itch.io

Thank you for the feedback! Originally we planned on adding multiple essences that would not just grow, but also transform the player and grant it power-ups to tackle more diverse challenges in the levels. Unfortunately we had to downscope as I got super busy that week out of nowhere. So what you said is absolutely something that might have made it in under ideal circumstances 😊

Overall the game is fun, even though I personally think that the theme of "growing" wasn't incorporated all too much unfortunately. It still makes for a nice platformer though, albeit very difficult. The first thing that caught my eye however was the ability to freely move in the title screen, which was honestly a lovely idea. The movement is also pretty fluid, which is important for a game like this.

The music is catchy and makes for a cool atmosphere. It doesn't quite sync up to the gameplay as much as I thought it would though based on the game description. What was a bit disruptive when playing was the fact that you pretty much only get one shot at the spawning platforms before they completely disappear until you die - and they disappear fast! And it gets amplified by the fact that your character's movement kind of carries over into a respawn, so as soon as you die, you have to immediately re-orient to try and get right back on track, or you will have to take another intentional fall to get another shot. There were several times my character went right off after respawning, so this part (respawning + pace) was a bit frustrating. 

One technical aspect (might be relevant to people trying out this game after me as well!): In the web-version I had quite severe performance problems, especially when the green bushy platforms spawned/increased in size. This was however not the case in the downloadable version.

So all in all a game with a lot of style and cool movement, but with room for improvement when it comes to balancing and the realization of the Jam's theme.

(One example of balancing: I loaded checkpoint 8 (which is a cool feature to test the game btw!) and the moment you spawn in the platforms are already gone. You die, they respawn, so far so good. But if you get on the first platform just a wee bit too late, you actually can't make it all the way up the first batch because the platforms despawn faster than you can traverse, even if you perfectly time your jumps once you get started.)

Honestly a lovely and refreshing concept. If I were to ask for some improvements I'd say I wish you could see what trees do before you plant them. And am I right to assume sunlight (Tall Tree) wasn't actually utilized? Cool submission though!