It has been recompiled in a new Fusion version and with some settings tweaks that help reduce chances of false positives. Virus scanners shouldn't mistake it for malware anymore.
Happy Frog Games
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Dang, latest version still having false positive issues? Clickteam Fusion is an engine somewhat notorious for causing false positives in games made with it. I may need to recompile it in the latest version again to fix that. They keep having to change the engine a bit to reduce the number of false positives it causes.
...but, uh, also, this is a Windows game, and in looking into that, it's being picked up on as a virus for... Android. Which this game cannot and does not run on at all. So I'm a bit confused.
EDIT: Actually, can you clarify: Is this for the paid version, or the demo?
EDIT 2: Either way I don't have time to recompile now but I'll try to remember to tonight.
the web build was pretty last second. admittedly, you're not wrong that it would've been funnier to do it that way, though. hindsight!
as for the aesthetics, i mean... not exactly, i didn't have a specific intent in mind with the subpar art at a conscious level beyond "feel like a bootleg". though, i suppose at the end of the day, "feel like a bootleg" was the goal, and those do often look like they thought they looked better than they actually do, so... close enough!
the browser version has significant issues that are absent in the windows build and it recommends you to try it first for a reason. i thought of putting it on a different page for that reason, honestly. instead, i put the overcomplicated disclaimer screen up. also... did you try waiting for a few seconds on the "yuo did it" screen?
Ok, right. I think I have the web build working now: https://happy-frog-games.itch.io/yes-yes-skeletons-go-fight-the-m
The disclaimer not only warns you about the issues but requires you to do an intentionally-slightly-excessive sequence of key inputs to progress. It doesn't require any simultaneous key presses though. Should be fine? I think? Just going to post it here to make sure though all the same...
...oh! Right. Another reason, forgot to mention this one earlier because I was still kind of waking up at the time: Web builds put themselves at the very top of itch pages. So like, it tends to be the first thing people look at on an itch page when one is there. Which I really don't want when the build in question is intended as a last resort fallback instead of the intended version of the game. I'd rather somebody try to download it, run it, and if they have issues, then use the web build.
...I suppose I could add a disclaimer into the web build itself...? I do have a few minutes right now... I'll see what I can do.
If I make an optional web build, is it okay if I count it as a separate itch project, link to it from the original jam game, but have a warning on the link that mentions that it should only be played as a last resort and has some slightly broken audio (things don't play at the correct pitch sometimes due to changes of Clickteam Fusion 2.5's HTML5 exporter's audio behavior vs. the non-HTML5 exporter)?
...also, if I don't have time to fix the audio of such a web build now, but find I have time to fix it after the late submission period, would that be like... fair game, as part of the "small updates that don't change the game much" thing? Or not really?
This one has some very, very interesting visuals, atmosphere, and an interesting concept overall it feels... but something feels a bit off about the execution of this one. Randomly taking damage from seemingly nothing, enemies respawning seemingly whenever they feel like, checkpoints placed directly on top of enemies... it does admittedly, in a weird way, add to the vibe, but with the game currently lacking an ending (according to the download page) and as a result lacking a payoff, it's hard for me to make of it if that really makes the game better or not.
What to me doesn't add to the vibe as much is that the game kind of ate my jump button sometimes if I tried jumping after landing from a dagger throw., in a game that seems to want to involve fighting enemies a lot and jumping a lot.
...that being said, the randomly taking damage is a bit of a problem given that the game is actually pretty tough. Hm.
I... think I like what I experienced here though? But it's very hard to explain. The vibes and atmosphere are carrying this one a lot. I also want to see what more you can do in the future if this is anything to go by? This is a very interesting oddity of a game.
I, uh, think if I were to have one recommendation for the future? Since, I'm having a hard time collecting my thoughts into words here properly other than this one... You seem to have nailed a lot here, but I think the thing that felt off to me in a way that didn't quite benefit the game most was the level design. Things like the checkpoints having enemies around them, enemies that are placed exactly at the end of platforms so you're basically guaranteed to get hit by them when you jump across said platform, things like that, if you could maybe tune that a bit better so the enemies in question only feel threatening but actually are relatively weak enemies that don't do much damage, making it feel more unfair than it actually is, I think it could contribute to the vibe without the issues that the current setups have gameplay-wise.
Well... Playtesting aside, this was all me. Happy Frog Games is, outside 2 people helping me with business side things and the occasional contractor I bring in for projects, this project not being one of them, pretty much a one person team!
...which is part of why things like sound balance weren't perfect. Sound balance is very hard to get right when you're also making a game. Doubly so when it's synth-based and you're putting in the numbers for exactly how you want the synth to behave yourself, making balancing the audio slightly trickier when those numbers don't always add up exactly the ways you want sometimes. Still, it's something I'll keep in mind, since, uh, yeah believe me I've been thinking about possibly making a larger version of this after the jam.
Heheh, the battle sections are like that on purpose! You're actually supposed to get kind of overwhelmed with a "wait, what the heck is going on here?!?" first impression with just enough info to sometimes stumble through your first battle successfully, and pick up on what you're doing through continued successive battles. I thought it'd kinda help with the whole "hacking" vibe I was going for with them.
I'd actually seen another game with a feel like that seemingly on purpose for a seemingly similar effect and wanted to see if I could pull off a similar feel, and reaction from playtesters, and now also from you, has broadly indicated to me I pulled it off. (Not the only game that tried to pull off a hacker-ish feel I was trying to take influences from in the battles though. What can I say? I'm a dev who loves video games and also creative combat mechanics, and sometimes that means I get to smash ideas together from like 50 different things I like and see if any of them work together at all or not. Maybe I'll do a writeup on my influences for this game some time after the jam...)
So, obviously due to the unfinished nature of the game I can't easily rate it in every category fairly, but what's here is pretty interesting. Movement feels nice, visuals are great, sound design is pretty solid. However, before I could actually finish the game, I managed to softlock myself by getting stuck in the floor while exploring.
That being said, I am looking forwards to seeing more updates after the jam! Keep at it!
Not a particularly ambitious game, but it doesn't really need to be. A simple platformer with Metroidvania elements (doesn't feel quite full on Metroidvania to me, but that's also okay), with some nice music choices and simple but colorful visuals that fit the vibe, well executed platforming overall (albeit with slightly janky moving platforms, but they get the job done as well as the game's level design needs it)... honestly, this game has some pretty good level design.
Wish the ending was a bit more satisfying, but you made an actually complete game that feels pretty cohesive and that really counts for something. This reminds me of Flash games I played growing up, and I mean that in a good way, because I played some really, really good ones.
...okay...
...I'm... not sure I like this game.
...let me start with the positive though.
The spritework is pretty good, for one (a few gripes with animations like the shooting animation aside). I like what you chose as the player's first upgrade, that's a pretty solid pick. The intro sets up a pretty intriguing premise. Scientists who are basically being trained to be powerful warriors? Yeah, that's an interesting idea! I do like the song that plays on loop for the game, it's quite catchy, energetic, adventurous, yet somewhat atmospheric, everything I could want it to be honestly!
Also, I like the idea of the bait ability. Luring around creatures from the environment to do your dirty work is a pretty fun idea. More games should do stuff like that one.
...
...however...
I originally wrote a longer wall of text here, but it felt a little too mean given I don't like, hate what you've done here enough to warrant it. I've opted to replace that and summarize my thoughts on the negatives as...
Okay, so, this game claims to be oldschool difficulty and no tutorials, only to have a control tutorial, an intro with a lot of text mixed with art that feels closer to 1994 than 1986, item descriptions with lots of text that explain how they work, and then seems to punish you for experimenting with missiles in the way those older games actually wanted you to experiment by, as far as I can tell, never giving you a way to actually get more if you run out and can't find a missile expansion item, since enemies never seem to drop them.
And far as I can tell, that means my last experience with this game was seemingly softlocking myself, because I ran out of missiles and could never figure out how to get more. Suffice to say, I kind of gave up, since I wasn't having fun and I'd rather spend my time playing the other games in the jam at this point.
I beat the yellow devil in Mega Man 1 without the pause glitch, by the way, so don't misunderstand, I'm the sort who can love me some oldschool difficulty. Problem is, this game is not oldschool difficulty. It's not as clever as oldschool difficulty often was. It's just poorly designed and tries to excuse itself by calling it oldschool difficulty.
There are cool ideas here though! Please, find time to make a better game to use the idea of the bait in. Maybe also make it slightly less finicky next time though. But seriously, it's not a bad idea. There's good ideas here! There's good things here! I wish I could say I liked this game, I just... I can't. I'm sorry.
Okay actually this game is like really really cool as it stands honestly?
First game I've played in the jam so far and I'm glad I chose one that hadn't been rated by anybody yet to start because I didn't know what to expect and... yeah? I like this?
Like it's very unfinished of course, and from what I played I feel like it could've had a bit more of a Metroidvania-ish aspect to it (it is there, don't get me wrong, and I feel like it's something that you planned to rectify a bit more for the finished game, so...), but the dash is actually really, really fun to use. And I suspect I know what the bounce is supposed to unlock, even if from what I can tell as-is it doesn't... seem to unlock anything far as I can tell?
I say "seem to" and "from what I've played" and stuff like that due to the unfortunate truth that my playthrough was ultimately cut short by a major bug that sent me somewhere out of bounds with no way back after I got hit by a stage hazard, in a game with a shockingly expansive map for how unfinished it is and with no ability to save... which means that it would've taken a while to get my progress back, and I'm not sure I really want to bother quite right this second given I might run into the same softlock again.
(Maybe I'll update my thoughts later if I manage to figure out how to avoid that softlock issue after I've played more games in the jam... I don't think my thoughts would ultimately change much though. I liked what I saw and it was all very unfinished, and I suspect that pattern was going to continue for the rest of the game.)
Still, I very, very much enjoyed my time here despite the unfinished nature of it. Dashing around everywhere is very, very fun, the soundtrack is great, the finished visuals (some of them seem unfinished, but ah well) are pretty good... You're onto something here.
Please, please finish making this game after the jam, I see the potential here, this could be an amazing game once it's finished!
Honestly, that's completely fair if you don't find the gameplay engaging enough. I know this game probably won't be for everyone, given I had only so much time to work with so I didn't have time for, say, dedicated difficulty settings or other such things that could've probably helped with appealing to a wider audience.
That being said, I wonder if you might be the sort of player I built the ranking system to be for. I tried to balance the game such that most people should be able to beat the game without too much trouble, for those who just want a simple almost Mario 1-ish sidescroller to run through while getting increasingly powerful in a power trip kind of way, but that getting a high rank is quite a lot harder and requires a lot more effort. Of course, the several endings thing and short length are both to try to encourage playing it enough times to start getting a feel for it.
Being tired could factor in too, of course. We'll see I guess! Feel free to share more thoughts if you play it again and have more complicated thoughts, positive or negative, afterwards. I'm definitely curious to hear more!
It's also hard to actually confirm usage rights for literally any AI-generated assets, since it's been demonstrated time and time again that many AI generators actually just straight up will spit out somebody's copyrighted work almost identically if given the right input, and it's hard to confirm whether or not even stuff like Adobe Enhance was or was not trained on stuff without permission. I'd imagine that's another factor in why it's not being allowed, since if you can't actually be sure what you're using is legally in the clear, well... following rule 8 becomes almost impossible due to the "have the usage rights to use them" part.
The visuals in this are top notch, the sound effects are pretty good, and I like the music as well. I could see a game like this as having been an actual release on gameboy, so that's nice too. I also appreciate the way the music changes a bit based on what's going on, with minimal simple music playing unless stuff is happening, and when stuff is happening a more complex song plays, instead of just playing one song on loop the entire time. Nice touch!
The concept of catching the greebles is fun, as is the shaking a bunch of objects around to find them thing too. Really gets across the feeling of playing as a cat quite well, heh. Also, the usage of the theme here is quite good, the game definitely has the right atmosphere for it and manages to fit it into what the gameplay is quite well.
I dunno, the pouncing, it works well. The game feels right overall. That's a tricky thing to get right, and you got it right.
Also? You... you got that jumping mechanic working. That's impressive. A multi-layer system of some kind that allows you to jump up onto higher surfaces that as far as I can tell works basically without issue in a game with otherwise purely 2D gameplay. Yeah. Yeah that sort of thing is hard to get working at all, and it working with relatively minimal issues... not gonna lie, I'm kind of impressed by that.
...admittedly though, while I like the concept of the gameplay, and I'm impressed by the jump, and I do overall like the feel of the game...
...I think that the whole "flee onto another screen if you ever take damage" thing was the source of some frustration. Mainly because it's bugged and can softlock the game if one of the damage-dealing greebles manages to make it to the edge of a screen such that you take damage from a screen you're not currently on, or if you get hit a second time while fleeing on the same screen, which forced me to restart the game multiple times.
I uh, also ended up fleeing through a wall sometimes? And uh, one time I fled through a wall, into another wall, forcing me to restart once again. Yeah it's a really buggy mechanic as-is.
Programming is hard sometimes though, I get it. These things happen sometimes, and while it impacted my ability to enjoy the gameplay, it didn't outright ruin the gameplay. I mean, it's honestly mostly made up for by the in my opinion impressive programming on the jump mechanic. Almost.
I mean... I did almost give up when I learned there was a basement room and it was yet another softlock for me because it's another of the few screens in the game to start with a large greeble out instead of having it hidden in something, meaning you can't risk ever leaving the screen until everything is cleared out... but uhhh, I did ultimately finish the game and had a good time, so...
Overall, despite some issues, I still did ultimately have a good time here! Good game.
A lot of things here that feel like a gameboy game, like the slight delay on the swing on the bat of all things actually reminds me of a specific gameboy game (a Star Wars licensed game) that I have the actual gameboy cart of, the visual style evokes the feel of gameboy quite well for the most part, the song that plays feels mostly gameboy enough, though I do have one slight gripe on that front: The particle effects feel a bit more than what gameboy could've done. Still, very small gripe on that front, overall it's evoking that feel well.
Gameplay is quite good feeling here, I can't think of another game off the top of my head with a jump as low as you start with in this game where the jump still actually felt good to use. (Of course, this being a Metroidvania, it gets higher over time. Still feels good.)
Also, the ending got a good chuckle out of me.
Great entry you have here.
btw: Encountered a weird visual bug where if you press a button during the opening cutscene, the title screen text flashes again. Nothing huge, but worth a mention.
The production value on this for a gamejam game is frankly insane. While there are a few things that still make the rushed production time somewhat obvious, they're also the sorts of things you'd sometimes run into on an actual gameboy game (stuff like the dialogue occasionally clipping slightly outside the box due to being very slightly too long), so like... I mean... at least the few very small things feel pretty authentic.
Like... what do I even say to a game like this, where the music is this good, the sounds this well done, the visuals this charming, the game just this overall fun and polished for what is, again, a gamejam game?
...well...
Let's see.
The idea of a dash as a Metroidvania progression ability is fun, especially in the context of how floating works. I actually kind of like that taking damage lets you kinda damage boost to places you aren't "supposed" to be with your current abilities yet, I actually think that sort of thing can make a Metroidvania better, and while it's probably technically a bug, it's probably worth keeping that sort of thing in mind for the finished game since it can actually potentially be better for the game for it to have quirks like that.
The floating around is definitely a pretty unique feel for a platformer and a Metroidvania, in a way that works really well for being a ghost, and mixed well with the aforementioned dash.
The soundtrack helped really set the mood of this, kinda a bit lighthearted but a bit spooky at the same time, a thing the writing fit well as well, as did the visuals.
Oh yeah, I appreciate that the first attack you get in this (currently the only one) is fairly weak but serviceable enough for the kinds of things you're thrown against, I imagine that later on there will be better attack abilities to work with in typical Metroidvania fashion, and making sure to start the player feeling weak generally helps make those later abilities feel great to use to finally take out those tougher enemies in a more satisfying way.
Also, the way you wall off progress until you get the dash is pretty effective, I like that you can see the whole path from above even before you have the ability so you can properly scope out what kind of ability it is you're going to need later.
...I do also have a few more thoughts on the gameplay that aren't quite as positive, but for what it's worth, the good very heavily outweighs the bad.
Obviously, since you're playing as a ghost, the movement feeling float is on purpose, so while I have a few tweaks I'd potentially suggest, they're hard to articulate and pretty small overall and I won't linger on some very very small nitpicks with that. However, what I have a feeling isn't intentional is... some of the, uh, bugs? To name one example, I kept getting told that I was back at the start on screen transition after a certain point, not entirely sure why. Not enough to be game-ruining or anything, but it's something worth a mention.
I can only imagine though that the bugs are just a side effect of being a gamejam game that didn't have time to work out bugs like that and will likely be fixed in the finished game some day.
However, it's still worth a mention given that if not for those bugs and some other nitpicks I have with the gameplay, I probably would be awarding this game a literally perfect score right about now in literally every single category.
...yeah. I liked this one, suffice to say. I really liked this one.
It's really unfortunate that this game didn't have time to be finished, what little is here is quite nice visually, if a bit, uh, more than 4 colors on display at once. A problem that likely would have been fixed in some way had the game actually had time to be finished, if I were to guess.
If you ever find time to make the game you planned to for this jam, I think I'd wanna see what that'd be like. As is, I'm still glad you submitted what you managed to get done before the jam was over.
I'll start by saying the visuals in this are quite good, I like the spritework of the enemies, the way the player's bullet patterns move, the general choice of color palette here, there's a lot to like on that front! Very charming stuff.
I like the core of the gameplay here being focused on power ups and going for as high of a score as possible. Has a rather nice "just one more try" feel, which is very gameboy era video gaming. And like, I do especially like how those power ups work. Again gonna mention how satisfying the way the player's bullets move with certain upgrades gets.
And I really like that every few seconds you get to choose one power-up and potentially have to risk a slightly inconvenient position to go for said power-ups. That's risk-reward! That's pretty good design!
And the reward for getting those in feeling significantly more powerful over time? That's good payoff. Oh yeah, also? I think the inability to aim up and down actually makes the gameplay better, since it means you have to be more careful about how you move about, and makes getting those power-ups that much trickier to do yet that much more satisfying when you do it. Surprisingly clever choice there.
I do, however, have my issues. I ultimately like this game, actually I really like it even, but it's a bit flawed, and I may as well get into what I mean a bit since hey, maybe some of this can get fixed after the jam. (The first issue or two I mention in particular feels like a rather good candidate to focus on fixing, if nothing else.)
The big one is that, as far as I can tell at least, there is a complete inability to reset the game after dying without rebooting the game entirely. This does detract from the potential of the gameplay loop, I feel, since it feels like a "just one more try" kind of game, yet makes it weirdly inconvenient to give it that one more try to get into that kind of flow of trying over and over again.
A very minor one is that having the game track your best score in some way would also be nice, to have that further encouragement to push for a better and better score.
Also, lastly, due to exactly how you've gone about using your 4 color palette, combined with the sheer number of objects on screen at once, this feels a lot less like gameboy and a lot more like gameboy color, so while the color count never technically is more than 4 on screen at once, it's worth a mention.
Anyway! Thanks a lot for reading this and, if you're the dev of the game reading this, for making this game! I'm glad I sat down and played this one. If I didn't have more things in the jam to be playing, I'd probably be trying to sit down with this and play it more, actually... I feel like that's a good sign you're actually really onto something here.
Heck, to that end, genuinely, consider making a larger version of this some time if you ever find a chance. Not like, significantly so, maybe just something like, adding in a soundtrack and such, just generally polishing up and cleaning up what you have here more. I know I'd play the heck out of it myself. That's ultimately up to you though, of course, I don't blame you if you'd rather move onto other endeavors!
The concept art of this is awesome, and the soundtrack rules. Sounds like something almost more like what I think a lot of people would've wanted Metroid 2's soundtrack to be, as opposed to the more purely atmospheric soundtrack that game ended up with. A nice mix of melodies and atmosphere make this soundtrack one that would likely be quite fondly remembered in a gameboy game, so it really has down the "feeling like a gameboy" thing down well too, as well as the core theme of the jam.
The soundtrack also reminds me a lot of Gargoyle's Quest, honestly, which to be clear is a very, very good thing.
Also, I love me a good Mega Man inspired game, so the idea that this all would be playing for a game inspired by that series? Yeah, you can bet I'm on board with the idea.
I do have some thoughts on the proposed gameplay ideas that I'd like to get into, since everyone else is already going into how good the soundtrack is, and I've already gotten into the soundtrack about as much as I reasonably feel I can. Also, I feel the gameplay ideas are worth talking about since they seem interesting, though I think it's hard to gauge how well it'd play in practice.
I think the idea of having a long list of spells with highly varied abilities on a shared magic meter in a run and gun is interesting, but I do wonder if it'd potentially make the game feel overly clunky in practice if not executed well. You have to either press select to open a menu to change them, or the alternative is that select might cycle through. Either way, it's something the game would have to account for carefully, which in fairness, the Mega Man games had to account for their boss weapons carefully, so, nothing new there I suppose, even if these abilities sound pretty different from those in practice.
That being said, it's one of those things that you can't easily gauge without actually playtesting and fine tuning it, and were it made an actual game, no doubt that such playtesting would be done to fine tune it until it actually does play well. Since like... it's a concept that can play well, to be clear! This is more something to keep in mind should you ever pursue finding a way to make this game concept a reality. One of those "this is good, but look out to make sure this doesn't happen since it could if you aren't careful" kinds of things, if that makes sense?
I think it's an idea worth giving a go, as somebody who thinks it's worth doing things in game design even if there might be obstacles to pulling them off well. It's just worth trying to identify and remember which parts of a given game concept are the parts that might require a closer, more careful look to pull off well while designing a game.
Oh yeah, also? I actually really like the idea of fitting a parry into a game like that. That sounds like it could be really fun if implemented right, especially since it'd probably help balance out some of the issues with managing a long spell list by giving you a difficult but consistent, reliable way to deal with some things even when you're still figuring out what spell you want to use for a given situation.
Overall, I'd be very intrigued by a game with those gameplay concepts if it were ever made real.
Definitely would be a concept with potential, which, when combined with visuals like that and a soundtrack like this? Yeah, I think a game like that would probably be very, very fun to play, suffice to say.
Oh yeah, if you ever get a chance to make a game... since I'm here, I do wanna give a tip: Make sure to get playtesters when you can! On a tight time constraint like a gamejam, it isn't always remotely feasible, but I'm speaking more-so a hypothetical full scale non-jam game or such.
There's definitely potential here with some nice visuals and a spooky atmosphere. Just wish there was a bit more to it as-is. Though, that being said, the mood is enhanced by how there isn't much going on, so, be careful to strike a balance there, since it sounds like you're planning to update this more in the future.
I definitely wanna see where this goes!
Well dang, that's quite the compliment there! Thanks! Also, honestly completely fair that it doesn't feel very gameboy-ish.
I did choose a palette resembling the Gameboy Light more than anything else, which is probably fine on its own... and then chose to use a dark background when a lot of devs on gameboy didn't really do that, whoops. Combine with a simplified character design, and... yeah I kinda get what you mean.
Such is the sort of thing that happens when one makes something in an almost stream-of-consciousness way due to limited time to work with I suppose!
Oh yeah, absolutely. It's kind of a reference to a thing I actually remember doing at times when I had issues with sleeping and waking up a lot throughout the night as a teenager though, so I figured, well, it's not technically unrealistic, regardless of whether it seems realistic at least, so may as well!
An interesting idea, but it's really, really hard to actually defeat enemies in the game with how short your range is combined with how fast everything moves, not helped by the lack of diagonal movement.
Pretty neat art style though that integrates the theme of spooky quite well, even if not one that reminds me much of gameboy.
Couldn't really get past level 1 admittedly, which is probably partially a me problem, but I'm still glad I gave this a shot for a bit.
...also, the trailer is hilarious. If anybody sees this comment and wants to take away just one thing from this comment, it should be this: Please, please watch the trailer. It's a great trailer.
A short, charming, fairly fun game which feels reasonably enough like a gameboy game that loops pretty quickly and has nice visuals. Wish there was some sound though, but ah well. I feel like this could've done more with the theme of "spooky" but it does enough there to get the job done.
By the way, I want to point out and put some emphasis on how, I actually rather like that it loops! A lot of old games actually kinda looped at least a time or two, and sometimes looped infinitely, so it actually genuinely makes it feel more like a gameboy game that way. Nice touch!
Thanks for making this!