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Short and sweet but the presentation is great and it could be a nice little time-waster, good job!

The presentation is amazing, this is a whole lot of game to get done in 48 hours wow! The music is great and it feels really polished for such a short jam. Great job!

Thanks for playing! Those are exactly the items I wanted to stand out, I appreciate the feedback :)

Thanks for giving it a try and I appreciate the kind words!

Thanks for playing! I agree the pacing for both levels feels off and is too slow, I appreciate the feedback!

Thanks for giving it a try!

Thanks for the kind words! I think a lot of people will play it and not see through the simple gameplay to the message I’m trying to convey but I’m glad you got it. Thanks again!

Thanks for giving it a try and sending some feedback! The black variant is harder, obstacles are larger and appear more frequently as time goes on and less money appears than in the white variant. Thanks again!

Hey thanks for giving it a try, I'm not sure why that's happening for you, when I test it myself I can only jump once to start as intended. Either way thanks for the feedback!

Thank you and thanks for playing!

Thank you so much for the kind words! So glad you got to see the ending scene, the game was pretty difficult so you definitely earned it! My goal for any of these game jams is to just be in the top 50% so I'm definitely happy with 34 out of 227! I'll definitely check your game out here shortly, thanks again!

Thank you for the feedback! I agree on the difficulty being a little too intense at the beginning but I'm glad you stuck with it anyway and got to see more of the game! I'm a huge fan of Metroidvania games and had a blast trying to make a small version of my own. Thanks again for playing, so glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you for the feedback and for sticking with it! I totally agree that the player's hitbox is a little large and needs some tweaking, the most common complaint about the game is how hard it is and I'll definitely keep this in mind for future jams. Thanks again for giving it a try and CONGRATS on being the #1 game this jam! I agree with everyone else, Like Them is incredible, really great job!!!

Thanks so much for sticking it out and for all the extremely kind words! I’m so glad you got to see the ending, I’m probably the most proud of that out of anything in the game haha! So glad you enjoyed it, Sorry not sorry for keeping you from your work :-)

Haha sorry it's so hard, that's the feedback I heard the most about the game so far but I wanted the player to really feel like they were getting more powerful as they progressed! As far as the skeleton, try jumping just in front of him so he can't reach you, or just attack right as you land so he is stunned and you can attack him again! Let me know how else I can help! Thanks for playing and for the feedback!

Wow! That really means a lot, thank you! I also notice the flickering and tried a bunch of tricks to fix the tilemap and get rid of that but nothing seemed to work. That's one of the bugs that really... bugs me (sorry couldn't help it). Great suggestion on a little tip for the player about that first heart too, I could see how that might be confusing. Thanks for the feedback and for giving it a try!

Thank you! I agree it might be a little too tough at the beginning but I wanted the player to really feel like they were getting stronger as they progressed. I'm so glad you stuck it out, I was really proud of the ending haha! Thanks for playing!

Thank you! I hope to update soon with more sounds and bug fixes to make the game feel a little more alive. As far as what took the longest, I would have to say figuring out the melee combat and animations by far. It took me a while just to get the code working well when hitting enemies and then even longer for animations for play properly (and they still don't look as good as I would like them to). I had a hard time figuring out how to cancel and delay the different animations when enemies and the final boss were getting hit and just ran out of time when trying to learn how. Thanks for the question!

Thanks for playing and for the feedback! I agree there are still a bunch of bugs and definitely some sound effects that I missed out on but I might have an update coming out soon that will address some of these issues. Thanks again!

Thanks for playing and putting so much time into that review, it really means a lot! I'll definitely check yours out here shortly!

Thanks for playing, sorry for the lag! I'm assuming it's something on my end because I still don't know very much about performance optimization but I'll do some research and try to fix that up for future games. And I agree that there should be more sound effects, for basically everything in the game and that was one of the last things I was updating and just ran out of time. I may have an update coming here soon just give me a follow so you know when it's out. Thanks again!

Thank you for playing it, I really appreciate the kind words!

Thanks for playing! I agree with the hitbox being too tight, I learned a lot about melee combat this jam but couldn't get that to feel right without the hitbox being too large and the player being able to hit enemies when the sword didn't look like it was actually making contact. Thanks for the feedback!

Thank you for the feedback and for checking out the game! I agree with you and lots of others that some checkpoints could be useful and the sound effects definitely need some work as well. Thanks again!

Ah I see what you’re saying now! Thanks for the clarification 😁

Thanks for playing and for the kind words, it means a lot!

Thanks for playing and for the feedback. You definitely explained your idea very well and I like the concept a lot! I may just have to implement something like this if/when I make some updates. I'm a little burned out after an intense 30 days on this one but I'm hoping to revisit it here soon. Thanks again!

Thank you, I agree it can be a little tough, but it just makes the ending even more rewarding when you get there! Thanks for playing!

Thanks for the thoughts! I completely agree that focusing on the MVP and building out from there is the way to go. I actually had all the core design and gameplay dont maybe halfway through this jam then focused on fine tuning things like audio, animations and the story. I also dove into lighting for the first time this jam and had a blast doing so. It was a little complicated at first but once I figured it out it was hard for me to not put lights on everything in the game haha. 

For some reason your game is super laggy on my machine and isn’t really playable. I’m assuming the problem is on my end but can’t figure out how to get it to play smoothly. It looks great though!!!

Thanks for the feedback and I totally agree that the game can be a little too difficult at parts, I just wanted the player to really feel like they were getting more powerful the more they progressed, but you’re right that those spikes can be unforgiving no matter how many hearts or how much time you have! I like both of your suggestions and will definitely consider changing that mechanic in future updates. Thanks for playing!

Thanks for the feedback and for giving it an honest try! I agree with the skeleton animation and I’ll get that fixed up for next update. I need to take a break from the game after focusing on it so hard for the last 30 days but I do plan on making updates and adding features in the future!

Thanks for playing and the kind words! I had originally planned on not making the power ups permanent so the player had to re-earn everything each run and eventually learn how to do the whole game in one go but realized that was too punishing for an already tough game. Glad you enjoyed it!

I started my code learning with javascript and simple browser games but picking up Unity was a gamechanger for me. It opened up a whole new world and also introduced me to C# which I'm enjoying a lot. Java sounds super intimidating but all the more to you for trying some things out and it sounds like you learned a lot on the way!

Your game is a lot of fun, I'm a huge fan of humor in games (if you couldn't tell by my own submission) and the mechanics feel really good. Great job and thanks for the thoughts!

Well you have officially impressed me and also scared me off from learning Python any time soon haha. I'm really impressed with what you were able to pull off given those limitations and I think you should definitely continue to work on it. Bullet hells are all the rage these days and you've definitely made a fun one. Thanks for your thoughts and great work!

Hey Everyone, I just want to hear about what you learned over the course of this jam. I think it's easy to get burned out, especially after long jams like this one and maybe not feel awesome about our games after seeing some of the amazing things that other people have built. It's been helpful for me to remember everything I learned and all the hard work I put in, especially with the little time I have working a full time job and having an 11 month old at home .

I decided to finally make one of my all-time favorite genres, a Platformer. I'm really happy with how it came out even though it pales in comparison to any real platformer out there, but it was a blast to design the game and the story. The animations aren't as clean as I would like, especially during combat and for the final boss fight but this is the first "full" game I've built that has an intro story, game and ending. My code is still pretty sloppy and any real engineer would likely be horrified looking at it but I was able to work out some creative solutions to problems that came up.

As for what I learned... A LOT.  I'm starting to feel much better about 2D animations and getting my player controller to feel more smooth and responsive. Melee combat, Scene transitions, Saving info with PlayerPrefs (I know not the best way, but what I had time for), Boss fight, Fine-tuning tilemaps, 2D lighting, Enemy AI, Platformer level design and maybe most importantly, how to use source control with Git and Github so I never have to worry about losing progress ever again!

So leave a little blurb about your game,  the new things you learned doing this jam and of course link your game so I can give it a shot. I'm especially looking for browser games since I can't download anything on my work laptop ;)

Here is Of The Essence, enjoy!

https://itch.io/jam/gamedevtv-community-jam/rate/641223

Thanks for playing and the feedback! I agree I still have A LOT to learn about animations and making them play nicely when multiple actions are going on. Thanks again!

Game has been updated a bit since the game jam, high score system, a little story and more procedural generation work done. Check it out and see what you can get for a high score!

Thank you! Enhancing has begun and a little bit of narrative is included in the next update, follow the game to get notifications!

Thank you! And great minds think alike, that was the next thing I was working on and something I planned on having originally, just ran out of time . I’ll be updating the game shortly, feel free to follow the game to get update notifications!

Thanks for playing! It needs a lot of work but it's a fun starting point :)