itch.io

I checked the list out, I am trying monocles.eu out since it seemed to be a simple app that I could keep on my phone. My address there is spiregg@monocles.eu

Itch has a couple of my more recent projects (mostly prototypes from game jams), and the rest are/were on Steam: https://linktr.ee/spiregg

I update social media infrequently and mainly use it to announce releases, but I plan to post more screenshots and other content soon since some games are now nearly done.

Yeah, I saw your devlog update. I will try to check the new version out when it’s ready.

I don’t have an XMPP account, but I do have a Discord account that you can add. Add @spiregg on Discord if you want. What XMPP service do you use/recommend? I hadn’t heard of that before.

I have been an indie dev for the past ~10 years, but only started taking things seriously a few years ago. I’m currently working on a few bigger projects and hope to launch a demo and a full free game on Steam soon (like maybe a few weeks for the full game and a little less than a week for the demo if my musician/composer gets back to me soon).

Platformers are near and dear to my heart, and I would love to get back to my pie-in-the-sky project, but that requires a significant art budget that I don’t have the money for, so I am making some small and polished experiences in other less expensive genres before I go back to the dream project someday.

Very cool game. Congrats!

Yeah, by traction, I was referring to the friction between the player and the floor. It currently feels a little slippery to me, but if you like it, keep it. Maybe it’s just something I need to get used to.

1. I would try playing some platformers while thinking about things they do that you like, and make a short list of what mechanics you would like to recreate or learn from if you want to expand further. Some ones I like: 10 Second Ninja X (Multiple platforms, but PC often goes on sale and consists of small 10 second levels with a variety of core mechanics mostly centered around combat and typical platformer movement), Windswept (Indie game with a free demo that is similar to Donkey Kong Country with a dual-character platformer system), Celeste (high mechanical skill and has an open-source player controller to check out), and Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch) for mechanic ideas and level design experience, etc.
2. So the other main thing you need to decide early on is if you want to focus solely on movement or try to add combat. Opting for movement-based platformers mean you limit your design space a bit, but can focus solely on great movement. Check out Dustforce, N++, Super Meat Boy, Entropoly, etc. Combat ones are among those already mentioned, but it comes down to what sort of game you want to make, so just
3. Watch design videos about the various tricks the average platformer uses to feel “great,” like coyote time, buffering inputs, and how to design the optimal jump heights based on your intended jump arc (Game Maker’s Tool Kit has a project about this topic to check out)
4. Make a bunch of test levels and keep posting updates to gather feedback. Don’t use final art until later, even if the art is fairly minimal, it can waste time if you need to redo it - block it out with basic shapes until you’re happy with the layouts and design.
5. I think the music is charming, so you could lean into the beatboxing and mouth SFX design by doing things like playing SFX on beat or other rhythmic influences. Some people may not like mouth noises, though, so maybe have an optional toggle for an alternate, more typical soundtrack.
6. Platformers are a crowded market, so doing something to stand out with 1-2 core hooks that people rarely see. Easier said than done, given how many platformers there are, but definitely spend some time thinking about how to pitch and market your game. Good luck!

Enjoyable platformer and beatable in a quick session. I think with some polishing, you could have a mini platformer hit on your hands. The character controller could use a little more traction to prevent unintended sliding off small platforms, but this was a great job for a game jam!

I like the idea of an ant endless runner/shooter. Congrats on submitting, and good luck if you decide to polish further.

Very impressive. The controls feel a little awkward, but with some polishing, I could see this getting a full release if you expand upon it a bit more.

I played for a bit, it has nice art and asset integration. Good job on the story tying into the theme!

Watering speeds up growth by double for 5 seconds. It’s a mechanic if you want to speedrun mainly. We thought about making the plant growth rate take more time, but we didn’t want to spend more than 1 full work day’s worth of hours on the project, and we were at the tipping point.

My friend and I used your watering can in GameDev.TV’s jam. You can try our game here in the browser: https://spiregg.itch.io/growfast

Thank you for posting your art!

My friend and I used your sponsored sample pack in GameDev.TV’s jam! You can try our game here in the browser: https://spiregg.itch.io/growfast

Thank you for the wonderful art! I plan to pick up the full asset sometime to support you.

Cool endings, little hard to aim at the goats jumping, but I might just be bad. I liked your art btw.

Thanks. I worked on improving the pet’s basic attack logic and animations. At one point pets were nearly impossible to get past before I nerfed them.

I returned the teddy! Hooray! Fun little CYOA game. Good job folks.

If you had more endings/content to read that would be good, but it is nice for what it is.

I felt like the controls were a little awkward with diagonals like some of the other comments. Also, it was a little weird seeing the score at the end of a run by itself say high score when it resets every time. Fun take on the theme and I liked the perspective. I got to like 28 seconds survived before dying.

Thanks, we tried to find matching assets since neither of us are artists.

Yeah, we were considering performance when designing the level and already had issues with the number of enemies on screen, especially with Chrome since it doesn’t default to the right graphics card. In a nonweb build, we could definitely make the pathfinding more interesting for enemies and the player. Thanks for playing!

Hey, thanks for the feedback. We addressed the issue with the clicks triggering upgrades unintentionally since that was impacting several people. Also, we found an error with the spawner where the eyes were spawning way too often in one of the waves, which you mentioned, so thanks for that. We patched the game to fix that and a couple other issues that we knew about.

Hey, thanks for the feedback. I enjoyed your game as well.

Hey, thanks for the feedback. We addressed the issue with the clicks triggering upgrades unintentionally since that was impacting several people. I don’t think we changed the flamethrower recharge rate, but if you don’t let it empty all the way it recharges faster as there is a much smaller cooldown.

It was a cool setting, but hard to play without spatial audio cues. The minimap is a little too small to be useful. I hope you can fix the audio settings being required but good job.

I liked this game. Fun concept. I think with a few more mechanics this could be a good mobile game or casual game.

I ran into a bug where when I accidentally clicked it would keep inputting the walking direction I had pressed at the time and stay that way until I clicked a few more times with no buttons pressed.

Hey, tried your web build. Ran into some of the issues you have already noted, but I had fun for what it’s worth. I think optimizing your draw calls and effects would be nice for the web build.

I liked the art style. It did get a little annoying to have the sound effects play repeatedly this often, so maybe have an options menu with volume sliders in the future.

https://spiregg.itch.io/find-us

I had a submission within the time limit that I deleted because it was broken. Edit: Argh, I’ve been trying to build a WebGL version of my jam project for 60+ minutes across my two attempts at building. Finally finished it 10 minutes ago, though. Happy to have some fun even if I’m disqualified from voting. Proof of my suffering. Damn you compression!

Thanks for hosting, Jonas! Looking forward to the next jam.