There's so much I want to fix with how the runes work. Make them stand out from each other, both visually and mechanically. How they combine with rune words and find some subtle way to give hints to players about rune words. +add different environments and enemy interactions. I would still like to improve it someday, but yeah, the core system required more refinement then what I initially expected.
E.T.C.Lundberg
Creator of
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I use a xbox 360 controller
Jump - A
Dash - X
Grab wall - RB
If I remember correctly this is what it also was like in Celeste I think its ok with jump and dash on keyboard, but when you also need to press an extra button, and hold it, that gets extra complicated on keyboard imho.
I think a alternative keyboard mapping could be based on FPS controls, like Move - WASD, Jump - Space, Dash - Shift, Grab - Ctrl. Or grab on shift and dash on ctrl or right click.
Damn, you scared me! Very well set up with the suspicious sound in the background and the keycard disappearing, and then the jumpscare. I had to run back to the beginning area, and tbh turned off the game, I didn't want to go back that way :)
Small details: I miss a sound effect when picking up keycards. It was unclear which doors gets unlocked by which keycard. One idea could be to change the light on the door to the card colors.
The graphics are of high quality, and I like the detail that there’s a light glow around the player character when you are in a very dark area.
The elevator in the beginning caught me by surprise. The music really sets it up to be a chill platformer.
I think the platforming worked well, it feels very celest-like. Also pretty dense levels with different enemies, not too much reuse. Although I think the game needs controller support, I remapped it with joy2key.
The puzzles are ok, but it feels a little strange in-universe that the player stops in front of a bookshelf and re-arranges books in an arbitrary order!
The pixel art is well made and the ending was unsettling, although not horror levels of unsettling (tbh I’m starting to get quite nostalgic over schoolwork, even with the bad parts :) ).
- Nice art style and vibes with the glowing lights, background ambience
- I like how you activate low gravity and backtrack through the same earlier parts which are now different.
- I didn’t expect to crouch on C (ctrl is commonly used)
- I didn’t progress past the vent in the second level, it looked like a doorstep I couldn’t jump over. The game was interesting and I would have played further if I knew how to.
- I like the setup, you in space, trying to answer a question that seems trivial by an alien but information that isn't used very often, and easily forgotten. And the breathing background noise!
- Also the way the planets line up from the back makes it tricky to just try around.
- I did complete it (after cheating and googling it) but nothing happened.
- Interesting mechanic to hide in bushes. And run from enemies, although he’s fast so I never managed to run very far
- I like how the dialogue text shows up onscreen but you can still walk around while reading it.
- I died a few times, but I did manage to win one combat. What I did was to always try to have 2 defensive moves up before attacking. This would negate 100% damage.
- I like the vibes with the cave, ambience and environment art and it’s surprising when the enemy shows up. I think the game could be really scary if you get out of combat after a few rounds, so there’s like this a mix between running way in top down while exploring the map, hiding and having short RPG battles.
Stuck because of a run away monkey - Yes, it's a bug, I will try to fix that.
Reduce ability to only work when jumping on animals - That's a interesting idea, I will implement it and try out how it works. Thanks for the tip :)
I will look into the other things as well. Trees as platforms, yeah it especially makes sense on the main streets.
Feel free to post your gameplay recording here or on discord.
Thanks for the feedback :)
I played this yesterday and I have to say that I'm really impressed. The visual style, with the transparent sides on the DNA string when they are rotating, GUI,+ sound / music, the science vibes and how the gameplay feels like you are looking at the DNA string and trying to piece it together. I also like the arcadey feeling with the timer and how the difficulty escalates.Tbh it feels like a natural concept, so it feels like there should be more games like this :)
My main critique of the game is that the 3D on the DNA pieces makes it really hard to see how they would fit together. One fix for this could be to show them in 2D when they are separate, so you clearly can see the length and color of each rNA staple. Like a stretched out version of it. It’s also a little confusing how strings flip when they are combined. One way to fix that would be to have two rows of pieces, top and bottom, and not allow the player to combine pieces on the same row. I think these things would help and let the player focus on recognizing patterns quicker.
One other thing is that the game can give some kind of visual feedback when you lose or win a round. I noticed that there’s sound effects for that, but it’s always good to be extra clear. And it can be a way to add extra juicy effects. Also when the player is wrong, maybe highlight the area that they did wrong, if that is possible.
Other than that I feel like this game has a very solid theme / concept and it feels like it has a lot of potential.
Top tier visuals and good level design.
Some areas for improvement:
- It feels a little too harsh to lose a level when taking damage, maybe make a pick up that bounce around like in Cave games?
- Why do I lose 2 hearts when getting damaged?
- Feels like the boss is way too hard without the 10s beam. Tbh it’s a little too much to not shoot for 10s in the level, feels like the game becomes less interesting when using it.
Top tier visuals, and tbh completed it on my first try, so not too hard.
Some areas of improvement:
- I feel like the boss is a little too grindy and repeats the same patterns too many times.
- Lacks effects, like dealing damage to the boss, when it change states etc. (here's a good shader for unity to make enemies flash white https://answers.unity.com/questions/1074261/make-a-sprite-blink-white-when-hit.html )
- Also I would recommend that you add screenshots / gif / gameplay video on your itch page.
Epic!
I like the icons and how you get to pick which pop ups to remove, ex if they spawn more bullets you want to pick them first. Although it's a little hard to see by the visuals what they are going to spawn.
It also fits that you get a blue screen and have to reset.
I think the next wave could spawn faster.
Wow you made a game that’s only 10s second long! I think there could be sound effects and visuals for when you run out of time, I first expected that I got hit a couple of times.
Also the song is great, also after 10s, I think it would work if you don’t reset the song when the player dies.
Surprisingly “one more try”. There’s no highscore but at best I almost got to the stage with 6 enemies.
The dodge mechanics work well, I have never seen a dodge where you stand still in a bullet hell (you usually move, but then run the risk of colliding with different bullets, which is annoying).
The mix between enemies and boss fights works well.
Some points for improvement:
- The boss felt a little too grindy.
- The player movement felt too slow without any pick ups.
- The music played twice in the tutorial, and wouldn’t loop in the main game.
The game plays well over all, cheers!
It feels satisfying to press space and boost around enemies, would be cool if you could run over some weak enemies. I also like how the tank changes visuals when you toggle between weapons.
Some nitpicking:
- Screenshots, gameplay recording on the game page?
- Visuals for the edge of the level.
- Mini map - I expect the player marker to move around on the mini map. If it’s more like a radar I think it could be clearer if it was round.
Overall very playable :)