Great idea for the moving mechanics !
When you get use to it you can actually do everything without touching the ground which is super cool !
Pushing is harder than grabing in my opinion. And it's also funnier to hang like a monkey !
Maybe reducing the movement of the pivot point when pushing the bar will help to make it easier to use.
I guess watching gifs you posted will have help me out in some cases.
Nice submission ! Good Job !
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One Item: Yo-Yo's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Originality | #436 | 3.991 | 3.991 |
| Overall | #825 | 3.517 | 3.517 |
| Design | #983 | 3.090 | 3.090 |
| Adherence to the Theme | #1085 | 3.468 | 3.468 |
Ranked from 111 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
The core mechanic has great potential, its versatile and fun to use. The game is pretty buggy, more direct control over the yo-yo would make this so much better and some tighter collisions are needed urgently. The level design is not too bad, once you get the hand on the controls they flow pretty well without being too easy.
Theme, you only have a Yo-yo, im on the fence about this, on one side it fits the theme, on the other is like saying "we only have one mechanic" and call it a day theme wise.
Originality in spades, the game shows untammed creativity, if the devs hone their skills more they could get pretty far making games and i hope to see more from them.
Submitted
Crystal WickThank you so much for the feedback and the suggestions! We agree that we should improve the general control over the yo-yo, overall collisions, level design, and many more. I understand your thoughts about the theme, we could have made it more clear in-game using a certain approach. Thank you so much for the originality praise! It means a lot to us.
The game definitely has potential but the controls make the game too hard and frustrating to play.
Submitted
One Jump Man (Game Jam Version)Despite the bulky controls, seemingly impossible learning curve, and loose adherence to the theme, I would say this is a very fun game that probably has the most potential out of any other submission to the jam. I had a great time learning the intricacies of the movement and am happy that I decided to stick with the game until it I beated it! Great Job!
This comment made me chuckle, where despite the negative feedback, great praise was given. We really appreciate both the positive and negative comments! We will do our best to improve the controls and the learning curve. We are happy that you got great enjoyment out of it by sticking around until the end and enjoyed the intricacies of the game! Thank you so much!
Hey, I'm sorry to hear that it didn't feel right. We really appreciate you telling us this, so that we can understand how to make it work in a future build/release. Thank you so much for the feedback! And thank you for the interesting suggestion, I see where you're making the connection with metroivanias. I'll look into it.
The way you move just feels unnatural. You should definitely work with yo-yo hitboxes and generally try improove the game, especially because the idea is interesting and definitely something new.
Submitted
BOB DOES NOT CARESorry for saying this, but this game is hard for all the wrong reasons. It's a funny concept, don't get me wrong, and I've played it several times, but it just doesn't feel right or fun to play. I've seen you guys passing around a link to a guide; that is definitely a red flag design-wise. However, it's amazing that this is your first game and managed to pull this off in 2 days. Check our game! https://cerosware.itch.io/one-stick-shooter
Submitted
One-Stick Shooter!Don't be sorry, you're right and I agree with a lot of your points. We didn't have anyone but ourselves play test the game. After we started see some people complaining about the controls we couldn't add an in-game tutorial after the submission period had ended so we made the guide for people who have had difficulties. Just because some people and myself can play the game well doesn't mean the controls are good. Bad controls can be mastered, but that doesn't change the fact they are bad controls. We know there is a lot to improve and we learned a lot. Thank you for taking the time to make a comment and critique the game. We truly appreciate it.
First of all, the game looks great! It's not easy to work with such little colour without making it visually boring. But you pulled it off. I also like that you went for something unique with the controls. Makes it stand out from other platformers. Can't really say I understand the mechanics, though. And when I overcome obstacles it often feels like it was luck rather than skill.
Overall good job! Keep it up for future jams.
Submitted
One Platform (old)Hey, thank you for the feedback! It really means a lot to us to know how to improve. On our game page, we linked this guide to hopefully help players better understand the controls and it would be great if you had a look and could tell us if it's helpful.
About luck vs skill, jvthewanderer started playing our game on hard mode, essentially, to only use the yo-yo and jumping. While it took him 4 HOURS to finish the game on hard mode, half-way through the stream, he got pretty good at it, and there were A LOT of close calls, you can watch these for yourself here. Knowing this, I'm not sure there's more luck than skill, and you can also slow down to bring the difficulty lower, and he definitely demonstrates that. Nevertheless, in some situations I do agree that it may be more luck than skill. Thank you again for taking the time to comment!
Let me elaborate on what I meant about the luck and skill. When I overcame obstacles, I rarely felt as if I overcame them because of skill. Rather, I just kept trying different things until I progressed, as I couldn't really understand the controlls or what I was meant to be doing. That isn't to say that the gameplay is about luck. Just that in my playthrough I never really felt like I progressed because I did something right. Hope you get what I'm trying to say :)
the movement mechanics in this game are incredibly unique and unusual, however i foud their execution to be somewhat subpar and inconsistent at times. The levels were pretty neat and overal your game was interesting!
Submitted
DONKBASS DRIFTERYeah, it's not what we wanted. It's expected for it to be unpolished in such a short jam. It was the best we could do, and we want to improve it and release another version after the jam is over. Thank you for the feedback so that we can make a better better game.
On our game page, we linked this guide to hopefully help players better understand the controls if they are still stuck. It would be great if you took a look and tell us if it is helpful. We optimally would have put better tutorials and level design in the game, but are unable to make these changes now.
It's a very intuitive idea and the graphics work well with the game. The controls are quite hard to get used to in the beginning but it gets better over time. I still think I dont fully get the controls. The levels were crafted well. overall good game!
Submitted
lONEly BearHey, thank you for the feedback! On our game page, we linked this guide to hopefully help players better understand the controls if they are still stuck. I hope the link helps! We didn't have enough time to integrate in-game tutorials, but we will in the future!
A very creative movement mechanic! It's a little bit janky, especially at first, but you come to expect that from a 48 hour game jam. I enjoyed my time with it all the same, even if my movement was never as flashy or successful as it was in the gifs.
Submitted
My Big ShotOnly found the last coin! :( I didn't realize what it was until the credits.
Really creative game mechanics! The hooking around in level 2 was really fun! And the rides in level 3 were as well.
Credits were really neat as well!
Good job!
Submitted
Merlin's MessTook a little bit for me to get the movement system (I got through the first level by using the YoYo as a pogo stick, not sure if I was meant to do that!) but the opening bit of level 2 with the blocks used to hang from the ceiling made it click. Maybe having a bit more of that in level one to show off the mechanic a more would help.
It was only at the end I realized the push and pull mechanics, during the credits, so possibly a segment in level one where you explicitly use that mechanic to climb to show it off and teach the player would be good. Once you know what your doing it’s a great mechanic to play with, so a tutorial to help make sense of it faster would be great. Anyway, apart from a few nitpicks, a good sold platformer and a great first game!
Submitted
Zombie GaggleThank you for taking the time to comment! We originally wanted to focus on one mechanic of the yo-yo for the first levels to act as a tutorial and then make levels that mixed all of these mechanics, but we didn't have enough time to make and test levels. We definitely want to add an in-game tutorial since we have more time now. Thank you~
Nice! Reminds me a lot of Getting Over It. Physics are a little jank, but definitely better than what I could crank out in 2 days!
Submitted
Green Guy Gang vs King GhoulThank you so much for the feedback and taking the time to comment. We realized when we were building the levels that it does kind of feel like that game, so it has a kind of influence. Do you think you can check out this guide and tell us if it's helpful for new players?
I loved the small things you could do to alter the movement of the character- the controls were simple and complex at the same time. Rly enjoyable. Love the monochrome art style as well!
Giving an extreme bias bc we're Avo faaam hehehe :D :AvoKek:
Submitted
One Card CarnageNice game! Definitely what this jam was meant to have, with good focus on the core mechanic and the platforming puzzles that it can solve. It took time to understand how the controls work exactly, and the player character is able to rotate for no real good reason, and there are a few small bugs, but overall it's satisfying to figure out how this mechanic works and play with it.
I wish that the white yo-yo rope line was consistent - I think it's better to have the cursor "wrong" than the line to the yo-yo "wrong". Also, I think the player character could be a bit smaller (or the world a bit more zoomed out).
Is the yo-yo movement-towards-cursor speed limit on purpose? I didn't like how I had to act fast and move the cursor quickly so that the yo-yo could catch up in time, but maybe it was meant as an additional skill challenge for the game.
First off, thank you for reviewing the game and leaving great feedback. It really means a lot and it helps us learn and grow.
Do you think you can check out this guide and tell us if it's helpful for new players?
We tested locking the character from rotating (and even made the yo-yo shoot from the hand), but it messed up a lot of the physics and made the game too easy. It gave the player way too much control and it felt too rigid. It didn't feel exciting or fun. We do have an idea to make the character only rotate slightly, instead of freely. That might be the perfect balance between the two, but it requires code to achieve this and we did not test it due to a lack of time.
Originally we wanted to make the yo-yo only follow the string and we almost got it working, but the yo-yo would glitch out sometimes and we didn't know how to fix it. We agree that we should adjust the camera size or change the player size, and we'll most likely make this change after the jam is over. Thank you for the suggestion.
Yes, the yo-yo intentionally moves/updates slower than the purple cursor to give a feeling of weight to the yo-yo. For the most part, the game can be played slowly and methodically. I believe that playing slower and taking your time makes the game much easier. I can play the game very quickly and it makes it more challenging for me. That is something that I really wanted to put in the game, because it adds replay value for me. It also acts as a automatic difficulty scaling, because the players will most likely play at a speed that makes it challenging for them.
Thank you again for taking the time to leave a comment and providing feedback. I hope you read this comment and can understand the amount of thought we put into the game. The current build of the game is not perfect, but is the best we could do in 48 hours.
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