Really cool game I am amazed how much content you made for a game jam game 😱. I am also kinda amazed that tho you did not add a minimap I never got lost. How much playtesting did you do for the levels? The only thing that I did not enjoy as much were the passages where you need to jump up a platform by passing it to the left/right. I think having platforms where you can jump through is a bit better.
And I love the character design of the big guy he is just so cute 😍
Ha, oh yeah, that guy is super chonky. When Kai came up with the design for him, we loved him immediately! And believe it or not, we had 2-3 more potential obstacles already created and ready to go: we just couldn't find space for them in the game's design when it came down to the end of the jam time.
Regarding the platforms, I agree - the platforms were part of the main environment rather than separate objects, and I don't know why I didn't think to separate them like that. I wish I'd thought of it, would have made moving platforms and moving barriers much easier.
Thanks for the comment! And regarding the minimap, we did consider that as well, but ended up cutting it as a little bit too much for a jam; we did some testing for the levels, but probably not as much as we should have. Ultimately, Kai is a really good designer and we all have some good experiences with platformers, so were able to supply enough feedback regarding the levels for him to be able to build it cleanly. It worked extremely well.
Pretty cool game, fluid gameplay, nice art, well done! I generally don't like games with small viewports, but here it didn't bother me at all.
I would suggest though to change the jumping into only moving left and right in the air when using the directional keys instead of the automatic 'pingpong' style it is now.
I'm not sure what you mean - do you mean stop moving if not hitting the keys? That's interesting, but we instead chose to tighten the controls a lot (after the jam) and add wind resistance. It feels much better now - will publish as soon as the jam is over. Thank you for the advice and kind words!
I had trouble explaining myself indeed, but I was hoping it worked out well ;-) Let me try it again.
It is indeed as you said. In lots of platform games you jump and then you only move horizontally in the air when you press left or right, which gives you better control over where you land. If you don't use left or right, you just drop straight down. Or, alternatively, you decrease horizontal movement speed quite quickly to make it more fluent.
In your game, you keep moving left and when you press right you instantly keep moving right. So to control where you land you have to keep pressing left and right quickly after each other to hit your intended landing spot, unless you aimed perfectly before you started jumping and there is no need to correct your course.
But, also like you said, you already addressed that issue in the not released build.
Dang that was a cool game. Well done to all of you! This was truly an amazing experience. This game is the closest thing to a full release title I've seen this Jam. Metroidvania in a week?!? Seriously well done.
Thank you so much! And to think there were still 2-3 more hazards that we couldn't end up using in the game design because they were a little weird. :D It was quite fun making this game with my team!
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Hey Kyle, I only just tried this and it's great! It feels and looks great. The mechanics are fun and unique. Great job to you and your team :)
Really cool game I am amazed how much content you made for a game jam game 😱. I am also kinda amazed that tho you did not add a minimap I never got lost. How much playtesting did you do for the levels? The only thing that I did not enjoy as much were the passages where you need to jump up a platform by passing it to the left/right. I think having platforms where you can jump through is a bit better.
And I love the character design of the big guy he is just so cute 😍
Ha, oh yeah, that guy is super chonky. When Kai came up with the design for him, we loved him immediately! And believe it or not, we had 2-3 more potential obstacles already created and ready to go: we just couldn't find space for them in the game's design when it came down to the end of the jam time.
Regarding the platforms, I agree - the platforms were part of the main environment rather than separate objects, and I don't know why I didn't think to separate them like that. I wish I'd thought of it, would have made moving platforms and moving barriers much easier.
Thanks for the comment! And regarding the minimap, we did consider that as well, but ended up cutting it as a little bit too much for a jam; we did some testing for the levels, but probably not as much as we should have. Ultimately, Kai is a really good designer and we all have some good experiences with platformers, so were able to supply enough feedback regarding the levels for him to be able to build it cleanly. It worked extremely well.
Pretty cool game, fluid gameplay, nice art, well done! I generally don't like games with small viewports, but here it didn't bother me at all.
I would suggest though to change the jumping into only moving left and right in the air when using the directional keys instead of the automatic 'pingpong' style it is now.
I'm not sure what you mean - do you mean stop moving if not hitting the keys? That's interesting, but we instead chose to tighten the controls a lot (after the jam) and add wind resistance. It feels much better now - will publish as soon as the jam is over. Thank you for the advice and kind words!
I had trouble explaining myself indeed, but I was hoping it worked out well ;-) Let me try it again.
It is indeed as you said. In lots of platform games you jump and then you only move horizontally in the air when you press left or right, which gives you better control over where you land. If you don't use left or right, you just drop straight down. Or, alternatively, you decrease horizontal movement speed quite quickly to make it more fluent.
In your game, you keep moving left and when you press right you instantly keep moving right. So to control where you land you have to keep pressing left and right quickly after each other to hit your intended landing spot, unless you aimed perfectly before you started jumping and there is no need to correct your course.
But, also like you said, you already addressed that issue in the not released build.
Did I make myself more clear now though? :-)
Perfectly! Thanks for taking the time, it really helps us out!
This has been re-uploaded and is much better now, I'll wager, for you!
You absolutely nailed it, it feels completely natural to me now and plays even better than it already did. Nice!
Awesome, thanks so much!
it looks a nice game but the terrible jump mechanics and weird key layout spoils it for me - juh and y when using arrows ? really ?!
Actually wasd is preferred on a keyboard - that's why the tutorials showed as much. The fact that arrows work is actually a bug, so good feedback!
Yes, the jump was a bit loose, sorry about that! We appreciate the kind words!
Such a polished game, I loved it :p
A bit too hard for me but I would love to take more time to master it
There's an easy mode in the options, if that helps!
Dang that was a cool game. Well done to all of you! This was truly an amazing experience. This game is the closest thing to a full release title I've seen this Jam. Metroidvania in a week?!? Seriously well done.
Thank you so much! And to think there were still 2-3 more hazards that we couldn't end up using in the game design because they were a little weird. :D It was quite fun making this game with my team!
As a puny human I really enjoyed this game, very well done.
Thank you so much!