itch.io

I really appreciate this write up. As an engineering manager by day I’m having to navigate a lot of the same concerns. I’ve found a lot of value in using AI for ideation, or to explain complex concepts, but I’m still not a huge fan of generative AI for art or code.

Cursor is impressive, and you’re right that it will probably only get better, but for now it feels like I spend more time correcting it than writing the implementation myself. Where I feel like it really shines is diving into unfamiliar code bases and asking questions like, “how does this application handle authorization?” Or, “where would I add a new type of form in this website?”.

It can shave a lot of time off of understanding something so you can more quickly get to the part you actually want to be doing.

What a great homage to the games that inspired you, and a great example of a short experience in PICO-8! 

Thanks for the feedback, specifically around the aiming too. I tried three or four different control schemes for aiming and finally landed on this which feels decent with PICO-8's limited inputs.

I'll never lose!

I love the whole presentation of the game and I'm looking forward to playing more of it!

A couple of things that would be great to see improved if you end up continue work on this: 

• Don't let enemies spawn/walk on non-walkable tiles
• Reduce the player hitbox to the base of the sprite instead of the full height. Right now it feels strange for the character to look 3D, but take damage at the top of the sprite.
• Autotile the level as one complete unit after combining chunks so that it's more seamless.

This was a great little game! Really fun mechanic and I could see a lot more levels coming out of this, or even a hard mode where using the wrong type is an immediate game over.

Overall this is the start of a solid puzzle game. Already the pacing and available mechanics were great. I felt clever solving some of the later puzzles, and never bored that I was re-using the same tools to work my way to a solution.

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Observations

1. Previous games have taught me that I can probably pass through one-way platforms horizontally.
2. I could imagine speed running a puzzle game like this, and while its possible managing your weight and momentum might ultimately be part of the puzzle, losing speed when landing after a jump didn't feel fun.
3. First puzzle with pull down lever seemed to be directing me to puck up the magnet again, but then nothing happens. Maybe it needs a stronger hint? Button indicator next to the pull switch?
4. In one of the first puzzles with with a one-way platform, I was surprised I couldn’t throw the magnet through the platform, but ultimately accepted that behavior. In the next puzzle, the passing through a one-way platform while holding the magnet is the solution.
5. One puzzle has you hold a magnet to ride up in the magnetic field, then the expectation is to release the magnet to get to a nearby platform. Visually it looked as if I was running into an invisible wall, and not that the magnet was being pulled towards the nearby electromagnet.
6. On occasion I felt a bit of frustration related to the magnet getting hung up on low platforms while carrying it, or in having to setup a puzzle multiple times after failing the final step. In those moments I wanted  platforms and drills to move a bit faster. I think those frustrations let to me sitting and staring at the puzzle a little longer as opposed to experimenting with a solution.
7. Aiming a throw felt unreliable. The indicator often didn't show the actual path and a precise throw never really felt necessary. I started to ignore the indicator and mostly just threw up and to the right, or up and to the left and it worked.

Bugs

1. Holding left trigger without pressing a direction can show the throw indicator, but then the magnet does not get thrown without holding a direction as well.

Suggestions

1. In QA builds at least, adding an on-screen label to each puzzle would make it easy to provide feedback on specific puzzles.
2. Pressing a button to leave a level would allow more opportunity to explore and possibly discover secrets.
3. Allowing a small jump (maybe only horizontally) while hanging from a magnet would make some of the later puzzles less tedious since they require setup before attempting the jump.

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Thanks for inviting this community to take a look at an early build. Keep up the momentum, this game is going to be great!

This is a great start! I had trouble feathering the jump when going through some of the tighter gaps. My best score was 2584.

Went back and played some more with the volume a little louder and the music felt pretty chaotic. My first time playing, the attack effects seemed to stand out more but when you can hear all the music clearer I think it drowns out the reset of the sound blurs the line between an effect and the music. Still just as fun to play though!

I thought I was just going to give this a quick test but it really pulled me in. Once I understood the attack/defend mechanic and started to recognize the different enemies it got a lot more strategic. I played several games and only managed to get one piece of light so far but I'll be coming back to this later for sure!

I wish I was able to heal or apply potions outside of combat in some capacity, or at least be able to view my inventory to decide if I should attempt an encounter. I found myself avoiding more difficult enemies often because I wasn't sure if I had a smoke bomb, or I didn't know if I'd be able to heal going into the next fight before I was hit with a killing blow.

I had the opposite experience to a few others here. I did not die in the desert, but I wandered around drinking water for a while until it felt like there wasn't anything else to do. I'm worried I missed out on some content though. I think you nailed the feeling of emptiness you were after, but still created an interesting space to explore.

This was a great concept but I struggled to get the controls down initially. I couldn't get my controller to work with the web build and it took a minute for me to get a handle on the WASD movement for a platformer. I eventually did get the hang of it it but could only stay on the uneven bars long enough to get the portal open once. It was tough!

I second timewhale. This was great for a game jam entry/prototype. You had a solid game with time to spare and were even able to take some feedback from the initial impressions. Solid entry; interested to see what you'll make next month!

This reminded me of something like VVVVVV, but with its own unique mechanic. The controls felt a little quick at times requiring me to really feather the arrow keys to get in the right position, but it was fun figuring out little mechanics to manipulate my height by bouncing off walls or doing a little jump mid-air. Great work!

Great work! So glad to see you both continuing with this project. It's really something special.

Great game! Challenging and fun. I only found two of the artifacts but I'm tempted to go back and try again to find everything and improve my C rank. The pipe mechanic was fun and it felt great to spot the secret paths once I knew what I was looking for.

I was just looking through some of your past work after admiring your progress on Slipways. I'd seen some of your other pico-8 projects but hadn't come across this. Amazing demake! I didn't see this on the BBS though. Is there a p8 cartridge somewhere, or maybe a way to convert the JS version to p8?

Just played through all 12 levels and it was a lot of fun! I could see this being a really great mobile game. I came in a bit over par but I want to go through again and get a better score.

If I had to make one suggestion, because there were a couple levels where you couldn't see what was off screen, it might be nice for each level to start zoomed out so you get an overview, or have a way to move the camera around and preview the level. 

I think your levels were designed in a way that seeing everything wasn't required,  but if the levels started to get longer it could be a nice feature.

Great work!