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A jam submission

M.A.R.VView game page

A puzzle platformer involving a do-it-all robot.
Submitted by DandaDev (@danda_dev) — 17 minutes, 49 seconds before the deadline
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M.A.R.V's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Enjoyment#253.4553.455
Use of the Limitation#383.2733.273
Overall#393.3413.341
Concept#413.4553.455
Presentation#523.1823.182

Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Team members
1

Software used
Aseprite, Unity

Use of the limitation
You have to use a robot called M.A.R.V to overcome challenges. This robot has multiple applications to each problem.

Cookies eaten
0 unfortunately

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Comments

Submitted

Cool little game, liked the puzzles

Submitted

I loved the sound effects

Submitted

Nice challenges. Sound, game mechanics, and tutorial all good. I might illustrate use of the Q key going forward. I read through it so fast I forgot the key. Very enjoyable. 

Submitted

I really liked the whole atmosphere of this game, and I also appreciate the level design with the diamonds for extra challenges. But the button deactivates when the player steps off of it even when the robot is on it, which seems unintentional, and there were times where i managed to get stuck in walls. It's also a bit weird that you can press space early when jumping on the ground but it doesn't really work with walljumps. But these are just minor these that didn't affect the overall game much, and the little bits of text definitely enhanced the experience. It was really cool to see how we took our games in completely different directions even though we both made puzzle platformers!

Submitted

pretty fun puzzle platformer, good level design

Submitted (1 edit)

Nice job!

I really liked how you game a little bit of time to get used to the movement before collecting the robot, since it lets the player understand your game more without giving them too much to think about right out of the gate. It can also make getting the robot feel a bit more meaningful than if you started with him. Reminds me of how Portal has a few levels before you even get the portal gun.

The level design in this game is actually really good. I liked all of the challenges that the various diamonds gave the player. They were all unique and required a bit of thinking to get their solutions, which is great for a platformer to have more thinking on the solutions vs more precision. Once the player knows how to do the solution it shouldn't be hard for the player to achieve it, and I think many of the diamonds succeed in this. Although, I do think a bit of it is taken away when the robot tells the player how to get the diamond by jumping off of them while falling, since it would feel great to figure that out. (And the player could also backtrack after they get the double jump if they can't figure it out.)

I feel like I was supposed to backtrack to get some more diamonds, since I ended up with 6/8 my first playthrough. I tried doing another run, but when I went to the spot I was likely supposed to back track (double jumping over the door controlled by the switch), I found that the loading zone for the next room was too large so I wasn't able to do so. If the other two diamonds were not back there, then I have no idea where they were.

The movement mechanics of the player being separated from them creates a really unique dynamic. You never really always have the power to double jump, especially if you are using the robot to hold down some button. I think there is a lot of room here to explore different movement types using the robot. Maybe even allow for switching out which processing the robot is capable of doing, limiting the player in what options they want to use for a level.

There are a lot of small things that this game could improve on, mostly things that you can learn over time by making games or reading about all the hidden features platformers give to the player to make it more responsive. For example the players hitbox I assume is nearly the size of the entire sprite, when many gives actually make the players hitbox much smaller than they think. This is prominent when you try to drop down and there are spikes on the wall right below you, you will hit the spikes even though you really shouldn't. The player shouldn't have to account for what the sprite looks like to dodge certain things. There are also a whole sort of features to make a character feel more responsive, (This website has great examples) but I didn't feel like this game was in need of any of them, so maybe you did implement these.

Another thing (that I have also struggled with figuring out) is buttons. When you leave a button in this game it will always un-press, even if the robot is also on top of it.  Which can make it a bit tedious to get the robot to hold a button down in small spaces, since you cannot be on it when they also get on it. A simple fix for this is: When a body leaves the button, have the button check for any other bodies within its range before it actually un-presses. If it still has overlapping bodies, it stays pressed.

This game is very good! I think this shows a lot of promise to your ability to design a game, since most of the flaws are things you usually pick up along the way while making many games.

Nice work!

Developer

Thanks you for playing and for such an in-depth reply. For the last 2 diamonds you do have to backtrack but I realized its impossible because of a gate that blocks you. The hitbox is something I realized would be an issue, I tried fixing it but it still wasn't perfect in the end. The buttons was also another major issue, it was very finnicky to get right because there would be 2 body's that can interact with it and obviously it wasn't perfect in the end. Thank you again for such an in-depth review.

Submitted (1 edit)

Nice platformer, the movement is really smooth! I hoped the player could wall-jump more than once, but I understand this adds the right difficulty to it. You did a great work, I loved the robot lol

Developer

Thank you! I really wanted to add more wall jumps or a wall jump reset but I realized I should stick with robot focused movement.

Submitted

great implementation of the illimitation really creative , although i got stuck on the second or third level , the robot won't press the bouton when i leave it on the button i dunno , maybe its just me i didnt know how 

Developer

Thank you! Yeah unfortunately the buttons were very finnicky and not perfect at all.

Submitted

Nice. The polish on all of these jam games are amazing, yours was too! Epic game I enjoyed. Have you read Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy? In it there's a robot called Marven. GG! I enjoyed it. If you have time could you rate my game?

Developer

Thank you! I haven't read it but I have watched the movie I looked up the robot in the movie and thought it was funny. Ill be sure to also check out your game.

Submitted

I liked this game! It was just the right amount of challenge for a platformer and the puzzles were just the right difficulty! Great job!

Developer

Thank you DerpiestDude!