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Tether Billy 3000's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #13 | 4.225 | 4.225 |
| Gameplay | #15 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Interpretation of the Secondary Theme | #16 | 4.438 | 4.438 |
| Soundtrack/SFX | #22 | 4.125 | 4.125 |
| Graphics | #37 | 4.250 | 4.250 |
| Gameboy Soul | #67 | 4.063 | 4.063 |
Ranked from 32 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game match the theme?
You play as a character collecting power cells on orbital platforms (in space). You have to protect the tether connecting you to your (space) ship, on account of you being in space.
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Comments
This was fun! I appreciate that you don't die instantly from losing your tether, meant I could just speed through a couple of stages when I lost my tether near the end. I love the random meals being prepared too, it gave that little bit extra. Especially when I won the stage and went "huh? Oh is that what dinner was?" because I thought it was still the previous attempt's food.
I'd love to play a full game of this! Do wish it had an ending though. Maybe with some of that food being eaten, hmm...
Thank you! Fortunately for all of us, I will not be opening a Tether Billy 3000-themed restaurant.
Ok I really enjoyed this game. Great sounds/music/graphics and wonderful gameboy feel! Thank you.
Also the mechanic of tether was well implemented. Unless this is built into the engine that was likely a hard mechanic to get right and it was well done and an interesting mechanic that I haven't seen in any games I've played. Kudos.
Feedback on issues/suggestions. The reminders of needing to pull back the tether aren't really needed later in the game. If I've gotten to those levels I already know to use this as you can't get through without knowing this and having it down well.
The dialog when you got the last battery was a bit frustrating. It took up time to dismiss it so I usually got punished by the dialog. I'd either remove it or make the creatures pause during the dialog. And maybe only do it for the first level.
I think that the rotation of the creatures shouldn't cause the player to get hit, though I can see this as part of the challenge. It felt like the hitbox expanded so made it difficult in some sections.
Also part of the challenge was with how the character walked, I can see this as adding challenge to the game so maybe leave it but it was a bit frustrating at some of the more narrow sections to get right.
Would be cool to support gamepad if possible with the engine. Might have helped me with my limited keyboard/mouse game playing skills. LOL
Thank you! And thanks for the constructive feedback. There are definitely some rough edges.
I did talk a little about how the tether is implemented in the last dev log if you are interested!
Read it, great idea and it works very well. Thank you!
And gotta say, for not having played Gameboy before you hit it well with what you created.
A well thought out game. Really fun!
thank you!
A well-thought-through mechanic, well-designed levels, music and SFX that're easy on the ears, and that flailing Billy tho. Great entry!
Thank you!
Loved this. Great concept
Thank you!
Neat idea for a game, I like it a lot. It's just a bit too hard (two levels on top - I just couldn't finish them, it was getting really frustrating!).
And oh boy! Is Billy being bullied there! I almost felt sorry for him...
Thank you!
And yeah, in my head, he is being bullied. Glad you picked up on that!
Cool gameplay mechanic. it's nice to see something unique like this.
Thank you!
Every time my tether broke and I died I didn't even hesitate to retry the level, addicting gameplay, nice graphics and the music was nice too!
Thank you!
Interesting idea! Beautiful graphics and sounds
Thank you!
Creative, good loking, hilarious. I had fun playing :)
Thank you!
This game is hilarious! Lots of character. I love the game concept. Original and fun to play!
Thank you!
Wow!
First off, the presentation is very good. The graphics are delicious old-school goodness--although I suspect this game could never have been made on the Gameboy, due to the complexity of the tether. You do a lot with this extremely limited palette; the visual design could not have been clearer. Also, the music is very catchy.
Most importantly, the gameplay is entertaining and very original. I really don't think I've seen a mechanic like this before, although I'm not a fanatical player of puzzle games, so I could be wrong.
I really enjoyed the humor in the radio banter. I suppose the cuisine of the future will involve a lot of incompatible ingredients.
A couple of very minor quibbles:
1. The dialog window that appears when a radio message comes in is rather intrusive, so I found myself wondering if the introductory message really needs to play before every mission. Similarly, I wondered if the message that appears when you find the last power cell could go away on its own--more than once, in a blind panic I pressed A instead of B and pulled my tether into the path of an oncoming robot!
2. The exclamation point in the font looks a bit like a question mark. That threw me for a loop the first few times.
3. Several levels were very frustrating, at least for me. Of course, excessive difficulty is the curse of the game jam.
Thank you for the thoughtful comment. Completely agree with your "quibbles". Those are definitely rough edges.
And you're right that this could never have have been made on a real Game Boy. I justified this to myself by imagining it as some sort of fantasy Game Boy. But I'm sure the purists out there won't care for that much. :)
Very awesome and fun! Great music too
Thank you!
awesome and super addicting game! I loved the funny dialog + wacky space foods. (I would totally try kiwi kafta)
Thank you! And I'll let you know if I ever make kiwi katfa. :)
Absolutely fantastic.
I really like the gameplay-mechanic, the puzzle-levels are difficult and the graphics are on point. Nothing to criticise.
Would play an expanded version of this idea.
thank you so much!
Great mechanic! Great level design! And very difficult! (in a good way!)
And i loved the comedy!! dying animation was hilarious! :))
After a lot of cursing i finished it and i'm happy!
Thumbs Up!!
Thank you! It is a little infuriating sometimes. I did try to keep the levels small enough that trying again is never too too painful. :)
Honestly, so fun! It seems a lot less engaging until it grabs you haha
Very curious how you did the tether mechanic!
Will probably be playing this past the jam! :D
*edit - just realised you replied to the tether mechanic below, my bad!
thank you! I did write a little about the tether implementation in the second dev log. Hopefully it makes sense. It may not be my finest writing. :)
Interesting read! I haven't used Gadot yet, can you publish it as .gb roms?
Nope. Godot is good for a lot of things. But targeting old hardware like that is not one of them. Its footprint is way bigger than a Game Boy could ever host.
The writing is cute and and the gameplay is fun! I also like the backgrounds and sprites you used. I'm impressed andreally curious how you managed to get that tether working so cleanly!
Thanks! The tether code was the first little experiment I made when the "space" theme was revealed. And then the rest of the game was shaped by me trying to figure out how to use that experiment in a game. I'll try to write a little devlog about how it works. (But it's almost certainly simpler and dumber than you expect.)