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Hi there! Sorry for the late reply. And thank you, I'm glad you like the game! It was my first game of this kind, so the sound wasn't the priority, but when making another in the future, I'll try to include some fitting audio :)

Regarding your questions about the puzzles, allow me to give you some hints. If that is not enough, just ask. (I've added some formatting to avoid spoilers for people who wouldn't want it.)


=========== SPOILERS ===========

1.  The "..." = "..." x "..." puzzle - It's a sort of a 'multiplication', but not the arithmetic one (if you look up what operations it can represents, you'll find a set of those, and the correct one can set you on the right course ;-) ). You need to figure out what shapes are needed on both sides of the x to produce the required shape.

2. The puzzle outside - those are actually hints. And two separate ones. My bad I didn't spread them apart enough.

• The left one just explains what locks you out of the stone and completing the game.
• The right one... well, that one is optional. It's a way to circumvent a part of the final challenge. It's a bit over the top, but it's meant to be like that. That one I don't want to spoil and it's perfectly fine for people not getting it the first time. :)

I have to say it was really fun. Sometimes camera during sticking to the walls was hiding more than revealing but it was really enjoyable. Plus for the checkpoints and alternative endings!

It was really fun! Really nice work with the art and the level design. As others pointed out, the camera is inverted (although this matter is subjective for each personally). I hope to see an expanded version after the jam.

Thanks! I wasn't expecting comparison to Escher's and I'm flattered. I find it interesting how a little change in perspective affects the reception.

Thanks! Sadly, I had to abandon adding sounds as I was short on time. But I think I might make the Sentinel make different sound depending on how cautious it's about your presence. And that's a good idea to also give some hints on where he is in relation to you.

And I'm glad you like the flying, it was interesting to implement it and I'm curious to see what can I do with the system I made. I had initial plan on more abilities, dashing seems to be a nice idea, and I was trying focus the game on more stealthy approach, so some abilities that help you with exploration and evasion.

Thanks! And I do plan on building on that concept further. I have to admit I was cutting features as the deadline was getting closer, so it will be interesting to actually implement them.

I am a puzzle guy, not a survival horror guy. I didn't know if I could get through and, but I managed to and I'm happy about it (that said, having seen Rook's play beforehand helped a lot). And I say this game is amazing and I think this can be an instant classic. The art direction, the sounds and level design is simply wonderful. The reload mechanic is perfect for this game and I love it!

If I ever would have to be nitpicky, and I'm not even sure if that simply isn't intended by the design, the textures are a bit weird when at the edge of the screen.

Gosh, this one is stressful. But figuring out how to get to deliver poison is satisfying. I haven't managed to poison all five storages, but I think I might be getting there. I don't know if that's intended, but seems rushing next to the spiders is a must. Will try to beat it anyway.

The music definitely fits the gameplay and helps a bit. It's a bit dark, but I assume that's deliberate. However, navigation can be a bit confusing and the limited view makes it harder to plan a route. Sometimes a spider is behind a corner and there's no tell for that. I'm not sure about one thing, but I'd assume there are two enemies per storage, right? The counter for them doesn't seem to always go down.

For a prototype of an engine, it's a good start. The controls themselves are solid and I liked how the camera worked. The animation sequences are really good, although the initial punches feel a bit slow. The models look nice, a bit like toys, but I can see a whole game made in that style and enjoy it. But definitely more works is needed.

As I was running around as a clone of Chas, I had small issue - after first hit, he got stuck in a damage animation and couldn't do any attacks. So I was sweeping through the rest of the level in semi T-pose. Entering a new area reset the animation.

Yeah, you are right about how little the game conveys its mechanics. Sadly, I joined to the jam later, which explains the state of the game, but it doesn't make it any better. For the most part it was "do I implement X, while the core elements aren't even in place" and as a consequence I had to cut corners. Well, the time after the jam is to polish a game and I'd like to see how much I can squeeze out of the premise.

I'll be honest, I didn't manage to finish the game. It looks and sounds great (kudos to the VAs) and the story at the beginning is just perfect, but the balance feel off.

It feels like the penalties are creating a feedback loop. The police bears not only instant-kill you, but actively chase you without any restriction and from the moment they spawn, they are faster than you (and the only escape is resource that gets depleted quickly trying to outrun them), and you get thrown back to the beginning - with all the time and boost wasted (and possibly with none at all). And it seems they can reach you even if you jump. And that's your first enemy.

I believe you can finish the game, I am concerned if you didn't start with too much after the first turn. I wish it was more approachable, because it seems like a really cool premise.

It was enjoyable. Really nice graphics! The models of the bees are especially amazing. I also really liked the animation when the character muddles through the honey. I also am concerned about Warp's true intentions - I found the hidden "cave" with the skulls.

Two things were concerning to me. One was no control during the normal jump. I know it might be unrealistic, but having no control at all is unusual choice for an adventure platformer. Especially that you had air control with the hover ability. Another is that the character is affected by gravity during the pause. In Unity the pause is usually done setting the time scale to 0, which also freezes the physics calculations, so I wonder how you did your pause.

It was really fun! I love how the animation is in time with the music and how are there alternative paths. Really nice idea with switching the camera between two perspective - it really works here. There were some bugs - besides the enemies - at one point I passed partially through the floor, was stuck in it to the waist and had to restart the game.

This is such an amazing game! Had great fun with it. I like the design - it's cute and captures the vibes of those mascot adventure platformers from e.g. N64. Great job with this one and I'd love to see wider adventures of Remy!

Apparently bees can into space. At the cost of 35 unfortunate insects that were under my control. Great game, really fun, perfect aesthetics, good controls. Really enjoyed it! I really appreciate how you handled being returned to checkpoints - a fall back to the flower is a small addition, but feels nice.

Finished only the first level, but it was really fun! I love the introductions of different enemies - fun and gives you a moment. The music fits the levels and is nice. On the garden level there were moments when it felt like the bee go stuck on some invisible corner, but overall I really enjoyed it.

I managed to beat the game (apparently, got teleported back to the level with bridges). I wasn't entirely sure what was my purpose, but I assume evading zombies is a good enough reason to get going x). It was fun and the music fit the situation. What was bugging me was how the camera was jumping and some graphics bugs, like textures displaying all the wrong way.

I have a question about the character. Are they animated like a separate mesh per frame? I'm curious, because it didn't look conventional. Definitely an interesting take. (And I don't know if that was intentional, but on several occasions after pressing shift my character shifted into the zombie walk animation.)

That was interesting. A bit too dark for me to see anything, but I like the idea of the bees surrounding the hooded guy and your only weapon being the smoke. I'm not sure if that was intentional, but I managed to stun him for a long while unleashing half of my fuel right into his face.

It was really cool and fun! I really like the style you put in. It both has that 90s-style gameplay to it and it's really fun. Out of curiosity, because I was focused on steering rather than meticulously observing the style meter - does it have a combo system?

Thank you very much! And yeah, I was short on time, so I preferred not to mess much more with the game, but it really needs some sounds.

Thanks! And indeed - that was me. Glad you liked the game. I will try to improve the game after the jam. (Still, I'll probably stick to Euclidean geometry just from unusual perspective.)

Thanks! I'll try to improve the game once the jam is over :D

Thank you for your reply and input! I will work on trying to improve the game, at least a bit.

I know the WebGL version underperforms and that bugs me. I hope I'll figure out how to make it run better while keeping it the same to the desktop version. I admit the Sentinel can get relentless in pursuing the player, but the idea was to, once being spotted, try to outrun it - with the speed difference you should be able to escape the cone. However, and that was deliberate, after attracting too much attention, the Sentinel was meant to never cease the pursuit, before that, after a while it loses interest in the player's ship. But I think you're right - I should look into rebalancing the mechanic, so an early screw-up should be easier to recover from.

Really good game! Good puzzle design and really fun mechanics. I'm sometimes getting a bit confused with the way controls work, but I guess it's mostly me. Sometimes it's really hard to tell the position of each block or moving platform, but I assume that was part of the original design, right? If there's anything lacking at the moment for me, it's option to restart the level from any point without need to make a wrong move and some undo feature, so in case of a wrong move a player can revert back instead of needing to restart the whole level. With that what would feel to me like a full feature project! (I didn't finish it yet, so I don't know how much levels there are, but I've just got to the first mirror level).

Amazing work!

I really enjoyed the game. Really fun experience. And great music!

I did notice a weird issue with memory management - after few restarts the level seems to run much slower, sometimes the restart/leave prompt isn't disappearing.

Amazing game! I haven't managed yet to finish it, but I love how you introduced new mechanics - once I had fun with jumping with the basic gun, you are introducing a new gun and a new gravity mechanic. And all the introductions of the mechanics are really well done! I reckon that possibility to have the screen centred all the time might help with aiming and sometimes collisions behave weirdly (at one point I got stuck in a non-gravity effect after respawning).

Still, this is an amazing entry and I love it!

Not a bad idea with the way level swaps between two variants on jump, but there are two problems with the implementation that makes it really hard to judge and enjoy the game. One are the controls - I think being able to control the character in the air would do a lot of good. The other thing is the jump and fall feel to be be very slow, so if you misjudge the jump you have to wait until the character lands before you can try again. The other issue is that while dark platforms had an indicator where they would appear, the light ones lack that feature.

But it's not a bad idea at its core, just needs a bit more polishing before it could be taken any further.

Thanks, glad to hear you enjoyed it.

The idea behind the final confrontation was that the player should not rely on only one kind of action. I did intend to initially have the lich taunting the player while on the dungeon part, so it could also slip a hint about the final part, but I didn't manage to make it in time. Also, I'm pretty sure there's a bug in the final part, I'd need to find time to check all the dialogue options to be sure.

I should probably say something about my interpretation of the whole work - poem and game together. And I think playing is a part of what gives more context to the game. So whatever I write below take with a small grain of salt as my interpretation of the presented story.

One thing is that there's just a repeating process - but if neither circumstances change nor what the character does, how the outcome every day can be different?

And what about the expectations? Wouldn't having them set too high would make any progress invisible?

We can see the hero is initially motivated, but seeing lack of progress seems to affect them negatively. As I mentioned above, it can be open to interpretation if this is real inability, lack of change, or too high expectations. Given you suggested in the comment under the poem, I'd guess it's a matter of expectations. But there's something more in the story. People don't normally get so overwhelmed by the lack of success, so I'd guess the hero is suffering from some sort of depressive state. In such light, given they didn't give up for that long can be seen as different kind of success, even if omitted by them.

Done! You posted both a game and a poem, so I couldn't help myself with commenting on the poem.

A neat idea with the poem. However, the game mechanics simplistic to a point where this entry is more of an interactive experience. Is it bad for being like that? Not at all. The problem is what remains of the game mechanics in the entry isn't that engaging and nothing changes unless the player decides to stick to the end. I really like the touch with the change of the colour near the end - it's fitting.

A very good and interesting game. I got stuck at 1-8, so I guess it's getting more and more challenging. While the use of colours to define interactions isn't something entirely new, the way you implemented it is pretty solid and well done and still feels fresh enough. I really enjoy this game.

A solid game. The restarting bug is a bit annoying, but the core mechanics are fine. Really nice graphics!

A pretty interesting game. I'm far from being good enough to be able to pass those challenges, but it's an interesting take on the whole theme and the superhero story. Will definitely recommend it to a friend of mine who's into challenge platformers!

Something made perfectly for me - I like platformers, but I'm terrible at parts that require reflexes. This is an amazing approach to combining puzzles and platforming. At the beginning I had to take a bit of time to get used to the game, but once it clicked, it was real fun. And a pretty good puzzle design too!

A really intriguing idea and entry. Seems you've already had a discussion about some awkwardness of the controls/edges situation. I'd love to see a more developed entry if you manage to deal with that (and possibly - if you manage to resolve the browser compatibility issues).

An interesting game. I really like the idea for the game mechanics and the unique theme (would love to see some really crazy and absurd story with the spyder). I had some issues with the controls (sadly with the default setting you can easily click a button outside of the game window). The fact they can be reversed solves the problem for me, but sadly the setting keeps resetting after each death. Still it's a good idea - nicely done!

Not sure if you're still going to have time to check everyone, but perhaps try to give my entry a chance as well:

https://itch.io/jam/game-off-2019/rate/527191

I've tried yours and it was really good fun (for the short time it provided. Definitely you're better than me at handling Game Maker x) )

Short, but a very solid concept for the game. I really enjoyed what you presented here. Graphics and audio seem fitting well the idea, the style of narration as well.

I'd say I have one issue with the controls and that's about how the rotation works in regards to aiming. I'd probably try to bind rotation to mouse movement in the future updates (you use the left button already).

Thank you. Glad to hear you've enjoyed it.

A really fun game. Though definitely one this kind that could benefit from having an executable (those tend to run better). Many people have given you good praises and rightfully so. You already heard the UI does need some work. I'd say once you get the optimisation better, I'd consider adding some nice colours, not necessarily in form of gradients.

Great submission overall.