Very short and sweet although personally i would have liked if it was a lot longer, I love the concept and the mechanics!
However this game is still missing a ton of polish, movement could use some tweaks, same with jump
Artstyle is leaving a lot to be desired personally as well! Music was alright! It feels like a 24/48 hour game jam entry rather than a month long gamejam entry! Very interesting concept just wish there was a lot more time spent working on it!
Very interesting concept! I'm a big fan of the artstyle! However I'm sure you are aware how unfinished the game is! Really feels like its missing some sound effects and music, there were some camera issues in the lowermost room, the jump feels like there is a bit too much gravity applied when falling but otherwise it feels nice!
I'm personally not a fan of having to use a controller like you mentioned on the itch page, wish there was proper keyboard support as well which is probably 80 % of people playing games in this jam but overall it has a lot of potential so I'm really looking forward to future updates if you plan to continue on making the game!
Thank you so much for such high praise and good feedback! And for trying out the game!
- glad you enjoyed the narrative, this is just the beginning and nothings finalized so look forward to the full version of the game!
- our composer will be really happy when he reads that, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
- ill skip some of the praise so I don't sound repetitive but thank you so much for enjoying the game, lighting was originally meant to be added but due to gamejam time constraints we didn't have time for lightning nor proper setdressing!
- first 2 lines of cons fall under the same category which we are well aware of and will fix with the next major iteration of the game!
- we apologize if there was a bit of lack of visual clarity and will hopefully fix it so that you can't mistake it for anything!
- that's completely valid, most of the text is very optional and is just meant to add onto the game if you wanna get deeper in the story or the world setting/history(lore tablets), skipping some is a fully valid way to play the game!
- not having the 2 lock door be permanent regardless of dying was a misstep on our part and misjudging the difficulty of that section for some players so we apologize for that! And the flame wall instantly killing you was just a time problem more than anything, this will be changed in the next update of the game! If you are interested in some bits you missed you can check out the trailer for a little sneak peek(mainly the second boss!)
Thank you so much for such high praise and hopefully future updates live up to your expectations!
Non - Game and Level Designer for Project Null
Thank you for the feedback and playing our game! Yep that is more or less the end of the demo!
- thank you for enjoying the environment and the level design!
- yes! earth and water are coming on top of maybe a potential metal transformation! and each element will have its own powers that you can unlock like the first ones did!
- you're right yeah, this was mainly a time constraint which will be changed sooner than later!
- this was the main feedback we got for our game and like mentioned in some comments earlier will be completely overhauled to fit the rest of the games quality!
- Thank you for the feedback on the bosses and enjoying them!
- Another very common feedback that we learnt from! We will be adjusting stuff so this is no longer an issue!
- you didn't! these things were sadly a misstep that were missing from the tutorial and will be adjusted!
Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to try the game out and we are thankful for all the feedback and praises! Hope you look forward to future updates!
Non - Game and Level Designer for Project Null
Hello just want to start off with that this was a really pleasant and fun experience! A very solid entry! I love the artstyle and the theme of the game!
I'll just run down some notes that I took while playing!
Visuals were simple but cute and I liked them, however I think they would do well with more polish and more animation but I understand that's hard to accomplish in such a small period of time!
I think the player could use from being a little faster so the movement feels a bit nicer!
There were a bit too many NPCs in the game compared to actual gameplay, I understand this is just a personal preference though!
I love the hub zone and shop but my main gripe with it was that this felt more like a zone platformer than an actual metroidvania albeit had alot of metroidvania elements! If thats what you were going for than disregard this bit!
Overall a very sleeper entry and has a lot of potential and cool additions!
PS: Super minor thing but when zipping put everything in a single folder so it's a lot easier to just extract and play over asking the player to make a folder for it!
PS2: I just read the comment where u had only an hour a day to work on it and you are a single developer, this makes this all the more cooler! And I loved the storyboard-esque intro at the start, had a cozy feeling to it!
Holy moly thank you for such detailed feedback and I genuinely mean it, I'll try to answer everything point by point and apologies in advance if some stuff ends up sounding repetitive!
1. Absolutely agree, which is why combat overhauling will be our main focus in the next major update so we can improve everything you mentioned!
2. This feedback has also been brought up as well and we fully agree! This would be part of the "combat overhaul" update
3. Thank you for enjoying the design and the music!
4. Yep, fully agree! If you wanna read further on why the camera ended up feeling "zoomed out" check out one of my comments on the gamejam entry page, this will be another focus to fix up with the combat!
5. This was more a time issue than anything, the final non demo version of the game will have very distinct zones in all aspects, due to gamejam time constraints we didn't have time to develop more stuff further currently! Will be changed in the future!
6. This was also a very common feedback and we hear you loud and clear, expect this to be fixed in the next major update!
7. Thank you for enjoying the character movement, we are particularly proud of it!
8. Absolutely some version of this will exist in the full game, either a skip button or the cutscene only appearing the first time you battle with the boss!
9. Thank you for your feedback on the reaper! We'll do our best to adjust it so the fight itself doesn't feel as long!
10. This was sadly an inconsistency issue with the art, the fire and lava pillars have nothing to do with horizontality or verticality but they in themselves are different things and mechanics, albeit quite similar. Think doing away with one of them is something we might entertain in the future!
11. Thank you for enjoying the respawn time and checkpoints!
12. We understand and this was mostly another time issue where we didn't have enough time to properly introduce to players how they work, doors have nothing to do with saving but moreso buttons and levers, buttons persist after death and are used as 1 time things while levers don't, both of which can control doors!
13. This is a very cool idea that we'll think about! Thank you for mentioning it!
14. Oh absolutely we are with you! Those upgrades are actually placeholders and will be replaced with a much more intricate and fun to use and obtain system later on in development once we feel we are ready to focus on another major part of our game! We don't wanna spoil too much right now but it will add a lot of uniqueness and player choice to our game! Current upgrades are a result of a gamejam time constraint which was mentioned in some previous answers, god i sound like a broken clock!
15. Map is also planned to be very intricate and user friendly with alot of cool features, another result of having limited time to develop such a large scale demo!
16. Tying a limited resource to some exploration was a tough choice, and we hear you loud and clear! This will get updated so that it feels a lot less scary to use such abilities for exploration AND combat due to a lack of energy resource, so look forward to it!
Thank you for pointing out the bugs and we will make sure to squash em' in the next update!
Non - Game and Level Desinger for Project Null
Very solid metroidvania entry!
Personally the art wasn't my cup of tea but that didn't stop me from enjoying the game! Very cool and unique idea with ball shooting but I did feel like it felt a bit lacking in polish!
This is a huge accomplishment doing all this just by yourself and you should be proud of it!
As a game designer I can't tell you enough how much the uniqueness of this game felt like a breath of fresh air, this game just oozes a sort of coziness I enjoy on top of very cool mechanic ideas like with journal customization! Movement felt a bit too slidey for my liking and some sections felt a bit frustrating but overall a very solid entry with cool writing!
Very solid entry!
The visuals captivated both me and my girlfriend which I think are the main selling point of this, something about their simplicity and you being a cute little froggy was very mesmerizing and nostalgic!
A lot of issues with combat however and lack of knockback or screen freeze when fighting enemies, just felt lacking in feedback for a lack of a better word!
World felt fun to navigate but I had some personal issues telling what's foreground and what's background like with the pipes where I thought you could jump on them initially when I first saw them!
Overall great work and you should be proud of it!
A very interesting entry that needs a lot of work on the visual side, I also ended up having the music bug that someone mentioned in the comments! I like the character design and I think it would have shone much more with a more complete visual package which ended up being my main gripe!
Game feeling very hard to navigate could also stem from that same issue, overall pretty decent!
I think it's a very cool concept! But sadly I ended up having to stop because of the many bugs I encountered which simply felt frustrating. Wish there was more time left in dev to polish stuff, a lot of cool concepts here sadly overshadowed by just as many bugs! Hope this doesn't discourage you and doesn't seem overly critical, I think once polished this game can start to shine!
What an amazing entry! I don't have a lot negative things to say about it which already haven't been said so I just wanna say you all should be proud you made something this competently! The art is absolutely beautiful and stunning! And I fully don't fault you for some sprite stretching since we both know how bad Unity is with pixel perfection! I personally didn't mind the jump and the higher than usual gravity applied to it, just took a few mins to get used to!
Had a lot of fun!
Heyo lemme start this off by saying I had a lot of fun playing this!
Visuals and the music are stunning, I just wish you had more time to deal with the tile and background inconsistencies that ended up poking you in the eye of otherwise an amazing artstyle!
Abilities were really fun to use although I do think some specific rooms need some balancing like the one where u get the long jump!
Combat was super fun for the most part as well which on top of visuals and abilities is the highlight of the game!
There were a lot of enemies going off screen/despawn issues which I'm not sure if it was intended or not and a lot of weird projectile hitbox issues like having a spike go through my head but not actually damaging me.
The movement took a while to get used to, it felt really "floaty" or "slidey" for a lack of a better word which I personally wasn't the biggest fan of, but it wasn't bad once I got used to it.
There was also numerous times where I just kind of got stuck into walls very early on into the game requiring a restart, on top of the jumping down platforms not working as a 1 off thing.
Also I think you made the small "slide" corridors a bit too small for the player character, where her head ended up going into the tiles, which would also probably explain the lack of hitbox there mentioned earlier!
Level design was intuitive and I loved the lighting details!
Overall I think it's a very solid entry!
Thank you very much for the feedback and this new perspective as a non metroidvania player!
Game was made with difficulty in mind so it's not meant to be easiest challenge, however we will take your feedback as someone who I assume is somewhat new to playing the genre and try to adjust so it's new metroidvania/platformer player friendly too!
We are sorry to hear that's the end of your journey and thank you for giving the game a chance! If you are interested in what the game has to offer past what you played our game trailer/teaser should be releasing in like an hour or so! so you can check it out on the discord or youtube and this itch page! We are fully with you that a higher contrast with the base form will increase visibility at certain points more compared to the background so we will be adjusting that as well!
Thank you for your feedback on combat and platforming and hopefully we can improve it and overhaul it to the point where its enjoyable to as many people as possible!
Thank you for liking sound and visuals and the cute little tutorial cat!
Non - Game and Level Designer for Project Null
Whoa I can't thank you enough for such detailed and well thought out feedback! I'll try my best to respond to it properly
Yeah unlocking the air element is essentially the end of the current demo with some double jump only places reachable after unlocking it!
Yeah I agree it doesn't give the greatest first impression due to to such a zoomed out perspective as soon as u start especially since u cant appreciate the pixel art properly on top of having combat pretty early on!
- yeah ill try to rethink the level design with a more zoomed in perspective for future use especially in the first area since thats the major culprit for "empty space" however that empty space in the first area is very intentional as of right now!
- yeah for sure, we are aware of the locking issue and the falling from moving platforms issue and we also do plan to address that in our major combat overhaul!
- thank you for feedback on the "air" combat we can see what we can do to have this revised to be more fun and interactive!
Glad you were enjoying the level design and the lore tablets!
- this one is a very fine line, i agree some acceleration and inertia could be but I'm personally afraid of missing the very very small golden middle and having our movement feel "slippery" for a lack of a better word, but we will definitely play around with it!
- oh yeah the controller support right now is still very experimental and has a lot of issues, should probably have mentioned that in the post itself, will be updated after i write this comment
- yeah there was mentions of some passive way to restore energy, will be definitely something thats gonna get fixed one way or another!
- yeah we are fully aware this also gets planned to get fixed in the next update!
No you are genuinely fine, the feedback was amazing so don't be afraid to speak up your mind! Stuff like this helps us more than you realize, thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Thank you for liking the music and leaving this feedback!
Non - Game and Level designer for Project Null
Thank you very much for playing the game and giving some feedback!
Glad you like the difficulty hopefully we can adjust some of the more frustrating parts in the next update!
Same with controls and mechanics to be explained in the tutorial that haven't yet!
we are particularly proud of the art including the fire and air form, and I'm happy that dash was fun to use!
Thank you for supporting us and hopefully the next big update lives up to your expectations!
Non - Game and Level Designer for Project Null!
Thank you very much for the feedback!
Thank you for pointing out the perspective zoom out! The game was originally supposed to be made with the camera you described and actually had that camera fine tuned and ready, but some issue late into development didn't allow us to have enough time to actually have it properly work, that being said on top of combat, making camera adjustments is our top priority post jam!
Yeah for sure, I think not mentioning the combo system was a huge misstep while we were making the tutorial so it will be adjusted in the further updates, and combat will most likely get completely get overhauled to match the rest of the games quality!
Map screen is also planned to have a lot more into it as well as the player tracking you mentioned! and thank you for your feedback about the save points as well!
Non - Game and Level Designer for Project Null
Hello, thank you very much for trying out the game and thank you for such extensive feedback! Im gonna try and answer point by point!
1. Thank you very much for liking the art direction, our artists were hard at work! Some color adjustments are definitely in store since they were originally made before backgrounds! Will be updated!
2. We are fully with you! Maybe some of the page text wasn't fully understandable, but the double jump and getting the air element isn;t the end of the game! just the current demo. So in the scheme of a finished game you'll be getting the double jump somewhat early! As for not having double jump for other elements, it's already in development, double jump will be available for every form with something special that we don't wanna spoil right now for the air element, its currently how it is due to the game jam time constraints!
3.We are fully with you on this one as well! We are aware that combat is probably one of the weaker parts of our game, so our current major undertaking post gamejam is overhauling the combat system fully so its quality falls more in line with the rest of the game!
4.This is a balancing issue! We limited the number of enemies exactly because the combat system currently felt too weak, with more enemies and some numbers balancing there will be no soft locking issues in the next major update of our game!
5. Thank you for your feedback on this, the story is currently very much barebones and not a focus right now until we polish the hell out of the game! We have a general direction and story structure that we want to go so don't worry we haven't forgotten about it either so get ready for cool twists and turns! As for the little rabbit guy sticking around longer, id love for you to expand on this, he currently served as a shock tool to the player and a story motivator to dislike the machines further, on top of being a basic tutorial for people less familiar with metroidvanias!
6. Thank you for the feedback on bosses, we will do our best to polish them and make them more fun than they already are!
If you have anything else you are more than welcome to point out, we are very thankful for all the feedback!
Non - Game and Level Designer for Project Null
