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Port-a-Scale's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #120 | 4.100 | 4.100 |
| Overall | #234 | 4.060 | 4.060 |
| Style | #349 | 4.260 | 4.260 |
| Creativity | #888 | 3.820 | 3.820 |
Ranked from 50 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 Port-a-Scale gun changes the size of various objects
Development Time
96 hours
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Comments
I was playing this just as ratings ended, this was my favourite game of the jam 😭
Amazing work, can't beleive how much you got done in such a short time, I hope you'll continue with it.
Wow, this game is so awesome! I love the idea of scaling a crossbow so big it basically shoots logs. Also, the art style and presentation is wonderful. Very well put together, keep it up!
Fun game! Fox becomes smol! Me likey
The was quite a fun game, loved the fact that the big objects begin being effected by gravity!
This is a pretty solid puzzle! :) Not only is the level-design concise and smart, the mechanics are also rich and provides some neat surprises. It's never really hard, but always pleasant to solve. I also liked the art on the main character, and its tiny and bug variations. This is a really well done entry!
This is a fantastic entry! The gameplay was solid, and it was very polished. I liked how many different things there were to scale and how many different ways there were that they interacted. Each puzzle introduced a new idea; nothing felt redundant. I did get stuck for a while on level 9, and I actually skipped it originally. I hadn't thought about [puzzle spoiler; third parties stop reading] projectile travel time until level 11, which I think helped make that concept obvious, and then I immediately went back and solved 9. Maybe the levels could use a re-ordering? That's a very minor complaint, though, and you did an incredible job!
Really lovely art and sound! I admittedly had trouble getting past some of the puzzles and gave up partway through (before the mirrors that everyone else seems to be talking about), but I'm assuming this is partially because puzzles are not necessarily my strength 😂 It felt like a super polished entry overall!
VOD https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2232321302
VERY enjoyable puzzle game, very enjoyable difficulty scaling, very good puzzle design, very cool mechanics!
That's it. I got nothing. Except that box that phased through reality and clipped into the ground. That might need fixing. Everything else ruled.
very very very good looking game! the graphics are amazing, the puzzles are fun, and the movement is smooth. great game :D
I really enjoyed the visuals of this game. Drawing all the different sizes of objects by hand and not letting the engine do the scaling itself was a great bit of polish that I appreciated.
The way the game explores it's mechanics is very thorough. When I first saw the mirror, I thought "I hope you can scale yourself with those at some point too" and the game followed through, which made me real happy!
I feel you struck a nice balance between all of the different scales and their pros/cons. Many of the "scale objects" type games in this jam I feel fall in this pit where the middle sizing doesn't really serve a distinct purpose, however in Port-a-Scale, I felt the middle size served a rather distinct role.
I enjoyed that you changed the way items behave on a far more interesting way than most (the way that ballista bolts start dropping down if they are big was great).
My only criticism is that the ray gun bullet was really small which made timing some of the shots a bit more difficult than I feel a puzzle game such as this needed. Of course you could lean into it and make the ray-gun more of a platforming tool, but even then I feel the bullet itself could have a bigger hitbox in relation to the player.
All in all, great work! Definitely one of the highlights of the games that interpret the theme as "making objects big and small".
PS: I encounter a bug where a box fell on my head and caused me to clip through the floor. Nothing too bad, considering you can restart the level, but still wanted to fill you in.
Thank you so much for the detailed review!
Having the objects drawn at each scale was basically essential for me, since when pixel ratios are off it bugs me a lot... But it definitely became a lot of work to animate each size the player, ballista, and arrows.
I'm glad a lot of people got the hopes met with scaling the player, I wanted to have a sense of "oh, I bet / hope I can do this", then fulfilling that.
I did try to have each scale serve a purpose, and I do still think there needs to be some more things that makes them more distinct or useful. Making the player gain different attributes was fun, but i definitely made the small player a bit too op with its size, which made puzzles harder to design...
I've already started work on a post jam patch that'll fix some of the weird hitbox size decisions I made, and the scale projectile was one I increased, since it doesn't do any harm being larger.
a neat little puzzle game. I really like the environments and the art for the game. It clearly shows that a lot o polished had been put into this game and it certainly pays off in my opinion.
The puzzles are relatively managable with each level introducing a new mechanic which is wise for a jam game. although I am not a fan of puzzles that require some percision when it comes to aiming and jumping. But overall a great game for the jam.
Also the music is just *chefs kiss
I will definitely need to go back and reduce some of the precision needed with some of the levels, since some of them are pretty demanding for newer players, compared to me who has been playing the game for 4 days.
I definitely got lucky with the music I found for this one :)
This game is an absolute gem!! The mechanics are truly engaging. I particularly like the fact that the gunshot affects almost every element on screen (the mirrors are the best!), this really enhances the gameplay and allows for very clever puzzles. I'd love to play some more levels! :)
Thank you! I really wanted the player to be able to scale a lot of the objects, but had to have some sort of limit on it to prevent just scaling the gates and such. I considered an idea like Braid does where certain objects can sometimes not be affected by the scaling.
The second it got to the part where I found the mirror and shot myself I was sold. This game had a ton of polish for a jam game and that really made it special. Also the music was great. I think the level design had a lot of great discovery for the player. My only piece of feedback is for harder puzzles, like the one where you need to shoot the cross bow bolt in motion, maybe make an alternate route. Puzzle games that have a short difficult way and a long easier way would be a great balance. Then players who really want to get the timing to shoot a bolt in motion can, but players who can't nail the timing can still progress. Honestly that is the only piece of feedback I can think of, excellent job!
I'm glad you enjoyed it, I really tried to make some fun moments when the player realizes they can scale certain things.
Hitting the arrow mid air has definitely been a problem puzzle for a lot of people, even though I think people often do it the harder way (hitting the arrow while big and turning it small, instead of turning a smaller one big) Ill make sure to take a look at it to see if I can make it less demanding yet still the same idea.
The puzzle design is really good, I had lots of "aha" moments. Also, I'm totally stealing the technique you used to animate the banners next time I'm drawing something like that.
I really tried to focus on the "aha" moments, so im glad that they worked! And once you learn that drawing flags / banners / capes is basically just passing a wave through, it makes it so much simpler
This game is great! As soon as I saw the mirrors I was like this game better let me hit myself and you absolutely delivered lol, excellent job!
Thank you! I did want the player to theorize throughout the game if they could size themselves, and then when they could for it to be a satisfying moment.
Excellent game! Not much to say other than that! Everything looked and felt so good and the puzzles were simple but challenging. I did not really enjoy having to change the arrow size mid-air though, that doesn't seem to work well with the rest of the game. But that's a super minor thing.
Wow, I love seeing a response from you, I've followed a few of your tutorials and you have revolutionized Godot for me.
Changing the arrow mid flight is definitely a more demanding puzzle timing wise, but everyone I've seen tries to do it the harder way by making the heavy arrow small, instead of scaling a normal arrow to be heavy and falling onto the target. I'll likely look to see how I can make it simpler, but I can do that for a lot of levels.
I'm glad you enjoyed the game :)
Well polished, beautiful art, clever puzzle, some unique Aha moments. Very solid entry here.
the arrow level that i had to scale while in air was tricky (not sure if that's the answer for it but it worked :D)
spoiler (when i knew that the player is also scalable, then when i knew bullets get gravity, it was a big ahaaa moment)
Well done! Good luck! ^^
Thank you! I do like some of the "aha" moments I managed to create, like the falling projectiles since the level sort of guides you to the solution. My favorite one is becoming small and just running underneath the gate.
This is one of the best I tried, nice music, nice sfx, nice art style, solid everything
what is really selling this for me is the level design, IS THIS REALLY MADE IN 4 DAYS CAUSE WOW, you took the simplest idea and made it shine so brightly, so many mechanics and ideas that happen because of the level design, shooting arrows midair? getting big so your shots are heavier? this is all creative and fun!.
this is all great for a jam game, the attention to detail is great, soft locked myself a few times, was extremely happy because of the restart button, I CAN FEEL THE EXPERIANCE BEHIND THIS GAME.
Would have loved some minor sfx and music changes when player or objects are in a different sizes, lower pitch on heavier player, small screenshakes on heavy jumps or heavy arrows falling, faster music and higher pitch sfx on small player especially since you made the actual player faster, but honestly this is knit picking
IF YOU ARE MAKING A POST JAM VERSION ILL BE WAITING FOR IT, THIS IS GOOD.
Wow, thank you for the extensive review. I am surprised I was able to hammer all these levels out in one day...
I've definitely have gotten a lot of experience in making game jam puzzle games, and I've mostly learned that making something simpler is most of the time going to be better. I also got pretty lucky with this mechanic, since it worked very well within a puzzle setting. You know you got a good concept when making levels isn't too hard. But, I was scraping for some ideas near level 14 and 15.
I love your idea of changing effects and sounds when the player is different sizes, and I'm honestly surprised I didn't think of it, since I made the ballista sound change pitch depending on size.
I do plan on having at least a post-jam update, there are a lot of small bugs that can really effect the game experience.
Very good game!
Cool little game! Nice creative mechanic and outstanding art style! Very good!