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A jam submission

ZenaView game page

Low rez flip-screen action platformer
Submitted by dancramp — 2 hours, 48 minutes before the deadline
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Zena's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Authenticity (Use of resolution restriction)#514.6824.682
Overall#543.9943.994
Graphics#604.0684.068
Audio#753.6823.682
Gameplay#853.5453.545

Ranked from 44 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Did you work in a team?
On my own.

Was the resolution a challenge?
I wanted to make a game for the res rather than shoehorn a game intended for a higher res into a lower one. So all sprites are essentially 4x4. This made making things recognisable very difficult!

What did you learn?
Manjaro is awesome for game dev! I've not used linux seriously before but am now a fully signed up member of the linux crowd!

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Comments

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 25 · Previous page · First page
Submitted

Great! Great job conveying the character in such a small sprite.

Developer

Thanks for playing and the comments!

Submitted

This is a super-cute platformer. Level design is excellent! Controls are solid and the difficulty is progressive. Well done! The only point I can make is that the respawing at the point of death makes it hard some continue sometimes since one may spawn right next to an enemy. Happened many times having to restart the game because of that. Otherwise, an excellent entry.

Developer(+1)

Thanks! Yeah, completely agree, To start with I wanted to give 1 life and respawn at point of entry to the room, but I ran out of time...

Submitted

A good game for sure! The dificult and level design are very well done. 

Good job, dude!

Developer

Thanks for the nice comments, and thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed it!

Submitted

Wow you show with how low of a pixel number you can still create expressive characters :) Very nice good atmosphere and gameplay! I just felt that the one pixel that is part of the main characters ponytail was also part of the collider..... which sometimes made jumping unnecessarily difficult....

Developer

Thank you! Yeah, the collider may have been a bit bigger than it should have been. It's probably just a tad too difficult which needs improvement! Cheers!

Submitted

When it comes to making maximum use of pretty minimal space, you kicked butt and took names here. And it was fun to play, too! 

Developer

Thank you very much! The intention was to downsize all the sprites to make max use of the res, so am glad that worked!

Submitted

Very good graphics and level design, the game is difficult and very complete, it feels very solid, I liked it although I have not been able to find all the crystals

Developer

Thanks for playing! I think I need to so some work on the difficulty.

Submitted

I love how much level you were able fit into a single screen and still have things be recognizable (and looking good!). I liked the challenge and was able to get all the orbs, not in a single run unfortunately. ;)

Only complaint is that I had one or two instances were things felt a bit unfair. I fell from one screen into the next right into an enemy that I couldn't have seen coming, for example.

Developer

Well done for getting all the orbs! Thanks for the feedback and completely agree with you. I didn't playthrough enough before submitting so there are a few issues with enemy placement and stuff I think.

Submitted

very very impressive usage of the tiny resolution here! This one more than most does not feel like a specifically low-rez game. you were able to fit a lot on the screen!

Great little platformer! Nice work!

Submitted

very very impressive usage of the tiny resolution here! This one more than most does not feel like a specifically low-rez game. you were able to fit a lot on the screen!

Great little platformer! Nice work!

Developer

Thanks, very kind of you! I'm glad that part of it was a success as was a key aim for me! Cheers!

Submitted

I liked the graphics and the platforming felt very tight. The only thing I felt was missing was a knockback when hit by enemies or spikes. The lack of a knockback and making the player sprite dim when being attacked made it a little difficult to recover safely. Other than that, cool entry!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for this! Good point - something I'll definitely look into. The dimming of the sprite also isn't visible enough I think. Will look into it! Cheers!

Submitted

This game is very fun! As others have said, it is quite difficult. Some of the jumps require you to be on the very last pixel of the ledge before jumping to be able to make it. So I would maybe just shorten some of the gaps a bit. Otherwise it made very good use of the resolution, gameplay was accurate and responsive, and music was great!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for this! Yeah, totally agree and a few comments about it! I wanted to make it quite hard (playing a lot of classic retro games lately), but took it too far... The res isn't very forgiving! Cheers!

Submitted

really well done! My only critique would be it's difficulty - jeez some of those jumps are really tight! some of the traps feel a little unfair as well with many spikes or enemies surprising you as you change rooms. Liked the music, graphics were simple but effective and controls felt responsive.

Developer

Thanks for playing and the feedback! Yeah, I think you're right. I didn't have a chance to properly play through before submitting and so there are a few issues with the jumps and enemy placement. I'll look into it for an update! Thanks!

Submitted

Beautiful music, cool gameplay and surprises (when you think that if you fall down, you will die, also is it possible to get that heart in the room to the far right?), stunning sprites despite their tiny size.

I would just add some shading to the platforms you can jump through, probably make them brighter.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, it is possible, but really difficult (more difficult than I intended...). You are right - there isn't enough variation with the jump through platforms, making them brighter a great idea! Cheers!

Submitted

The game was fun despite being super tough! I love the graphics, taking the 64x64 constraint to the extreme but still very readable and expressive. Fantastic job !

Developer

Thanks! Really glad the resolution worked! That was my main aim so I'm happy that worked!

Submitted

Took me 2 try's to make the imputs work.
That said, gorgeus! You really nail the small resolution :D !!! 

Developer

Wow, thanks so much! Glad the small resolution worked for you! Sorry for the issue with the inputs! Really need to sort that out with an update...

Submitted

Excellent platformer, good level design!

Developer

Cheers! Glad you liked it!

Submitted

So much with so little. Awesome work.

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted

Excellent excellent sprite art. Nice to see sprites that were made for the low resolution instead of forced into it (blurry). The music and sounds fit right in. When you die you start all over, but it looks like care was put into where extra hearts and arrows were placed.

But man, this game is punishing! My main complaint is that when a player takes damage they almost immediately take damage again. In a game where hearts are precious this aspect is maddening. I lost two lives nearly every time I took a long fall into some spikes.

At first I was annoyed with there being some especially difficult jumps towards the beginning, but honestly, it's better the player gets used to extremely difficult jumps early on versus later. 

And I didn't have any issues with inputs. I'm using Vivaldi, which is Chromium-based, so I assume Chrome and Edge also work fine.

Developer

Thanks so much for the feedback! Yeah, I didn't really have time to play test properly and have been playing some hardcore retro games recently which probably had an adverse influence on me!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

I FIGURED OUT WHY INPUTS DON'T WORK: (i think)
If you click the sides of the game, inputs (and potentially audio) will stop working. Going to a new tab may also make inputs not work anymore except for left click. Note that I'm running Firefox.

Anyways...

This game looks great, love the pallete choice and the clean visuals. I love the no outline style here. Music is pretty nice too.

A small detail that I really appreciate; I love how the shooting things on the first few screens sync up with the music. I could actually time my fall to the music, and I wouldn't get hit.

I did have some issues with gameplay; when I died I was sent back to the beginning.  Then I have to retrace all my steps again. This, combined with the slow movement speed, made it kinda tedious to traverse the world.

Developer(+1)

Hey! Thanks for the feedback! The clicking to the side of the game thing is odd, think I need to rethink my input methods! 

Totally agree with the restarting at the beginning - this is an aspect of retro games I really dislike and encourages me not to play anymore! I had intended save points scattered around but didn't get round to it. Will aim to include those in any update I do - particularly if it has a larger map!

Thanks!

Submitted

Really beautiful game! I love your animations and Itch page layout. I can't seem to send inputs to the game when using Safari on macOS. Worked with Firefox. 


Developer

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I've noticed a few more issues with the inputs as well. It worked perfectly before uploading to itch... Looks like I need to work on a different way for mobile controls!

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 25 · Previous page · First page