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A jam submission

Ascent: A Tale of a Thousand LanternsView game page

A short flying platformer with a warm aesthetic, strong soundtrack, and unique story.
Submitted by Shiro Sky (@leonchen7498), Diogo Santos, Rune Reeves, IffiDev, Loryenne (@LoryenneArt), Golden Sky — 4 hours, 42 minutes before the deadline
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Ascent: A Tale of a Thousand Lanterns's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Graphics#54.7364.736
Audio#114.2644.264
Overall#1013.7703.770
Game Design#3253.5093.509
Theme#3833.6233.623
Innovation#4783.2453.245
Fun#5213.2453.245

Ranked from 53 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

In what way does your game fit the theme?
The lanterns gather together. On their own they are weak, but together they can do great things.

Did you write all the code yourself and made all the assets from scratch?
All code is written by our team. All assets are also made by our team.

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Comments

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 36 · Previous page · First page
Submitted(+4)

That was a very pretty game.  The music and the graphics are really good, and I like that the music changes depending on which area you go to. I can tell you guys put a lot of effort into the map as well, and it really shows.

I actually felt like the map was too big though, it's very easy to get lost, especially when finding the hidden passages. I also thought some parts required too pixel-perfect precision to navigate around. I'd add an arrow marker next to the player that shows where the nearest lantern is, because it's really easy to miss them if they're just below or to the right from a branching path. I would also add in a visual indicator that shows the cooldown of your burst attack.

Great work overall, the story is really charming and I managed to beat it.

Developer

Thank you for your feedback! We'll try looking into making the map more recognizable when the game jam is over

Submitted(+4)

The art style was interesting, and the story sounded like a real folk tale (not sure if it is) but it was awesome nonetheless.  Movement was interesting and definitely made it a bit difficult but fun to avoid stuff.  Overall a really solid game to play through.  A couple points though:

  • Moving Up felt a bit too fast in my opinion, it seemed as though you jumped a bit more than felt right.  Which made some areas difficult to traverse, plus kinda let to a lot of spamming the button.  Though that would happen anyways.
  • The "burst" (not sure what to call it) that you have to get rid of the wolf paws etc. was interesting, though a little hard to tell when it was ready..  so maybe a clearer indicator could help?  Unless I just missed it, but that does sorta illustrate the point.

The art style, gameplay and story were all great, the only thing I'd say is more.  More folk tale style games would be great.  

Developer

Thank you for your feedback! I thought that making the lantern move at that pace vertically might've been good but maybe we overdid it haha, though I agree that there should be a cooldown indicator for the lantern burst 

Submitted(+4)

It's a very pretty game with great art, music and a strong style 💕
Loved the great use of Unity's latest 2D features like the splined sprites and light sources
The floating disembodied enemies did look a bit silly tho 😅
Maybe they could use a big trail renderer behind them or something like that
Appreciated the generous checkpoints and health refills

On the start I could feel a strong level design and could tell apart every area, but I kinda gave up once I got to the spike maze which was a bit too pixel perfect to go through (aka: thread the needle)

Would've enjoyed the gathering of lanterns to reflect more on the gameplay since they only act as a checkpoint and healthpack
In fact, the more lanterns you get, the harder it is to see the spikes since they're all the same color

Big props to the team!
Hope you develop this further

Developer(+1)

Thank you for your feedback! We're planning to update the game after the game jam so we'll try to look into the things you've mentioned

Submitted(+4)

I really hope this game wins! So beautiful. So polished and professional feeling. Keyboard controls are a little touchy, but still, its amazing!

Developer

Thank you so much for enjoying our game! :)

Submitted(+4)

Most beautiful game I've played. Incredible art, music, narrative, just everything across the board.  Thanks for letting us play it on stream!  Looking forward to what you do with this after the gamejam.

Developer

Thank you for the kind words and playing our game on stream <3

Submitted(+4)

Really great! the graphics, the music, the story! I would love to see an updated version with animation in the lantern sprite to feel more the floating physics but it didn't break the feeling now and is a great job for a jam. congratulations

Developer

Thank you for your kind words, we might change it a little after the game jam

Submitted(+4)

This game is incredible! Especially love the art! Jumped the first time a wolf came at me out of nowhere. lol

Developer (1 edit)

Thank you so much for the compliments! And yessss I agree they're spooky as heck 

Submitted(+4)

The art and music is top notch, great story!

I think you could spend more resource on level design. I often feel lost and need to walk around without any purpose to find if there's a way I didn't check yet. The easier way to do this is put lantern into the right path and always let your player see it in some ways since it's a biggest attractive point and most rewarding stuff in the game. You can also put object with less reward, or some light to guide the player.

Developer

Thank you for your feedback~ We tried doing that on some paths but I agree we could've done it more often! We might change that after the game jam

Submitted(+4)

Did you just post art in a game jam? 5 stars in every aspect. I felt surprisingly relaxed considering the context. I guess it was the scenery. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Developer

5 stars in everything? You are too generous my good sir, thank you!

Submitted(+4)

Artistically beautiful game with beautiful story telling to go along with it 10/10 extremely well made. Great job


https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-5/rate/927683

Developer

Thank you so much for the compliment, I had a ton of fun writing the story to fit our team's general aesthetic!

Submitted(+3)

Dude, your game is gorgeous!

It have Hollow Knight quality graphics, with more colors (for me, it is a plus)!

Thanks for sharing someting so well made!

Developer(+1)

thank you so muc h for your kind words! I'm really glad to see so many people enjoying our game ^^

Submitted(+3)

This is beatiful! Came from the stream! 5/5 on everything 

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much <3

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much < 3

Submitted(+3)

I really enjoyed it! The visuals are beautiful and the music very nice (I found the music to have a bit of a Ghibli vibe sometimes ^^). Some parts were very challenging to me but I managed to get to the end so I'm quite happy, hehe! I really loved the story as well.

On the improvable side, the text in the last cutscene was a bit difficult to read (because of the color), and there was a respawn point where a wolf also respawned with me so I took a hit every time, making  it extra difficult to get out of the thorned nest I was trapped in (took me some time, haha!).

Excellent game overall, like damn! :D 

Developer(+1)

Thanks for your feedback! Good that you mentioned the text in the last cutscene, we might fix  it after the jam is over.  I am happy you still managed to get trough  the hard part of the level.

Submitted(+3)

Awesome visuals and sound! Very beatiful!

Developer(+1)

thank you so much!!

Submitted(+3)

Very relaxing game with amazing graphics and music. You should keep working together, great job!

Developer

thank you so much for the compliments <3

Submitted(+2)

Very unique game. Simple idea and excellent execution!! The arts (in game and in cutscenes) are amazing!!!!

Developer

Thank you so much for the compliments <3

Submitted(+2)

super beautiful game, loved the cutscenes.

I'd appreciate it if you would try my game.

Developer

Thank you for the compliments ^^ I will take a look later

Submitted(+3)

So beautiful game - music and graphics! I really enjoyed it!

Developer

Thank you for playing it! Glad you enjoyed it ^^

Submitted(+3)

Very beautiful art and a wonderful overall theme. At the beginning it's hard to tell that the thorns aren't just a part of the background so I found myself running into them quite a few times without thinking. Still, overall a really good game.

Developer(+2)

We tried distinguishing them by making them red, but maybe we could've distinguished them a bit more :( Luckily there's no limit on the amount of respawns at least hahah

(+3)

The game is very impressive!

It had a good duration given it's complexity, the visuals where nice, and the story was short and sweet.

The only thing I would suggest is to make a lighting distinction between discovered and undiscovered areas, like going from an opaque black mask to a semi-opaque one. This would cut down on some backtracking confusion. 

Developer

That's a very good idea! Thank you for your feedback.

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 36 · Previous page · First page