This is a very good game. It’s learning curve was just right, and its mechanics were engaging. It “sucked” me in. Hehehe..
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…okay. I’ll show myself out.
I will say that the camera only seems to move when you start a level, and when you enter a new level though. This means that, if you die and your last checkpoint is on another screen, you pretty much lose all sight. I had to restart the game once because of this.
Also, on level 6, there was one air duct that literally would not work for some reason. It might be something on my end, but I had to end my playthrough there for that reason sadly.
A nice, calming autorunner for when you want to take a procrastination break. Reminds me of the dino-game, but slightly more complex.
I liked your addition of the intro cutscene and the transitions you put between starting the game and dying. However, I will say that I…honestly do not know what the intro cutscene meant, and the transitions between dying and playing again felt long. Especially for a game where you are expected to die and try again.
There was a bit of a learning curve to all the modes, but I got the hang of it quickly. I see what you did with your modes. The first mode quickly moves you to the ground after a long air jump, giving the player back control over their verticle movement. The second mode gives increased airtime, which is needed for some obstacles. And the third mode gives extra points if you can hit something with it.
Each has its benefits and uses, but I believe the problem here is how unnatural it is to switch between abilities.
Each mode only really shines when working with another mode. The first mode is best used after a large double jump. The third mode works well for all obstacles, but is useless most of the time. You almost always want to be in the third mode to recharge it, but it’s hard to swap between the third mode and the second mode fast enough to react to most obstacles.
Hence, the obvious solution here is to just ignore all except the second mode, as that’s the easiest one to use. Plus, it’s the only one you need most of the time anyway.
It feels like the theme “mode” hurt your game more than it did help. If all these modes were combined with separate keybindings, and could be activated whenever, then they would add onto each other beautifully. However, as it is, switching modes felt cumbersome.
Other than that, great work, honestly. This was a fun product to break up my day.
It was a simple concept and you made it true without unneeded clutter, resulting in a rather fun small game. I especially liked your use of particles, those words at the start of every level, and the other areas of polish to place around. It feels finished, which not all Game Jam entries can contest to being.
I would, however, have liked some camera controls. The fact that the player moves adjacently, but the camera is diagonal, was… difficult. The movement also, although fun, felt out of place for the game.
If this wasn’t a puzzle platformer, I would have liked the floating movement. However, as this is a puzzle platformer, I must say that precise platforming is much more valuable than icey movement.
90% of my deaths were due to those two things: camera and icey movement. However, that may just be a problem with me. You did have a death indicator at the end, so perhaps all of that was intention game design on your part?
The magenta block’s only purpose seems to be to confuse the player, too. That’s a game mechanic that I don’t like. After all, confusion is not difficult. Confusing is just increasing the player’s learning curve. In my opinion, I think games should aim to decrease the learning curve as much as possible.
With the risk of sounding arrogant, perhaps making it so you can see the outlines of the magenta during building mode, but not in play mode, would improve things? I would say that, since your levels are short, it shouldn’t be too burdensome on the player’s memory while still enacting a bit of artificial challenge.
Also, a small nitpick, that magenta color hurt my eyes.
Anyway, great job! As I said, you made a fun product. Thank you for sharing.
This game feels like it has a lot of potential. You developed 4 different modes, each with its own abilities, and developed multiple levels that centered on using those abilities in an intuitive way. In addition, the art and animations were top-notch.
However, I must say that this felt more like an unfinished prototype than a game.
There was a large difficult curve that the game did not ease the player into. The controls felt awfully stiff and constricting, which isn’t a good thing for a platformer. The modes, in my opinion, were not incorporated as well as they could have too. Their uses were limited, as if this was a puzzle game, but their uses seem too obvious in levels to be a puzzle (which is a strength in itself. But, in this context, it means that this is more of a platformer game with stiff controls, instead of a precision puzzle platformer. The difference between those two is quite large).
In addition, the game could use a few more sound effects and juice effects.
However, as I said, this merely feels like an unfinished game, not a bad game. There is potential here, if polished well.
This game has a lot of potential. Its mechanics are solid and consistent, and you gradually ramp up the complexity with more mechanics at each level. The difficulty curve feels right, and you manage to keep the player engaged with new fun ways to mess with ice cream.
I will say that the fact the game does not pause during cut scenes is a bit of an issue. Sometimes the spikes wouldn’t kill me. Those donut launchers were annoying (they punish you for trying to aim your next shot ahead of time, which a bounce should not do). And the aim indicator is inaccurate sometimes.
Also, although I love the sense of permanence each room has, it can become clustered quickly. I would have recommended making all the ice cream remainders be drawn behind the aim indicator strictly, so as to not confuse the player.
Yeah, that’s kind of what I meant. Most of the controls are keyboard-focused and require two hands. Thus, I let go of my mouse as a result. But then you need to move your mouse to select the reset button the moment you get stuck, which was a bit troublesome.
Pretty good game. It’s graphically all there. A few sound effects were annoying (the turret sound effects can get overwhelming when you place too many of them), but it was overall good and felt polished.
The difficulty I had at the start could not be stated in full, however. The whole thing railroaded me into placing all the Turrets in the world to produce all the money in the world. I probably missed something, but I felt like that was my only path forward.
I was also interested in how it was possible to complete the entire game without craft mode. I tried it as a fun challenge, and it somehow worked out.
The platforming was a bit tricky sometimes, but that’s just me being a fool. I would have liked it if the craft mode played a more vital role, however. I would have also liked a quick access button to reset a level section. In the first section of the second level, for instance, it’s possible to mess up the first up and have to restart manually, which is a bit annoying. Other than that, great submission.
Fun and solid game. You played it safe, and it went well. I liked your use of sprites. No need for animations when you can just make the characters wiggle. It saves more time to polish the really important parts.
I’m not typically a horror type of person, but you really nailed down the feeling. Giving the people different personalities when talking, as well as the mini-puzzels that not only contained hard riddles but also questions with answers controlled by the player, was genius.
After my third playthrough, I managed to beat it with 222.6854 time left to spare.
I did have a few issues with this one, however. For one, I had no idea how to read the time. …y-yes, I know how to read analog clocks. I just had no clue where the hands needed to point to for my time limit to be reached. I would have liked some indication of that.
In addition, the controls felt very floaty. I get that’s what you were going for, which added to the challenge, but it also made it a bit annoying to leave/enter the shop. Keyword “annoying”, not “difficult”.
Other than that, fantastic work.
Oh! Also, those typing challenges were the bain of my existence.
Now this is a game I didn’t expect to see here. A trivia game with so many references!
Honestly, this is a very fun take. I will say, however, that the pause between your answer and the response, as well as the pause between switching questions, was annoying to deal with. There is also no reliability in this since all the questions are the same (but this is mainly a game-jam-exclusive problem).
A nice, simple game. I found that the strategy is to allow the ghosts to take your heart since you can eliminate them with a meow if they are carrying it. This kind of disincentivize “protecting” your heart, which I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but I had fun nonetheless.
Is there anything in particular you struggled with the puzzels? Was there a mechanic not explained well enough? Were you confused about what the goal of each level was? Were there too many choices to make and got choice paralysis? Were you confused about what button/switch was attached to where? Was the platformer too heavy for a puzzle game?
Was there a particular reason (which can be improved) the puzzels were hard for you, is what I’m asking.
The velocity platform jumps were meant to be introduced later on, but were also incorporated later in level 2. You see, although I planned for it, the Orbs were kind of a second-playthrough type of thing. Going in blind, a player shouldn’t know there are Orbs unless they are very good explorers (or just wanted to try to break my game in the first level), so I made the orbs with the idea of a second playthrough in mind. Still, I also tried to design them such that, if the player plays around a bit, things can click.
Level 2, for instance, I imagined there would be someone who tries to mess with the platform while on it, and then thinks to jump. If they do, boom! Secret! Instantly rewarded.
Also, that sidenote is interesting. I also had more mouse click icons next to the “No” when it becomes relevant again in level 8, but that would be a problem. Thanks for the feedback.
Fun game. You included a few simple, easy-to-understand mechanisms, and made a whole puzzle game around it. That’s good puzzle design 101.
I will say that moving often felt a bit slow, and I did not like how platforms could fall off from under you after waiting some time. That kind of made it hard for me to plan ahead.
Also, for this review, keep in mind that I got stuck on level 10, so I might be missing something at the end. Other than that, great job! You had an idea and implemented it well.
Cute game with solid movement. Some of the dust bunnies got stuck in walls when an enemy was killed too close to a wall, but everything is nice otherwise. The level design, specifically, was fantastic. The whole thing is polished greatly, and I enjoyed it a lot.
I do have to question the theme’s representation in this, however. In this game, you start with no dust bunnies and then try to gain all dust bunnies. That’s the exact opposite of what this Jam is about. Is the theme related to the timer? You start with all the time, but end with none of it?
A nice, simple, platformer game that kind of reminds me of Doodle Jump. For the sake pf this game’s concept, I will not comment on the ending, however.
One thing I would have liked is a bit of consistency in the controls. Select in the menu, and jump, did not need to be two separate buttons. Other than that, I think this game does what it needs to do fine.
Some platforms are harder to cross than others, but if you time your jumps to land on the ends of platforms, it works out fine. The hitbox of the player is also big enough that a coyote isn’t needed.
Now this is a cool and challenging puzzle game. There are only a small amount of levels, but they are made in a way not too challenging, but still engaging. There were also many cool mechanics (spike, spinning platforms, walls that block the boxes, teleports, etc.), which invited more complex level design.
One problem: it’s a bit hard to see the theme of “Start with Everything, End with Nothing” here. I get you hide the cubes are the end of each level, but that’s not really “nothing”. After all, you can just move the cubs out of their hiding place as good as new.
The second “glitch” is intentional. Later parts of the game rely on that. However, the speed of some doors is meant to discourage that, but it is still a method to an end.
The fourth level relies a lot on the player’s desire to explore the mechanics and think outside the box, so I can see how that one may be a problem. It’s not something I directly explain, which can pose a problem.
As for glitching out of the level, I never experienced that bug while playtesting. I’m not sure how you did that either. Sorry for causing that. It’s a good thing I put those death barriers just in case, then.
A charming puzzle game. It’s not overly difficult and has mechanics easy to understand. It is also has a tutorial to help players understand the rules.
This is textbook “how to design a puzzle game” and that’s a complement. Great job!
This game is a math problem in disguise! How dare you!
Anyway, this was a fun mini-experience. There is not really much I can say. I do have a nitpick that the “debt” problem was not properly explained. Other than that, well done.
Thank you! I thought the idea was cool, so I just went with it.
I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’m further glad you went for 100% as well! I placed an orb in each room to promote replayability, and there were eleven rooms, so I hoped it would increase playtime by a good amount (not too much it’s frustrating, and not too little that the game is short). 30 minutes seems like the correct time for a game this short.
Thank you! Though I’d have to say, this would need a lot more mechanics if it was ever to be a full game. Speaking frankly, I felt a bit limited with what I could do when I was making the levels.
Well…part of that was also because of my ridiculously terrible code. I had to scrap a lot due to the bugs I had. What I wrote is so spaghetti, the MC might as well be Italian. Hehe.
