itch.io

Thanks for your comment!

Wonderful art and very unusual thing for gamejams - voicover! Abilities are well explained in popup windows, no need for trial and error. Story is not really unique, but there is moral dilemma, you can choose to kill friendly robots or to stop playing.

In this game I found only one flaw - it's pretty linear, and though powerups open new paths, there is no "explore every nook and cranny" aspect of metroidvania.

Great entry and good luck!

Thank you for your comment.

Portal is one of my favorite games, so thank for reminding me of its wonderful game design.

Unfortunately, my manager told me to cut the corners, because jam games should be vertical slice of gameplay. It was decided: 1. mechanics with minimum viable tutorial; 2. exploring; 3. theme; were more important than voice over or openning cutscene. Also, my sound designer and my artist could do a better work! This would cover up dullness of gameplay, right?

The funny part is I am my owm product manager/game designer/developer/artist/SFXer.

And the only other people in our team are playtesters. They are not game designers, so they solved most if not all of my puzzles instead of dissecting them.

So thanks again for your professional opinion (it is not an often occurence - getting feedback from a real game studio founder)!

It's okay, I played 20+ games myself this jam, so I know how difficult it can be:)

Wow, thank you so much! Watching someone playing your game is awesome!

All your feedback is valid, I always trying to make user-friendly games, and this one is not, I presume :D

I was dying of shame when you softlocked in first couple of minutes. Thanks for continuing playing!

I will take notes and update several elements to cater to less puzzle-y audience too.

Thnks for your comment!

Room system needs to be rebuild from ground up, I believe. One more reason to create full save-load system too!

Thank ypu for both your comments!

Movement is a big problem, and I plan on rethinking it. I was not sure about graphics, so thanks for your comment.

I should have named the game softlock-idvania for amount of comments about this problems :D Some of them did not even occur to me!

Thanks!

Во-первых, игра правда выглядит классно, стилистика очень приятно подобрана, очень олдскульно.

Во-вторых,, я не смог пройти ее целиком.

Дальше без нумерации, но попробую структурированно.

В первый раз я поиграл 20 минут и бросил. Потому что за эти 20 минут не ушел с первого экрана. Закончилось все тем, что я пропрыгал по пунктирной линии островков наверху, а оказавшись на твердой земле сразу провалился в дырку и застрял :D

Вторая попытка была более удачной, скорее всего из-за твоих правок прыжков, но все еще остались "моментики".

- Сообщения закрываются на Enter. 1. приходится двигать руку по клавиатуре. 2. интуитивно непонятно. 3. Остальные кнопки продолжают (относительно) работать, напрмимер, выстрел

- Первого врага рекомендовано не убивать. Но он двигается в таком узком пространстве, что вместо прижатия к стене проще его перепрыгнуть или убить. Более того, тот же враг далее встречается на совсем узких платформах, что делает бесполезным навык прятаться от него у стены. Это немного путает, ххоть и не критично.

- К разговору о врагах - так и не понял, как правильно бороться с синими стрелками. Уворот от их выстрела сделать сложно из-за тайминга "пряток"/желания стрелять в ответ

- Подбор первой руны здоровья (или как-то так). Руна на возвышенности, а в игре есть урон от падения. Всплывающее сообщение отбирает управление, из-за чего ты автоматически падаешь мимо платформы и теряешь здоровье. А если там еще и остался живой враг...

- Вообще про урон от падения. Это очень странно. Раздражает непонятность механики: с какой высоты можно спрыгивать?, сколько здоровья это будет стоить? и, главное, а стоит ли вообще рисковать? Наверное, так и было задумано, но желание проводить исследование мира это все же немного отбивает. Так же раздражает, что некоторые этапы приходится проходить заново из-за маленькой ошибки и рокового падения с высоты в 10см. Дополнительно, в некоторых играх падение может опустить тебя до 1хп (или убить, если уже 1хп), это сохраняет урон от падения, но делает его менее бесячим.

- Карта в целом сделана неплохо с точки зрения изучения и исследования, визуально понятно, где можно пройти, где надо проплозти, а куда соваться не надо. Это большой плюс

- Управление стало получше в последних версиях, как мне кажется.

- Текст. Шрифт полдобран красивый, но не самый читаемый, к сожалению. Из-за этого в веб версии хочется развернуть игру на весь экран, но тогдаа нельзя нажимать Esc. Кстати про...

- Управление. Не все возможные действия игрока понятны, поскольку нет никакого обучения. И если как ходить и прыгать игрок знает из других игр, то стрелять и закрывать сообщения на странные кнопки может и не уметь. Для джемовых игр то же касается паузы: не всегда в джемах она есть, вот мне и в голову не пришло, что можно нажать Esc (хотя это может быть только моей проблемой).

- В целом в проекте есть душа, это чувствуется. Значит ли название "Уровень 1", что планируется продолжение)?

Thanks!

I wrote some harsh truths about this game, but deleted them, because we should support each other and not bully. Yet, one question, I think, needs answer. So I left it.

Your explanation [of quality of this game] - you had to make a game in 6 days.  Can I ask you "why"? Who made you do it?

Great game, both sensory and execution-y. I had a blast playing it.

Suggestion: give your game to more "testers" before "releasing". It will help to fix difficulty curve.

Otherwise, it is awesome!

Good work and good luck!

I played about half through it and had to pause. Afte reloading my charecter does not move (jump still works). Is it possible you updatetd your build in last couple of days?

On what I could see:

Gameplay is engaging. Strong sense of exploring is present. Abilties are pretty standart, but it fits well with narrative and level design.

Movement is responsive, as is combat. Solid platformer. Enemies AI is.. Well, it is there :) Sometimes it was even good to pass by all fights in fast run to specific room.

Story... It may be really well written, but imo it is out of place for gamejam. I was feeling like skipping it, because I was eager to continue playing. Maybe in full game for several hours it would be nice change of pace, but in my 30 or so minutes run  it felt like stumbling.

Overall great game. I really enjoyed it and I would like to finish it, if controls problems are not permanent.

Good luck!

Art is awesome! Gameplay is little bit clunky but overtime you get used to it and it becomes kind of feature/ Unfortunately, I got stuck several times with no means to continue playing. Once I fell into the crack and was stuck in falling animation without actually falling. Second (and third) I died, but after checkpoint reset was still in dead state, rotating in place and shooting, but in form of immobile meat pile.

Overall there is mtroidvania vibe in it, and I had (not fun, but) exictment playing and exploring.

PS. Any chance you understand russian (your surname looks slavic)? I could write more coherent opinion, if you would understand it.

Unfortunately, I could not play your game to the end, because it freezed regulary.

The part I had a plesure to play was made very good. Powerups have a "tutorial" area to them. Rooms are well planned, metroidvania-ish map style is present.

Knockback on attacking felt out of place: it is more common to be knocked back if you get hit or enemy/object is invulnerable/untargetable.

Good platforming controls are present, so it's a huge plus.

Great entry overall! Good luck!

Hello! If you are into puzzles and wierdness I would offer you this:

https://mrbell270.itch.io/tetroidvania

It would be wonderful to get some feedback and directions for improvement and transition to full game.

Thanks for your great initiative!

P.S. Est. play time ~20-30 minutes

Thanks for thorough review!

Gifts are just collectables. 4 of them make a frame and the last one (from room (2.5) adds a heart. After finishing the game this collectables "remake" boring white square core into famous Cube Companion from Portal series. So, it is like skin customization :D

I am thinking of adding more mechanics to broaden spectrum of pickups and add more inсentives to explore, because nobody wants to loot skins instead of powerups :)

Thanks again, I hope to shock you with updates later!

I hope, next time you play, it will be enterprise quality :) Thanks for your comment!

Thank you for your comment!

I will try to refine it in next version. TBH, this one was prototype for idea-testing and so far it is going well. So many of mechanics will be rebuild from ground up.

Thanks! Be sure, I will contact you to be one of beta-testers :D

Thank you very much! Player enjoyment is one of my main goals while designing a game, so I am satisfied with result now :D

Thanks a lot for your comment! I am glad you like it:)

Thanks a lot for your comment! I am glad you like it:)

Great project for Nokia game!

Sound design has its limits, it is understandable, but some sounds and music are too loud.

Powerups do matter, you can feel your character getting stronger. Map is maze-y, but in a good way.

Bosses are cheesable, I killed all of them by standing in the corner of the arena and constantly shooting.

Great game, good luck!

I am sure I fixed this one 6 versions ago :D I will check it in next 8-10 hours and issue a fix if needed

Also, I noticed that you like puzzles. Maybe you would like to try sokoban-like "The Last Spark" on my page? it is couple of years old, but it is far more polished than this one :D

Well, the last one (row 2, col 5) is secret room, It can only be accessed after obtaining last power - copying. There are last loot piece in it. Hope with all my heart that you will get it.

As for mirror of GRAB - I can't even imagine, what rooms are you talking about. Some of @Doors@ could be opened by Z-shape with box (.::), but no mirrors.

Shifting from Z to I. In several playtest between my testers and me we encountered it twice. Bug, obviously, but it is not easely repeatable, I presume. I will look into it in next versions.

Rotation/Shifting blocks. Do you think point/circle on "main"/center body part will be enough to help? Maybe, allowing rotation both cw and ccw will solve problem? Or it is wiser to implement "preview-confirm" system? Shape module will be rewriten sooner or later, so there is
some time for better planning.

I finished it this time. Did not see/feel any changes in sky area. Checkpoints are still too far. I am not the only one to notice, I can see.

Either way, game is fun (except snowflake blades), pleasantly fast-paced (it took me 15 minutes, 12 of them - sky area).

Good luck!

Unfortunately, it is prototype, and not all functions are ready. Rooms that can be softlocked should have soft reset with long "R" (2sec+). Can you give more info on your situation? Maybe I should use grace period to fix it.

So...

I dropped it after first upgrade.

I could not see anything in the dark, and powerups did not give a clue on how to use them. Several hours later I returned.

Maybe my sreen got better or smth else, but this time I played it all through with no problems.

Occasional "hole in the wall" and getting out of bounds did not make my playthrough worse. I even stumbled on timetravelling route, seeing pods room from the past :)

Art is nice, sounds are juicy. Remote is not the best, but ok. Overall, very nice entry.

Good luck!

P. S. Really, what are those space devil meatballs??

P. S. S. Got error while first launching the game. Refresh helped though.

Error:

problems with FMOD: (TypeError) : Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'getEvent')

Thanks a lot! I love creating some wierd stuff. Concept came to me in 10 minutes. I was like "What is ancient and gaming and can be collectable? Tetrominoes!". After that I could not decide if it should be topdown or platformer. I don't know if my choise was right, so after Tetroidvania is realeased you should wait for Tetroid - platformer with tetrominoes' powers :D

This is the beauty of metroidvania: you are supposed to explore all the possibilities, there is no right (ooh, I'm bad with puns) way, at least it is not always obvious.

Bad collision, known problem. Unfortunatelly, some of my design choises are protortype-drive. I would like to start devlog and improve all mechenics, maybe even adding more. But first I need to see feedback, like yours :) I hope you would be able to finish the game at least once :D Thanks again!

Thanks for your review!

You are right, this braking sequence is possible. Firstly door in room above center was oriented the other way, leaving possibilty to go around lasers. But testers did not like it, so i turned it around, creating deadlock situation. I will be more careful when adding more rooms now.

You know what else testers did not like in first versions? Speed of movement. I think, you won't believe it, but it was 4 times slower :) Even more, the first draft made you push button for each step (no holding allowed).

So, thanks again for your comment, it will make me update my roadmap and improve the game!

It really is unfinished. But somehow it still keeps me playing. Your description made me believe it is fast-paced reaction-based game, but gameplay was little too slow for it. And yet, I can see some potential. Would be glad to revisit more polished version! Now I paused after getting walljump.

- projectiles can be redirected repeatedly stucking in place, making it impossible to "run'n'gun"('n'fun)

- pogo does not seem to work (if by pogo you mean Hollow knight -style pogoing)

- wall juamp can be spammed to climb walls

- space is jump, but no double jump

- level layout is little bit maze-y, but map was not found

- final goal is not clear

- boss tree was killed by X-mashing

- reed eye-walls connot be killed (right?), but it is not clear at first. I think eyes make them seem alive == killable

Sorry for late answer. TBH, I don't remember :) 8, I think. I have tendecies to make square-like maps, so 3X3 minus starting room. You can try it and find out yourself, it takes 10-15 minutes tops.

Thanks for your comment. First, everything you described is by design. Yeah, a box stuck under a saw isn't very nice, but it is not the end of the world either :) Second, you may try to find your way to other places, for example, right from the room with saw-box problem. It will require some tricky spinning though. Good luck!

 Art is nice, though controls are little bit clanky. Boss fight feels unfair, because both arms and the head spend a lot of time off-screen. Unfortunately, it is quite linear, so not very metroidvania-ish. But, overall it is very pleasant game. Good job!

P.S. Bug report: Boss pushed me into the ground with slam attack, locking movement and killing me after.

Game is looking really nice, but...

It is really unbeatable in sky location. I spend literally 30 minutes trying to pass killing circles, and checkpoint system (that started to bug me earlier) just made it unbearable for me.

I would like to see whole game, but now it's difficulty is not set approprietly. If you will update it to be adequate, I will gladly return and finish your game/ 

Это многое объясняет. Играл на тачпаде, видимо, иногда он фиксировал второй щелчок, как правую кнопку)

Очень атмосферный проект. Не хватает анимаций для полного погружения, и иногда буквы пропадают.

Удачи!