Incredible, can't wait :)
Also yeah having played a bit more since making my original post, I definitely did get used to the dropping vs jumping thing, and I think it does work well
Super cool demo! Fixed a lot of my gripes with the climbing in Hatch, while delivering more of my favourite parts of Hatch - the section near the summit with all of the long jumps onto thin platforms that have you biting your nails - here delivered with way more crunch and weight to them.
I also think this makes a really cool speed game, as trying to go as fast as possible leads to more daring leaps and in some sections a great sense of flow when you're jumping between platforms and slopes at top speeds. That said, the sections where you have to climb directly upwards break this flow, as suddenly you're just holding up for a while without doing anything (it's worth noting that in the first playthrough of a level, when I'm not playing for time, this is totally fine, I'm slowly looking around at the environment and planning carefully and so the slow pacing of climbing directly upwards feels right). I wonder this could be addressed by making jumping and regrabbing equally as stamina-efficient as normal climbing, so that if you're going for speed you have that option which is a) slightly faster b) slightly more dangerous and c) means you're still actively doing something
I also think it would feel nice if stamina instantly recharged when you touched flat ground rather than having to wait for it. It feels realistic to need to wait for your stamina, but again it breaks that flow when you're trying to go fast. It also discourages leaping towards platforms at the end of a climb (because it uses more stamina so you have to wait longer) which is a shame because doing that feels really fun. The slow stamina recharge could still be used when sliding on slopes though because then you have the fun tension of not being sure if you'll get enough stamina back or not.
One other minor gripe was that not pushing off when looking below the waist and jumping from a wall feels unintuitive to me. I feel like I should be propelled forward in the direction I'm looking when I press space (maybe not if I'm looking directly down though), and maybe dropping should be a different key like control or pressing left-click again. This could even lead to the slightly interesting decision between jumping down propels you so is slightly faster, but uses more stamina, whereas dropping is free.
Backseat game-designing aside, this was a really fun demo that shows a lot of promise, and I'm definitely going to wishlist the full game on steam.
p.s. I saw in the trailer that there looked to be some sort of grappling hook mechanic, which I'm very excited for. Grappling / swinging mechanics make literally every game better :)
10/10 would cry again.
In all seriousness though, I really love how the mechanics actually change as the narrative develops. I started off thinking "oh, another game where you have to switch between the two people in the two different worlds" but every new twist on how it worked before kept it interesting.
The trade off for this is that most of the levels end up feeling quite easy, because you have to re-introduce new mechanics each time, but I think for a narrative-focused game the levels should be relatively easy anyway!
Really interesting game!
I simultaneously absolutely love and hate this game. I had a lot of fun but also probably about about 7 aneurysms playing it.
Flinging yourself about is super fun but it's really hard to understand what's going on while doing so, and the fact you can't see in front of you when holding the ball is super frustrating given you're trying to aim.
That said this is also one of my favourite games in the jam
Had a lot of fun playing this one!
In terms of design I love the laser, it's a nice spanner in the works that makes the game a lot more interesting because now there's also something you need to avoid with the the tether, rather than wanting to catch everything. I'd love to see some sort of reward for catching the missiles, e.g. every missile caught instead of dodged would give like a tiny amount of energy back or something, I think it would make it extra satisfying (though obviously that would affect balance)
Really impressive art and music too!
(p.s. my high score is 92)
Unfortunately I found this quite hard to actually play - I didn't really understand what the goal was, as far as I could tell all I can do is click things until the lines light up, but that still didn't seem to light the lightbulb?
I also found it confusing that things only light up one way, and if you flip them 180 degrees they no longer light up, even though the two pieces look connected either way.
I also would have loved some sort of visual indication of which things I am allowed to turn and which things I can't
This is a very interesting concept! Unfortunately I wasn't able to assess how interesting new tactics and such are as I didn't have anyone to play with, but I also really love it in terms of presentation! It made it effortlessly clear which pieces you had selected, and the fact that the piece the move is based on had a larger circle is a nice touch, just adds even more clarity. The smashing sound effect when you took a piece felt very crunchy too. Really liked this!
I like a lot about this concept, like the risk-reward of how greedy to be with having more treasure slowing you down.
I think it would be more interesting if the player knew where the exit was, however, as I found myself just wandering around very very slowly by the end.
Additionally, I like that enemies don't kill you, you just want to avoid them because they're heavy and slow you down a lot. However, if enemies can't harm you, why does being slow matter? I feel like there needs to be some sort of motivator to stay light and fast, like a timer for the level or enemies that you need to run away from or something
Really love this concept, shooting things in slow-mo is always really satisfying.
Personally, I think this game might have been better if it were just 2-dimensional - that way you don't need a separate view for the gun and I think it helps let players understand what is going on so they can focus on doing cool stuff.
Really loved this though!
One of my favourite games I've played in the jam so far! A solid puzzle mechanic, executed really well, and with some clever level design too!
My only grievance is that I found timing the ranged shot quite tricky which ended up meaning that even once I knew how a level could be solved I had to keep trying it over and over because I kept messing it up.
This is a really awesome take on the prompt, and was really fun to play! I always love these management style games.
Unfortunately it was also frustrating that the messages from the commander appeared over the top of the power port, so I could never see where I was going when trying to connect to it. Also, the layout of the colours on the diagram is different to on the actual ship.
Once I got used to it this was really enjoyable though!