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Kayden Is With You's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #228 | 3.846 | 3.846 |
| Game Design | #573 | 3.231 | 3.231 |
| Overall | #712 | 3.051 | 3.051 |
| Audio | #783 | 2.769 | 2.769 |
| Graphics | #799 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Fun | #938 | 2.769 | 2.769 |
| Innovation | #975 | 2.692 | 2.692 |
Ranked from 13 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 player character and the ally 'Kayden' are able to interact with certain objects (in order to solve the puzzles) only when Kayden is onscreen.
In a less literal sense, the 'plot' is of the player character and Kayden becoming friends, and more importantly being friends - "with" each other - even when they're apart.
The main utilization of this, ie the entire reason I made the game, happens after a game-crashing bug. With the payoff impossible to experience I admit the game is a lot less interesting so I guess we're here for the short haul after all.
Did you write all the code yourself and made all the assets from scratch?
I wrote all the code, but all art and audio are from other sources.
Each one was obtained as such I'm allowed to use them (public domain, purchased, CC-by-attribution etc.) and everything used (and edited) is credited in the game.
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Comments
I liked the game and concept. As Dezura said though, took a while to find out you could left click as well :D. I seemed to have missed the controls explanation too.
Nicely done in only a week's worth of time!
Just finished the game and it was really good.
The pixel art looked absolutely great, and you did a really nice job on placing a lot of sound effects and such to each action. The animations for some of the art was pretty well done too, like what I assume to be tweening for the dialogue/interaction boxes as they pop up.
The mechanic with Kayden was pretty interesting too, though it took me a little while to figure out that you could left click to move them.
I do have a few small nitpicks though. The pixels on the character sprites are really big compared to all the tiles, which does look a bit odd. Some of the objects are missing collision boxes, but it really doesn't affect the game too much.
The left click mechanic was hard to control at times aswell, not sure if it's just me (playing on a standard 1920x1080 monitor) but Kayden just would go where I clicked most of the time, which was somewhat annoying.
I also found you could softlock the game at times, my first softlock was when I encountered the 2 blue buttons, I was testing some stuff and Kayden went through the first door as I was holding the button, and there was no way to get them back out so I had to restart the game, from there on I played the game really safe but it did look like there were a few more spots you could softlock the game as well. I'd suggest adding a restart or reset button to help deal with unexpected softlocks like these.
Another pretty small suggestion would be to possibly highlight objects that can be interacted with, as I didn't notice some of them the first time I played, and it would possibly help show the mechanic with Kayden having to be on the screen a bit better.
Overall, the game was really fun to play and super charming, so good job!
Thank you very much for playing, and for your detailed feedback!
I do feel like I should say there is both a restart function and a way to return Kayden to the last door she went through, both are described on the game page with the rest of the controls.
Yeah I noticed that a bit after writing the review that there were extra controls listed on the game page, my bad for not seeing it correctly the first time lol.
I like the idea. And good realization to control the companion. Wes stuck on some puzzles)
Puzzle game is a great idea for the theme! I played to "The Witness" so my brain is well trained for it but I also got stuck very quickly ! Maybe adding the controls could allow us to unblock ourselves or a tutorial...
But it's a good start to the game which only needs to be developped a little more !
If you have time I would appreciate if you could rate my game too, thanks !
nice but I did get stuck a lot of the time to the point where it got super boring maybe some hints you can activate after a certain timer or a tutorial. Keep it up!
Nice game and good idea!
I love the art style of this game!! Some good audio and puzzle solving as well. My only real complaint was when I entered rooms when walking up I kind of expected to be at the bottom of the new room, so I still held up which would just transition me back to the previous room. but that's super nit-picky, great game overall!!! :)
that's a fair critique, definitely. i got used to the way I'd made it so I never noticed it, but now that you mention it that's a pet peeve of mine with games too haha
thank you very much for saying so!
I got stuck on the second level, where it prompted me to "recharge" but I didn't know what that meant. Nice art though.
did pressing the interact button (e/space/z) do anything? was Kayden onscreen when you tried to?
I pressed it, but it wasn't doing anything. Maybe Kayden needed to be with me? I wasn't able to get us both into that room simultaneously, because a button must be pressed to open the door. Maybe I just missed something. Any hints?
Definitely
Being directly beside each other isn't the only way you can both be onscreen at the same time - most rooms are near enough to see both characters at once even with walls separating you.
When you encounter something you need Kayden for, look where else is onscreen and possible to get to, and try investigating how either of of you can get there separately.
I downloaded it again and I managed to complete it! At least I think so. The game turned off when I entered a door so I think that's the end. I like the idea, I think the cameras are especially interesting. More complex puzzles would've been nice, but I understand that this is a jam game.
oh dear
no, the end of the game is very obvious, i think you might have encountered a bug. do you remember where you got up to?
EDIT: i just replayed it and found the transition it happens in, however looking at the project in the editor I'm having trouble recreating it. I'll have to look at it in the morning if I have time (it's late where I am).
Especially gutted that there's a problem like this where it is, the very next scene was where the 'plot' started getting good haha
OK so I tried it again and it crashed again on a level transition, just a later one. Too bad.
it being a later one is good in that more of the game is playable, but bad in the way that now I'm even less sure of what the problem is
whelp first game jam down the drain, maybe next time