Ended up taking about 6 hours to fully clear. Thanks for the game!
Mist
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A member registered Nov 05, 2017 · View creator page →
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Defend your Space Colony's Power Generators from Power Hungry Slimes!
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A puzzle platformer where you manipulate light bridges to navigate the test facility!
Plants Vs Zombies meets Overcooked! Revive the undead with your potion mixes to fight the oncoming angry mob!
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An unfrogettable experience. Thanks for sharing!
If you are interested in continuing to work on 2d platformers, I have a few resources/topics you might be interested in researching:
Learn how to make 2d platformer movement feel good:https://gmtk.itch.io/platformer-toolkit
Learn about coyote time: Coyote Time Blog
Learn to place limits on the camera bounds: here
It's awesome to see you upload a project here. I hope these resources can help you grow. Keep making cool stuff!
Thanks for the tip! I replayed it with that setting on and had a great time! This was a ton of fun. That last segment in level 10 was particularly cool
It was a bit frustrating having to swap from keyboard to mouse to hit the next level button. It would be a lot better if I could just control that with the keyboard as well.
Other than that though I loved it! Thanks for the game!
Hey! This game really has some great stuff going on here, and it's super obvious you put a ton of work into it.
I'm having to quit just a few levels in unfortunately, because the camera is giving me a bit of a headache. The camera snaps super aggressively forward and back to the player depending on if you're moving forward or have come to a stop (and when you respawn as well). This is super useful as a way of showing the player the level ahead of course, but the movement is so fast in this game it kinda feels like I'm getting whiplash. Hopefully this is only a problem for me since I tend to be more sensitive to motion sickness problems in games, but hopefully you find this helpful on some level
Seriously though, this looks like an awesome game, and the controls seem super well polished. Congrats on the release!
Congrats on finishing your first game jam! It's awesome to see what you've made here. Don't worry about your game being a bit rough. The fact you were able to compile and upload it means you've already done better than my first jam! Also, did you create this art yourself? It looks good enough I can't tell if it's from a premade pack or not; if you did, that's awesome! Super well done.
If you're interested on things you could polish with this game you've made, I've got a recommendations for you:
1. People typically don't have as much momentum as your player character does here. You should consider shortening the time between the player pushing down the walk button and them reaching max speed, and how long it takes the player to come to a complete stop after releasing the movement key. The shorter those 2 times are, the less floaty your movement will feel
2. Speaking of floatiness, here's some resources if you're interested on how to design jumps that feel good. Mark Brown made an awesome interactive tutorial that can help you improve your platformer movement. I highly recommend it: https://gmtk.itch.io/platformer-toolkit
3. I actually kind of like how slow the sword is to swing. It makes the weapon feel heavier, and requires more planning before swinging at the coconut. I just wanted to point out here if you want the combat to feel snappy instead of heavy, you would just need to reduce the time between pressing the button and the weapon's attack hitbox coming out. That's all just a matter of taste though, not something you necessarily should change
4. I would recommend only using mouse inputs if you specifically need the pointer for something. Having all the buttons be on the keyboard makes it easier to play your game on a laptop, or once you're feeling up to it, a controller. As a follow up if you do change that, always make sure your UI only uses the inputs your game uses. So if you swap to a keyboard only setup, make sure the player isn't swapping to their mouse to hit UI prompts (or at least, make it optional)
I can't stress enough how awesome it is that you've managed to create something here. Good luck on your next game! I hope I get to see it
I was smiling the entire time I played this. Your sense of humor is really good. Keep at it!
If you want some constructive feedback, there are 2 things I would recommend:
1. In the 7up level, you have several areas where the player has to jump to a bottle that they can't see on screen. We call these "leaps of faith" in platformers, and typically you don't want to have them. If you must have a platform off screen, use pickups (like how mario uses coins) to draw a line towards where the platform is, so the player knows what to aim for
2. If you're interested in learning more about creating robust 2d platformer character movement, I recommend checking out this project: https://gmtk.itch.io/platformer-toolkit It will teach you a bunch of stuff about what makes a platformer character feel good to play
I really loved this; I hope you keep making stuff. Good luck!
I really like it! It's a fun take on pong!
My only suggestion would be I find every time I jump I get momentarily confused about which button goes in which direction, since left and right are effectively inverted when starting from the top of the circle. I would either make it so the button to head in a given direction changes based on where in the circle you started moving from, or just add button prompts on both sides of the paddle to be more easily readable.
Thanks for sharing!
That sound effect when the mannequins spot you genuinely made me throw my mouse, meaning this in fact a successful horror game. Well done (Not sure how it fits with the theme tbh, but still)
I'm not really well versed in horror game design, so I can't really give much by way of design feedback. Only thing I will say is after wandering around a bit I didn't really find my way to any sort of end goal. I just kinda wandered aimlessly while avoiding the mannequins. I would recommend using visual cues to guide the player where they need to go.
Perfection. No notes.
Ok... fine. A few notes. I adore this art style. Fantastic. Unfortunately I live alone and can't play this to it's fullest potential, but the little experiments I can do by myself seem positive. The only thing I will note is this isn't a particularly interesting use of the theme. It's generally more interesting to build your core around the theme than to just add a one use powerup and call it a day. At any rate though, excellent job. Can't wait to see your future work!
I couldn't play this one for super long because it unfortunately triggered my motion sickness issues with first person games. That said, for the time I did play, here's my thoughts:
I don't really like the map design on this one. Normally games with dark maps use lights to gently guide the player where to go, but in this case I don't have any idea where I'm supposed to head and just end up wandering aimlessly. Also, the blinking flashlight is what really ended up causing motion sickness. As a general rule of thumb, don't constantly flash between light and dark, or it's gonna negatively impact the player. All that said, congrats on completing your game! I'm not a huge fan of the design, but I can still recognize that a lot of work went into it, and for that you should be proud! I'll be looking forward to trying whatever you choose to make next!
The physics on this one feel a bit like the car is made of styrofoam. The car doesn't seem to have much weight to it. That said, I loved the environment design. The art style is simple, but it works super well. I don't think this really maximizes the theme though. This feels like a normal racing game/walking sim combo that you just added a story to in order to fit the theme. It's generally more interesting when you directly reflect the theme in the core of the game. All things considered, well done! One final note: even for a game jam, you need to make preventing the camera from flipping uncontrollably your top priority. That's how you cause motion sickness
Once I figured out the tutorial typo, I love this game concept. Running around as a speedster feels super good. I only have 2 notes:
The others being on ice when you push them makes them feel hard to control
Honestly, I feel like the greatest limitation of this game is the "only once" aspect. The game gives you the most strategic control when you're in the slow mode, so only being able to use that once, particularly in longer levels, puts you in a position where you either feel inclined to never use it in case you need it later, or frustrated when you did use it and then you can't save them. I think there are better solutions than the "only once" aspect. This has the potential to be something really special. I hope you flesh it out a bit more
This is a really interesting concept, and a good use of the theme. I would be curious to see how this could be expanded upon with more time, but it seems to me this has the basis of a solid arcade game. The camera really needs to be zoomed out though. It's so cramped you can't really plan where you're going to walk next. Also, the boomerang behaves more like I would expect a flail to behave than a boomerang. You might consider taking some inspiration from the legend of zelda and having it chase you rather than just slingshot towards the center. Alternativly, you could just change it from a boomerang to a ball and chain, problem solved. This is a great jam game, and I'm really interested in this concept. Well done!
I massively approve of more penguin themed games! Excellent job!
Gameplay wise, the design needs a bit of work. In the second level, the first jump is way too tight, requiring the absolute peak of the jump before dashing makes it hard to judge. Regarding the powerups mechanic, when you only have one use of each power up for the entire game, you can't design obstacles that cannot be cleared without the power up or you're going to cause soft locks and frustrate the player. Limiting the use to once per level would have been better. I know that was the theme, but I don't think this approach to the theme led to good game design. You should reconsider your approach. Also, the tutorial wasn't super clear on what the power ups actually did. I figured out the ice ball and rocket launcher, but I have no idea what 3 and 4 actually did. I couldn't pass the bone structure in level 3 as a result. I froze it with ice and shot it with rockets, and tried to use the other 2 power ups with no success.
Criticism aside though, be proud of what you made! Getting a game to a complete state within 49 hours is no small task, and I hope the things you learned here can be used on your next game! I can't want to see what you make next
Congrats on completing the game jam! It's wonderful that you were able to submit something finished. This project is obviously short, but I can tell you put some real work into the platforming controller. The variable jump height and coyote time are great touches. If you hadn't added coyote time in particular, the game would have sucked. But what you have here controls really well. Hopefully you can take what you learned here and use it when you build more stuff! I can't wait to see what you come up with
Although It May Take A 1000 Tries, Our Love Will Blossom Only Once jam comments · Posted in Although It May Take A 1000 Tries, Our Love Will Blossom Only Once jam comments
As things that aren't games go, this is well done. The writing is pretty up to par with the light novels I've seen. In only a few sentences, the characters feel like characters, and not the usual stilted writing I see in a lot of jam games. Whoever wrote this knows what they're doing. Well done (Though you may want to try making a game next time :P)
P.S. It's spelled "awful" (also, I have no idea what the second dialogue option was supposed to say)
In light of the fact this is a written work and not a game, I've decided to review it as a written work. That mostly came down to proofreading though. Here's my notes
When it says "is that right" at the beginning, show the player what they entered so they don't have to guess
Pro tip for writing, read what you've written out loud to yourself to see where the pauses and full stops are. "I know, it's a publicity stunt by that zoo, I told you you shouldn't trust them" is a run on sentence. You should place a period after the word zoo, because that's a natural full stop rather than just a pause in a thought. Also, probably don't put the word "you" twice in a row. People do talk that way, but it looks weird in writing. Try "I told you not to trust them" instead
Small formatting error: Dr.Mist has no space between the period and the name
"We have Jason the Capybara, Mist the penguin and Joey the Bidoof" -- why isn't penguin also capitalized to be consistent? Penguins get no respect I tell ya
"A bit more sour" -- what am I? A sauce? "a bit sour" would be more accurate :P
GRUMPY OLD MAN? HOW DARE YOU. I've got a good 5 years left
I would rather be teaching a fish to code rn ;)
Joey Section:
"Though I don't know why that's it favorite number" -- another pro tip: throw the script into something like google docs to catch typos like "it favorite number"
lol, I'm beginning to see that the budget went into crafting my lines
Jason section:
"He was resuced, though I'm sure that you'll get to know his story better than I do". -- should be rescued
"We did captur him from Nintendo, so make sure not to get copyrighted!" - capture
Capybara ending is clearly the true ending
I'm starting to wonder what kind of reputational damages these games are causing me, lol
Congrats on finishing... well... not a game... but something! Now that I've been freed from this hell, you'll be hearing from my lawyers shortly
I think you may be onto something interesting with this mechanic, all it needs is a whole bunch of polish.
During my playthrough, I wasn't attacked once. If I'm not taking damage, then all healing tiles do is annoy me for taking up inventory space. Also, I wish the return tile was less random. Having it be random means I just sit there desperately hoping it deigns to return an attack tile so I can progress the combat. Perhaps instead make it so it returns all tiles it attaches to, and then give it some openings or connectors to allow it to attach to things
I really think this could be cool if you polish it. I hope I get to see where this goes!
A fun mystery. This game kept me engaged throughout (though you are dangerously close to visual novel territory). The art was nice, and the writing was well done. I have some minor critiques regarding stuff that needed to be polished, but that’s typical for any jam game:
- text needs to scroll from left to right. When it’s centered like that I can’t read it until the entire line is finished scrolling
- dialogue font looks squished. Difficult to read. Would definitely have chosen a different font
- Uncle puzzle had a weird thing where after solving it it didn’t do anything for a bit and somehow I ended up back in the foyer. Definitely needs smoothing out
- accuse screen needs to save previous selections so you can fill it in over time – had to go check a couple things and wound up refilling the whole form, which is tedious
- final scene auto scrolls faster than I can read
- the [REDACTED] may have confessed, but I still think it’s the cat
Overall, super well done. Congrats to you all!
Congrats on completing your first game jam! You’ve clearly put a bunch of work into your game, and it’s wonderful that you’ve made it over the finish line! I have some feedback I’d like to give you to help improve your future projects: For game jam games, it’s common to not have time to build in a tutorial or a controls screen. When that happens, you should put an overall explanation of the game’s goal and controls on the game’s submission page, that way players can consult it to figure out how to play. It took me a bit to figure out how to play because I had to solve it with trial and error
This game’s design doesn’t really have a strong central mechanic. It jumps between puzzles and rushing through mazes in a way that feels jarring. I would recommend watching this video on designing around a central mechanic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u6HTG8LuXQ and this video regarding puzzle game design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsjC6fa_YBg I think both of these will help you a lot when you design your next project.
With the maze solving portion of the game, level 3 is laid out in such a way that if you don’t know the perfect route in advance, you really don’t stand a chance against the enemy even with the power ups. When designing a game, always remember that the player didn’t design the game, so they won’t know the perfect path from the get go. You need to allow enough time for the player to make mistakes. That’s why a lot of players really hate time limits. It takes away the the ability to be wrong without having to replay content, and nobody likes replaying content because they failed; that’s why so many games don’t use lives systems anymore (See Celeste and Crash Bandicoot 4).
Try to design the controls so the player doesn’t have to move their hands between control methods. Having to move my right hand from the arrow keys to the mouse and back again felt doesn’t feel good. I’d rather move with my left hand and control the game with my right hand always on the mouse. Same thing for UI. If the game is keyboard only, the UI needs to be controlled with the keyboard; if it’s mouse only it needs to be controlled with the mouse; if it’s both, mouse if you can only add one, but typically both is better
I liked the music for this game. Good job with it!
Also, I found a few bugs while I was playing:
- On the shop screen, you can use WASD to control the player, but in the levels, only the arrow keys work
- if you press the shop button while walking, the player will walk off into the abyss. I had to relaunch the game twice because of that error
- level 2 is unfinished (I think?). The demon noclipped through half the maze and then got stuck in the wall, and I wandered around for a few minutes before exiting out and skipping to level 3. I would have just cut level 2 entirely if it wasn’t finished
I hope this feedback is constructive for you. It’s wonderful to see someone finish their first (or nearly their first, apologies if I’m just assuming) game jam. I can’t wait to see how you improve! Fantastic work, and keep it up
I love the paper aesthetic for the characters! It looks really good!
Unfortunately, I got blocked by my inability to solve the riddles. Honestly, I don’t really like riddles in games for the most part. Video games are an interactive medium, but riddles are just “you either know the answer or you don’t”, there isn’t really anything to interact with. It would be more interesting if I could find the answer to the riddles hidden throughout the playspace (if that is the case and I missed it my apologies). Having said that, I did play it for a fair while before giving up, and I have some notes:
For some reason on my first attempt I got soft locked as the stairs and Q/Esc wouldn’t let me return to my normal self.
The menu doesn’t properly remove highlights from buttons that are not currently selected. Also, if I’m controlling the game with mouse and keyboard, I want the ability to control the menus with my mouse. When the player pauses the game, you need to make the mouse usable until they unpause it
- When talking to the old lady, it took a while to realize I had to push Y for “Yes I want to play the game”. When the player is on WASD and Mouse, don’t use any buttons that require them to move their hands. Pressing Y made me remove my hand from the mouse, which is annoying. Your available keys should be Q, E, 1, 2, 3, 4, LShift, CTRL and Space. In any event, when you include check boxes in the text, I should be allowed to click on them anyway. Would definitely resolve that
- The camera could really use a crosshair. With the switches puzzle I kept accidentally hitting 2 switches at once. Also, I’m not really sure how I was supposed to solve the switch puzzle normally. I just brute forced it to spawn the dog
- When I move my mouse really fast the camera doesn’t move along with me. It kinda glides a bit, then slows to a crawl. Not sure why this is happening but it doesn’t feel right
- The one interactable bookshelf doesn’t stand out enough to make me realize it is interactable. You could use an “Interact” tooltip to make it clear what is and isn’t interactable
Honestly, I don’t think this works super well as a puzzle game. I’m not really having any “aha” moments in this game. There was only one puzzle that actually felt like a puzzle (the paper game). Other than that, I brute forced a switch puzzle, and found 2 riddles I couldn’t solve, and a bookcase I couldn’t translate because of the riddles I couldn’t solve. I fully admit this is at least partially a skill issue with the riddles, but riddles just don’t feel that interesting as a video game mechanic to begin with.
Alright, I’ve been negative for a bit, but let’s be clear. The fact you built anything at all is wonderful. I’m frustrated as a player certainly, but it’s still obvious that a lot of work went into this. The animation of the note falling out of the fan had me smiling, noticing how well done it was. I really enjoyed the character art (the dog was super cute), and I genuinely liked the paper puzzle. Honestly, I would have made a whole game just out of the paper puzzle instead of what is here. I hope at least some of this feedback helps you with future projects, and I can’t wait to see what you make next