Impressive entry. Artstyle and music is amazing. My main issue is that some animations take too long, which is annoying, like door or entering the jumping demon.
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The Gems's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #1 | 4.313 | 4.313 |
| Graphics | #3 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| Overall | #4 | 4.281 | 4.281 |
| Gameplay | #13 | 3.844 | 3.844 |
| Innovation | #19 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| Theme interpretation | #85 | 2.781 | 2.781 |
Ranked from 32 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
GitHub repository URL
https://github.com/sharpfives/the-gems-game
Comments
Another classic from sharpfives! 😁
Alas, I can't rate as I didn't enter - so all I can do is give praise. 🤷♂️
This is such a great game. Amazing music (again) - so atmospheric. I really am so envious that you can do it all: code, art, music & story. So talented!
Love the simplistic, almost "LCD game" pixel graphics style.
The animations are so lovely - as always.
You seem to have improved your engine recently? It's SO smooth now.
There were a couple of minor collision quirks, but was fine for the most-part.
Great tension & high stakes (e.g. having to shoot under time pressure without killing good guys)
The creature aesthetics were wonderful. That ROAR?! Scared the crap outta me! 😱
Love the humour - the death/ghost character particularly.
Are you a "Scrubs" fan by any chance? (Hey Dorothy, Nancy) 😂 #DrCoxFTW
Had a mini-LOL at the rather specific amount of mushrooms for a "dude" to need! 😂
Finally, THANK YOU for making the ability to resume/continue the game.
I wasn't sure you could (so did it in one sitting on this occasion), but that's definitely a welcome addition. Great usability feature! 👏
⚠⚠⚠ SPOILERS BELOW - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED! ⚠⚠
Loved many of the mechanics (shooting, ropes)
The cave of sleeping demons was a neat touch.
Also, thought the "cage" mechanic one particularly clever (and also reminded me of Another World) 😊
I nearly lost my mind trying to catch the squirrel (I see it's a common issue) - and would've probably kept trying (as it almost seemed like you could). Thankfully, I saw another reviewed mention about a "Speed Boost" and realised I needed to look elsewhere.
BUGS
If you're interested - I did spy a few potential bugs along the way...
- Got stuck after dying while the "jumping" beast was building up his laser
- Spelling error after solving campfire ("thanks for you help", should be "your")
- Can walk/interact with the level while in "backpack" mode?
- Perhaps make the walking/bow disabled while backpack is open? I dunno.
- Sometimes seemed like I "lost" gems?
- They dropped, but then couldn't pickup due to screen size/zoom change?
- I later realised I didn't need to worry, as I got the total anyway.
- Unfortunately, the "shell" mechanic is pretty tricky - I only (finally) realised what to do by accident!
- It was when I was with the 3 little birds (I was gonna list this as a bug - as they weren't singing)
- I accidentally clicked on the bush (probably in frustration) and WHOOSH!
- Then, it clicked - strategically positioned items in the scenes - clever (perhaps a little TOO clever!)
Again, such a lovely little game. 🥰
You really are one of my favourite indie developers right now - coz of how great your story-telling adventures games are. 🤓👍
Thanks for the very kind review Paul! Great catch - I am indeed a Scrubs fan, tried my best to channel my inner Dr. Cox :) i originally had the ghost guy's "dickish-ness" ramped up WAY higher, but wound up dialing it back because it was just a touch harsh lol.
The squirrel-chase does seem to be a common sticking point. It's kind of a throw-away puzzle, but i liked having another use for the feather in addition to beating the jumpy boss (and just making it quicker to get around the levels). Maybe the dialog with the squirrel should change after your third unsuccessful try, and have him hint at needing an item to go faster? ::shrug:: maybe that would prevent some rage-quitting
And, as always, thanks for the helpful feedback:
- Got stuck after dying while the "jumping" beast was building up his laser
- well that's not good - i'll look at fixing that.
- Spelling error after solving campfire ("thanks for you help", should be "your")
- Check!
- Can walk/interact with the level while in "backpack" mode?
- Didn't even realize that was possible, but yes it should be fixed.
- Sometimes seemed like I "lost" gems?
- Weird - let me know which scenes this happened in and i'll try to reproduce? the scene with the hostages you will definitely lose any acquired gems if you don't complete it in one pass through
5 years ago(+1)
good call, the boss hit box was extending outside of the sprite by too much. i fixed that along with a bunch of other bugs, hopefully this new version works out better for you! thanks again for checking it out :)
5 years ago(+1)
thanks for checking it out! sorry to hear about the lag, sounds like it could be a browser performance issue. if you wouldn't mind, let me know if the executable downloads work any better than the in-browser version. i tried running the downloadable windows .exe on a pretty old, low spec windows laptop and didn't have any issues, so that might prove better. hope it works out and you get to experience it in a better light.
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