itch.io

Loved this game, it's so clever. And it looks super good, I really liked the scribbly graphics. I think I was lucky in that I unlocked one of the abilities pretty quick by accident so I understood the map mechanic pretty fast because of that, but I think I could see people not realizing it and getting frustrated a bit, but still a really cool concept.

Biggest nitpick would be that I'm not sure if I would consider this a metroidvania, despite being an incredible and very polished little puzzle box platformer (specially for a jam).

Very cool short game! I really liked the spritework, despite being so low resolution, and liked the idea of having a "single screen" metroidvania.

Really liked the gravity mechanic, and how you use it for the last boss (both bosses were really well made too!).

I think I would have preferred to not be able to zoom out or in myself, having it the game handle it at specific points (like the spider boss) feels like it could have been better, and defaulted on having the whole map in the screen while exploring (to hammer the point of being a single screen map a bit more, just a preference).

My only complain is that the gun was a little bit too loud compared to the rest of the sounds, so even when I lowered my volume, when shooting it would drown every other sound and music.

Super impressive entry, not only on the technical side by making it so small sizewise and making it look so good with the tools you mentioned, but also overall.

I loved the character movement, it feeling so weighty, and with all the little details on the animation, really sold the atmosphere of the game. It looked fantastic too.

I also like the interaction/inventory system you implemented, very simple and neat.

My biggest complain is that it just feels like a small demo (but I dont hold it against it!), and I wanted to explore more, which is great!. Also maybe having some small sounds for background noise every now and then could have helped sell the atmosphere even more too (but I'm not sure if the way you did everything that would be even possible), but thats a really secondary detail.

Thank you for playing it and all the nice words!

It's completely fine to not do those bonus rooms, they are completely optional and I made them way harder on purpose, only beating them once to make sure they are doable. I'm happy enough that some people are just finding them!

And I thought about enemies, maybe at least having like a boss you shoot down, but I did decide to no have any just to keep on the minimalism theme (in that case just basically having 1 type of enemy/hazard). I did have a couple of ideas for rooms where you would have to shoot them a bit more but didn't find where to fit them nicely. Despite that I've seen a couple of people shoot down the hazards in order to find solutions to some rooms that I didn't expect to, so i'm satisfied with that.

And I'm sorry about the softlock at that one checkpoint, I kinda rushed those secrets on the last day so that issue got through, I already have a version with it fixed that I will upload once the rating period ends.

Thank you for playing and for liking it!
Sorry for that bug getting you locked, I already found what it is and have it fixed, just can't upload the fix until the jam ends.

I really liked the idea of the only mechanic being able to move certain objects in the world, and as you progress, expanding the ways you can do it. Also liked the little visual effects you made and the music. Pretty impressive for something that you only worked on for a couple of days.

I think my only complain would be that, because of how everything worked, puzzles/areas would sometimes take a bit too long to complete, even after knowing what to do, which was a little bit annoying (but still, a very minor complaint)

Thank you!!

Thank you for playing it and for the good words about it!

The art style and music were very charming (could have used some more variation in the wall tileset), and the overall game was solid.

The spikes on the ground could probably be a bit more visible, maybe add some color so they can pop out a bit more (specially in the dark area sometimes they were tricky to see, being black), and not sure if it was a bug, but checkpoints only worked one time? (as in you couldn't reactivate a checkpoint to spawn there)

Really good game! I really liked how you contextualize the abilities, and the world is very charming. I liked all the different areas you added.

Some small stuff, dying on one hit on the spikes felt a little bit too punishing, and on the heart boss you would jump up to hit it and at the same time a spike spawn on top of you so it would be really hard to react (maybe having some effect that shows when a spike is about to fall could help?)

Very cool game!

The idea of a small puzzle box metroidvania is very interesting, and I liked how it looked and the music.

I think I managed to solve like, 75% of the puzzles before I stopped. I think the physics being so fast and loose, and the way you have to solve some puzzles feels like you are not doing the intended solution, which can make it a tiny bit frustrating at times (specially when you are rotating the screen fast to move a box in mid air precisely).

Really fun to see so many ideas cramped in a small game space though, even if that made it feel really janky.

I really liked all the art and animations you made, and the sounds and music were pleasent.
Very short but it was pretty polished which was nice.
I think you could have made the death transition a bit faster, like many others said and the boss was a bit hard for what it was (I think the rocks were just a big too big and fast falling, so it was basically chance if you were going to get hit or not)

Thank you for playing!

I did try to design it in a way it should be easy to navigate without a map, to add to the minimalist part of reducing stuff added to the game, so it's good that you managed to find your way around!

Thank you for playing it and the nice words!

Thank you for playing it!
I'm sorry that bug happened when you got into the secret room, I kind of quickly added them on the last day so didn't thoroughly test them, I'll see if I can replicate the issue so it doesn't happen again.

And yes, I did make the secret rooms way way harder than the rest of the game, as some optional challenges to try to push the movement to its limit (there is one of them I was able to finish it proper only once lol)
(i'm also happy somebody found the kitty :>)

Very okay entry. I liked the world art you used, and the sprites were charming.

I also liked the different enemies you had, and the bosses were pretty simple but okay.

Sadly the main issue is that I don't think it's a metroidvania at all, it's a mostly linear game with basically no progression on your character, but that's just an issue as a jam entry, not on the game itself.

Other than that my only big complaint is that you probably needed someway of indicating the player's health

Pretty good base for the game, the movement and combat were solid, the art was pretty good too.
But I think the world is too big and sparse, it felt like it had long sections with very little on it. And because everything looks pretty similar its confusing to navigate. It really needed something to help aid navigation.

Pretty good game. I liked that you start without a jump and having a limit on how much you can climb, I wish those 2 ideas were explored a bit more, seemed like an interesting idea. But they last like 2 minutes until you get the next upgrades that remove those limitiations, which is fine too.

Very good entry! The bump slash combat was really satisfyng, and the level design and progression through it were solid

(played like an hour of the game, managed to get the floating guy and umbrella)

The game looks nice, specially the main character. The music is okay, but with how long the game ends up taking, and the size of the map, some variation would have been welcome.

I like having the weird control scheme, and having to adapt to it. But I think it kind of clashes with the rpg elements, making it a bit too frustrating, specially at the start/early, by not only struggling against the controls but against the enemies, where for a long time a lot of your stat increases feel like they don't do almost anything. It does feel that as you get more tools, and are able to get more upgrades (despite still being really hard), you can make a lot more progress a bit faster, so maybe the early levels could be balanced in a way that ease the player a little bit more?

 I respect the vision of having it be this hard, with a world that feels big for what it is. But you certainly have to get past a lot of frustration to get far.

Thank you for playing it and for the feedback!

I think the gimmick of having to echolocate to see, and making an adventure game are really interesting for the jam. And I really liked the atmosphere of the game.

But, i'm not sure if it is because i'm unfamiliar with the genre (and kind of avoid it, not my cup of tea), but I got stuck, and tried interacting with everything and didn't find how to go forward. (I got the stethoscope, and knife, and I managed to find the guitar, but I think that's not needed for progresing)

I think my biggest critcism would be that, by the nature of the game, you can't see if you are correctly clicking on something on the environment. I know its like, the core of the game, but my issue is that because of that you don't know if an interaction didn't do anything because its supposed to be nothing, or because you are missclicking in the dark. Maybe when you echolocated something it could have kept like an outilne for a few seconds or something so that it would be easier. But what ended up happening is that I would interact with something like 5-6 times just to make sure i'm clicking it right, still miss, and then I would come back, try again, and it would succed, because now I got it right.

Also there were some interactions that seem to do nothing (like cutting the meat? in the freezer?, or breaking the paintings), that i'm guessing are for flavor, but I think in a game like this were you are literally stumbling in the dark trying to find what to do next, those kind of interactions just throw you off too much. (unless they are NOT for flavor and actually do something, in that case just dismiss this, it was just my inability to go through the game lol)

I'm sorry I couldn't get through a lot more of the game,I'm pretty sure there was quite a bit more to do.

I think the idea of an on rails shooter metroidvania is really interesting, and the aesthetics were cool.

I'm not sure if its just because I'm not used to playing games like this, but my problem is that it was super difficult to navigate around and know what to do (which I think in this case the art style maybe made it even more difficult by simplifying stuff even more).

I managed to reach the the 3rd area (lattice zone?). But I just couldn't get past it and it was really bright so it was even more difficult to see.

Some other small stuff I noted: probably make locked "gates?" more obvious, it took me a while to figure out what they were, as they only had a subtle bubble around them. Maybe make your projetiles a bit bigger too? It was a bit difficult to aim to enemies, specially because they were kind of small (could also be I'm bad, my only experience is star fox 64 which did that)

playing it was super interesting, and seems hard to pull off this idea, which makes it cool to see if you can improve on it.

It was excellent, my biggest complain is that it was too short and I wanted to play more lol
(I did have a small bug where the "help" command didn't work, and had to restart the game)

The art style and atmosphere were incredible, and I really enjoyed how you can move around by swinging the sword, very satisfying.

Thank you!

And yes, trying to keep the colors I used to a minimum made it so the background sometimes popped out too much. I tried to minimize that but could have done a better job in some parts.

Pretty enjoyable game! Movement and the mechanics you get as progression felt good for the small screens. I liked how it looks too. I managed to get to the top and finish it.

I do think it could have used a couple more markers/extra decorations to keep some rooms a bit distinct, even being a pretty small map, at the start I kept getting mixed up where to go and retreading the same path.

Some nitpicks I have, besides some bugs (I kept getting freezed even after getting the coat upgrade, wall jump would sometimes not work):

- the spikes hurtbox felt a little bit too big, in some cases the character wouldn't be touching it and it would be a hit. I think giving a pixel or 2 of leeway before getting hit would make it feel a lot better.

- the checkpoints were very inconsistent. whenever I died I would never be sure where I would respawn. maybe having set checkpoints, or more consistent rules of when they were being set would be better (maybe how they were being set was a bug too?, sometimes I would be standing in a very safe spot, die, and be sent back to the previous area).

Pretty cool concept for the minimalist art style, and I really liked the shift mechanic. Very good overall!

I think the only issues I found is like someone else said the knockback on getting hit was too extreme, and instead of helping not get hit again, it more often than not bounced the character against another obstacle/enemy. And also the bouncing ball sound effects were really grating, to the point that I had to mute the game despite everything else soundwise being good (I played by downloading it as you recommended)

Thanks for playing it and for the kind words! Happy you liked it!

A very solid entry! The spear mechanic its really good, and i'm sure you can expand on it (more blessings, the red one I found wasn't that useful). And I also think you did a really good job with enemy variety and the bosses!

The HUD although looks nice, it's a little bit too big, and sometimes would obscure too much of the screen. Also the screens/areas feel too big and with too much empty space, which makes them hard to navigate, and makes a lot of it feel too samey.

You did put in the description that the terrain was more detailed on purpose but I think it would be better to just stick with one or two art styles (you had pixel art for characters, more high resolution for terrain, and simple drawings for the background), it clashed a bit too much.

(I ended up reaching the end of the demo, so defeated 2 bosses, colloseum, and got the dash)

Lastly, I think the combat was serviceable, but only being able to hit to the sides felt too restrictive with having flying enemies, and probably adding a little bit more feedback to it (some more knockback, maybe a bigger hitbox for the attack) would make it feel a lot better.

It happened to 2 people so not your fault lol. I did make a small update to make it a little bit more noticeable, so thank you for pointing out!

Thanks for playing it!

Even though you ended up finding it, I guess I didn't make it clear enough that you could exit by climbing up. I changed it up slightly to hopefully make it more easy to spot

Thank you for playing it! It's not really a softlock, in the room where you get the bullet you can climb up and exit, but I guess I didn't make it clear enough through the level design, so that is my fault.
But i'm happy you enjoyed the parts you managed to get through!

Thank you! Yes, the platforming may have been a bit too hard for a jam, and this is after I toned down the difficulty after I had someone play it before submitting

The game looks really good and the character feels great to move around and play with!

Some of the enemy encounters could have been a little bit better, especially as they can combo you really fast, so I ended up rushing past them mostly, but enemies themselves were pretty good too!

I think the only real issues is that it's pretty linear (I like the idea of having a big vertical room as a hub, but you end up going through it in one way), and it doesn't really fit the theme super well. You said you applicated the theme through the art style, but despite being low poly and pixel art, it is very busy looking (which is not a flaw! I like it!, just doesn't fit the theme in that way).

I think the idea of having to give up part of your abilities to make progress in some way (or maybe you could do it as tradeoffs for example) is a bit interesting, But it goes kind of at opposite of what a metroidvania is, so it would be difficult to pull off, and I don't think it succeded here. Basically you just use it as keys to open specific doors, that are right next to where you give up the ability, so you can then get it back almost instantly, which defeats the purpose of having to give it up on the first place.

I like how the HUD looks, but the level of detail between the characters, environment and objects clashes a little bit. There aren't a lot of markers or ways to guide yourself through the map, and the minimap is too zoomed in to be useful either.

And the level design also felt a bit random, with ramps and hallways that felt like they had no purpose.

Other small general issues that you should take into account for next time. You didn't provide any list of controls ingame or outside, also meant as a player I had to guess what abilities you start with, as the HUD markers on their own are not enough. There were no checkpoints so dying meant starting all over (even though the game is short, I think, so in this case it wasn't the biggest issue). Music stopped after the track ended, it didn't loop. I think you left the path finding debug prints on for enemies. And the boss ran out of the arena and never came back so I couldn't finish it.

thank you!

Really solid base if you decide to continue it, love the art/theme and music of it, and movement feels really nice! Hope you continue it to a finished game!

Although very simple, I think the graphics and music are very good and fit nicely. I also like the idea of your upgrades being extra jumps, you could make interesting map layouts and challenges around that.

Sadly, the character movement being so slow really drags down the game. I think you can have that speed in a game, but mixed with upgrades that improve your jumps, and your jump being so fast and high by its own, it makes the overall movement feel bad.

Still, it was an okay entry, and I didn't find bugs at all, so nice job!

Really nice entry, the bomb mechanic is really fun to play around. And the art of the different sounds was very good too.
Some more sounds could have been nice, specially for the enemies, and the bomb sound was really low too. But super enjoyable overall!