Thanks for playing the game, Celeste was indeed an inspiration.
I can only agree with with your assessment in regard to the 'magical girl' theming. In short the final concept came out a lot weaker than initially intended.
However, I am still satisfied with how the game turned out and am honestly very happy that others are finding it as fun as I had envisioned.
A good start, the concept is weird but in one of those novel ways. The silly visuals and goofy sound effects give the game a unique charm. Unfortunately I got lost in a level that mostly about blind falling, even with hover from mini dodo I couldn't find the way forwards.
But from what I saw the game has potential only level design is a bit lacking and makes the game a case of blindly navigating a huge maze not knowing where you are or if you are on the right path.
When it comes to metroidvanias even the more open ones, you want to use the level design to guide players around the world and to each power up. Think of it like a web where everything joins up in some way, only you cant take certain paths until you obtain the correct powerup. Dead ends are fine, but they should be kept as short detours.
Generally paths that require a power up should have a purpose, I ended up taking one such path that needed mini dodo got to the end where I found some giant ape npc talking about some future store or something then got warped back to the beginning. This would have been a good spot for a power up, especially since the path to the right here was blocked by those green walls.
Overall I'm not complaining, just some advice that may or may not be useful for future projects.
Regardless its a nice submission with a bit of charm.
Thanks for playing the game, I'm glad you find it fun.
The map pulsing is a good idea, and I'll certainly look towards adding it.
As for the gamepad control-scheme changes, I cant directly test any of these changes due to lacking a controller of my own. Therefore any changes made are mostly going to be guesswork rather than something I can actually experiment with. However I will have a look at the code to see what I can do.
Thankyou for your feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed the game.
I will agree with you on the magical girl theming becoming a lot more abstract than I originally intended. I do like how the game came out, but yes, it is barely a magical girl game and I nearly didn't submit it to this jam. However as this jam was the core reason I started the game I decided to go forwards with the submission anyway.
Overall a very simple yet fun game.
The bullet crafting is neat idea and feels good once you figure out what the flavours do. However until you unlock any flavours, levelling mean little and your success heavily comes down to the order of flavours you unlock.
On my first run I nearly lost due to everything out-scaling my damage as it just so happened my last few flavours were all the damaging ones (fire-rate, piercing and finally bullet count). On my second run, I reversed the order and had a much easier time.
Otherwise its very good submission, good work.
When you attack you can't move. This is an animation lock; aka. you are hard-locked into completing the animation before regaining control.
This is not bad by itself and many good games such as monster hunter and dark souls utilise such animation locks. It creates 'weightiness' and makes you consider when to attack more than normal combat. The problem comes about when enemies have short windups letting them attack very quickly.
It means that by the time you can move again, you barely have time to get away. Yes you can dash, which solves part of the issue but by the time you recover from your dash and go to attack the enemy they just attack again with little to no down time. Even then the timing to dash just as your attack animation ends and before you get hit is very tight.
I'd say the timings are nearly there. Just by giving enemies a little bit more of a delay between attacks and/or a longer windup animation before attacking would go a long way. Also many games that do have animation locks often let you 'animation cancel' via dashing mid attack, aka. you dash mid attack animation immediately ending the animation and going straight into a dash.
Overall its a common mistake especially when testing your own game as you become adapted to the faster attack timings of your enemies; they may even feel slow to you. But, new players don't have those hours worth of playtesting and need that extra reaction time, especially on early game enemies. I too have been guilty of this in prior projects.
Whoops, saved from an oversight by a misplaced collision box. I guess its as they say, two wrongs make a right.
Thanks for playing the game, I'm glad you had fun.
Yes the disorientating design was deliberately meant to be part the core challenge. I originally based the game on the 'world vanquisher' theme by designing a 'vanquished' world that lacked any logical sense of reality. However things took on a more dream like feel as I continued to work on it.
Wow, first time seeing a speed run of one of my games, pretty impressive. I honestly hadn't even thought about the speed running possibilities but I'm glad the game holds up for a fun speedrun.
As for the gravity mechanic. It ended coming into play later than planned. Part of it is how cramped the world ended up due to my time-constraints, the other part is the open nature of the game. It's actually possible to enable gravity changing even before either of the other two upgrades as you only need 2 crystals. The jump up to the 'lighthouse' (as I call it) can be done without double jump via a carefully aimed dash through the two orbs lined up diagonally. Though going straight for double jump does seem like it'd be the faster route due to setting you up for a clean sweep of the jewels.
I'll start off with saying this game is very ambitious with skill trees, crafting, and even more souls-like 2d combat. I respect it for everything the team has tried to fit in, its just a tad bit ambitious for a 1 month long jam.
Whilst the core movement and combat feels fluid at first, the animation locks on attacking ends up doing it a disservice. When you have animation locks in combat like this you need to slow enemy windups and down-time enough that the player can actually get an attack in. Now the game does have a parry amongst other skills, only you need to unlock it first.
I will say, with parry unlocked the combat felt more complete and far less punishing and honestly should just be unlocked from the start. Without it, damage is extremely hard to avoid especially from ranged enemies. In addition I came across and pit in which an archer would spam arrows across and was impossible to progress. By the time I'd dashed to the other wall then 'climbed' up, I was already near dead due to stray arrows.
Finally the menu doesn't pause the game or even prevent the game controls so you end up attacking and even walking off pits whilst in it.
But not all is bad. I have to praise the amazing pixel artwork and overall fitting audio work. In addition the core gameplay and combat loop itself is a really solid basis, just needed a little more finetuning to get it feeling really good.
So overall, when considering the length of this jam and the ambitious nature of the project; well done. You now have a solid prototype that could potentially be used as a basis for something good.
A bit rough around the edges that could do with further refinement but what's here is a decent basis.
The for graphics are a simple yet clean monochrome style which works for the overall game and helps give it a bit of charm.
All the core upgrades are there, double jump, wall climb and dash. I'd just recommend easing off on the gravity a little as the high fall speed makes it feel a bit clunky to make some of the more precise jumps.
The enemy possessing is also an interesting idea with a lot of potential, though it could do with more feedback on how you take enemies over. I think you press J when next to an enemy but its hard to tell as there's no animation.
So overall, not a bad prototype. Some work here and there and it could certainly become something.
Fun little game, the comic style segments are very nicely done and helps set the tone. Story is a bit goofy and cliché; but let's be honest, that's what the magical girl genre is all about.
A few suggestions:
First of the cloud things that maintain the barrier are a bit too dark, on a low brightness screen they are nearly indistinguishable from the black background. Overall a brighter colour would help them stand out and make it more obvious you are supposed to target them.
Secondly I'd suggest moving the hitbox into the torso area and maybe a bit smaller. Also try adding a glowing orb/heart that is slightly bigger than the hitbox, this would help with visual clarity in regards to bullet dodging. As a general rule for games like this, always give the player more leeway than than they think they have. If giving them a small hitbox makes the game too easy, then all that means is its time for more bullets ;)
Now with those nit-picks aside, its a neat little game that's fun to kill time with, and holds plenty of potential for growth. Good job on the submission.
Thanks for playing the game. Yes it can get a bit disorientating, especially when a certain power comes online. Do remember you can bring up the map (tab) to check where you are.
As a tip, if you dash into the glowing orbs they extend your dash, I'll admit the tutorialization is a little sparse on this mechanic. In addition, with it being designed in the style of a metroidvania there are cases where you simply have to return later with new power ups.
small but charming game. The core gameplay feels good but is not without its issues.
For one, the dungeon seems to forget and regenerate rooms you have visited which can lead to weird shenanigans. This includes getting an upgrade, leaving then immediately returning for said upgrade top have respawned. And once I got stuck in two dead ends forced to run between the two until the game decided to change one of them and let me out.
Enemies are fun and engaging at first with a small variety that differs them, but their health and damage scales up so fast where if you don't get many damage upgrades quick you are better off just running away.
But overall, negatives aside, good job on the submission especially considering the late start.
First off, I always appreciate a game that allows full key binding including the number-pad keys (which I always use for these types of games)
However with that said, I did find the game control a bit stiff and unresponsive. Often times it felt like my inputs were being eaten or delayed, it got to the point where I felt I was fighting the controls more than the enemies and hazards.
As a small suggestion, make the attack a bit faster, and/or allow you to move forwards a little during the animation. With how much it locks you in place it feels bad to be just out of reach of the enemy you are attacking.
Now with the bad out of the way. The art and audio is really good. And full voice acting is impressive. And despite my complaints, the core gameplay concepts were really well thought out with the kill enemies to charge special uses and the jump resetting on kill.
Overall with a little more polish on the gameplay and optimisation front the game has a lot of potential and could make for a really fun game, so good job on the submission.
Just to add, the downloadable version had the godot loading screen stuck in place, I could hear the music and sound effects but not actually see the game screen. This forced me to play via browser where the performance was a bit scuffed at times (frequent micro stutters), this may have amplified the unresponsiveness of the controls; so take my prior views on control with a grain of salt. For refence this same issue has happened once before with another godot game from a different jam. I don't know if this is an issue with my system of something on your end, however I have played several other godot games just fine.
Overall a very unique and original concept with a rather abstract style of gameplay.
Now before I get into my feedback on the game. As this game is expanded on from a prior jam submission rather than being an original submission; I have rated it to a higher level of scrutiny than I would the other entries. Overall the game does deserve its praise, however as I do my best to be fair, it is only fair to factor in the longer development time when scoring.
First off, the idea of being bound to a train both as your combat arena but also a way to avoid certain attacks is ingenious. However, from the levels I played the only times I needed to hop inside was when I felt overwhelmed by attacks and needed a short break. It'd be interesting if there were more engaging reasons to hop inside in-between dealing with the main adversary. Perhaps in some missions there could be timed bombs on the inside that need to be periodically 'defused' so you can't spend too much time outside, you could even have certain attacks come in through the windows to make this harder.
As for gameplay, whilst it does feel very polished, due the whole limitation of being locked to 3 sides of the train it can be difficult to maintain a lock on the enemy whilst avoiding attacks, especially when they go underneath. In addition some of the attacks were hard to judge their distance from the train and I would often just walk into them by accident. Ok on second check, the lasers do turn white when near you, and knowing that does make things easier to judge however maybe try a different colour as the white/pale blue beams blend into the framework of the train which actually makes them harder to see at times.
As a small suggestion, a defensive ability like a shield or something similar would go a long way to improving engagement outside of just hold left click on the enemy whilst dodging; even if it then needs time to recharge. You could even go a step further and have certain projectiles which can be deflected back at the enemy.
Lastly, the stormy level (the red card) needs a look over in regards to optimisation as that level caused my old but reliable gaming laptop to drop into unplayable frame rates despite the game running butter smooth on every other level. Ultimately I had to skip this level.
Nit-picking aside, the game is well made and fun to play. With few tweaks here and there to refine and polish the experience, and you could have a rare gem.
Also just had to ask, but what is the purpose of the coins under your health? They are positioned in a way that makes them seem important but I couldn't figure out how or why.
Visually the game looks great and really hones in on the magical girl concepts complete with a charming comic style opening.
First off I'm not particularly into fighting games, so take my views on gameplay with a grain of salt.
I won't say it was a bad, just feels a little stiff and is very hard to control on keyboard. Even starting a match took me some figuring out. But, once I finally got into the game and began to understand the controls I was starting to see the fun that could be had. In short, with proper keybind support and bit more work to improve the fluidity of character control this could make for a nice little charming fighting game.
Overall, nit-picking aside, I'd say it has both charm and potential and is worthy of congratulations for coming this for into the project within no longer than a month.
To clarify the small crystals are only used to unlock the gates and you don't need more than 4 to complete the game.
But as long as you are enjoying the game that is all that makes me happy. Do let me know if the end of game freeze still happens, remember to redownload the latest version in case you haven't already.
Thanks for playing, the design of this game was that battles were just as valuable being avoided compared to actually fighting them. Part of the reason items are so scarce/expensive is to encourage managing of your resources and choosing which battles to engage within.
It was an interesting concept for a game, I'll give it that.
Thankyou for your feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed the game. I'll agree with you on the chime's when walking, the intention was to reinforce the magical nature of the character moving through this dream like world but the sound chosen comes out a bit stronger than intended.
As for it being like Celeste, yes, just yes. I actually got the urge to play celeste for a few days halfway through making this game due to how much the game was reminding me of it.
As for the magical girl theming, unfortunately that grew weaker than intended as I started developing. The initial idea was that this was post 'deletion' of the world following the 'world vanquisher' theme. The girl character was meant to be the 'echoed' remains of a once magical girl now trying to restore order, her forgotten animal familiar guiding her spirit to restore the world again.
Overall because of how vague the magical girl concepts became I nearly didn't submit it to this jam, but without the jam's prompts I would never have made the game in the first place and I wanted to honour its origin even if that means a lower rating.
Thankyou for taking the time to take the screenshot as it has confirmed my suspicion.
An updated version is now available for download which solves both this and the mouse issues.
Upon downloading the new version and loading your save (saves from previous versions will be auto detected), a blue warp will appear near the right wall. it will take you back to the entrance.
Overall congratulations on discovering this sequence skip, and I truly give my apologies for the experience being ruined as a result of my oversight.
So what I believe has happened is you ended up in a late game area using abilities in a combination I hadn't thought off. You shouldn't even be in a red room without the ability to rotate the rooms.
I will come up with a solution and patch a fix. Thank you for playing the game and my apologies for the issues.
Tetris with an extra twist of actually being on the board and therefore trying not to squish yourself. Though I did get squashed by my first piece placed before figuring out the concept.
It would be nice to either know where the player is on the 2d screen or have a shadow on the 3D screen to help judge if you are in danger.
Overall not a bad prototype/concept, but could do with something extra in relation to the 3d platforming side of things so its not just a regular game of Tetris. Maybe objects/coins you can grab for points that require you to deliberately build up to and reach certain heights.
But for only a 2 day submission, congrats on getting this far.
Not a bad game, holds a very similar vibe and feel to celeste. The character movement is snappy albeit a bit on the quick side.
A few points of feedback:
Text is slow and clicking skips the entire box instead of filling the box first. Due to how slow it is and no way to just instantly fill the text out I found myself just skipping it, which is a bit of a shame.
Rocket jump is hard to control and becomes more a case of jump shoot and hope than the precision platforming celeste is known for. Not saying its bad but could possibly be more deterministic than pure physics based.
Finally the character needs to freeze in place whenever the camera transitions between screens, the number of times I just flew off into a pit due the character speed.
But otherwise, a nice little stylistic game.
'To live is to try' as they say, think of it as a lesson learnt.
But at the same time level generation can allow to keep each run fresh, so whilst it may not have been a good idea for this project with it being more about pushing the limits of speed and scale, it could work for another project down the line.
Either way, it was still fun.
A loose take on the theme, but the zooming out does help tie it in. Might have worked better with the camera zooming out of the next robot's head instead of coming in from off screen, that way you could have sold it off as a 'nesting doll' built up of scaled robots.
Regardless, the game is a pleasant take on the block pushing style of puzzles with a slight twist due to the cable limit. It would be nice if each cable displayed its length without having to just try them all in a trial by error style, but that's just a nit-pick.
So all in all, congrats on completing the game.
This is very unique; tying growth, movement and jumping all into one button for something that exceeds the sum of its parts. Despite the simple control scheme (one button) I can see a lot of room for skill expression.
The level generation algorithm could do with some work as getting a good time feels more about getting lucky with the level layout. Some obstacles end up placed a bit close to one another, which leaves little room to correctly scale and position for the jump whilst bouncing back and forth against walls. Outside of these edge cases, the games feels smooth and fun to play.
An amazing submission for a 4 day jam. Really nice vibes and a nice balance between working at different scales. Track placement feels a little weird but is not hard to get used to and I imagine it was more a result of the short time-frame.
As a small suggestion if you work on the game after the jam, some sort of warning that a station is are about to overflow whilst in the scaled down toy mode would go a really long way. You kind of get really chill playing with the toy tracks that you forget the urgency of linking everything up quickly at the larger scale of things.
