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A jam submission

Castle of the CosmosView game page

Carefully space your bouncing projectile in this exciting action platformer!
Submitted by Galloway Games — 2 hours, 14 minutes before the deadline
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Castle of the Cosmos's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Graphics#24.8164.816
Soundtrack/SFX#144.2374.237
Overall#314.0534.053
Gameplay#403.9213.921
Gameboy Soul#524.1844.184
Interpretation of the Secondary Theme#2643.1053.105

Ranked from 38 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?
WARNING: There is a bug where music can stack if you revisit previously entered areas. THERE IS NO MISSABLE CONTENT IN PREVIOUS AREAS, so to avoid most instances where this happens, don't go backwards once you've entered a new room!

Our game uses a unique damage mechanic that emphasizes the common fighting game concept of SPACING - a projectile that moves at a 45 degree angle and increases in strength with every bounce. Rather than targeting enemies directly, players are encouraged to line up their position carefully to space their attacks and maximize damage.

As an added thematic bonus, our game features a Lovecraftian monster from outer space as the main antagonist, and a surprise otherworldly twist at the end.

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Comments

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 32 · Previous page · First page
Submitted(+4)

I love every single thing in this game.
the castlevania vibe, the simple but fluid gameplay, the graphics style and the music. oh the music. it really hits the spot. 10/10

Developer

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

Submitted(+3)

HMMM WHAT? THIS IS MY FAVORITE IN THE WHOLE JAM <3 

Developer

Thank you for playing! Really appreciate it :)

Submitted(+3)

It was pleasure to play this game. As was said art, music are excellent. Gameplay mechanic with increasing damage per bounce was not very clear till I read it, but still was fun. For me is the most highly rated game so far! I think you had happy time doing this, congratulations! 

Developer

Thank you for the feedback and for playing! Yes, it was a lot of fun working on it!

Submitted(+3)

Guys that's a really great game with a god-like artwork. Everyone on the stream enjoyed it.

Developer

Thanks a lot for playing, we really appreciate it!

Submitted(+3)

Congratulations on making such a great game and getting my first perfect score! Top tier everything, and a totally unique interpretation of the theme on top of that! As a Game Boy homebrew dev I think 90% of this game could actually work on a Game Boy Color. Has your team ever considered working with the real hardware?

Developer (2 edits)

Thank you! Very high praise, glad the game resonated with you so much.

I wouldn't say we ever considered working with real hardware, since we wanted to use whatever software we were most comfortable with in order to get things done quickly (this was built in GameMaker), but we did wonder how much of the game would be possible, especially considering the detailed art and animations. We mostly assumed it would be way too much, so it's cool that you think it could maybe be done.

Submitted(+3)

Interpretation of the theme is loose in nature, but I wanted to say this is easily the most gorgeous submission I've seen so far, from the artist direction to the solid gameplay.

Developer

Thanks a lot for playing!

Submitted(+3)

Absolutely GORGEOUS game.  The art is amazing (definitely top tier), the gameplay is smooth and the weapon of choice is very interesting! Also, the music takes me back to castlevania, obvious inspirations. I can see this becoming a bigger game with a full story, it just invites us to know more about the world and to PLAY more! Interesting way to incorporate the SPACE theme in the gameplay too!


I can feel the game boy vibes from the title, but I think the monsters, characters and maybe even the scenario are way too complex for the game boy. Too bad because I was DYING to test it in the original hardware, it remembers a little Fallen Crown. T-T

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Funnily enough, as the person who wrote most of the music, I've never played a Castlevania game! Obviously the rest of the team was heavily inspired by Castlevania for this, though, so I tried to write the kind of music that I imagined Castlevania games must have, with a bit of my own personal taste thrown in, haha. Glad to hear I was pretty close! Maybe I'll finally play SotN now...

Thanks for playing!

Submitted

That really just make it more impressive! You really got the vibe here!

Go for symphony! And the DS ones are the pinnacle of the series! Portrait of Ruin is definitely my favorite!

Submitted(+3)

Wow, the art and music are amazing! The gameplay is mostly smooth and the shooting mechanic was really interesting and it was fun to use. I had the music bug after dying a couple of times fighting the final boss so had to mute, unfortunately. A small nitpick is that I feel like the space theme is a bit of a stretch. Fantastic work, very impressive for such a short amount of time!

Developer

Thanks for playing and for the feedback!

Submitted(+2)

Nice space concept! It wasn't super important in gameplay, (I was mainly just spamming the button.. XD) but it's a cool idea! The art was amazing, and the music was really good too! Only problem for me was at the end of the game where the music was slightly crazy during the final stages of the boss fight. Good job! 

Developer (1 edit)

There's a bug in the Windows build where music that is supposed to fade out stacks on top of the previous track. There's a web build up on the main page that doesn't have the bug as far as I'm aware, but it also shouldn't happen if you don't go back to previously visited areas. Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+2)

Great game! Top notch sprite work & presentation. I really like the projectile ricochet mechanic too. The music seemed good but I had issues with music tracks layering & had to turn the sound off. I've encountered this with other submissions & believe it is a issue with the web player. 

Developer

Yeah, the music bug is a huge bummer. It shouldn't happen if you don't revisit previous areas, and I at least think it's less common on the web build on the main page (at least, I've never had it happen to me there). 

(+2)

I can really see the hard work that was put in this game! The title card really caught my eye. The graphics are gorgeous and the attention to detail and world building is amazing. I love the Health system! It was fun getting more health before the boss. I wish y’all the best!

Developer

Thanks for playing! Glad you had fun with it!

Submitted(+2)

One of the best looking games I've played so far. The animations are impressive.

Developer

Really appreciate it, thanks for playing!

Submitted(+2)

You guys got a very good game here, the pixelart is gorgeous, the music is amazing, the gameplay feels good and the theme is implemented in an ingenious way

I specially dig the enemy design, all of them are very different from eachother and fit the ambience very well :>

Developer(+1)

Thanks a lot for playing! Glad you enjoyed the enemy designs!

Submitted(+2)

That was a nice playthrough! The combat feels a bit finicky as it's hard to predict the paths but it was fun nevertheless!

Developer

Thanks for playing and for the feedback!

(+4)

Wow, this was fantastic to play. If you take this further, I recommend adding some bounce-angle door switch puzzles, and perhaps the ability to switch between angled up and angled down.

Love the artwork and the moody palette. Amazing all the art, music, and code was put together in such a short time frame.

Developer

Thanks a lot for the suggestions and for playing!

Submitted(+3)

Congrats on your submission!  I really dig the dark palette you chose to go with.  I did manage to beat the big boss at the end.  Well done!  I did find a bug with the audio.  At first, I didn't know how strong the enemies would be so I walked backwards to kite the white wolf looking thing and I accidentally went back to the scene that says "Go forth."  I didn't realize it at the time but the music played over the original track.  I confirmed this bug after beating the game with the two competing tracks.  I went to the screen where the music starts and back and forth multiple times.  Each time a new track starts playing while the other is already in progress.  I would imagine this would be a fairly easy fix.

Developer (1 edit) (+3)

Thanks for playing! We were aware of the audio bug, but didn't have quite enough time to fix it in the Windows build before submission, sadly. I believe it doesn't happen in the web build we link to on the main game page, though.

(+2)

Can't stop playing it!

(+3)

This is fantastic.

Submitted (1 edit) (+3)

What I liked:

The art is incredible, and its an impressive amount and quality of work done during the course of a game jam.

The music is very good and very evocative of the gameboy. 

The player controls are responsive and well tuned.

The mindflayer enemies (the ones who cancel projectiles) are a great challenge and force the player to interact with the idea of riccocheting projectiles.

What could be done better:

It often felt arbitrary what I could walk through, and what I couldn't. Backgrounds and foreground (geometry / platforms / walls) can be hard to distinguish, so I would try to run from an enemy past a pair of pillars, and one would not block my path and the other would. 

I appreciate the challenge of needing to use the bounce of projectiles rather than shoot straight, but enemies often move so fast that you are not able to hit them without taking damage in return. Other than the mindflayer enemy the projectiles felt more like an impediment than a help. Enemy design in general could use another pass.

The flashing of the projectile doesn't make it more visible, it just makes it harder to see half the time. When in its "dark mode" I would often lose track of it. 


Also, there is a crash if you go from the first screen with the werewolf back to the fist screen. 

I hope this doesn't come across as too harsh. I love the concept and the aesthetics are incredibly strong, but the gameplay just needs some refinement.

Developer(+4)

Thank you for the detailed feedback! We definitely ran up close to the deadline and had to make some tough choices about what to improve and what to leave as is. Hopefully we'll have some time to tweak some things post-jam.

Submitted(+3)

Believe me, I know how that goes, I had to do the same. I think there is something very solid to further iterate on here :)

Submitted(+3)

Love the art and enemy designs, and the main attack is really interesting to use

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing!

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 32 · Previous page · First page