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GitHub repository URL
https://github.com/Troy-Story-Games/messenger-mouse
Game description
Take on the role of a courageous mouse tasked with delivering a secret message to the king in Messenger Mouse! This action-packed platformer combines classic gameplay with modern challenges, encouraging players to explore, strategize, and uncover the game's many secrets.
Theme interpretation
Narratively we made the game about delivering a secret message to the king. Loosely inspired by the story of Marathon. We made the game have secret passage ways to find throughout. The secret passages also factor in when considering speed run times as many secret areas allow you to complete the level faster.
Wildcards used (optional)
Small Palette
Limit your colors to 4
Cheat Mode
Let players break the rules with things like infinite lives or invincibility
Speed Run
Make time the enemy
Comments
This is definitely the most polished game that I have played so far. The moment was spot on and the level design was phenomenal. I can tell that a lot of care was put into the secret short cuts and area.
The art, music, and visual effects were amazing.
My only critique is that the K and J controls were a bit unintuitive - could be a me issue though!
Submitted
InterrogationThanks so much for playing and for the feedback! It’s appreciated! You’re not the only one with keyboard control critiques and I’m 100% with you. I prefer to play with a controller. Another valid layout on keyboard is to use the arrow keys and then use Z and X. Unfortunately the only way to play with a controller is to download the game. I think another round of polish on the controls would have been good. Maybe a way to remap them.
Such a fun game! It had so many mechanics and felt like a completely polished game ready to be published.
Good job on showing the input hints again throughout the levels.
Very well done and probably the best entry so far!
Submitted
o.l.e.s.a. - Guide the SymbolsNice fun game experience. I like the variation of mechenics that the player can do. But I feel the K key is a bit not so intuitive(?). Maybe is a problem from my side.
Submitted
Secret PassageThanks for playing! The keyboard controls were not my favorite part to figure out. The game REALLY is meant to be played with a controller despite my partner swearing by the keyboard. So J and K…the thinking there was: 1. There is no reason to have your hand on the mouse for this game and 2. J and K are part of the home row. So the thought was if you’re using WASD that J and K would be natural. But you’re not the only one to feel it’s non-intuitive. Definitely not a you problem.
The other control option on keyboard was using the arrow keys and then z and x which maybe would have been better to highlight in the tutorial…but we kindof had to pick one to display in the tutorial and we decided most people in a game jam would likely be looking to use the WASD layout.
If you download the game it works great with any Bluetooth or USB controller and then the tutorial will actually update to teach the controller controls rather than keyboard and the experience with a controller in my opinion is much better. I wish there was some way to have the web version pick-up controllers. I feel like there has to be some browser plugin or extension but I didn’t have time to dig in and figure it out.
Wow! That reminded me of Sonic in the best possible way. High momentum based gameplay, mostly forgiving fails, tons of routes through every level. This feels absolutely like a professional game. I'm usually pretty bad at platformers and moderns ones have gotten some what merciless, but this one seemed to get that perfect balance of fun and punishment. Easy restarts, work arounds, mostly forgiving mechanics but a few really tight jumps to test me. Also the animation, especially the enemy death animations are so perfect. This game is just brimming with charm. Also your super minimal palette is totally cohesive and readable and the simple sounds and music combine to really sell it. Really outstanding. My only complaint is that the tight camera follow can cause a little bit of eye strain with how the level warps behind the character. Might soften the camera or throw a blur on it but my eyes have always been really sensitive to this and you don't have a lot of parallax so it might just be me. But really a nearly perfect game, I'm astounded you pulled this off in a month and got it this polished.
Submitted
Build-A-TrocityThanks for the awesome feedback! Ya know, the camera blur/smoothness/whatever to call it, is something I noticed. I kinda thought it was an artifact of the one bit tile set we were using on the black background. Could also have something to do with sub pixel nonsense or resolution scale or something. But you’re 100% right it is kind of annoying and I plan to look into fixing it. Thanks again for playing and for the kind words. We appreciate it!
platformer with loads of secrets, secret passages everywhere, great hidden places etc. good controls, excellent tutorial etc
Submitted
ShadowLink Command100% the best submission I've played so far. The gameplay is buttery smooth and the visuals and audio is just *chef's kiss*. I only have one very very tiny nitpick and that is the climbing speed feels a little bit too slow. I know you can jump to go faster but increasing the climbing speed slightly could make it feel better and maybe help less skilled players a bit. Thought like I said, it's just a small thing and in no way detracts anything from the game. Everything is pretty much perfect, well done !
Submitted
Level : 1000Thanks for playing and for the awesome feedback! It’s really appreciated. We plan to continue working on some version of this, so I’ve made a note about the climb speed. I think you’re 100% right. It always felt slow to me - and I always would just jump a bunch to speed it up - don’t know why I didn’t think to make that literal one line change to speed it up though…
Bro this game is great! You did a super job on it, it's even meeting the wildcards! It feels super smooth and intuitive, but still challenging enough too, a really nice submission!
One problem I had was when i collected the cheat, then opened the menu for esc, it would open for split second and then close again, i tried to click the cheats part of the menu during that moment and then it broke the pause menu all together. Also the wall sliding you can slide down the wall while facing away from the wall sometimes, but that's really just nitpicking. Those were really the only things I noticed though, other than that I found it pretty solid! Well done boss
*salutes*
Submitted
Test of TimeThanks for the awesome feedback! It’s really appreciated! I’m guessing you were playing in browser - we noticed that bug too - but not every single time. It was something we found in testing, then I fixed it (or thought I did) and then at one point we thought it had come back but then couldn’t reproduce it. So thanks for confirming we def. still have this bug. I created an issue internally and I’ll try to track it down. I know the bug doesn’t exist with controller support on desktop - which I honestly feel is the best way to play the game.
Thanks again for playing!
Very cool game! I really enjoyed the art and the gameplay. Great work!
Submitted
Incargnito!Fun game with good controls. I sat on the bird for more than most people probably would XD
Submitted
100 TrialsThis game was very fun to play and looks great. Whenever I found a secret I got small dopamine rush! The level with the launch to the stratosphere was my fav part.
Submitted
Between The SignalsThanks so much for playing and for the kind words! It seems people are really liking the movement. We took inspiration from the Mario 64 dev team - they prioritized movement - it was the first thing they worked on, before level design or anything else, it needed to be fun to just run around. So that’s what we did first too.
The moment the gameplay started, I immediately knew this was something well-thought-out! The tutorial level is exceptionally well-done—I never once found myself asking, "What am I supposed to do?" Everything felt intuitive. The interpretation of the "Secrets" theme is literal, and I absolutely love it. As for the movement mechanics—simple yet incredibly refined with some clever nuances—they’re just outstanding. This is really good, almost criminally good. I love it!
Submitted
Do you wanna job?This is a fantastic and overall very polished game. Easy to understand mechanics but with a deep learning curve. I think you could easily release this on Steam if you added more levels etc.
One thing I noticed was that jumping after a slide can be a bit tricky to perform. Not sure if it's just my skill level but it seems that if you are crouching you can't cancel into a jump (essentially you need to be in neutral to jump). I think this is the only thing that needs improving. Everything else is top-notch. Well done!
Submitted
Jimmy And The Mysterious MazeThanks for the awesome feedback. We really appreciate it! And yes you’re right. Of all the mechanics in the game, launch is the hardest (slide+jump). I think I need a tiny delay between when you release slide and press jump for it to count that way if your finger slips off the slide button it doesn’t ruin a launch.
The other thing preventing launch (especially in the spot we teach it on the tutorial level) are the darn ceiling detection ray casts. I needed a way to detect it you’re under something and force the character to stay crouched but if that ceiling detector thinks you’re on the ceiling you can’t jump. So if you slide under a gap and go to jump out the other side, and hit it too early you completely miss the jump and it really doesn’t feel good. So we need to polish that up a bit for sure!
Thanks again!
Great job! Platforming felt really punishing, but fair, with tons of movement options. And the levels felt really open, with lots of different ways to get around. Also enjoyed the humor and dialogue!
Submitted
CluedomancerVery cool! It's not easy to make a good plat-former but yours is interesting, fun and you made very cool levels. In particular, I think your tutorial level is very polished and effective at teaching the moveset.
I wasn't very good at finding the secrets within the levels (besides the first one) as I felt a bit pressured by the time. But that's by no way a bad thing, it's definitely something that would make me come back to it so I can complete it.
Good job!
Submitted
More than Meets the iThanks so much for the feedback. And thanks for playing!
Time pressure is something we spent a lot of time go back and forth on. The top left timer is intended just as like a race timer to compare your time to others. Some secret areas actually can shorten levels so they can come in handy there. The flame timer though, which is intended to give an amount of time pressure, actually has no real punishment for failure beyond wasting your time a bit and making the run slower. In our first iteration the flame timeout would end your run in the level and send you back to the beginning. But that felt awful and it punished exploration and it punished getting stuck at a hard section which is just mean. So, idk if you let it happen or not, but if you let it run out, you just have to smash buttons to re-light the flame.
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