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FreeZE's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #17 | 3.571 | 3.571 |
| Fun | #26 | 3.143 | 3.143 |
| Originality | #28 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Overall | #28 | 3.219 | 3.219 |
| Audio | #34 | 2.857 | 2.857 |
| Art | #35 | 3.190 | 3.190 |
Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Did your team create most/all of the graphics yourselves?
Yes, all the pixel art, animations and graphics were done by myself.
Did your team create most of/all the audio yourselves?
Yes, the only song in the game was created by myself.
How did you incorporate the theme "FREEZE"?
Ze is the name of the character's sister, she was captured and he has to go Free her, hence Free Ze. (Also you have freezing powers in-game)
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Comments
Cool puzzle game, and great use of the theme. I wish there were checkpoints where you could respawn but overall great game!
Definitely reminded me of the puzzle in one of the pokemon games! The only real issue I had was controlling the ice blocks. Sometimes it would seem to move 2 squares instead of 1 soft blocking me constantly even though i had the right solution, Got towards the end and it happened once more and decided to call it quits. A check point system or less sensitive block movement would have been useful here. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for the comment! yes, pokemon was a huge inspiration when making this game.
Oof yeah, I had similar troubles while testing too, but happened rarely, I blame the movement system I created lol. Since I was referencing pokemon platinum, I wanted my movement to be like that. Grid base, but not step by step grid base. In platinum you can move a character one cell (let’s say to the left) and it would smoothly move to that cell, and pressing the left arrow would make it to keep moving smoothly until you release the button. But always being on the center of a cell and not inbetween. So I had quite a hard time trying to achieve that same behaviour (I even implemented the if you are looking in one direction and you press any other direction just once the character would not move but instead would face in that new direction)
TLDR: The movement system needed more polish and sometimes it could cause unintended behaviour (like auto-move) due to try to mix a smooth movement with a grid base one, oops.
Perfectly fine, either way the puzzle core was there and the visuals, some tweaks to movement and this could be a well polished package
Fun puzzle game! The art is cute and the theme is implemented well. I think checkpoints after each puzzle would be a good addition. Nice job!
Thanks for your comment!
Very fun game! It reminds me of being in a cave in the old pokemon games
Thanks! And yes the caves from pokemon (platinum) was my inspiration to make the environment.
I usually don't enjoy puzzle games, but this one was good, and despite the already mentioned issue of restarting at the beginning, I decided to power through and free Ze! The level design was a good balance of simple yet challenging.
Glad you like it and good job on powering through to “free Ze”!
Lovely pixel art on the character and environment! The music is pretty captivating in keeping me engaged as well! The puzzles felt kind of tedious as it just moving the same rocks and sometimes I keep getting them stuck and having to restart it all over again. The gameplay is missing a element that can break the tedious cycle of moving rocks. Nevertheless nice work on the game!
Thanks for your comment! And yeah, I totally agree on the lack of mechanics.
Very smart puzzle game. Splendid job on the freezing animations and just graphics in general. Kudos on the song as well.
As others have mentioned, you should have sectioned off each puzzle as a level, so that you wouldn't need to start again from get-go when you've made a mistake.
Thanks for your comment! It was my first time making pixel art animation and also my first time trying to make music so I’m glad you like them!
Yeah I agree, unfortunately I ran short on time so I had to decide whether to put each puzzle on it’s own level and risking not being able to build it on time for submittion or build the whole thing and play it safe. I went for the latter.
Most of my comments are already addressed, so I'll just say it's fun to see a Sokoban-like in the comp.
Thanks for playing! And yeah it is like Sokoban, funny enough I didn’t know about that game until a friend pointed it when I told them about my game, lol. I definitely need to check that out.
Nice little puzzle game. The writing is really funny as well. Was kinda frustrating you have to restart the whole level when you make a mistake.
Thanks, glad you enjoy it, and yes it was frustrating even for me while testing it, lol.
I enjoyed figuring out the puzzles, and the writing was entertaining! Aside from needing a checkpoint system, as others have mentioned, I must say that the freeze mechanic seems redundant. If the player were able to push the obstacles without first freezing them, the puzzles would still play out the same way.
Thanks for the comment, glad you enjoy it!
Yeah, I was well aware that the checkpoint was going to be tedious, even for me while testing the build lol. Sadly due to cutting corners I wasn’t able to put each puzzle on its own level or making checkpoints along the way as I originally intended. This also affected the freezing rocks mechanic feeling redundant.
The original idea involved having like a freeze and energy meters with some places of the map being hotter than others, affecting how much you were able to move ice around. The idea was to explore the map to find keys and then backtrack your way while moving the rocks out of the way by freezing them (since the rocks would damage you because of the heat) There was also the idea that rocks on fire wouldn’t be freezable, but putting a melting ice next to it would put the fire out in the surrounding tiles (due to the water) and stuff like that.
Woww, this is hardd (in a good way), I would've made various small levels instead of one big level, because it is very frustrating needing to restart all puzzles for one little mistake, other than that, it is very fun, the artstyle reminds me of Celeste's World 8 - The Core.
Thanks for your comment! Glad you had fun with the difficulty of the puzzles.
And yeah, the global reset was a problem I was aware of, but due to lacking time, I wasn’t able to put checkpoints along the way or at least put each puzzle on its own level. That’s why I only put five and some very easy ones at the start.
In fact the very first one was meant to be a difficult one, but I messed it up on paper somehow cause when I implemented it on the game, it was pretty straightforward to solve and thus I ended up putting it at the start by how easy it was, lol.
The dread when you did everything right until the last trial and then you push an objective in a corner... Nice concept tho, and bold way to turn the jam theme in your favor
Thanks for the comment, the dread is real indeed, lol.
Bit tedious that you have to restart from the very beginning if you make a single mistake later on, but the puzzles were pretty interesting and the story was funny. Great job!
Thanks for your comment! And yeah the tedious restart was something I wanted to get rid of but couldn’t due to the time. Glad you enjoy it anyways!
Great game. work more in mechanics
Thanks! Yeah some more mechanics were considered but I had to cut lots of corners if I wanted to submit it in time.