Play game
JELLYHEAD's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Adherence to the Theme | #99 | 4.552 | 4.552 |
| Overall | #220 | 4.086 | 4.086 |
| Design | #280 | 3.914 | 3.914 |
| Originality | #597 | 3.793 | 3.793 |
Ranked from 58 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Very well made game. You know your stuff! Really liked how you teach the mechanics through gameplay. I'd love to see a full game made out of this!
Thanks so much for playing! As for making a full game out of this, I'm still working on it, so we'll see where it goes :)
Lovely use of the theme :) ! And great level design. I found it a bit hard to change the jelly's direction. Often I would just jump instead... but other than that very solid entry.
And big thanks for your awesome feedback on Life is Snot :)
Thanks a lot. I agree about changing directions. It's probably the most awkward part about the control scheme. I've been experimenting with other ideas for turning the player around since the jam ended. Thanks for playing!
Awesome game! I can tell when somebody does their game design homework :). I appreciated being taught concepts in a straightforward and clear manner. As other comments have mentioned, the only one that felt out of place was the spider. Here's what I think of that:
1) I think the first time I encountered one, I avoided it by jumping. Thus, I didn't learn anything meaningful during my first encounter with it, I just considered it a random enemy with a linear movement. I think it would've been much better to run into a spider in a constrained space in which jumping was not allowed (like a tunnel or something). That way, it'd be clear that I can run through it. You could then follow this puzzle with a long lifting platform that had one spider patrolling it. The player would have no reason to jump, so would very likely chill there until the spider killed them. This generally would be crappy because the player would die because of an untaught mechanic, but in your game, death is not really a huge punishment since you respawn in the last platform you touched, so I think this would actually work. The alternative to this is making it obvious that spiders can pierce a shield (maybe by giving them huge fangs), but then it wouldn't be clear why they don't kill you when running. Perhaps you should also reconsider the enemy being a spider at all, and look for something that made more sense visually for this mechanic.
2) The second encounter was the puzzle with the bullets and the spider was next, and when I accidentally hit the spider and wasn't killed, I was very surprised (I even thought it was a bug). Then I figured out they only kill you when on shield, but even so, there was no clear hint/feedback as of why this was happening. There's a small animation in which the shield slowly pops, but it's not very clear why. Again, the best thing may be to remove the spider for something more intuitive.
I hope these comments make sense to you, and let me know what you think. Also, I'd love to have your feedback in my game. For the real challenge, try clearing every level by shooting only once!
I enjoyed playing your game and learned lots of game design. Thanks!
Ah, I just thought of another thing. Perhaps you could take advantage of the shield being a bubble and could show the spider in the tunnel running around and piercing a bunch of bubbles. That way, the concept would be shown before the platform puzzle and the player could avoid death in order to entirely learn the mechanic.
Thank you so much for the insightful comment! That is all some really great advice on level design. I definitely want to have an enemy that punishes shielding, but I'm realizing how tricky it is to introduce such a concept to players. It's tricky, but not impossible. I will take all your feedback into consideration as I continue development. Thanks again!
Very good execution of a one button platformer. Most likely the best I played so far.
Only the collision with tiny spiders is sometimes hard to understand. I had situations where I survived whereas I hit them. From what I tested, the shield doesn't protect from them, so... I'm not sure.
Apart from that: "bon travail" !
(graphics can't be rated but they're cuuute)
yeah, I was concerned that the point about the enemies in level 2 wouldn't be communicated clearly to players. Basically, they trap you only if you're using your shield.
I'm glad you enjoyed the game! Thanks for playing.
That's...awesome! It's the best use a single button I saw, the level design is awesome all always surprising with new mecanics, didn't knew we could do so much with only one input! Awesome!
Thanks for your feedback and thanks for playing!
I played your previous games. You must have a great passion on the platform game. Me too. Its perfect on the graphics and match with the theme. Your game reminds me of my many childhood games as well. Very great on the animation and the level design~
Cool! I'm glad you've had a chance to try some of my other demos. Yes, platformers are one of my favorite genre. I get better at making them every time I design one!
I love it! I love the wacky and innovative control scheme, and also the colour scheme! Great work! I also love the sounds :P It's amazing how much you managed to accomplish with only one button! This is really impressive, good job! :D
I would also really appreciate it if you checked out my entry, Sheepherd Dog :) Thanks in advance!
Thanks for playing. I appreciate the feedback!
You're welcome! :)
Very fun and well thought. Also the graphics and sound effects are impressive if you made them on your own
I did! I drew all the artwork myself in Aseprite and I recorded all the sound effects in my basement. The player movement sounds were especially fun to make. I stirred around some freshly cooked oatmeal :)
I love the innovation :P
Great game! The one control scheme is feels tight enough (except for tap & double tap) to feel great when you start to get it. Clever ideas introduced in each level, with a lot of care to the sound and some small details. Absolutely love it !
I'm glad things feel good once you get into the swing of it, and that you enjoyed the game so much. Thanks a lot!
Very cool game, perfect use of the theme and cool design ! Well done :) Just some struggeling with the tap sometimes but nothing terrible.
I'm glad you were able to get it. Thanks for playing!
Nice use of the theme! The one button control works surprisingly well, i had just struggle with tap & double tap some times. But overall it's a very nice platformer and a great entry for the jam!
Thanks for playing! I appreciate it.
Sure! If you may like, you could check out our game too. We would appreciate it :)
https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/461977
Really smart use of the one button idea. Other than the turn around bit, the controls don't depend on your current state, so instead of watching what state you're in, you can use the exact same controls each time and that starts to have a skill feeling. The only issue I had was getting the timing down on the quick hold and then tap for a long jump from standing still vs accidentally just turning around - might be something to play with around that. This really makes you think about your controls in a new way!
Thanks for your encouragement. There's so much experimentation I can still do with the controls (I don't want to feel like everything is set in stone), and a lot of the feedback I've gotten in the comments has helped generate some ideas for that. I think the main thing that will help me improve the controls is just having people playtest the game and iterating on my original idea. I really appreciate this comment.
One of these jams I'll actually set a fake deadline 2-4 hours out out and use that time just for watching other people play and making fixes.
By the way, hook my game up with one of your epic write-ups if it tickles your fancy ;)
I love it! Definitely in my top 10. The way you introduce new elements and how it all ties toghether feels awesome. It had a lot of content for a jam scope. Music was awesome too, everything made me feel like I was playing an old-school game, it was really challenging but relaxing at the same time. Would love to see the concept applied on a mobile game, feels like it would be a good fit for it!
Thanks for your kind words and feedback! I think it would be a nice fit as a mobile game as well. I'm glad you felt the old-school vibe I was going for.
I love this idea and most of the implementation. The problem is that the game lags so much. I feel like that might be why it's impossible for me to turn around.
There are definitely some optimizations that could be made to the audio code in the game. I'm pretty sure that's responsible for any lag you're experiencing. It's also noteworthy that the character doesn't jump immediately when you tap the spacebar. This is because the game has to compute for a moment whether or not you tapped or held the button. That may have contributed to the lagginess you experienced, but that was actually intentional.
Awesome game, overall I enjoyed it, the look and feel is great, but it felt a bit frustrating when I wanted to turn around, but the slime jumped instead.
Thanks a lot for playing and rating my game. I appreciate it! Indeed, the same thing that makes this game fit the theme of the jam is also it's biggest weakness: the control scheme.
Really liked the idea and overall very good execution nice visuals good player feedback superb music nice levels my only gripe with the game is that the turn around input and jump input are to similar which made me mess up a lot. maybe make it so you auto turn around when you hit a wall just an idea though also would have liked some more fastpaced platforming section since I enjoyed those more than the puzzle ones. But these are just small things overall an amazing entry to the jam :)
So lovely!!!! I loved the art and the game feel of your game! It feels polished and has a lot of small details that brings player attention and engagement like the level complete heart animation. Its easy to learn/hard to master (excellent). The way you worked with the mechanics using only one input worked very well! Its very responsive and really easy to get going! I added to my cool games collection :D its definitively a good game reference.
Thanks for all the kind feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the game so much.
This is perfect for the Only one theme, one of the best, very smart use of only one versatile button, the level design is great, too. An d also thanks for the check points :D
Thanks for your kind words! The checkpoints felt necessary, as I didn't think that having extremely punishing deaths was a good fit for this game.
I like that you had to stop moving to use your shield. I think it would be better if you could only press space to move the player in one direction and use other mechanics to let it do different things. (For example enabling the shield when you are not running.) Because right now it's often hard to to use the spacebar for multiple things.
Design[4/5] Shielding mechanic was great, but using spacebar for moving, turning and jumping is a hassle at times. It was also unclear from the beginning that you needed to keep running through the enemies to pass them.
Theme[5/5] Only one button.
Originality[3/5] There exist a lot of one button games. Would give more if you used the environment more to jump/switch direction.
thanks for the detailed review! I definitely considered just removing the ability to turn around by double tapping spacebar and adding puzzle elements that turn you around throughout the level. I didn't come up with that idea until too far into development, though.
All of this feedback is helpful. Thank you!
Great stuff! You really got everything you could out of that mechanic!
I thought the sliding enemies were fine because there was an example above though I did die a few times :D
Yeah, I was hoping the visual example at the start of the level was enough to demonstrate how to stay safe, but I think it's fine to kill the player a few times to teach the mechanics of the game (so long as death isn't punished too cruelly). Thanks for playing and thank you for the feedback!