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How does your game fit the Magical Girl genre?
The interpretation of magical girl was kept on the looser side, however the main player character is a mystical girl lost in a distorted realm. She must use her newly acquired powers to magically propel herself through the air and even rotate the world, changing the pull of gravity itself, as she continues her search of the mysterious cat. A cat which acts as her guiding 'familiar'.
Which theme(s) do you pick?
Freedom Dive for gameplay and Recollect Lines for world design and theming.
How does your game fit those theme(s)?
The main mechanic is a dash which magically propels the girl in the desired direction. Through the use of this dash or 'dive' she is able to 'freely' explore an interconnected realm, metroidvania style. In terms of Theming the game's world is distorted as if looking into a vague dream-like recollection of reality where things just don't quite line-up to the norm.
Were the assets for your game made during the jam? Elaborate as you see fit.
I used Public Domain (CC0) sound effects and music from freesound.org and freepd.com. Everything else was made by myself during the jam.
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Comments
Cute little Metroid-like puzzle.
I like how you placed a lot of hints about the rotation, and the first time I could finally rotate the level it was very satisfying. But that mechanic becomes obsolete when you get all the power-ups (the game length is just right in that regard).
Music and sounds are nice, and the presentation is amazing! The controls work well, and the room size helped a lot to quickly overcome all the challenging parts in a fun way.
It would be cool if the game could explore the "Magical Girl"-iness a bit more though, currently it feels much more abstract.
Nice game, good job!
Thankyou for your feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed the game.
I will agree with you on the magical girl theming becoming a lot more abstract than I originally intended. I do like how the game came out, but yes, it is barely a magical girl game and I nearly didn't submit it to this jam. However as this jam was the core reason I started the game I decided to go forwards with the submission anyway.
It's a nice puzzle game. Cost me some time but I finally beat it. It's amazing that while the world can rotate to 4 direction, so far I didn't get stuck in any room. Overall I feel this game is enjoyable. Also I like the chain decoration, make the visual more dynamic.
May i know what does the blue light orbs do?
Glad you enjoyed the game.
The blue orbs extend your dash when dashed through and drastically help with navigating various rooms; this includes the ones hanging from chains. Overall, the tutorialization is a bit lacking when teaching this mechanic and is a common piece of feedback I've gotten.
Woah. I can see there's been a ton of care put into the layout of this game. It's got an interesting interwoven design that is sometimes disorienting, but in a way that becomes part of the challenge. I thought I was stuck after collecting the heart, but luckily there was this odd ledge collision that just wasn't reflected visually (pictured below).
I'm really impressed by the presentation too. From the shapey sprites to the floating particles that seem to flow in little eddies. Also great music choices!
Whoops, saved from an oversight by a misplaced collision box. I guess its as they say, two wrongs make a right.
Thanks for playing the game, I'm glad you had fun.
Yes the disorientating design was deliberately meant to be part the core challenge. I originally based the game on the 'world vanquisher' theme by designing a 'vanquished' world that lacked any logical sense of reality. However things took on a more dream like feel as I continued to work on it.
The ingame Visuals look so polished!
Im impressed of much you have achieved in this time frame.
The game is fun and sure has potencial!
Maybe im dumb, but I get lost a lot xD Often I ask myself if I have a skill issue or if I am just at the wrong room for now.
Thanks for playing the game. Yes it can get a bit disorientating, especially when a certain power comes online. Do remember you can bring up the map (tab) to check where you are.
As a tip, if you dash into the glowing orbs they extend your dash, I'll admit the tutorialization is a little sparse on this mechanic. In addition, with it being designed in the style of a metroidvania there are cases where you simply have to return later with new power ups.
Oh that's a good tipp!
I asked myself what the blue sparky things do, thought they are just beautiful.
I like this game, it's very reminiscent of Celeste without being an outright copy. I don't like that the sfx for walking are chimes which sometimes clash with the music's tonality, but this is a fairly fluid game although I'm not sure how much it relates to the theme.
Thankyou for your feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed the game. I'll agree with you on the chime's when walking, the intention was to reinforce the magical nature of the character moving through this dream like world but the sound chosen comes out a bit stronger than intended.
As for it being like Celeste, yes, just yes. I actually got the urge to play celeste for a few days halfway through making this game due to how much the game was reminding me of it.
As for the magical girl theming, unfortunately that grew weaker than intended as I started developing. The initial idea was that this was post 'deletion' of the world following the 'world vanquisher' theme. The girl character was meant to be the 'echoed' remains of a once magical girl now trying to restore order, her forgotten animal familiar guiding her spirit to restore the world again.
Overall because of how vague the magical girl concepts became I nearly didn't submit it to this jam, but without the jam's prompts I would never have made the game in the first place and I wanted to honour its origin even if that means a lower rating.