ahh ty im glad u enjoyed it and i'm glad everything was clear in spite of the simplicity
ur totally right on the sound design comment - very much a consequence of neither of us being especially experienced in that domain of game design but i'll see if i can cook somethin up for next week...
So so so so pretty!! I really liked this one last time. While it was a little bare in the non-written aspects, the narrative and tone were nailed: and the game was super funny to boot :D
I really like the changes you've made with this iteration. The added sections when flying add some complexity to story that is otherwise mostly focused on the jokes and a little less on the implied themes from the one way trip. The clouds and optional pausing in these moments I feel super super add to this. I would honestly just sit with myself for a while chewing on the journey that I was embarking on and stooping into a more contemplative mood. It was incredibly effective at evoking the particular mood pointed to by the dialogue.
That's all to say that I really like your changes :P
What a nice improvement from last week's version! I really like the changes you've made to the game this time around. I was about to worry there was no 'reality changing' until I was able to survive long enough to see the floating platforms! The core gameplay is really nice - if a little hard to wrap my head around the first few times. A surprisingly fun little title :D
One of my favs from last week - was super excited to see what you did this week! It was cool to see how you've iterated on the concept. I'm not sure if it's just because I didn't get far enough (my max score was like 1.4km) but I didn't see how 'reality changed the further I went' - just wanted to check if I didn't see it because I have a skill issue.
Also might just be my personal taste here but I think that the smaller road from before felt like it made for a more chaotic - yet manageable - experience. Sometimes feels like (with the larger road) there's not really an much in-between nothing happening and like everything happening all at once.
Otherwise tho this is still one of my favs in the jam!
Super fun follow-up to last week's entry! I love the addition of the dash mechanic - it makes traversal so much more interesting and mechanically fun. I basically never find myself truly stuck/softlocked which previously felt like a bummer when it occurred. It gave me more time to appreciate the worldgen!
A few notes: I found that because your results comprise both score and points that I really didn't care much for my score in particular and therefore had no issue with burning it for dashes. I think personally this is fine because I want to use my dash (and tying it to depth is a smart way to limit this) but it doesn't really feel like a strong cost on myself. Also, I wish the hitboxes on the spikes were a little more forgiving, I often found myself dying because I ever so slightly grazed the corner of a spike which is never fun.
I would personally be interested in the game leaning more into exploration and having more interesting world design as it progressed to further incentivise wanting to go deeper. Though I understand that might be a terribly large undertaking!
All in all I love the direction you're taking this!
Out of all of the submission follow-ups from last week - this was one of the ones I was most excited for and am glad that you've kept up the momentum from last time! The new mechanics were super fun to play with and almost feel like they're pushing the game into a distinctly musical direction (with jumps serving as metaphorical minims and the emphasis on keeping platform cycles in mind) which in my view aid in building the an intuition when puzzle solving. IMO the best puzzle games are the ones where you slowly become attuned to the systems over time such that you can "feel out" a solution without having to think methodically about the particular puzzle. I found myself approaching that state near the end of my playthrough here.
I did find that there was a significant difficulty spike just after the jump is introduced as you're quickly made to learn 2 (3 depending on how you count it) mechanics more-or-less at once which is a lot to take in. I would probably suggest giving each mechanic a little more time to breathe on its own to help build starting intuition with each new piece added.
In terms of improvements some of my previous suggestions still apply (ghost of previous attempt, rewind feature?). Otherwise, adding a type of platform on a 3-cycle could I think add a ton of complexity, and lean further into the musicality already present.
Great work - I wouldn't be surprised if you place first once more!
I think that since there really isn't much prestige in winning other than bragging rights it's not that deep :)
The only thing that's recognised is whether you are the winner which is always restricted to those who performed in 3 hours or less.
The point of the jam is to hone your planning skills with respect to game development and under that light it doesn't seem in the spirit to heavily punish those who happen to screw up one time :P
ahh tyty! especially appreciate the feedback from the person who made one of my favourite games this jam :D
i'll keep in mind the suggestions on the visuals + animation - this is more-or-less my first proper attempt at a pixel-style game and definitely have a lot to learn as a result!
The instructions could definitely be revamped to read more clearly - you aren't the first person to not quite get said mechanic. It's just hard to balance conveying required information with brevity as to not overload the player ahaha.
I had actually made the required assets for a 'speed meter' but unfortunately ran out of time to implement it - will defo seek to add it for the next TriJam
Insanely creative take on the jam theme. I love games that feel like their almost part essay - it's so interesting how the medium of gaming can be utilised well to convey unique ideas. You've made a good showcase.
Super cute little narrative experience. The visuals really work well to deliver the appropriate tone and while short, it does pack a nice thematic punch! I personally am a big fan of the art direction at work here.
In terms of where to go from here - I could see you perhaps fleshing out the thematic core via a branching pathway (playing with - say - the player avoiding death in interesting ways). It would also make for a stronger replayability factor and more opportunities for players to catch some of the smaller details sprinkled throughout the title.
I loved this game so so much! Pretty much everything here worked for me. The visuals are very pretty and clear; the music is great and I love how it matches the execution phase; the instructions are clear and precise; and the gameplay itself really engrossed me. It was super fun planning my moves ahead - playing it back in my mind and slowly getting better at intuiting my next steps.
The core gameplay experience is pretty tight as is - and doesn't need so much changing. I would suggest perhaps showing the previous failed attempt solution after each death so that it's easier to iterate solutions (rather than having to re-remember what part worked). Perhaps even an indicator for what step you failed on. Maybe there could also be feedback on your solutions telling you if you got the optimal solution (to encourage replaying to find the best possible solution).
Other than those, I think you can just get away with adding more levels and platform types and continue to flesh out the core concept you've outlined above. You'd still be left with a stellar game!
I really enjoyed this one! I feel like its tricky to fit a full narrative into such a short jam timeframe but impressively you've stuck the landing. It was very fun trying to piece together the story before it concluded and to exercise my own reasoning with the safe puzzle (I'm not sure if I did it the intended way but I ended up joining the two double-digit numbers I had seen earlier). The game's atmosphere also totally had me in its grasp and I was on edge the entire time (I'm not so great with horror ahaha).
There was a camera bug I faced where it would keep snapping every so often which was quite disorienting and while it added to the haunting vibe - overall it felt like it made the experience worse off.
I'm not quite sure what to suggest for the future jam iterations. You more-or-less have a full narrative package present already. It's possible for you to perhaps add further complexities to the story but it's already pretty good as is. Apologies for not providing better suggestions!
This is a stupidly enjoyable game! Reminds me of a lot of high-quality flash games I would play when I was younger. Visuals are great - I love how tactile and weighty everything feels in lieu of the polish aimed at these particular areas. I also love the naturally evolving chaos that emerges from the systems you've built being pushed further with more cars. There's something I really appreciate about simple mechanics that allow for complexity down the line.
It might be nice if you had access to more movement options as the car. At a certain point (for me about 1km) where it got so chaotic that it felt nearly impossible to actually dodge all the traffic with my available tools. Something like a rechargeable side dash (or something more car-appropriate) could be an interesting way to deliver depth to the existing gameplay loop. Another minor addition would be to give the road a visual overhaul to put it in line with how pretty the cars look - it looks a little drab right now!
I really liked this one! The visuals r really pretty and fit well with the feeling the gameplay evokes (sort of solemn but also adventurous). It's insanely impressive that you got world-gen working in 3 hours - doubly so considering that it still felt like there was a pattern to what paths lead to progress vs dead-ends.
It would be nice to see some more visual variety as you descended - I think for a title like this the reward comes from being able to uncover more interesting details in the world as you descend. New areas, oddities, geometries and so on can vary the descent enough to make each playthrough an enticing mystery!
Additionally it might be nice to be a little more forgiving about dead ends. For example - maybe the MC has a super-jump they can use a limited number of times to get them out of tough spots (which also requires the player to use skilfully in order to escape). Though maybe that would be antithetical to the jam theme ahaha.
Simple yet super fun! I really like the sacrificial element in this game - I felt like it really forced me to have to really take in my surroundings and properly learn the map so I could move around as much as possible without needing to rely on my finite light resource (for example near the end memorising the final path and performing it blind due to nearly being out of light!).
Perhaps this would have made the sections in the dark too easy but I wonder if it would be nice to have added "bump" sound effects when hitting walls in order to 'stumble' your way through the dark and have a better sense of where you are and if you're pathing correctly when you're unable to see.
Super fun game! I love the visual style on this one - you really don't notice how simple the graphics actually are in gameplay itself because of how cohesive it all is in reinforcing an incredibly strong visual identity.
The gameplay itself rocks - the concept is super creative! I'll be honest I don't think I fully got the gist of how u were meant to rope people, I just circled and mashed space and hoped for the best 😭🙏🏼. Was able to beat the game first try which is probably a testament to it being pretty easy but I nonetheless had a lot of fun!
I love a good boss fight and this one checks a lot of the boxes for me! I really enjoyed figuring out new tricks to beat the boss as quickly as I could in order to get ever closer to beating the angry circle 3 times (e.g. focusing on sword damage, utilising terrain to my advantage).
Three small issues I found while playing. Firstly, I wasn't able to use the shield item (only the sword and bow). Secondly, it seemed as though the health bar was bugged and wouldn't always reflect how much health I actually had left (leading to far earlier deaths than I anticipated). I took these as extra challenges though so not a huge detriment to my experience! The final issue was that every time I beat the boss on the third round I got a game over :(. Very sad the game will not recognise my hard earned really skilled awesome amazing win.
