itch.io

It's like the controls were designed to mess with anyone who's ever played a game before. There's nothing wrong with them in a vacuum, but they're so far removed from any standard conventions that I just cannot get used to them. I don't think this is a bad thing though, it was actually a lot of fun figuring the game out and breaking away from years of muscle memory. Also I love the fact that the main menu is basically a tutorial, it works really well.

I do think some of the enemies are a bit too hard, especially with the controls in mind. There were several encounters where it didn't feel like I had enough time to react and died as a result. Other than that this is pretty much flawless.

Very well made game. I didn't realise there was a map until after I was done, but the world is so competently designed that I never actually needed it.

The only criticism I have is that the communication felt a bit lacking (I have no idea what the green collectables are for, and the bouncy mushrooms are very easy to miss), and that spikes being instant death felt somewhat unfair (I never died to the forest boss, but managed to repeatedly die to the spikes while trying to leave the arena).

Otherwise, this is a great game.

I don't think I have much to add that hasn't already been said; the visuals and sounds are fantastic, the worldbuilding is great despite (or because of?) how minimalistic it is, and the boss is too hard.

But I do want to talk about the boss, as someone who spent way too long on it, got very close twice, and still couldn't beat it. I don't think it's technically too hard. The attacks are all very simple to understand, and when the player is prepared for them they're easy to dodge. The main issue is that it's hard to prepare for them since the boss doesn't really communicate when and where it's going to attack. If you're going to keep working on this (which would be great), then try adding some kind of warning to the boulders and indicator that the boss will start charging soon before you tweak its stats or timing.

Also I think a down swing would have been a great addition since it would give skilled players an opportunity to attack the boss while it's in its charging state.

Finally got a chance to play this, I've been looking forward to it for a while.

Unfortunately, the game crashed about 15 minutes in and wasn't able to relaunch, but it was still enough time for me to have some thoughts about it.

The rail shooter gameplay overall is well done. Aiming felt consistent and easy (which is something I've struggled with in my own rail shooters, so congrats on getting it right here). Enemy variety is great, even if the enemies are mostly simple geometric shapes. The landscapes are awesome, I love how imposing some of the background features can look when they're just coming into view. There's only a handful of things that could be improved, there were times where it felt like I had to fight the controls a little to get the jet where I wanted it, and it was occasionally unclear where a track was taking me.

I'm less of a fan of the open areas, the aiming isn't nearly as consistent and some of the enemies are absolutely lethal. It's still impressive you got those done though, and even if they're not as good as the rail sections they add a lot to the game.

I liked the geometric visuals, they're a pretty good foundation. I think the game could use a bit more juice and better use of particles though. More sound variety would also be nice, but that's a fairly minor nitpick.

I would still be playing this now if the game hadn't crashed. Hopefully I just got unlucky and it's not a common issue. Great work on making this.

(still can't believe the coincidence of two rail shooters being made for a metroidvania focused jam)

Played it again on my pc. Almost got to the end, here are my final notes:

• The puzzles are great, solving them was a lot of fun once I got more used to the physics
• The artstyle and sound work really well. The only thing I'd change is lowering the music volume a little.
• I did not have the patience to escort the boss key. I spent way too long on that, and I would always lose control of it.
• The rapier build still had some lag issues, so I'm fairly certain now that it's actually a software issue. My pc isn't the best, but it should definitely be able to handle web games.
• The physics engine is still the main issue with the game. It could probably due with a much simpler engine, even if some of the puzzles need to be reworked.

Overall, it's a great game with a handful of issues that are fairly common in game jams.

Thanks for playing.

These are all fair criticisms. There's a few navigational hints in the game (mainly the colour-coded halos and pointer particles on warp-points), but they aren't well explained.

I kinda wanted to make a mini-map that showed the rails of each room. Didn't do it due to a lack of time, but I also don't want the player to be constantly switching between the game and mini-map. I'll probably just have to do a full redesign of the organic zone. It's easily the worst area anyways.

Very well made game, great work!

The sound effects felt a bit too loud and some way to see your health would have been nice, but those are my only real criticisms. Otherwise the game is very well put together. There's an astonishing amount going on for just one room, and I never felt lost while playing. The colour palette and pixel art looks great.

I also found the gun upgrade hilarious. Complete subversion of expectations in the best way possible.

I tried both versions. The rapier build had some stuttering issues that made some rooms almost unplayable. But I'm pretty sure that's a hardware issue, the laptop I played it on is garbage. I'll give it another go with my pc the first chance I get.

I think my issues had more to do with the loss of control due to the physics simulation rather than the physics itself though.

The game was asking for me to precisely control multiple moving parts (at least the player and one object in any given puzzle), and to account for how the realistic physics would naturally disrupt that precision. If the simulation were changed so blocks couldn't rotate and all momentum was cancelled when gravity changes it probably wouldn't have nearly the same control issues.

Sorry if my original comment came off as harsh. I do like the game, physics aside, it's very well designed with interesting puzzles and I'm shocked by how much content you crammed into 9 rooms. So most of my frustration really comes down to the fact that I want to play it but have a hard time doing so because of a single issue.

I really like the concept, and I think the game looks great. But imo the physics holds it back too much.

I got lost early on since I didn't realise that powerups could go through the red obstacles, so I started 'solving' puzzles by randomly shaking rooms around until the boxes ended up where they were supposed to go. I don't know if this was intended. Getting the second powerup felt like it was too luck dependent, since it could easily slide into the reset points without giving me enough time to react. I stopped shortly after getting the second powerup. I actually tried using it in the room I was supposed to according to the walkthrough, but I had to actively fight the physics to get it to work which made it feel like I was breaking the game (again).

It's a genuinely interesting game that I think I'd love to play if it didn't feel like I had to fight it just to solve puzzles I've already figured out the solutions to.

This is a great take on the theme! And also what I choose to believe Samus does after every Metroid game. There's no other rational explanation.

I feel like I don't really have any new useful criticism to add, although I don't think I had as much of an issue with the game's jankiness as the rest (despite playing on web with a keyboard and mouse). Some additional enemy variety in each area would be nice, but that probably exceeds the scope of a game jam.

Great work with this.

Very intrigued by the story, looking forward to the smvm update!

Overall I liked the game, but there are a few minor issues that I think are worth mentioning, namely the sounds could feel a bit shrill, and that the character felt a bit too slippery. Otherwise I don't really have any criticism, this is a very solid game!

Really cool idea! Once I got a hang of the controls I had a lot of fun playing this.

There are a few bugs and control issues that made it a bit too difficult to progress that far unfortunately. Mostly with the edge climb ability, I didn't understand how I was supposed to use it and eventually got softlocked.

Still, this is a great foundation.

This is a really cool idea, but I feel like it could be refined a bit more.

Building a mental map of the game was a very interesting process. The shifting rooms caught me off guard, and the game felt much larger and more maze like than I expected as a result.

My main issue is that there wasn't really much incentive to risk exploring rooms since often going right back through the door you just came in was the correct path. I'm not entirely sure how you could fix that (or if it's even something that even needs fixing), but maybe you could have an in-game map system that lets players try to piece the world together themselves, or a powerup that gives the player the option to use doors 'normally'.

Overall, awesome idea, I'd be interested in seeing how far you can take it.

The environment and atmosphere of this game is awesome.

The character is really cool too. Not giving them arms was a great choice that immediately communicated to me how this game focuses on minimalism. Great work!

Had to stop early since I found the first boss a bit difficult unfortunately. I figured out how to beat it, but the laser attack was just too powerful for me, so I kept dying. I was looking for an opening where the laser would stop for a bit so I could get the spear to hit the eye, but it never seemed to happen. This is probably just a skill issue, but still something I thought worth pointing out.

That all makes sense.

Balancing the visual language and theming was a massive struggle while working on this, since everything is supposed to be on a subatomic scale. Just to clarify a few things, the gold sphere is an energy recharge and the blue bubbles with red and white spheres are supposed to be decorative atomic nuclei.

I have been thinking of ways to improve the visual language since I'm considering revising this for the super mvm jam, so this feedback is incredibly useful. Thanks!

Thanks for playing and for the detailed feedback.

The organic zone is definitely the worst designed zone imo. It's the first zone I made and I don't have a ton of experience making metroidvanias so I was learning a lot about area design during this jam (the only other metroidvania I've made was for MVM 26 and it was a complete dumpster fire). I wanted to do a full redesign, but only had time for some minor adjustments at the end of the jam. But since most of the tracks in the game are loops you should be able to focus on defeating all the enemies in a room first, then find somewhere safe to look around (eg, the first room in the organic zone has a track with a save point and no enemy bubbles, which is also a pretty decent look-out spot). Aiming with a controller also sucks, which is why there were so many warnings. In hindsight I probably should have made some kind of aim assist system for people using controllers.

If you don't mind me asking, what elements specifically confused you? There aren't a lot of objects in the game, and the only one that's meant to be somewhat mysterious are the beacons. But I'm also not very good at world design since most of the game's I've made are smaller arcade style games that don't have much to figure out. Thanks.

Ah, that's unfortunate. A lot of the key objects in this game are colour-coded, and I didn't have time to add accessibility features.

When you get to the organic zone, go right. You should eventually find yourself in a dead-end room with an ability and mini-boss. After getting the ability, there's a fairly obvious zone connector you can access which is the most straight forward direction to go in (but you don't have to).

The only colours you really need to distinguish are purple, green, and cyan, since those are the colours of locked warp points. However they're weapon activated, so really you can just throw whatever you have at them and if they don't open then you don't have the correct weapon yet. The halo effect around warp points was added fairly late in development so that it would be easier to distinguish warp point pairs, but another way to do that is by looking where a warp point is pointing, since if it's usable it'll always point to its partner.

Very interesting idea for a game. I didn't quite get to the end, but I might come back to this at some point.

I thought the puzzles were really cool and well thought out. My only gripe with it is that it was too easy to accidentally die while focusing on moving the blocks around. I think if you had a camera-scroll feature so the player could park John Gravity Jean Graveaux somewhere safe, then scroll over to the puzzle it might alleviate the issue.

Thank you for the feedback!

I think I know which room you're talking about. I kinda agree that it's too bright, but I guess I just got used to it. You don't actually have to go to the lattice zone first though, the game's pretty non-linear. And if I am right about which room you're talking about, there are two tracks you can take after entering it. It doesn't really matter which one you choose though, since they both have the same exits, and there's only one exit you can use at that point in the game. The other rooms shouldn't be as bright.

For aiming, that's something I've had a hard time getting right in general, so I'm not that surprised to see it's an issue here (unfortunately). I did try to account for it though, there's a square reticle that appears over unshielded enemy weakpoints if you're aiming at them.

Also I see where you're coming from on the gates. It's not really explained, but locked gates don't point at their partnered gate, while unlocked gates do, so that's another visual cue you can look for.

Thanks for playing!

If you don't mind, what zone did you get lost in? I'm considering making a brief walk through of the first part of the game, so knowing would definitely be useful.

Very well made game!

The level design was great, and kinda reminded me of Celeste for some reason.

My only issue is that it could occasionally be difficult to tell walls apart from open spaces in certain areas.

This is a really cool idea that I feel like you could get a lot out of.

I feel like the current implementation of telekinesis is a great start, but there's probably more you could do to make it flow really well with the rest of the game's mechanics. For example since the guns have limited ammo it could be cool if they were thrown like any other physics object instead of just dropped. They could also shatter on impact so the player doesn't mistake them for loaded guns. You could also pick up live enemies and have them shoot wildly as they try to break free.

The game has a few rough edges that I'm sure you're already aware of. But the most pressing I can think of are that the shooting sound is way too loud, enemies do too much damage, and there's no ammo display on guns.

However this is still a really solid foundation and an incredible mechanic to build a game off of.

(also the ragdoll physics are amazing)

Really interesting top down shooter!

The enemy animations in particular are very good (along with the rest of the art of course)!

10 / 10 writing.

One slight plot hole though, how did they get the key up there and then lock the knight in?

In all seriousness, despite being short, the game's actually pretty impressive. I thought the models were particularly well made, and would love to play a longer game in this style with this kind of humour.

Thanks for playing!

There's actually a button to turn off the crt filter in the options menu.

Really great game.

The story is wonderful (and moderately dystopian), more than enough to keep me hooked until I got the good ending. The art style is incredible, and there's so many details that it's insane to think this was made by one person.

The only criticism I have is that the jump felt a little floaty, but I got used to it faster than I expected.

Incredible work.

That makes sense. It wasn't really a big issue though since the cpu is so perfectly balanced between being genuinely competent and being fair to the player. I have no idea how you pulled that off.

Looking forward to future updates (if you decide to continue, no pressure of course)!

I might actually be a little mad if this doesn't win the jam lol.

Neat idea, great work completing this!

The visuals are pretty nice (I'm not a huge fan of mixed pixel sizes, but that's more of a personal preference than a criticism), the colour palette works great, and the lighting & environment are nice details.

The core concept is an interesting idea, but I kinda wish it didn't take me out of the game entirely. From my perspective as a player, I'm here to play the game first and get a highscore second, so I'm always going to choose the option that lets me play the game longer. Maybe the player could scale abilities with their points, so they move faster, have higher health, or do more damage, but every so often they get a chance to bank some points but have to risk playing in a weaker state. You could even add roguelike elements and have players gamble points for unique power ups and items. This combines both the desire to play the game and desire to get a highscore, and gives the player meaningful choices without a clear answer. Of course you don't have to do it this way, but some system to keep the player engaged for longer and give points more meaning would go a long way.

This is incredible just as a game, removed from the context of a jam.

The fact that it was made in a week is mindblowing.

My only criticism is that the egg spawning seemed like it could occasionally be a bit unfair, to the point where an entire game can be decided by where the second round of eggs spawn in a worst case scenario (which unfortunately happened to me).

Also a two player mode would be really nice, though it's understandable that would be out of the scope of a game jam.

Fun mechanic for a platformer!

The explosion took a while to get used to, but for a physics based jump it's surprisingly consistent and feels great to use.

I feel like the level design got a bit too hard too fast though. I wasn't able to make it that far into the game since I couldn't figure out the jump at the pizzas and failing there was really punishing.

Otherwise, great entry!

I had to do a double take when I saw the number of people who worked on this.

That must have been a nightmare to coordinate, the largest team I've ever been in was 4 people and that was hard enough, 12 times that is unreal. So good job on getting a finished game submitted to the jam.

Gameplay wise, the environment was fun to explore and looked really nice, but a better camera and character controller would have made for a much smoother experience.

Also, and this may conflict with your vision for the game, but I'm not sure how I feel about using a time limit in a game about exploration. It would have been nice to get a proper chance to see the entire game, and maybe have some kind of threat introduced another way. The simplest thing I can think of is to have the dog's owner(s) try to catch them, then the game essentially becomes like a 3D Pac-man which is already a proven formula which can be built off of in any direction you want.

That's not really a criticism though, just a difference in preference/opinion.

Overall, great work!

Really nice art style and great game!

The combat mechanics are very fun, and I could see myself playing a longer game like this.

It would have been nice to see more background changes to align with the descriptions of each area, but it's understandable that it wasn't done due to the time constraint.

It seems like you have an interesting idea, but I'm not sure how the game works.

Very well made game!

It's a bit on the challenging side, but mechanically this is very solid. I really liked the trade-off system for upgrades, it's a great way to incorporate the theme!

Neat incremental game. The pixel art is really nice.

I think my only (very minor) issue with this is that it felt like it took a bit too long to complete, especially for a jam game. If I had to guess, the intention was to get players to use all the perks, but imo it might have been slightly better to balance the game with the idea that most players may only want to pick a few of the perks before completing the game.

Again, it's very small issue, especially since this is an incremental game so I was able to leave it in the background for a bit.

Overall very nice game, great work!

Here's a few fun ones. They're all under 20 ratings at the time of writing this.

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3851694

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3846237

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3851320

Really well made game! You absolutely nailed the vibe.

I had no idea that scrolling websites could leave me on the edge of my seat.

The only thing I want to point out is that there has to be a better application of the risk mechanic. What you have right now is way outside the box (which is great), but it didn't seem to influence the gameplay enough. I really like the idea, I'm just convinced there's a better way to use it. Game's still great though.

Also where on Earth did you find that conspiracy 'article'?

There's a lot of games here that seem to be struggling to hit the 20 ratings requirement. Here's some of the ones I've found. Feel free to post games you've found with less than 20 ratings (or your own if it counts). Though I probably won't be super active on this thread.

Platformer with pretty good pixel art: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3848692

Unique take on racing / car-based games (arguably a 1D game, somehow): https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3851552

Really fun platformer with very unique controls: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3846237

A nice hide-and-seek game: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3848931

I don't know how to describe this one, other than that it's really good: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3851694

Detective game with insane art quality: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3849585

Chaotic first person shooter: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3852070

I also don't know how to describe this one, but again it's quite good. Visually it reminds me of Pizza Tower: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3851320

Fun game set in a factory, uses some interesting perspective tricks: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3851246

Time-trail based driving/racing game - has a lot of levels: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3851253

Dev's first game, a platformer with pretty solid movement: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3851336

Untitled Goose Game + stealth: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3850042

I don't know what this is. You should play it though: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3837144

Fun heist game with a solid amount of content: https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-14/rate/3847215

Really well made game, there's an astonishing amount here given the time constraint.

The visuals are very solid, the only thing I'm not sure about is the skybox. I know it was an external asset, but imo it doesn't fit very well with the game's style.

The base driving controls felt great, I kinda wish there were a few more good opportunities to drift, but that may also just be me being bad at the game.

Overall, great work and very impressive game!

Saw in the description that you only started working on this past the half-way point, and this is an insane amount of work for the time you had. Great job!