itch.io

First of all: thank you very much for playing my game and the critique. Yeah: the unkillilable enemies are a very annoying (and as I found out dumb) bug. Sorry for that. 

With future updates I definitely plan on making the apocalypse a bit more cryptic and cozy. For the buffs: they are worth it for the boss, but I do an exceptionally bad job at explaining them: Angle = Movespeed Buff, Flexing Muscle Thing = Attack Damage Buff, Lightning thing: Attack Speed buff. 

In future projects I would like to explore the idea of the Chungus starting as a small Baby-Chungy which grows as being fed, unlocking new abilities. Maybe there are even more of them to find in the game world? We will see. 

Reading through all the comments I do get: carrying items must be fun in a future iteration: some how. 

Thanks for playing. It always makes me happy, reading that people think my game(s) is/are fun. 

Thank you very much (for the feedback, following and gameplay). I will watch the gameplay and analyze it. I respect the critic on Metroid-vania-ness: I think I could have done more stuff like placing blocks which can only be destroyed with the "shotgun-frog" and similar stuff. 

As of now I am definitely planning on further developing the game, but make a small pause during the holidays to get a more "neutral" view onto what I am doing. 

In terms of minimalism: the idea was that the player has no ability and sort of "gets" abilities by carrying item. But that clearly has the downside of the player being difficult to balance. Next I want to add a feature for "throwing" items to make carrying stuff more fun. 

I am excited myself to see where the project is going, since I have many ideas which need to be sorted. If you have any ideas for interesting features: please let me know!

Well. In English, it seems like, "minimalist" can also be used as an adjective, altough it can also be used as a known. Meanwhile minimalistic is purely and adjective. For me this is particularly confusing, since in German "Minimalist" is only a person which is minimalistic, while "minimalistisch" means "minimalistic". But in the end my message still holds, since your game is "both". 

Thank you for playing my game and especially for the feedback. First of all: I should have added a pause screen to the recipes. I was clearly biased as a Dev, knowing the recipes already, towards thinking that not pausing the game is fine. For the invincible enemies: yes that is a bug. There is a script attached to them which is supposed to enable some scripts while they are visible and disable the same scripts when being not-visible. For whatever reason this script can break. The fix was to disable the "disabling-mechanic" so that once you see an enemy they will just follow you. However: I sadly cannot patch the game right now. 

Finally: clever observation. The difficulty is bound to opening locks. I did not want to make this public inside of the game, so that the player has the opportunity of discovering it. But it seems like it is more frustrating than interesting!? Maybe a warning would have been useful like: "Do you want to increase the difficulty?". Under the hood there is a "world-tier"-system which controls which events are spawned from the clouds populating the game world. Depending on the current world-tier the chance that more challenging enemies occur gets increased. More or less you had the optimal experience of figuring out that you can start by building some towers, to get a "stable" defense and then discover the world to get enough buffs and weapons to defeat the boss. 

Once again: I appreciate the feedback. If there is anything confusing, please let me know. 

Thank you very much. Yeah: getting input-mappings is tricky depending on the software you are using. But is there a technical necessity why you need "E" and "B"?

Ahh I see. Thanks!

Well: yeah the formula menu was a "last development sprint" edition to the game, which is why there is no gamepad controls. Although retrospectively this is a bad excuse, since it should not take too much effort to implement it. Although I must admit that I have no experience on how to make Unity-UI work with gamepads. 

Also: it depends on how you define Metroidvania as a term: so going with the Jam-definition it is: items/abilities hidden behind or in locked areas. But I do understand that the player itself doesn't really get more powerful directly, but implicitly. 

Still: thank you very much for playing my game and the feedback! If you have any idea on how to make it more metrodvania-ish please let me know! :)

I will witness you GameDev journey with pleasure. 

Thank you very much for the feedback. I also feel that without slowing down the player, the "Carry-Helpers", how I called them, would feel less rewarding, but carrying items without any obstacles is a quite boring thing to do across long distances. Meanwhile finding the right balance wrt. which target to prioritize upon dropping items is a difficult decision to make. Since the code grew dynamically, like a living entity, over time, I was sadly unable to refactor everything in the end. Therefore the "dropping" of items ended up being that rough. So do I understand you correctly that the priorities should be: locks > the Chungus (the big mouth) > carry helpers upon dropping items?

In the next iteration of the game I might add more infrastructure into the game (for carrying items and building pipelines) and might also add a throwing mechanic to the game. 

Thanks, for playing my game!

Thank you very much for playing my game and those kind words! I was thinking about expanding this game in the future. There I might add features were the Chungus is actually growing and leveling up, similar to a pet. 

By false positives I mean the following thing: assume the player solves a binary classification task while he is playing deciding which platforms can be jumped on and what belongs to the background (this should happen subconsciously). There you have true positives: platforms which look like platform, which you can also jump on. Then you have true negatives: the background looks like background and indeed: there is not collision. And then there are false positives (the fourth category would be false negatives) you an element in you background, which looks like something you can jump on. And this is very confusing to witness. 

But: stuff like that can also occur in other games: for example imagine you have a whole lot of drawers and shelfs in a game, but only 1% of them is filled, this would also be annoying for the player if he would permanently open stuff, with the hope of finding something, without the satisfaction of actually doing so. 

First of all: I like the key-mechanic of the game very much and appreciate that you took the real theme and not like many others said "the game is minimalistic", no in this game the player is a minimalist, which is awesome. Also the animation of the player is very good and underscores the movement mechanics. The only major issue is, that I got stuck in an area where I did not know how to proceed. Also it is fairly difficult to do precise jumps. Other than that you every now and then get stuck on edges, which is a bit immersion breaking since the player is a ball: I would not expect box-colliders with respect to that. Some sounds would have been nice as well, even just simple ones when the player moves and or jump. 

I want to mention that my critique is much more on a high level and I am well aware that this is a game jam. I think that the core concept is cool and that the visuals are solid. 

Cool project: keep making games!

I like the core gameplay of the game, but after getting out of the "first closed room" it is a bit unclear how to leap over that one larger gap. Also it is unclear to me if LMB and RMB are not supposed to do anything from the beginning or if attacks will be available later on. But the game was fairly punishing and I honestly had motivational lacks. I do think thought that the ledge grabs are better than most people said. The inconsistencies come much more from how the environment is build, e.g. there are some edges which are only a few pixels off from being grabable which is confusing for players. 

Still I appreciate you effort very much: keep going!

The graphics are cute, but were there more features planned? 

Hey guys: as of now I am not able to play the game, since I don't get any graphics shown in firefox and in Chrome the game wont stop loading. Is there any fix or hint to it?

Hey: are there  other features which were planned for the game? If so I would love to see a full version. The criticism of the other commenters is mostly correct, but please dont get discouraged to keep making games!

I would like to know what the plan for the game was or if I am missing something.

The overall gameplay idea is cool, but it is sort of difficult to get into. Without reading the comments, I would not have been able to get through what most people thought is the second room. Also it is sometimes a bit unclear, why the player changes directions or how far he can jump. Also: when I got to 0 HP nothing happened. Despite the ciritque I admire the vision and think that the Idea has great potential. (But also mechanics like only being able to shoot downwards really feel unintuitive/not natural, at least to me). 

I would love to see an updated post-jam version of the game!

Also I just remembered that it was a bit weird that there are background textures you could jump on, there it would be nice to have a clear indication on wether you can interact with something or not. But this is just a minor detail, it doesnt really affect the player negatively, but it breaks the immersion a bit. 

First of all: all in all: cool game.

But when I played the game on my keyboard, then there was no button for interacting and getting through dialogues (E, did just not work). When I played on my controller however, then there was not way to attack (there M on the keyboard worked again). Also the arrow-buttons on my (XBOX)-gameapd where not working, I just couldt not move with them, and dropping through platforms with the joystick felt tidious. 

Other than that: I liked the art style and the visuals worked together very well with the story. The first boss (or what I supposed it to be), was a bit weird: I just stood still for a minute and suddenly defeated him. 

Keep going! :D

SPOILER: there is a image above the spikes. You can attack with the arrow keys. (This is enough information to get past the obstacle)

First of all: it is a shame that you did not put any thumbnail to your game. If I wouldnt play any browser entry of the jam I would not have recognized it. The style is awesome and I can see that you poured a lot of love into this game. I never player Hollow Knight, but what I saw from Hollow Knight looks like the main-mechanic of your game. Also I admire that you, in comparison to many other entries, actually build something fitting to the theme: by which I mean that the player is a minimalist. At first I thought I was stuck, than I tested around which buttons do what on my Keyboard and realized that I can attack. I would have been an absolute essential to write the controlls at least on the game page, because people might play the game and just quit, because they dont know what is going on. From my experience: what would even be better: but the controls onto some panel in the start area (or in a dialogue box, whatever). Secondly: I love environmental story telling and information the developer omits, for the player to be discovered. SPOILER (to anyone who is not the dev): the image showing you that you can punch spikes is a great idea, but I only saw it after figuring out the mechanic anyways by random testing (because I was like: why would someone with such great pixel art, just stop building a level?). So putting this hint a bit more into the spotlight would be a great thing (I read many comments, who just quit the game, because they were unable to figure out what to do). 

In terms of the movement: the movement itself feels good, but it misses features treating the player bias: e.g. buffered jump inputs and a coyote-time. Also some of the jumps where very difficult to perform, because the space was limited and I felt like I was missing control over the player. E.g. when you put spikes on the ground for the player to bounce on, maybe it is not a greate idea to then put also spikes above the player. I like difficult games, but this is feels (honestly) unfair. But I am well aware that you tried to balance the game by placing healing items, which is respect. 

This critique might sound very harsh, but I do know that this is a game jam and that time is limited. I actually wrote this, because I think that your game is insanly cool and just wont be recognized due to its missing screenshots and thumbnail. 

Truly awesome work!

Upgrades are always a good thing to satisfy my monkey brain, but it felt like that shot-cooldown-recduction is sort of the strongest updade overall. Other than that the art and music was solid. Propably this was a time issue: but a bit more variety in the rooms would have been great. Still: enjoyable game. 

I liked the movement of the game, it felt smooth and was good to make rather precise jumps. Therefore the movement system seemed to be utilized in a good way. My only critique would be that the music is not really fitting to the game, but that is rather a matter of personal taste. Good job!

Before that comment section I completely forgot that sokoban is actually a thing. I think that the mixture of it and MVs is very interesting, but overall difficult to balance, since it is questionable if difficult puzzels should appear at the start of the game or not (and also how the puzzles are distributed). Still I appreciate the try of getting out of the metroid-vania comfort zone. 

I played the game for a while and must say, that I really enjoyed the setting and the art style. The setting is very unique and sort unsettlin, but in a good way. I just read in another comment, that there is a map in the pause menu. Since I didnt even check out the pause menu I didnt really noticed that. But my major critique would have been a missing map, and that some checkpoints are far away. But this is also a "difficult" game design decision: you are currently giving the player the control over "where" to respawn under the condition that there is a checkpoint nearby. Which is better for skilled/experienced player who know what they are doing. However:  from what I saw from the game it would have been also enjoyable to have automatic checkpoints, e.g. like respawning at the previous screen. Depending on what you are aming for you might consider this as an option. Other than then I have nothing to criticize. Cool game. Awesome setting.

Running out of time is sort of part of participating in a game jam. But I might try the game again. And it would be very interesting to see how the game would be with more time. 

For a first try on doing game developement this is pretty solid. Like: I have played games with worse movement and combat. I mean: clearly this game is as unfinished as you stated it, but don't get demotivated. Keep going, there is potential! 

So first of all: the idea of the game is great and the puzzles you designed are all very interesting. But: it is difficult to navigate the world without a map and sometimes it is unclear wether a puzzle is difficult to solve, because I am dumb or because a level is broken (due to clipping objects). This quickly gave me the feeling of being overwhelmed. 

Other than that: the art style is simple but works extremely well. Also the music is setting a cool retro vibe for the game. 

All in all: Great game, but some pointers would have been great. 

I like the take on the theme. I feel like many people confused minimalist with minimalistic and you game is technically fitting to both themes, but the player being a minimalist is really adding something to the game in that case. 

Also for 5 days of development there is plenty of content and also the art style is sufficiently good. 

I must admit though that I felt lost very often, since therer were some indicators missing on were to go/how to proceed. 

Overall: solid game jam entry!

The visuals are very intersting. I must admit that they are a bit difficult to look at at some points, but the overall artistic vision is great and sets this game apart from other jam entries. But I feel like some guidance is missing. 

Nonetheless: the movement feels very smooth. Better than in most platform games I tested this jam. 

You meant that you ran out of time: what was planned for the game?

Those heads following around were definetely unlocking a new fear in me. I sadly could not do anything in any room I entered. So from a game design perspective it would have been useful to make the game a bit more streamlined, e.g. by ensuring that the player gets a core-set of abilites. However: I do understand that considering the vision of the game, adding more hints would sort of destroy the vibe of being lonely, tiny and meaningless. Personally there could be a bit more stuff going on in the environtment. Just because the game is about mega-structures it does not mean that there cant be small stuff going on. I would even claim that having a bunch of small elements and world details can pronounce the massive environment and therefore improve the world-building. Atmosphere wise that game is great, especially considering how minimalistic the surroundings are. 

All in all: cool game, but some support for the player would have been great. 

Awesome art style and the combat is unique and intuitive. (I never played Hollow Knight, but the combat looks similar). Essentially my only complains are, that some spaces are a bit to tight (for movement and combat) and that the player is a bit slow. Other than that the game is really perfrect. 

First of all: the art is powerful and atmospheric, you did an execellent job on that. The movement feels fluid and exploration and exploitation of mechanics is balanced well. But: that the spikes are reseting the player position is incredibly frustrating and causes some really weird difficulty spikes in the game. What I did like, although maybe not intended, was that you could play the game mostly as a pacifist, which is kind of interesting. 

Overall: awesome game, keep going!

You definetly get plus points for the easter egg!

I like the core gamplay and also overall, the movement feels very smooth. The only issue I faced while playing the game was that you sometimes had some really tricky jumps, which felt tricky in a sense of being unfair, e.g. when jumping while you are directly under the ceiling or jumps where the platform you have to activate by using the lenses is at the max-jump-height/length. Other than that the art style was great and gave the game a very unique atmosphere. 

Cool game. :D

After finishing the game I must say: the art style is cute and you designed the game in a forgiving but, not non-challenging why, i.e. perfectly balanced for a game jam. 

The "tiny" inconsistencies in the tile map, e.g. the small gaps between tiles, were a bit immersion breaking, but that is just a minor detail. Sometimes there were a few jumps which were unnecessarily difficult to perform from a mechanical point of view: e.g. when having to perform a "perfect" double jump were you max out the timing of the two jumps completely. Also the movement feels a bit stiff, which is still better than loosing control over the movement, which was clearly not the case. So what I want to say is: the movement is sufficiently good, but could feel better. E.g. by adding small acceleration and deceleration on pressing buttons, tiny animations indicating movement (squeezuing the player on jumping and landing +  a few particles), more forgiving hit-boxes, a coyote-time when leaving platforms, buffered inputs when being in air (e.g. before landing) + making the double jump still possible while the boxcast/collider, you use for decting if the player is touching the ground, is colliding with a wall (in that case it seems like the double jump was not always possible). Note: this is not stuff I critisize you for, but stuff which you might aim for, when developing the game further post-jam. 

Overall: great game, was a pleasure to play!

Is there a way to attack in the game? Also is there an end to it?

The story and the art style fit together very well. Also all the mechanics in the game are polished/ well executed. 

Still: there are a lot of frustrating false positives, like backgrounds which look like platforms you can jump on and pits which look like ways but deal damage to you (without any indication of dealing damage, like an audio signal or screen shake).  Also there are some false positives like wall you can punch, which  do not make any difference in comparison to all other wall. At some points I was close to quitting the game, because I thought I got stuck. 

Pro tip: add something like coyote time and buffered inputs for the jumping. 

At one point I fell onto enemies in one of those sections where you have to jump into the "right" hole. There I landed onto enemies which folllowed me, that I did not defeat before, so I ended up standing on enemies without being able to do anything. 

Other than that: awesome, atmosphereic game!

I really love the art style and the way how you open the gates is funny and refreshing. However: I played the game in the browser and the camera was constantly moving. After a few seconds this already made me nauseous, which is sad, because I enjoyed playing the game. Also sometimes the reflections of the walls are very bright, to a point where it is difficult to look at the screen. 

Still sprinting and moving felt good most of the time,

Cool Game! (Please don't take the criticism too harshly.)

The art style is very fancy! Also the setting really sets this jam entry appart from other games. I think that the enemies were quiete simple to defeat, since they did not do anything, but the attack animation of the player looked sick. :D

I don't know why, but it feels unnatural that the enemies are respawning, although this is technically a valid configuration game-design-wise.

Stylistically you are really onto something!

(Tiny note: is are the sound-options actually doing something? Have you considered that dB is not a linear scaling unit? The sounds were sometimes very loud, even though I regulated teh sounds in the menu)