Cute game. Love the achievement popups, I like how they cover both extremes of being a completionist(killing all enemies, getting all coins) as well as a speedrun/challenge run(no coins, no kills), so it really encourages you to be absolutely average, very fitting. Final boss was very clever and fun. Good job!
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UnderAchiever's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #284 | 4.125 | 4.125 |
| Overall | #595 | 3.815 | 3.815 |
| Enjoyment | #758 | 3.571 | 3.571 |
| Presentation | #1084 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
Ranked from 56 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
The role of achievements, usually positive, has been reversed so that they are something to be avoided at all costs.
Did your team create the vast majority of the art during the 48 hours?
Yes
We created the vast majority of the art during the game jam
Did your team create the vast majority of the music during the 48 hours?
No
We used pre-existing audio
Comments
Thanks so much!
Yeah, sorry about the platforming physics, we didn’t end up having time to refine them as much as we would have liked.
As for the last level, yes, it was probably a bit too hard, but here are some hints in case you want to try again:
Click here for the specific scoring details
You will win the level if you get 4 or fewer achievements, so less than 25 coins. So you can tank it a bit on the harder parts, as long as you dodge the easier phases more thoroughly.Click here for a small hint
If you go all the way to the left side after it starts, you have a bit more time to react, since the view will no longer center on you completely. However, the hardest phase is nearly impossible to dodge from the far left, see hint below.Click here for a larger hint
The super hard phase (the connected lines of bullets with a single gap) can be dodged by going back and forth between the second-from-the-top middle platform, and the small platform down two and over one from it.
You’ll need to do a little hop on the circled top platform as the coins pass by, but we found that to be easier than going up higher to a safer platform.
Yeah, unfortunately we weren’t able to put more time into tightening up the platforming physics, but it was on our to-do list, haha. It was a lot worse about 4 hours before submission, but we are still not thrilled with how the movement feels.
Fair point about it feeling cheap, both with not knowing what to do and with introducing new achievements. We tried to give slight hints about what you might have to do with the initial dialogue, but the game is definitely designed around needing to lose a few times to gain information. For the game jam we prioritized letting people see more dialogue, so we didn’t want to make it too easy to know what to do ahead of time.
Definitely a lot to think about if we decide to keep working on it after the jam, thanks for the feedback!
Thanks for the kind words! Palette swapping dad to make the uncle was originally a time-saving measure, but we’d probably keep it even if we had infinite time because we found it kind of hilarious when it was implemented.
Agreed on the feel of the controls. Tightening them up was definitely something we would have liked to do, but ran out of time for additional iterations. Believe it or not, the jumping was a lot more floaty and awkward about 4 hours before we submitted, haha.
Glad you liked it!
Here’s a hint for the third level in case you want to try again:
Third level specific hint
The achievements you can get are “Collect 5 coins”, “Finish the level without taking any damage”, and “Finish the level without killing any enemies”, so the requirement to win is to both take damage and kill the noomba, and of course collect fewer than 5 coins.
You can satisfy the first two requirements by letting the noomba hit you before you kill it.
1 year ago(+1)
Haha, no worries. We might have been wise to put some specific inner monologue text after certain types of failure, at least in the earlier levels, to make it a bit clearer. Something to think about if we expand on the game after the jam. Thanks for playing!
1 year ago(+1)
Thank you! Yeah, one of the things we liked about the game was the way it rewires your brain to dread the achievement pop-up, lol
1 year ago(+1)
Glad you liked it! Yeah, the last level definitely spiked the difficulty, but congrats on beating it!
Thanks so much!
The balancing/puzzle element of aiming for the middle ground was definitely the main gameplay mechanic we were going for, so I’m glad you liked it!
Haha, totally agreed that the final level could have been made easier. I think in a theoretical final product, it would be the final level of a longer game with a more gentle difficulty curve, but we ran out of time to add more levels and dialogue. That being said, congrats on winning on your first try! There is unique dialogue for getting no achievements on that level, but I’ve only managed that once or twice throughout playtesting…
1 year ago (+1)
Thanks so much!
Ah, we were afraid that level might be a bit too hard, but here are some tips that might help you beat it if you want to try again!
Click here for the specific scoring details
You will win the level if you get 4 or fewer achievements, so less than 25 coins. So you can tank it a bit on the harder parts, as long as you dodge the easier phases more thoroughly.Click here for a small hint
If you go all the way to the left side after it starts, you have a bit more time to react, since the view will no longer center on you completely. However, the hardest phase is nearly impossible to dodge from the far left, see hint below.Click here for a larger hint
The super hard phase (the connected lines of bullets with a single gap) can be dodged by going back and forth between the second-from-the-top middle platform, and the small platform down two and over one from it.
You’ll need to do a little hop on the circled top platform as the coins pass by, but we found that to be easier than going up higher to a safer platform.
Thanks! So, the idea was that the achievement pop-ups would include the exact goals (but they tell you what not to do, of course).
Here’s a hint for the third level in case you want to try again:
Third level specific hint
In the case of the third level, the achievements you can get are “Collect 5 coins”, “Finish the level without taking any damage”, and “Finish the level without killing any enemies”, so the requirement to win is to both take damage and kill the noomba, and of course collect fewer than 5 coins.
You can satisfy the first two requirements by letting the noomba hit you before you kill it.
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