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Hamsterwell's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Controls | #5 | 4.135 | 4.135 |
| Fun | #5 | 4.096 | 4.096 |
| Accessibility | #5 | 3.846 | 3.846 |
| Overall | #7 | 3.931 | 3.931 |
| Audio | #10 | 3.923 | 3.923 |
| Graphics | #14 | 4.365 | 4.365 |
| Originality | #25 | 3.865 | 3.865 |
| Theme | #84 | 3.288 | 3.288 |
Ranked from 52 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Godot Version
4.2.2
Wildcards Used
None
Game Description
A precision platformer with a puzzle mechanic about a hamster down a well
How does your game tie into the theme?
Wishing wells are a common part of folklore
Source(s)
No, but source may be released
Discord Username(s)
hatmix muskets poscefennick shatteredreality bmo.green rotongolo manukama01 msamanthae
Participation Level (GWJ Only)
2
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Comments
Awesome game!
This does everything I wanted to achieve and more, great job!
Thanks for submitting your game to the stream! If you wanted to look at it again in the future heres the vod timestamped to your game
ok so first of all i loved it, spent way more time then i thought i would on it. so amazing job!
funny thing that happened was i went back to the forest level after clearing it and the coins spawned back so i just took a few and had 9 and when i went to the door the end level started but the dialogue wouldn't start plus i missed out on the entire third level lol
wouldn't know that if it wasn't for the video you posted.
i loved the mechanics and found myself really really engaged with the game. this could be a really fun full release!
Hi! Glad you enjoyed it and sorry you hit those issues. The coins respawning is listed in the known issues on the game page, but it’s quite far down the scroll. You’re the 2nd report of the end dialogue not starting, but we haven’t been able to recreate it. (Assuming you were playing on web) could you let us know your browser version?
Really cool puzzle game, well polished on all the mechanics and with cool level design ! The hamster is super cute and environments are really pretty. Great job !
I love puzzle platformers. The best game I've tested in this jam so far. And I played it all the way through (:
Fantastic in every way.
Oh wow, such a clever game mechanic. I had to scratch my head a couple of times to get out of some spots. lol
Great game, elegantly executed. Awesome!
P.S.
I think I got myself stuck here once unless I'm missing something. Couldn't get out at all...
There’s a video playthrough linked on the game page which shows start to finish! That room starts at 117s (in case the link get broken) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkmBn9itV_s&t=117s :)
Ahh... nice. Thanks!
I got stuck at the same location, otherwise the tutorial levels were flawless
I like the concept of limited movement! I liked being able to upgrade my abilities as I go along, and I like the sound effects adn the VFX for the actions the hamster can use. I also like the intro cut scene I think it was adorable and well crafted! I like the design of the itch page as a whole it was a very nice touch. It was quite frustrating when I reached the glider room and could not figure out any button movement to get it to activated it. I was disappointed as I was excited to see the rest of the game. Nevertheless, great game overall!
Thank you very much for your feedback, the key for gliding is shift, by default. You can change the controls in the settings if you want. Probably, we are going to add the controls for the game in the description, so others don’t get stuck searching the key. We are very glad you enjoyed our game so far <3
Sorry the controls weren’t clear! You can change them in game and here are the defaults.
I liked this game a lot so I came back to try it again. I managed to get past the green section now that I knew the glider button. I think it was satisfying when I was finally able to solve the puzzles, and when I finally had more freedom of movement. The gradually increased difficulty having to carefully ration more moves is great.
Some nit-picky stuff (things I struggled with): There were some puzzles which required jumping through the totem as seen in the gameplay video which I struggled a lot with. I think it required too precise an input and was a bit too tedious to do. (Either making the totem more sensitive or larger might help?) The sudden movement of the screen for puzzles which required crossing the boundary mid jump was a bit disorienting as well. I think more checkpoints after each little platforming trick would be nice to prevent unecessary repetition. Having the jump button as W felt a bit uncomfortable at times, as I would hit space trying to jump by mistake lol. In the end I got soft locked in this room, having taken the wrong path with no way to back track up to the previous section, and not enough energy to move forward:
Nit-picky stuff aside (which I hope you don’t take too badly), I really loved this game from the mechanic to the art style, the fantastic level design to the little idle poses that the hamster does. The whole game feels really polished, an incredible experience overall. I’m glad the playthrough video was up so I could see the ending, and I would love to see an extended version if you ever made it.
All the best for the jam!
The collision box for the totem/player interaction is small, but there’s also a hidden 1-second cooldown on the totems. While this was intended to prevent vfx spam, it confuses players and causes missed energy refresh for no apparent reason. It will get fixed when we can update the game again.
Glad you enjoyed the game and we really appreciate your detailed feedback!
I like that the music evolves, and the art is very cool!, the level designs are good, but I got to a part where I had to restart to pass it, I don't know if it is the expected behavior, but when I restart the coins are saved and the energy counter obtained.
Nice work! :D
Thanks for the feedback! I had a lot of fun trying to wrap my head around how to make the music progress properly. Hoping to learn how to make it even smoother next time :) The restart function definitely isn't waterproof but necessary for some small bugs.
very nice story -tutorial but I got stuck after only 2 coins... i did not see a way to go from there when i dash from statue it take both of my energy balls and i have no way of jumping to get the energy or leaving the room. Nice platformer game anyway!
Thanks for playing! There is a difficulty option in settings you can change, if you want to explore. (I had to implement this to be able to test the game, since I am not very good at precision platformers!) I hope we will post a playthrough video soon so anyone who gets stuck can see the solution if they want.
I have made the playthrough: Video Hope you can give it a second try <3
Took a while to learn, but you just need to time your dash through the totem in a way that it refunds the energy mid-dash. That way you have enough energy to jump up after.
Wow! Very cool! I really enjoyed this game; it's really up my alley. I got to the 6 coin area before I got hopelessly stuck. Some of the jump puzzles are quite tough! At times I felt like I was solving it in some unintended way by abusing screen transitions to refill energy (like getting the 5th energy in the green area; I came from the room on the left by coming from below).
I might come back and try to complete it some time, but I worry about wandering around aimlessly. Also I found a way to get stuck in the 6 coin area right off the bat. Was I supposed to only have 5 max energy in there?
Hi! It's nice to see that you enjoyed It! As the tutorial says, when you change rooms you restore Energy so screen transition puzzles are intended :)
The game can be completed without getting stuck. If you find It too difficult or somehow a softlock is found you can either restart the level from the pause menu or enable the easy mode (also from pause menu - settings) This being said, from every Energy pickup to the next there is no softlock and it is possibile, although it is quite difficult at times. Remember: screen transitions, movement through totems, dash, midair Jump, glide. Have a nice day and thank you for playing and for the feedback! :)
very cool mechanics
Wow, yall managed to cram a ton of content into this game! I started to struggle abit once I got to the glider and acid pools, but I gotta say I really enjoyed playing this game. Having your energy reset from either the statues or the level edge made for interesting energy management puzzles that I enjoyed.
Nice work!
Very fun puzzle mechanics and well designed.
Holy crap, you did this in a week!?
I -love- the energy system. This reminds of like Celeste meets Animal Well.
I had a lot of fun playing it. Admittedly I switched it to easy when I got to the red area, it became a bit too challenging lol.
Everything about it was 10/10 though!
Thanks for playing and I’m glad you had fun!
Well, it felt longer than a week. But the git log says it was just 9 days. We had a big team of mainly artists and a bunch of us worked on it full time. Using source control definitely helped us go faster, although not everyone was comfortable using it, which is fine. I’ll write a devlog about the process soon.
That would be awesome. :) You all did an amazing job!
Here you go! https://hatmix.itch.io/gwj70/devlog/755101/building-hamsterwell
Very nice! I got stuck at the part where it said "Enter", I wasn't sure what to do there. But very cool entry nonetheless, very well executed.
Very very VERY cool!!!! Yall did amazing work in the short time we had. <3 <3 <3
Man! This was REALLY good! I didn't beat it yet, but this is a contender for the winner IMO. Only thing is that the theme doesn't seem very strong.
Very good, but I didn't manage to pass the green area after getting the glider.
Thanks for playing! There is a difficulty option if you’d like to try without the puzzle mechanic.