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A jam submission

Shape EscapeView game page

Escape the cave with the power of your shapeshifting
Submitted by DarkWolf Studios — 1 day, 14 hours before the deadline
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Shape Escape's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Design#263.0513.200
Enjoyment#272.8603.000
Metroidvania#282.9563.100
Overall#332.8132.950
Presentation#532.3842.500

Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Engine
Unity

Team/Developer
DarkWolf Studios

External assets
Tiles, Coins, Background art and sound

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Comments

Submitted (1 edit)

I escaped with 48 coins! This is an interesting design, lots of potential for puzzles and I enjoyed most of the ones there. I think with some tweaking it could be a really fun game. Here's some analysis and suggestions, please take this as constructive criticism.

Movement accelerates instantly, even when turning around, and it takes a while to stop rolling, so coming to a stop to stay on a platform is hard. It also makes the shape levitate off a slope if you move downhill. I'd look into making movement accelerate the character instead of instantly setting the velocity. At the same time the top movement speed seemed too slow, and the gravity a bit too low.

I'm not sure how much of this was intended, but it seemed like shape sometimes just wouldn't jump when I pressed the button, especially the non-circle shapes. Maybe these leave the ground even when they seem to be rolling because of the edges?

I kept getting confused which blocks would let only one shape through and which would block only one shape. There was one place (the yellow platform just before the 25 coins door) where the platform appeared and disappeared depending on your current shape, consistently doing that might have helped. Another possibility: If a block doesn't allow a shape to pass through, show that shape crossed out (like a "No Smoking" sign).

I'm not sure how the "25 coins" door is supposed to work. When I first saw it I assumed I needed to get 25 coins to pass through it, but once I had 25 coins it blocked me. Not sure if it would have blocked me if I tried it earlier. After I died I went back with < 25 coins and got through, leave the bonus coin area still with < 25 coins; later I came back with > 25 coins to check if it would block me again, but it just let me through. Maybe this got into a weird state after respawning, or maybe it only blocks you with exactly 25 coins, if the latter that makes little sense.

There seems to be exactly one place you can die. Given that there was a blind fall earlier this felt unfair, especially since it completely resets progress. I almost gave up after I fell for that.

It's occasionally irritating to need to switch to another shape family first to "downgrade", such as to switch from the heavy square to the normal square, or from the white circle to the yellow circle (in order to pass through a white block).

After playing all the way through I still couldn't choose shapes without deliberate thought. Does the onscreen layout S,E,W correspond to some keyboard layout? It definitely doesn't match with QWERTY.

You almost lost me on the sequence of jumps near the end where you have to keep switching shape, sometimes in midair. (Not the ramp, that was fun enough, when I was able to make the square jump.) When I would mistakenly make the switch before jumping, I'd begin to fall, and I'd have to flail trying to find the right shape to catch a platform. This was probably just the right amount of difficulty, but it'd be easier if the shape selection was more natural.

Submitted

This is an interesting game. It’s got some elements of metroidvania, but, as you say is more of a puzzle platformer. Some enemies might have changed that around. Even ones that don’t react to the player but are more like moving hazards could have flipped this into metroidvania territory. But, by the sound of the background music, we’re going for something more relaxed.

I’d say the one thing that would improve this game the most is the controls. They’re floaty and sluggish. Tighter controls would also allow for some timing challenges too perhaps.

I fell into a chasm and had to restart. This detracted from the enjoyment and I actually stopped playing at this point. I didn’t see any save spots in the game. I would either add some of those, or just return players to a previous position when they fall into a chasm. Otherwise players will think your game is unfair.

Our game is decidedly less relaxed. But we hope we didn’t make it too difficult. We would love to get as much feedback as possible about that and anything else players think about our game! So, please give our game a try and let us know what you think! Thanks!

★ Enjoyment: 4/5

The game is fun, but there are parts that I'd like the shape to jump but the game won't let me

★ Design: 5/5

The usage of barriers and platforms depending on what shape you are using is quite creative and actually kinda neat

★ Presentation: 4/5

Simplistic and has its own charm.

Submitted

OH MY GOD 😂 i never knew playing with basic shapes would be so much fun

its like playschool but at an advanced level XD

there is nothing extraordinary with the graphics or the sound or anything like that but the level design 👌 amazed with the design of the game. 

great job!!!!! <3

Submitted

Pretty much everything dan collins said below. It's a bit sluggish, but fit the calmness of the piano track. I got quite far and then died and had to start completely over, which was a bit of a downer. Some kind of checkpoint system would have been great.

As you said, time was the real killer here. A little more haptic feedback (sound effects etc.), maybe a little faster movement, and more than one song and this would have made this so much better.

Submitted

I've actually seen this same concept a couple times in this jam, and, I'm sorry to say, the others did it better :/

Developer

thank you for the feedback 

Submitted

I'm truly sorry it couldn't have been more positive, I really mean it.

Developer

do you mind letting me know what is so bad about the game?

Submitted (1 edit)

Nothing's truly bad, it just isn't as creative as other submissions have been with the theme of "shape-shifting", in the context of switching between geometric shapes. There's one that's very similar to this--switching shapes to escape a cave--in which the different shapes are the main approach to solving puzzles themselves, where in yours the shapes hardly matter...platforms, gates, and walls only appear or disappear based on what shape you're playing as. In your game, you could replace the shapes with any other graphic--like playing Super Mario 64 as Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, etc., whereas in the other one the shapes themselves are an integral part of the game.

As I said--your concept isn't bad. Super Mario 64 is obviously a very good game, and that's why I used that comparison--this game could be successful if it weren't being compared to a different one.

Another game sees you switching shapes in order to attack enemies: you can move and jump as a square, but you take damage. You can only dash forward as a triangle, but you deal damage to enemies and walls. You have to alternate between them in order to complete levels.

That game is roughly the same as yours except for one key aspect: the logic for how different shapes alter the game. In yours, the different shapes themselves act as "keys" to various "locks", except you only have to switch to a different shape in order to "unlock" that shape's gameplay. There's another step of interactivity in the other one: if you just switch to a triangle at a random part in the level, nothing happens--you dash forward, and then turn back into a square. You need to target your dashes at breakable walls and enemies in order for them to be effective. It's not an automatic change, it's one that the player has to do themselves.

So that's why I said that other games have done better with this theme (granted, I was also exhausted from a long day at work at the time, and in hindsight I probably shouldn't have been as harsh with it). Does that explanation make sense?

Also be aware that these are my own personal evaluations of the games in this jam. Anyone here can disagree with me, and that's okay.

Developer

thank you for the clarification, I personally did take offense with the first statement at the beginning, however the long comment makes up for it and I would love to know the names of those games so I can give them a try. I worked on this game alone and it was my first time using unity so I definitely hope to improve the game over time, I mean when I first submitted the game I had absolutely no sound or music but quickly got a comment saying you definitely should add sound so I crunched hard to find some sounds that worked and added them.  I look forward to giving your game a try later this weekend ,the comments make it seem really good.

Submitted

Oooooh let's see. One was Speleomorph (here) -- that's the one where changing shapes is the main puzzle-solving mechanic -- and then Shapeshift Shatter (here) -- that's the one with the triangle dash.

Props to you for doing what's necessary to improve! And, again, sorry that I came off so strongly at first :/ my bad lol

Submitted

I quite enjoyed this game. The music made it relaxing and something about the square rolling around was appealing to me right away. I think the puzzles are well thought out and discovering what the secondary abilities could do was cool.

My biggest gripe was with the controls. The feeling of rolling along was nice—for some reason the inertia felt good to me here—but the jumps were where the gameplay becomes frustrating. It felt like it would often have a hard time detecting whether the shape was grounded or not, so I'd often not get a jump from keypress because the shape had just bounced off the ground slightly.

Overall a  pleasing, slower-paced experience compared to many of the typical actiony types pf submissions.

Submitted

Using the different shapes was a lot of fun, especially with the jumping puzzles at the end.

I had a lot of problems understanding that there are shape upgrades that can do different things. Maybe you can either intergrate something into the game that can communicate this better or mention that those shape upgrades have special abilities.
Also, the jump seems to not work all the time. Not sure if you work with rigidbody velocity, raycast or something else, but it is really buggy and was a bit annoying when I wanted to jump over a pit.

Anyway, lovely level design and what an achievement to build such a game on your own in such a short timespan! As said, big respect to you and I can't wait to see some more level designs from you in the future ^-^

Developer

I used Velocity for the jumping I definitely wish I knew more on how to mess with the movement using velocity but I am super glad you had fun. If you want to check the game out again I added some sounds to make the game feel better with feedback to the player.

Submitted

Just had another playthrough and the sound does a lot! Feels way more immersive now ^^ If I may suggest one more sound: When the timer of the electric doors runs out, maybe add a sound like a big door closing? Else I really like how you implemented the sound, works perfectly.

Submitted

Oh, and adding to my other answer: Now that I've had my fair share of playthroughs, your game fits perfectly for speedruns. If you ever find the time for this game again or even a sequel, maybe add a timer and/or show the playtime at the end. Unity has a simple function for getting the playtime!

Submitted

What I liked

  • I like that you went with the optional theme (I also went with shapeshifting).
  • Each shape had their own limitations and uses.


Improvement/Suggestions/Feedback

  • Unless you make your more accessibility friendly, sound is pretty critical in providing feedback to the player. Even if you just hastily made sounds for jumps, collection coins, and powerups, that would improve your game a lot. In general, visual and auditory feedback to the player enhances their experience and also helps prevent themselves from asking questions like, "am I even hitting this enemy?"

Congrats on submitting and I look forward to seeing you enter new month!

Developer

Hey thank you for the feedback, I know sound is definitely a important aspect for a game I had unfortunately run out of time, and is the aspect of game design I am definitely lacking in skill for overall. Thank you for playing it and giving me feedback.

Submitted

No problem!

Developer

I took what you said into account and I have added some sounds to the game as well as music if you want to give the game another try. Thanks again for the feedback.