Liked the presentation. Liked the grapple mechanic. Would have liked a basic attack from the beginning. Don't like that there are both keyboard and mouse controls. I'm right handed, I used WASD for movement, doing certain jumps with my left hand when the jump button is the spacebar, is just awkward. I don't know why I keep seeing games in jams that do that like it's a good idea. Anyway, like the setting / themes, don't think I have seen a pirate 2D platformer metroidvania before.

Slopes are a pain--sometimes it feels like I get backwards momentum out of nowhere. I would recommend heavy workshopping of how momentum works. The ledge-grab is nice and generous and the parrot feels good to control. However, there's enough glitches and control-lag that combat feels practically impossible to get through without a hit--especially against bats. One other control-thing that I hope provides help or confirmation would be, please just give us an abrupt cut between screens, or pause the game while scrolling. Right now it feels like neither is happening, which makes traversal upwards a pain.

Also, if I understood correctly, I've now had two game-stopping glitches, and saves don't persist between sessions. I'm considering myself as having played enough to rate this honestly now, having beaten the boss on my second attempt. Before the second bug I think I might have half-collected an essential item, but the second glitch happened before I could verify, so it's hard to say. I'll be sending some screenshots to one of your team via the MVM Discord to clarify where I'm seeing these issues.

This feels like something very special in its presentation. The theming is so strong here and the ideas in its design are pretty excellent. Congratulations on giving ability-based progression that isn't all just double-jumps and dashes, for example :).

Lastly I want to echo what another commenter said here about the level design being pretty good. You almost didn't need to give the player a map for this one.

A version that addressed even the momentum consistency issues and game-stopping bugs would be a sight to see and would feel like a classic, if short, Dos game.

There's a lot to like here. The music is good and sits well in the background while leeting you focus on exploration. The animations are so good at times they almost feel rotoscoped a la prince of Persia. My one note on aesthetics is to not make enemies that look too similar to the player - the first time I saw a fellow pirate that seemed to be wearing similar garb I thought that this might be a friend. I ran up to him. He shot me. I felt betrayed.

I think people have already talked about the character controller. Honestly, slopes are a pain to get right in platformers in general and I'd nearly recommend not doing them in a jam unless you have a tight controller ready to go already. Momentum can really get out of control. Not sure if coyote time is here. Would recommend if it's not, would increase coyote time if it is.

The level design here is pretty good. I felt like I had a clear mental map in my head of the various ability related locks as I passed through the world, and knew where to backtrack to when I needed. There aren't too many routes to take at first which really helpes the player get a sense of the world, and doesn't make backtracking too tedious.

The parrot ability is very interesting and I think you could do a lot with it if you expanded it further. You might want to think about what happens to the player while the ability is in use. Is he still gonna be vulnerable while the parrot is flying, forcing you to find a safe spot? Does he become something invulnerable while it's in use? Right now, momentum remains for the player while using the parrot so you might want to turn this off. Could be obstacles for the parrot while trying to get to a switch - such as moving spikes etc. Lot of fun to be made of this.

Anyway, thanks for the game and hope you had fun developing!

This is awesome entry, graphics are great, and sound/music maybe even better. I've locked myself once on a bat, see in the picture. I had to wait for bat to move.

Maybe the only suggestion on the graphics: all animation are smooth as heck, but attack for some reason is not. Hm.

I'll give this game another try because I've locked myself I think, same place as Redz. I think you get a powerup there, a pistol or something? Well I did not get it, because I opened the chest, immediately threw a bomb by accident and got nothing I believe.

Many guys shooting from the holes were not shooting for some reason. And I think there are just a bit too many guys only waiting to be stabbed looking the other way;) 

About slippery, multiple people already told this. I think its not a great idea to use a physics to move a character, and that's the problem I think. Platformers usually work better with good old arcadey, handwritten physics.

Anyway good job! I'll finish the game later.

Amazing project team! I really enjoyed the time I was testing the game. Good mechanics, nice art and sound.

As some improvement tips I can give you:

• The ice effect on the floor, some times my pirate goes cave down just because ice effect.
• Attack animation / attack trigger / enemies hitbox: something is weird here, im not sure what's happening, but attacking feels strange.
• When I tried to jump some cliffs, the camera moves to the next scene and I feel lost. I think this jumps shouldn't be involve in a scene change. Try to do these changes only when walking or when climbing something different like a ladder or something like that. But not when I need some skill to grab.

The climbing animation was good. The walking seemed a bit slippery and the camera angle between scenes can jump to one another too quickly, but overall I enjoyed it very much!

I find it funny when he jumps :D

Also I bugged out of the game (while drinking the rum, my soul somewhat went to the next room and it didn't return back to the body so it stucks in this screen)

Well done on the project!  Huge praise to the graphics + audio design on this. Good variety of enemies and game progression elements. Some room for improvement here:

1. The sword attack mechanic should be the first thing that is fixed. It is slow to trigger (which could be by design, but it didn't feel good). Furthermore, sometimes I'd try using my attack and it wouldn't trigger. This could be because I tested on a trackpad though! So in that case having an alternate button for attack on keyboard would be nice :)

2. The motion controls on slopes felt very awkward. It honestly got the job done, but I felt like I was sliding and not running half the time.

3. What's the purpose of the coins? They seemed like a health system similar to Sonic with the rings. I'd love to see the coin mechanic have a bit more depth -- especially because pirates LOVE COINS. Can you buy bullets? Do you need to pay bribes to reach certain areas? Playing with currency that doubles as health feels like a fun way to leverage this mechanic for all its worth.

All around great job and thanks for the submission!

That was a fun transition from the main menu to the crashed ship haha.  It was fun to explore the caves too! Great job submitting the game :D

Bug report: A few times I ledge grabbed on the angled slopes and fell through the world.  Seemed to maybe happen if I fell a long distance onto one?  Don't feel bad though, my game has bugs as well hehe

Great theme and presentation! I felt the movement in slopes and climbing were a kind of buggy. Sadly I could not finish the game. I got all upgrades up to the gun, then entered a room where clouds could be seen in the background. My character was nowhere to be seen and I was seemingly softlocked

Hey nice theme! If I do say so myself ^^

I really enjoyed playing, I think I did everything? I got 35 max coins and I beat the ship, but then I'm left in the next room with the broken boat. Also there was a door on the top of the map that doesn't lead anywhere? I thought it might be a secret :)

Grabbing onto a ledge is super satisfying, I had a bug a few times where I'd get thrown the opposite direction after climbing up? I was using gamepad if its related.

Overall great experience, I'd play a proper version of this :)

Very Nice Game Arrrrrr. Like it! - Some Decorations for the Cave would have been nice, so its not so monotone - I like the Theme you choose alot!