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A jam submission

Welcome to the Pelican ValleyView game page

Velocity climbformer with a black cat
Submitted by matte, M for Mediocre, woody — 18 hours, 14 minutes before the deadline
Rated by 20 people so far
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Velocity climbformer with a black cat

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Comments

Submitted (1 edit)

After getting through the cave I kept falling off and had to redo the entire cave sequence again, resulting in me speedrunning the caves 3 ish times until I quit.

Other than that, it's a simple platformer with well set obstacles.  Also really liked the opening cutscene.  Nice!

Developer(+1)

This happened to me and it irritated me a whole ton!

Submitted

Wow, lots of fun! I enjoyed the platforming mechanics a lot, they felt pretty good, especially for a jam game (platformers are notoriously difficult to get good game "feel" during the time constraints of a game jam).

Submitted(+1)

It's very strange, but I like it

Submitted(+1)

love the artstyle, something about playing this makes me feel nostalgic for the browser games i used to play on the internet when i was a kid, was very fun!

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

Gameplay was fun, and I loved all the animations too- especially climbing from the background, very cute. Nice work!

Submitted(+1)

Nice job! I enjoyed the game overall, though the camera and controls sometimes felt like more of a challenge than the level's obstacles. The frequency of checkpoints definitely helped, but I still found myself redoing some sections of the game repeatedly due to mechanical/controls issues more than player intent.

Developer(+1)

Sorry that the movement and camera were underwhelming, and thank you for giving it a go!

Submitted(+1)

Sorry if my feedback sounded rather harsh. I like your game, and I would not describe the camera and movement as underwhelming. I struggle with more time/input sensitive platforming, and I am not proud of how often I accidentally made the cat run into hazards.

Developer(+1)

No, not at all, your feedback is very relevant. Usually I make games for players like me who like to struggle and overcome, and this time I wanted to target players like you (hence the system of checkpoints instead of a full game restart).

Maybe next time I could make a game that is even more approachable (and at the same time more challenging for those who want it).

Cheers!

Submitted(+1)

I love the sounds and the animations for the cat! The controls felt a bit slippery and the camera was too zoomed in to see some the obstacles coming before I hit them, but checkpoints were common so it wasn't too bad.

Music was also great. Nice work!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for giving the feedback!

Submitted(+1)

Very well done on the jump+dash mechanic. Good way to put multiple things into one action! The game had just the right amount of difficulty and didn't overstay it's welcome. Some portions had minor flaws like bashing your head on the ceiling at the long jump location (jump + jump sign), and the lava sliding section being a bit too zoomed in.

Also I went through the caves but after replaying the game for a bit to listen to the audio design I noticed you can just skip that whole portion right at the start? 😂

I loved the intro illustrations, that poor kitty being flung out of the car though! The tileset could use a bit more work, but that's a craft in itself and you can only detail so much during a week. The slippery block doesn't tile properly which you get used to at some point, but it was a bit of a shame given how much it was used. The player's animations are great as well. I just noticed there's a crouch animation for some reason, interesting :D

The music is nice and relaxing. I loved the cave ambience with the dripping sounds.

Overall well done on the whole game! It has a lot in a small package.

Developer(+2)

Yes, if you know what to do you can easily skip most of the game, even some of the latter parts may be skippable (but you should complete the game first to learn what to do, so it is a fair play :P)

I would really want to explore these mechanics more, but they took almost all of the jam time to complete (classic), leaving a little to just block out something submittable, not to waste any of our beautiful art and music.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, thank you for giving it a go and taking your time to write the feedback!

Developer

Thank you! I apologize for the tileset, as this was my first time making tilesets. I was unable to perfect it as well as the program broke when i imported the new image, lol! Thanks for the review <3

(+1)

Good game! Beautiful visual! I give you 5 stars! Could you rate mine too?

Developer(+1)

Thanks!

Not sure where is your game though, did you un-submit it?

Submitted(+1)

The wall climbing was well done. I also thought the art, especially the cat animation, was really well done

Developer(+1)

Thanks! The climbing was the hardest (and funniest, so many bugs!) part for me to program.

Submitted(+1)

The action of the cat clinging to the wall is a lot of fun!

The illustrations in the story are cute too!

Developer(+1)

It was supposed to be an interactive story but ended up being a test polygon for a climbing cat.

Well, such is jam :3

Thanks for playing!

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

The lava block you die in determining where you restart was a good idea. Controls were a bit slippery, though I can appreciate that you leaned into it and made it into a puzzle. 

To other players:

  •  I think in order to climb, you have to go diagonal-up into a climbing block, which, along with everything else, is difficult to do with the momentum.
  • I think the only way to "stop" momentum is to "dash"  (jump button while in the air) in the opposite direction.
Developer(+1)

The friction-based physics is not commonly used in platformers for the reason of not being very friendly to new players, but I still wanted to give it a go (to learn why it is not used the hard way, lol).

I am not sure why would you want to "stop" the momentum, though. From some players I've heard that the cat barely moves at all, and from your comment it seems like you have an opposite experience. Doesn't your cat stop if you leave it standing on the ground for a second?

Submitted(+1)

awww i really liked the storybook intro!! the jump animation is so cute.  i really felt like a cat exploring the wilderness. 

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing our little game!

Yes, the cat is adorable, thanks to our artist Woody :)

Submitted(+1)

The art is pretty cool! But not consistant with the background art. Wish it had some music

DeveloperSubmitted(+2)

Actually there are both music and sound, but they don't work in safari version only. I've never had it before and I don't know why that is (i am not a programmer, I am a sound and music designer, so I don't know how this particular engine works), I wish you would try it with different browser!
But thank you for your feedback!

Developer(+1)

sorry! I realized that, this was actually my first time making a tileset so i had no idea what to do haha

Submitted(+1)

While clearly a lot of effort was put into the game, and the animations are great, I feel the controls are a bit janky and difficult to grasp. When I think of a cat, I think of a precise jumper that can turn on a dime, or at least recover easily enough. 

I think there are quantifiable steps that can be done to improve this however: one might be making climbable and unclimbable surfaces more apparent, and the ability to regrab climbable surfaces. Another might be to have a less zoom-y camera.

Overall, there is a lot of content and craft poured into this, and it could be polished into something memorable.

Developer(+1)

I had a lot of fun learning physics with this project, and I totally understand your frustration over non-linear movement which is not very intuitive compared to how it is implemented in other platformers. While that kind of motion is quite tricky to get used to, it allows the character to be as precise as the player can make it to be, giving a much steeper learning curve with quite a reward (but only if you are into such things).

Thanks for giving your thoughts on improvements! This is a valuable feedback that will help me to grow.