had a few issues with the gameplay, most notably the enemies being very difficult to avoid. Rooms are often cramped and their hitbox are super large, sometimes as big as their sprites (or maybe even bigger?). If your fireballs are not upgraded, some of them takes forever to kill (those red slimes!). And they constantly respawn... Being on a timer, I've found it often more advantageous to just ignore them, tank the damages and hope to heal it later.
I've also had trouble remembering which item could open which colored doors. I would have preferred all doors to be blocks with the item's symbol in it, like some of them already are. And I felt a map was sorely missing in the later missions (though I think you started the jam late due to finishing another one first? Think of it as a suggestion for the post-jam version ;))
I liked the idea of the separate missions, it gave the game a bit of a "randomizer vibe". Like you're never sure what you will get to play with this time and in which order. That's interesting. Though it evoked to me more of an "arcade" feeling rather than "minimalist".
Again, congrats on such a solid entry (made in very little time?) that oozes style!
Okay this is an excellent entry. Finished it with apparently one secret found (no idea what that was supposed to be haha) and another missing.
The first think that hit me was how well this game silently teaches its mechanics. I had originally written down that this quality disappeared later on as I would collect squares with no idea what new ability they gave me... but then I realized the squares probably never gave me any ability to begin with. I now assume everything was available from the start. So that's the part that could be clearer, probably by making sure the "tutorial rooms" are not the same as the "square rooms". But hey, I eventually figured it out. Speaking of innate abilities, I discovered two of them on my own and even used that knowledge to bypass one puzzle, so that felt good.
I like how each "branch" was dedicated to one mechanic. The one where you have to find increasingly convoluted ways to kill yourself was amusing. On the other hand, I could never pull out the "super jump" reliably, so that was more frustrating.
I almost gave up the game at the last two squares because I had no lead to explore. I wished I was able to freely look at the map rather than being restricted to snap from one "square room" to another. It makes it way harder to survey where I could go. I finally unstuck myself when I found a better map, to remain vague (you know what I mean). And then the last square was brilliant, the perfect note to end the game on.
Again, incredible work with this entry! Congrats, I wouldn't be surprised to see it win! ;)
I don't have much to say about this entry because it's so competently made. It looks great (I love the GameBoy palette contrasted with the blue-ish shadows and the orange highlights) and it moves very well. It sounds very crunchy too, which I liked a lot!
The Ys-like combat is interesting but sadly I never got the hang of it. Avoiding damage in the smaller rooms often felt impossible and it didn't help that many enemies attack the moment you enter the room, without giving you time to position yourself. I gave up near the end, in the room you enter by wall-jumping from the bottom to get instantly mugged by two crows (my nemesis!). I had to redo it many times and if I somehow survived those first few seconds, another crow would instantly kill me the moment I paid 50 gems to open the door. (And that was despite having the Cursed Sword!)
There were other such situations that felt unfair, like taking the Cockatrice Tail's back to the save point: if I messed up the jump, the enemy would stay dead and I would be stranded, forcing me to redo everything. Simply having a switch to hit to create a shortcut would have done the trick, I think.
Wall jumping felt a bit weird: it seemed to me the character was facing the wrong direction and the horizontal movement was disproportionate compared to a regular jump. But it was really the only ability that felt less than perfect, and it remained very serviceable.
I think what I liked most was uncovering the many secrets and finding the upgrade items and rings. The power progression is also very noticeable and enjoyable. It's a good thing there's a map and I used it near the end to find where I could use my new abilities.
Overall that's a great entry that could use a bit of balancing near the end to be really perfect. Good job! ;)
One of the few entries so far I've managed to complete!
I loved the little intro, it had some nice dialog and timing and I was invested in clearing my name and exposing the fake queen for what she was... though I'm not sure what really happened at the end so it felt a bit unresolved. I didn't expect to learn much about Venom my symbiote friend but the powerups were nice, especially the worm-shape that felt thematically adequate.
The art style was pretty good and felt a bit more involved than just equating minimalism with simple visuals, which I appreciate. There were a few instances in the village where it was hard to tell what was a wall or a platform, but otherwise it was pretty clean and the biomes were memorable. Dynamic lighting was subtle but nice and I enjoyed the little details like the eyes in the forest. The bell-flying animation was a stand-out!
The music and audio was also quite good, though music stopped during most of my time in the forest and some actions lacked a matching SFX, like collecting items/runes (by the way, I have no idea what the "green shell" upgrades do?).
The biggest issue I had with this entry is that it felt a bit unfair at times. Many of the traps are either invisible (eg: completely obscured stalactites) or very hard to spot (the breaking grounds) with no grace period if you trigger them. There were a few points in the forest where you need to drop down without being able to see what's under you, and chances are there are spikes that will kill you in one hit. Likewise with a room that will instantly kill you if you enter it sliding... I almost gave up in the forest due to this difficulty spike. It didn't help that the latching points trigger felt too small and I never really managed to use the jumping mushrooms reliably. The first boss being able to kill you in one hit was frustrating and the heart-shaped one not flashing when attacked was super confusing.
That being said, the level design was great. I never felt completely lost or out of options and it all looped back on itself in a very satisfying manner. It definitely felt like a proper metroidvania! (Though some rooms in the map never appeared even though I kept traversing them...)
Overall a very solid entry, good job! ;)
The telekinesis was hand-down the best part of this game. Grabbing a box and hurling it at enemies that transitioned into ragdolls felt really good. It reminded me of Control, which is a great reference.
However, I encountered what looked like quite a few bugs. One of the more visible issue was enemies spawning and despawning right in front of me, apparently based on my position. I guess they're tied to the current room or a trigger, but that led to an impermanence that was very disorienting. But the more frustrating bug was that hits didn't seem to always register. Sometimes I would kill bad guys in a few shots and other times it took forever and I couldn't tell why. The reverse was also true, where I could stay immobile in the middle of a room and not lose health when shot. It all felt very inconsistent, which was very frustrating because there's a *lot* of enemies, with a lot of reinforcements, and they start shooting the second you're in the same room. It also happened that at one point I hid in a closet where enemies respawned right in my back. A few more checkpoints would have helped!
The visuals are okay, though I wish there was more feedback when you hit enemies. I liked that I could grab corpses and weapons to throw them at my foes. I had to lower the sound volume a lot because the first gunshot almost deafened me. I appreciated the diegetic UI, that's a nice touch! Also the mission briefing as I progressed through the game.
With those quirks ironed out, this game could turn into a really nice Control-like! ;)
This was an interesting game, with a nice atmosphere but slightly held back by its controls.
Everything felt too slippery, there was no coyote time and the ledge grabs did not work consistently. The charge ability was also super sensitive, slightly moving the stick steered you way too much. It all contributed to a feeling of never being quite in control of the character.
With that, I felt that the checkpointing was punishing, especially at the beginning of the game. I didn't expect a fall to be an instant death that sends you back so far. It got a bit better later on as the areas became more compacts and "puzzle-y".
That being said, once this initial rough patch was behind, it got better. I though the graffiti tutorials was a great idea and the fact some of these abilities used the characters' staff was a nice touch, though the last one puzzled me a bit.And it was cool that wall sliding had its own uses independently of wall jumping!
I gave up in the ending area, which is way further than I first thought I would. If you can improve those controls, it will be a great little platformer! ;)
I absolutely love the aesthetics of this game. The art is incredible and it all moves and sounds great.
The deliberate "slow and heavy" moveset is interesting but I don't think it works as is. The slow movement discourages the exploration that is core to a metroidvania, though the presence of a sprint upgrade later on probably mitigates that (I didn't reach this part). My biggest issue was the fixed-length jump. I'm not against the idea in theory but I think the metrics should be stricter for it to work, almost built on a grid. Like in the room where you get the attack upgrade, if you stand in the middle of one platform before jumping, you will miss the next one. At first the jump seems to connect but then your character keeps sliding somewhat and fall off the platform, which is incredibly frustrating. There's many such occurrences where it feels like the environment wasn't really made to accommodate the jump length.
And the final issue is the lack of checkpoints. If the platforming is going to be like a puzzle to solve, then almost every platform should be a checkpoint. Being sent back to the attack upgrade room every time I missed a jump in my way back to the main building was discouraging. This checkpointing would have worked in a game with fast movement, but here the slowness makes it very tedious and punishing.
But fix those two issues and I believe you will have a very interesting and fantastic-looking game. Good luck! ;)
An excellent entry, one of the few I completed (with 7 star charts) and one of my favorites so far!
There's obviously some unfinished stuff, like the missing climbing animation or the crouch/slide going through the floor, but it didn't detract from the experience. At first I thought the jump was very abrupt but as I got used to it and left the initial small corridors, it got better. Though I struggled with the swing to the very end. There were a few frustrating moments, like the tight S-shaped corridor involving temporary platforms and lava, but overall the difficulty was pretty well balanced. The movements were interesting and worked well together.
What I think I loved most was the mood. The vibes were just top notch, with a special shout-out to the giants in the forest of pillars. The soundtrack was great (though it didn't always loop seamlessly, even in the latest version). The different areas really felt distinct and I could easily wrap my head around this space, where I came from and where I should go. It really felt like a metroidvania!
I also liked the idea of divesting yourself of your armor in exchange for regaining your innate abilities, but I was expecting the dragon to also lose the helmet at the very end, to symbolize being truly set free. Alas! It's also a bit of a missed opportunity that losing your armor doesn't factor into the gameplay somewhat, but that can be an idea for a post-jam version ;)
Congrats for a job well done!
The character model is stunning and the animations are pretty good! But is there really no audio at all or is it a bug on my end?
I've found the platforming to be difficult and somewhat frustrating. I would have really wished to be able to interrupt a wall run or wall climb at any moment (by letting go of the button, for instance). You can jump during the wall run, but it's not the same as simply dropping down and it makes you bounce against the wall, which was rarely what I wanted to do. Not being able to dash in the air was very weird too. I had a *lot* of trouble climbing the steps with the sloped one at the center, before the door with the four keys. And I had to do it *many* times, which built up frustration. I gave up after falling for a second time when you have to dash between the two keys required for the room before (the dash doesn't seem to cover the distance).
It's a good starting point but I don't think the movement is quite there yet. But once it is, it will be a very interesting game. Good luck! ;)
I love this artstyle! It has a great vibe and I like the robot character. I think it's missing a few FXs here and there though, like when you jump (but the double jump is great) or dash, but otherwise it feels pretty good to control. I was a bit worried at first about the time it took to change direction in the air, but it turned out to be important later on.
Speaking of which, as far as I know, the first time you have to use that "drifting dash" is in a room where you have to navigate a sharp corner from a platform. I almost gave up right here, because I had nowhere else to go and this move wasn't taught to me and it didn't feel like something obvious to do. If I didn't miss an easier earlier occurrence then I believe it would be a good addition to properly teach it to the players. Also some popup text to explain what powerup I just got and how to use it.
One of the issues I had later in the game when it opens up after the double jump is that the environments feel very same-y so it was hard to know where I've been and where I could go to start exploring. I know the single color is part of your interpretation of minimalism but for me it kinda hurt the experience. Also, the cube enemies are the exact same color as the walls and were sometimes hard to spot.
I've encountered a big issue with the game that really made the experience more tedious than it should have been, but I don't know if it's a bug only I will encounter or if it's only for gamepad: turning the camera around was incredibly slow. Even with "Controller sensitivity" to the max. And it wasn't even consistent: sometimes it would be on the slow side but tolerable and others times it would barely move at all. It made looking around a real chore and aiming at flying enemies took forever while they could freely hit me. I powered through until the game opened up because it was pretty linear so far and the camera didn't need to move much, but once it opens up I had to give up.
That's too bad because without this issue and with a few more colors to help tell the areas apart, I think I would have pushed to the end! So good job ;)
That's good news! At least you can play the game now, though I'm not ready to officially commit to this fix just yet.
So, thanks to your video I've noticed the positions of the meshes were not random at all. It felt like at least some parts of the environments were placed, scaled and rotated just like the character parts should! But on the other hand, the character parts were never scaled, despite the fact a lot of the environment is. So I assumed some meshes were drawn using the previous content of the buffer. I'm not sure why. From what I understand of it, it goes completely against the OpenGL specs, but that wouldn't be the first time a driver optimization goes wrong. My "fix" was to ask for a new buffer every single time, to make sure I start from something clean. That's completely overkill and why I was concerned with the framerate (and I do notice a general slow-down on my 11-years old GPU). There's probably a better workaround... I have a few leads if you're willing to test them for me?
And yes, the map is revealed from the start (your character already knows this place well!) and there's no marker for your current position. It was a (very) late addition to the game and I assumed the map was detailed enough that you could quickly locate yourself from your surroundings. The most important part about this map is that you can basically write on it ;)
It took me a while to understand why some spheres would warp me and others would damage me and whether or not I could change that and how. I also wasted quite some time firing on the bubbles containing red and white spheres in the middle of the loops, and they did light up, but I don't think it ever did anything...? There was a golden sphere at some point that dissolved when I went through it and later reformed but it wasn't one of the gold warps or the gold targets you can fire on (which all look somewhat similar but serve vastly different purposes). Speaking of the gold warps, I initially assumed they would warp me to different places according to which side I came from (because all other warps point to their unique destination but those have two trails coming out of the center). The enemies I quickly understood haha (same with those with shields).
I suspect all those symbols would benefit from having a clear visual language (both shapes and colors) you could learn to quickly get an idea of what they do (eg: spiky red-ish symbols are always dangerous, bright/golden lozenges could be stuff to collect or interact with, blue-ish spheres for warps, stuff like that).
I did activate one of the beacons but I don't really know what it did. I assumed I would find another one in the second level and would understand more about their purpose then. So in that case the mystery worked as intended.
And aim assist would be a great addition, yes!
I loved the intro cutscene at the beginning, it was a great way to set the mood.
I love the mouse and its animations, it's very squishy and cute. On the other hand, I'm not a fan of the shading on the terrain. The fog banding was disorienting at times and there were quite a few occurrences where I couldn't tell the ground from the cliff, or what the incline was. I missed a few stairs that felt completely invisible until I was right against them. The lighting change between the regions was super abrupt and could have benefited from some interpolation, but it also seems like you see the distant regions with the same theme as the one you're in? I also thought the world was way too big, though I appreciate how the ziplines let you essentially fast travel.
I had a bug(?) when I interacted with a ghost and it sent me back to the last zip line I used? Or is it a feature I didn't understand? I was puzzled by quite a few things. Like, you start in front of a locked gate with three symbols, so I set out to gather all 3 and the door opened. Except it opened on nothing, just a bit of terrain I had already visited (almost got stuck there) and the platforms I had fell from and couldn't reach again. So I'm not sure what was the point? But then again, I didn't really understand the wall run. It felt more like an uncontrollable wall jump to me and I fear I've been sequence-breaking quite a bit by using it...
I also never lost any of my powerups. I have no idea if I was supposed to or if it comes later into the game? But I like the "reverse-metroidvania" idea and from what I saw, I can imagine how you could compensate for some missing abilities, so that's pretty cool.
In the end I was too lost and I had to do my taxes, but there's a cool concept here that could shine with more polish. Good job you all! ;)
I was looking forward to this entry because StarFox 64 is a big part of my childhood. Sadly I couldn't get far because the Y-axis felt to me like it was inverted and there's no option to change it, so I really struggled to aim at enemies and couldn't clear the first open area (didn't StarFox have a charge shot that you could lock on? I was really missing a similar thing here, though it may be a later powerup). I also found the Immelmann turn to be very slow: I got swarmed and shot down a few times while doing it.
The particles are also too much, both when you boost forward and when you hit enemies. There were multiple times when I just couldn't see what was on screen. But other than that, the game looks and sounds great and hits all the right notes. Good job, but just like poor Hawk, I fear I must sit this one out...!
The way you implemented the metroidvania formula withing a rail-shooter is really interesting. I like that despite being on rail you actually have great freedom of movement and you need to figure out where to go and how. But I struggled to locate myself in this world: I wished it had big landmarks in the middle of the loops, so I could quickly recognize where I was and where I was headed. I took a long time to find the way out of the first zone.
My other complaint is the lack of affordance for most of the gameplay elements. I was confused during most of my playtime, having no clue what the different things were or did. I always appreciate a little mystery, but my confusion would often persist after interacting once or twice with an element, which was frustrating. Sometimes it was clear (going through a red circle alerts new enemies, got it) but other times I wasn't sure how cause and consequence related to each other.
Despite the game's repeated warnings, I played with a gamepad because the mouse & keyboard controls were just too complex for me. It was fine, though I would have preferred the acceleration/deceleration to be a boost while you hold the button rather than two buttons you have to constantly juggle between. But it's a pretty minor gripe.
I gave up in the Organic level because the difficulty ramped up too fast for me. I just couldn't shoot down all the enemies while avoiding tripping the reinforcements while also looking around to identify where I was and where I should go (the rails became much longer and twisty between level 1 and 2). That being said, I'm no expert at those kind of games, so take it with a grain of salt.
Again, very interesting entry, with a nice feel to it. I could see it growing on me if I had more time to dedicate to it. Good job! ;)
The T-Pose is consistent with positions being randomly set to zero, just like the environment. I notice the color overlay is also impacted, which makes sense. Though it doesn't seem entirely random, there's a pattern behind this madness... Those values come from somewhere, but I don't know where yet.
It's very difficult to troubleshoot on my side without being able to reproduce it on any of the GPUs I have access to. But if you have a few minutes to spare, we can play a game on ping-pong where I send you a new version of the drawing module and you test it for me. I've uploaded a new version at the same link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JDK0C7XWdVYmRBNPWErXcoVtMRglyu17/view?usp=drive...
I would be very interested to know if this version works (though the framerate may not be good). Thanks for your help! ;)
Ah, a change in GPU would definitely explain why you didn't have any issue before (there was no change at all to the display code between Dear Clockmaker and Zendo).
Are your drivers up to date? Because that really looks like a driver bug...
I've tried a small change to the display code that you could download independently from the game (can't update during the voting period), to see if perchance it fixes the issue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JDK0C7XWdVYmRBNPWErXcoVtMRglyu17/view?usp=drive... (download that file and drop it in the same folder as Zendo.exe, overwriting the existing version). Though I'm not very confident it will fix anything, because the code looks correct and does work on every other GPU I've encountered so far :/
If you try it, please tell me if it changes anything. Thanks!
My fellow yokai enthusiast! As expected, I really enjoyed the look of your entry. The N64-like artstyle is well done and immediately pushes my nostalgia buttons (though the SSAO does detract from the look a bit). The enemies are great, including their animations. I loved the Kappa grabbing rocks from the ground, that was a nice touch. Though I felt the player's animations were a bit stiff and combat lacked impact.
Otherwise the game was intriguing, but the environments are way too big. I got very lost in the cave beyond the marsh. It was all long stretches of nothing that took forever to walk through. At some point I unlocked a shortcut to the first cave but I did not identify any other way forward, or any powerup to justify being here, so I went back to try other paths but it was just too tedious. (Also, there's no collisions on houses in the village, but you probably already know about it.)
I love 3D Zelda-likes so I will be curious to see where it's going if you chose to keep working on it after the jam ;)
It looks like something's writing all over the shader storage buffer that stores the meshes' positions... which may explain why they teleport around randomly...
Is it the same computer you used to play Dear Clockmaker? If yes, did you update your drivers in the meantime? Do you only have this AMD GPU inside this PC or is there also an integrated Intel chip, for low power consumption scenarios? Also, are you launching the game from Steam? Is the same thing happening if you start it from File Explorer?
I'm here for the Banjo-Kazooie vibes! The first thing I did was enable the googly eyes ;)
The handling of the marble and the sound design are spot on. Each material feels different and just right. At first I was worried it would be more of a platformer than a metroidvania, but the world quickly opened up and felt interconnected. The puzzles were pretty good too.
I greatly enjoyed my time with this entry, though I felt lost after the gyroball. There were a few puzzles in the cistern I couldn't solve but it didn't feel like the gyro was the answer to any of them... But I would have definitely persevered if I had more time. Great job!
Nice art style! The models and animations are great, the combat feels good and I always love this crunchy pixel-art-on-low-poly-3D style.
Gameplay-wise, my experience was a bit on the rough side. I've encountered a few bugs like the mouse not being captured in the window anymore when returning from the pause menu. It made the game basically unplayable (very limited control of the camera, super easy to lose focus, etc) but thankfully it fixed itself after dying. But it was a recurring issue because I had to tweak the mouse sensitivity multiple times to get it right. I wish the game had gamepad support! Another bug was the cyclone ability getting stuck if you take a hit during the charge. You can also spam the air attack + dash to basically fly and I'm not sure if I sequence breaked the game by doing exactly that to reach the cyclone powerup...? If it was the intended solution, I feel it wasn't telegraphed enough.
The fly enemies with their projectiles were rough and I kept dying to them on the second floor. Getting hit in the air felt excessively punishing. That's when I called it quit. It's a bit of a shame because I loved the environments and was interested to see more of them. Lot of potential once the rough parts are sanded-out! Good job ;)
This entry is clearly unfinished but what's there is pretty cool!
The 3D models, animation and VFX in particular are outstanding. The combat feels great, even when just button-mashing like I did (I noticed a few different moves but didn't know how to perform them at will). There was a good enemy variety.
I like the visual style but the screen-space checkered pattern for the shadows really hurt my brain. It was also difficult to judge distances sometimes, in some rooms it would feel like I wasn't moving at all. Moving through those large spaces was very tedious before I got the dash. Speaking of the dash, something about it didn't felt right but I'm not sure what. I didn't feel in control (maybe it locks you out for too long?).
The game really opened after the wall jump (though I'm not sure wall-jumping continuously on the same wall was intended?) but I quickly got lost in the large spaces, with no landmark or goal to orient myself. Level design really felt like the most unfinished part of this entry, which is unfortunate. Even adding a handful of save points would have helped a lot. Especially considering some bugs will kill you (initiating a dialog freezes you but not the enemies!) or get you softlocked.
It has a lot of potential, it just needs a bit more time to cook! Congrats ;)
Very enjoyable entry! I reached what I think was the very end of the game, past the double jump.
The game felt really good to control, with great animations, FX and polish. Everything felt alive and bouncy. The music was also pleasant. I appreciate there was a thorough tutorial and difficulty ramp up. It felt more like a pure platformer than a metroidvania, though I enjoyed the optional collectibles and the way the level looped on itself.
My only gripe with the game was the wall running: it felt finicky. Half of the time it would turn into a wall slide instead, which led to my death. I kinda feel like I abused the aerial attack sometimes to get back on track or skip some parts. Other than that, I feel like the punch could use a combo animation, but it's more of a suggestion for your main project.
Good job!
Thank you for the feedback! I agree with all of them ;p
The map was a late post-release addition, literally the definition of an afterthought. But now I have a base to improve in subsequent games. (Though making more detailed shapes is technically tricky and I haven't figured it out yet...)
Combat has never been my forte, even in 2D, and that's something I was dreading in 3D. Likewise, I expect to build upon this in the next attempts.
But fear not, while I expect my next game to be similar to this one (probably a sequel), I definitely plan to make more 2D games in the future! Though my first priority after this will be the Silent Paradise Anthology Steam release, so it may take a while ;)
I tried to fix it "blind" (thankfully the error message was pretty clear). Please let me know if version 1.1.2 solves it for you: https://dreamnoid.itch.io/dear-clockmaker/devlog/1084557/dear-clockmaker-version...
I looked into it and indeed some accounts don't see the updates on the game's page... but when downloading the game, it's the right version (1.1.1). So you should be able to download it, even if the page info is out of date. Just make sure when launching the game that you see "v1.1.1" in the bottom-right corner of the title screen.
This game definitely has a "Klik'n Play" vibe to it and I mean that in the best way possible. I like that it doesn't take itself seriously. The box-carrying animation is adorable and by the end those boxes felt a bit like the Companion Cube in Portal. I also appreciate you can play with the map open and with a gamepad!
There is definitely some jankiness to it. For one, the music stopped playing at some point (though it was becoming repetitive, so I didn't mind too much). The worst for me was the double jump being super finicky. I couldn't pull it off reliably. I'm also not quite sure how to dash? I'm not even sure I ever used this ability? Avoiding the bullets at the end of the boss fight felt impossible, but thankfully he got stuck in a loop and I could shoot him many times in a row and win.
I think what I enjoyed the most were the surprises. There were multiple instances of the game staging something weird and surprising, which was delightful.
Good job! :)
This was one of the most enjoyable entries I've played so far! I've played to the end, something I rarely do.
I've found the level design very original. At first I was impressed by the fact you could see the rest of the level in the background, which builds anticipation. But then the first corner took me by surprise, it was a nice fakeout with the platform on the other side. This is an interesting layout, though it can be hard to wrap your head around it and sometimes other parts of the level would obstruct the view. But all in all it was a net positive.
The music was good, though it doesn't loop too well. The spider is nicely animated but I think speeding up the animation a bit would make it more believable. I encountered a few bugs where the spider's sprite was flipped horizontally compared to my direction.
I only encountered the same softlock TeePeeDee did, so I had to restart the game. I also lost a bit of time near the end because I couldn't identify the way forward (I needed to take a corner) and instead fell back to the beginning or so. Being able to move the camera forward a bit with the right stick would have been helpful in this situation (it's already nice that this entry has controllers support!)
Good job again, I thoroughly enjoyed that one!
This is a really polished entry! The art style stands out, especially the animations (the Mad Prisoner cartwheeling around was a great touch). The music is also good but very loud and repetitive, so I had to turn the volume way down and ended up muting it altogether (though I loved how the different bosses had different themes). I also enjoyed the mood and the little snippets of conversations as you follow your cellmates around.
My biggest gripe is that I found some symbols confusing. It took a room or two for me to even recognize the spikes as such. Also, it seems you can't avoid taking damage in some instances which led to me being stuck forever in the first few rooms because the first time I tried to bump into the star-shaped thingy, it killed me outright. Assuming it was an enemy I couldn't dispatch yet, I let it alone when the solution was to purposefully get hurt. This was made worse by the chest in the room right before it because I thought I was supposed to open it but couldn't and didn't know why. It's only later that I managed to open some, though I'm still not 100% certain it was thanks to the keys I collected. It's really missing feedback on that front.
I didn't get too far because that's not really my kind of game (it's not an action-adventure game, so I don't really consider it a metroidvania, but I know the jam's pretty flexible on that front), but it was definitely interesting if a bit opaque and frustrating. With improved feedback it could lead to something really special. Good job! ;)
Nice entry, with good visuals (especially the VFX) and audio!
I'm no good at twin-stick shooters and bullet hells so I didn't get far, but I liked what I saw and was intrigued to see more of it. I also enjoyed the badge system, though I only got the magnet and coin+ badges.
I encountered a few issues though. First is the healing action really missing an audio cue both when you're focusing and then once you're healed. It made it pretty difficult to heal in the middle of fights, as you need to pay attention to your health bar instead of the enemies.
Space to dash was too far for me from either WASD or the mouse, so hitting it during the action was a struggle. This means I never really took advantage of it to avoid attacks. I would have preferred it on the right mouse button for quick access. Playing with the gamepad felt a bit better, though it was a bit strange to use the analog triggers instead of the shoulder buttons. Also, the cursor was jittering, but this may be a deadzone issue as my controller is pretty old.
The enemies felt a bit too spongy for my tastes, but again: bullet hells are not my genre of predilection. I only had a few minutes to play this evening so I gave up at the first boss's second phase. My biggest issue with it was that your invincibility period is really short (if you even have one, I'm not sure) so one mistake usually meant I lost most of my health at once. Though I'm sure I could have beaten it with perseverance, a bit of luck and maybe after grinding for the longer reach badge.
All in all a solid entry. I definitely enjoyed my time with it and I was intrigued to see more of it. It could really shine with some added polish. Good job! :)
