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Speleomorph's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Design | #1 | 4.154 | 4.154 |
| Enjoyment | #4 | 3.846 | 3.846 |
| Overall | #11 | 3.558 | 3.558 |
| Metroidvania | #21 | 3.308 | 3.308 |
| Presentation | #38 | 2.923 | 2.923 |
Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Engine
none
Team/Developer
Adam Gashlin (hcs64)
External assets
Monogram font https://datagoblin.itch.io/monogram
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Comments
I'm stunned. What a curious and clever idea.
So THAT'S how tetris is REALLY played. I really feel the T-spins landing for me now.
This is an odd but clever combination of snakebird and . . . something else. Tetris? No. But still, the addition of the shape shifting mechanic is pretty cool! However, I guess I have to say that it’s not really a metroidvania. Still a good game though! Just not an action adventure. It’s more of a puzzle game.
But the biggest thing missing is some sounds. Some sort of background music would be great too. And maybe some celebratory juice when a new shape is acquired. Gotta have that serotonin hit!
Plus I was a bit confused when I first went into snake mode. I thought I had failed. Then I noticed the input prompts. So, some more explanation/tutorial would be good.
I’d ditch the undo. Or can you actually get stuck like in snakebird? Well, I didn’t think so. The only time I really “needed” it is when I fell into a chasm. For that you could just set the player back where they jumped off. But then, why have chasms? Part of the puzzle mechanic probably. Still, just “auto-undo” in that case.
So, a clever and enjoyable game!
We’d love to here your feedback about our game! So please play, rate and leave us a comment and let us know what you thought! Thanks!
What I liked:
Suggestions/Feedback
Overall, this was a pretty fun game!
Brilliance of this mechanic is at level of its simplicity. Very enjoyable mechanic and level design that can create interesting puzzles without tons of elements. Quality-of-life moments such as undo and controls display are always pleasant. Controls themselves are not very comfortable. May be it would be betteto bind form switch at QWERASDF buttons to not reach out for digits.
This was pretty solid stuff! Might do with some mouse control in the future. Feels maybe more puzzler than Metroidvania (to me) but the design of the thing is top-notch and it does definitely capture the element of those games with a large portion of exploration and progress being "now how do I get up/over there"?
As others have commented the graphics aren't necessarily the best, but they're serviceable, and the UI that conveys what's possible is fairly straightforward.
Wonderful concept. It took a bit but it was exciting to finally get a puzzle right. Still missing one or two forms, let's see when I can figure it out, ha.
And I love the retro look! The graphics are actually really charming together.
I enjoyed that more than I thought I would.
Clever game :)
I went in a square and left as so much more!
I really liked this game. It's unique and was satisfying to play. I had fun working out how to acquire the shapes (especially the last few), and using them to move along walls was really appealing in an old childhood-playing-Tangrams kind of way—also the morphing animation was satisfying especially when it happened that there was a flow of one shape to the next without needing to reposition.
It's funny to me, the control-scheme feels like one a vim programmer would come up with ^_^. I thought it worked pretty well, though I did keep finding myself wanting to switch to the arrows for the placement step instead of continuing to hit the same shape number.
I kind of agree with Cormorant that the visuals were the weakest part of the game. I wasn't bothered by them, but if there was a place to improve, that would be where I would start.
This is one of the few entries where I actually wish there a little more to explore. So many metroidvania's suffer from lots of filler rooms and areas that either just get you from one place to another, or are just there to make the experience feel vast. I love that every tile in this game is necessary and serves a part of the puzzle, I would definitely have played more without getting bored!
Overall, a stand-out experience. Great job!
You're right about vim, though I tried to avoid keys having different uses in different modes. Earlier I did have transformations positioned with arrow keys, but I found it frustrating switching between that and general movement. There's a tension, the primary mechanic, in that two different shapes can never really be in the same place -- just overlapping to varying degrees -- so the "movement" of choosing the transformation target can't always start in a neutral position so that placing the new shape feels the same as bulk movement. This doesn't seem to be a problem for red zone movement, even though the physics are considerably different, I suppose because you're still directly moving an object (the head of the line).
But yeah, weakest part of the controls is still shape selection. Thank you for playing, and for your thoughtful comment!
Ah, that makes sense. The red-zone movement still goes in the direction you press from the position of the head, but, right, the transformation positions don't map easily that way, sometimes jumping diagonally or whatnot. It's almost more like a gallery of position options would be a better way for the player to think about it. I wonder, if you went back to arrows for positioning, if it would help to have left/right indicators appear when choosing the position. It could provide a signal to the player to context switch from direct control of the piece to something more like "scrolling" through the options.
Starting with up/down might work, since it isn't used in bulk movement, and most of the time you need a transformation to extend your vertical reach. The "no neutral position" issue might be reduced if the transformation starts at some half step position according to common center of mass, rather than maximally overlapping or most recently used, so that there's nearly always least one arrow involved in choosing the position; something to try.
Another scheme: You might choose a block (with arrows) and then use the arrow to draw the new shape from there (similar to red zone), eliminating the need to look back to the catalog to pick a number. Seems more natural, but likely too many keystrokes, and going from choosing a starting point to drawing is awkward. (Edit: This would be nice for touchscreens!)
You probably wouldn't have to worry too much about which is the starting position option with either the up/down or left/right, so long as you wrap the scroll like you already do with the current scheme. I like your up/down thought and reasoning, btw.
The alt scheme you proposed also has the benefit of allowing a player to play single-handed and would map to a controller well.
I will say that I didn't mind the quick select of the number keys. It actually felt pretty natural until I was going to 7 and 8. Two keyboard rows (e.g., 1234 and QWER) might be a nice option if you kept that scheme.
Wow, that's...very, very unique. And innovative. I don't think I've ever seen any other game like this, maybe that game about snakes that won game of the year a few years ago? But IMO the unique and original gameplay was hampered by the Windows 95-era graphics. There's a time and a place for those, and I don't think this was it.
Also it struck me funny how the first few shapes you unlock are literally just different orientations of the same shape.