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A jam submission

Abyssal AscentView game page

Black and White Platformer!
Submitted by Bubbles789 — 16 hours, 4 minutes before the deadline
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Abyssal Ascent's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Theme#713.8733.873
Presentation (graphics, audio)#1023.8733.873
Fun#2182.9452.945
Originality#2832.8732.873

Ranked from 55 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game represent Mode?
The player has to change between the light and dark modes in order to progress through the levels.

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Comments

Viewing comments 19 to 1 of 39 · Previous page · First page
Submitted

Beautiful visually striking game! There is so much polish with the art, worldbuilding, and level design elements. I think for a new player, some rooms were a jump up in difficulty than others. Overall, really impressive game!

Developer

Thanks! I  tried creating a linear step up in difficulty but I agree some rooms have a pretty high jump in complexity.

Submitted

this was pretty nice! the art was very cute, and i loved the use of the monochrome palette in the game. i did run into the same issues with controls as everyone else (i think it would’ve been a lot better with controller support), but i’m glad to see that you mentioned earlier that you might work on improving them. one way i think the gameplay itself could be improved is if you could see an outline of where things are in the other mode - that way, there would be a lot less guesswork involved in where to jump to. great work all around, i’m glad you got to submit!

Developer

Thanks a lot! Yeah I will definitely upload a revised version with controller support, easier wall jumps, etc. 

Submitted(+1)

Really like the art and presentation. Music is good, gimmick is fun and put to use in clever ways.

Submitted

I love the art style and the level designs. my issues are only easily solvable nitpicks, but i thought the biggest issue was how unreliable the wall jumps felt and the buttons for the controls were a bit uncomfortable. also, the light mode could be a little grayer, for clarity. other than that i love this game and would love to play through a patched version over and over again. great job!

Developer(+1)

thanks! The wall jumps would be easily solvable by decreasing the amount of time it takes for the player to be able to wall jump since touching the wall. I might do a revised version where I improve the controls add spike collisions and controller support

Submitted

Nice level designs and great art direction! The controls (mostly for double/triple jumps and wall jumps) were really finnicky for me though.

Developer

the jumps are kind of finicky... its not entirely clear but the player isnt supposed to be able to double jump as dark but can do to a glitch with the ground detection not updating fast enough. so if you spam the space key dark can double or even triple jump. As light you can double jump at any point in the air as intended.

Submitted

this is a great-looking game and a great concept, i'm looking forward to the games you make in the future, especially if you can get a team together! i liked the visual motifs between cave crystals and clouds to represent the underworld/heaven. (though as a religious dark mode user in every app i use i of course preferred to stay in the dark)

all in all a great game so early in your development experience, and i'll be following your development on itch.

Developer

Thanks for the support! (I also happen to be a religious dark mode user)

Submitted

It was super cute! A little bit hard to get the jumping and switching correct, but maybe that's user error. Also switching to light felt like I was being flashbanged sometimes lol. Looked incredibly good, loved the art direction and sound. 

Developer(+1)

sorry for the flashbangs lol. Many people have given me similar feedback that the controls are a bit unintuitive at the start so I will definitely  improve on these things in future games. 

Submitted(+1)

You did great! I probably should have just played in a more well lit room. Great job! Feedback is the best way to improve things. There's been a lot of feedback on our submission and I can't wait to implement it lol

Submitted

Good game. I really like the art style and the Animal Crossing-like text sound effect. Mode switching being mapped to Q and E gave me a bit of trouble because I kept letting go of the direction keys.  

Developer(+1)

i may or may not have used actual animal crossing sounds..... (shhh dont tell anyone)

Submitted(+1)

Lots of interesting mechanics but the controls were too tricky for me to get through it :(

Developer(+1)

Yeah the controls do need a bit of polishing... 

Btw I really liked playing through your game!

Submitted

Glad to hear it :)

Submitted(+1)

I like the swapping mechanic, nice work! I found it a bit frustrating needing to use separate buttons for each instead of a single swap button at times with how tight the timing was on a lot of jumps, but I still had fun with it!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback! Unfortunately I realized way too late in development that a single button option would work better and since this is my first jam I just wanted to make sure I would have a complete game by the end of the deadline. 

Submitted(+1)

Fun game, I thought the platforming would break me, but I broke the game instead. I hung out inside a moving platform. Take that game!

Developer

thanks for breaking my game! Truly appreciate it! 

Submitted(+1)

Really neat game. A few points to give is that having 2 buttons felt a bit awkward switching between the 2 modes. Also inverting between full on black to blaring white was quite straining on my eyes. I would suggest some different colors instead of black and white haha. Overall it was a fun game and I liked it :)

Submitted

Pretty cool that changing modes not only affect what terrain you can interact with but also your abilities. Just some minor critique is the control, I think having just one button to switch between the two mode would be far smoother as you don't have to panic in the moment and press the wrong one like I did lol. And also to have the player stick to the moving platforms.

Developer(+2)

Thanks for the feedback! Unfortunately I realized way too late in development that a single button option would work better and since this is my first jam I just wanted to make sure I would have a complete game by the end of the deadline. 

Submitted(+1)

I felt that last statement to the core. This is my second jam, but there are so many little things you realized that needed to be fixed or changed immediately after submission T_T

Submitted

I love platformers and the concept in this one was really fun. I can't believe I got like half way through the game before realizing that I could double jump! Only thing I might change for a future build is key binding options. Because player timing needs to be so precise I feel like a controller option, or alternate bindings would be a great addon. Directional movement and the switching colors was difficult in the current setup. Also I think the wall jump felt like it worked against me sometimes because of the momentum build up. Sometimes there were blocks in a perfect spot for chaining jumps which built momentum, but then instead of that momentum landing you on the intended block it was over or under shot. If you adjusted some of those blocks it could reward players for making those difficult chains and make them feel awesome in the process. Lastly gotta say I loved the art design.

Developer

I really appreciate the feedback! It has become clear to me that many people would like configurable keys or controller support. Will definitely add this kind of stuff in future games.

Submitted(+1)

I really like the idea of switching between modes, not only to change the map but to also change abilities. The timing is tricky but very fulfilling when done right. I think the hardest part was switching modes quickly while still trying to use directional controls. This is where a controller would really shine, it would free up some of my fingers to let me get the timing down correctly. 

The character controls well and feels similar to Celeste. The levels are hard, but show off what is possible with the concept. Overall, good game. 

Developer

Thanks For the Feedback!

Submitted

Really good idea, but too difficult for a jam game I think. The controls were very finicky, but if you got them right it could be a very nice release.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback. for the controls I tried creating a celeste style but I agree the controls need a bit of work. I uploaded a short tutorial on the game page so that it is easier to understand the controls if you're interested.

Submitted(+1)

I think I understood the controls, they were just a little hard :)

Submitted

I like this game and the art style, I did end up having to quit early due to the difficulty for the sake of my blood pressure. I think the levels could be adjusted to be a bit more forgiving or support multiple play styles (dang that low hanging bump at the edge of that room on the left, in the room where you have to get up and dash across the 2 sets of spikes). Currently it feels like a puzzle game where the solution is to input the exact right control sequence at the exact right time, which has it's own appeal to certain players, but I'm the type of player who bounces off of Dark Souls because it's too hard for me lol.

The music, atmosphere, and graphics are all really great, and the main mechanic of switching back and forth reminded me of "that level" in Dishonored 2 with the looking glass thing, in a really fun way.

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks for the feedback! I was leaning more into a Celeste level of difficulty and I understand that this style of platformer isn't for everyone and I agree that some of the levels towards the end are rather unforgiving in terms of input. 

Submitted(+1)

Really satisfying to play once you grasp the controls, all the mid-air leap of faith jumps where you have to land on something in the other mode were fun to pull off. Only thing I could complain about is the consecutive wall-jumps had some really specific/difficult timing that I couldn’t get the hang of, though I’m sure they’d get easier eventually.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah I agree some of jumps have a bit of a weird timing.

Submitted

Beautiful game. Very difficult from the start though and I couldn't get out of the opening room haha

Developer(+1)

Yeah the controls are a bit difficult to learn. The post has a short video that shows you how to beat the full game if you're interested. 

Viewing comments 19 to 1 of 39 · Previous page · First page