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A jam submission

Agaric AffairView game page

Find mutations and see your final form
Submitted by Lockstedt — 13 hours, 6 minutes before the deadline
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Agaric Affair's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Metroidvania#54.1334.133
Design#63.6673.667
Overall#63.6333.633
Presentation#103.7333.733
Enjoyment#173.0003.000

Ranked from 15 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Engine
Game Maker: Studio

Team/Developer
Lockstedt (solo dev)

External assets
Some sound effects from Pixabay, the logo font is "Antifascist" by Vladimir Nikolic

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

This is an extremely impressive entry. Feels a lot like an old 8-bit game. Like a lot of others, though, I lost steam in the second area when I needed to collect powerups before moving on. Tweaking some things to make it a little more fair would make this game magnificent. For example, the weapon range could be extended, or the gravity could be tweaked so the player can more easily jump over enemies, or the player could have more health regeneration options, or enemy placement could be tweaked to create fewer near-impossible situations. Really impressed by this though, especially considering this is a solo project. Well done.

Oh, and I'm sure you're already thinking about this, but some sfx on the player weapon firing will help improve the feel a lot. 

Developer(+1)

Thanks for your feedback!

I wasn't sure what would be the best default range as I didn't want it go get too long after some upgrades. As for health drops, now that I think of it, it would have perhaps worked better to always have health drop after a few enemy kills instead of them dropping randomly. Pretty much only the first area was tested properly so the enemy placements in other areas are sometimes off.

Yep I tried to come up with a good attack sfx that wouldn't become irritating but didn't manage to do that.

Submitted(+1)

Awesome game and very well polished! The camera felt a little bit too close to the character and fixed movement gave me a bit of a dizziness

Developer

Thanks! Not sure what you mean by fixed movement though?

Submitted

I think they mean that the camera matches the player's movement exactly, so it jerks up and down when the player jumps. 

Submitted(+1)

yup

Developer(+1)

Oh yeah I will need to learn how to modify the camera, the way this is done is the most simple one.

Submitted(+1)

Very polished submission! Variaty of enemies is unbelievable.

Often enough when having multiple rythmic jumps in a row I felt like jump key press was missed. Also, in a couple of places I felt like platforms are just a bit too far from each other, needing to press jump when you already on the very edge of the platform.

I don't know if it's a rule or not, I'm used to Z - jump, X - attack. Here it is exact opposite, I missed many times until get used to it.

Mechanics are implemented very well: enemies, lianas, and even shooting from lianas. I didn't try water yet, only beated mosqiuto boss and found flower boss for which I just don't feel having enough powerups yet.

Map here would be more than handy, it's almost a must. The world is huge.

Overall, it's fun game, polished and full of action! 

Developer

Thanks for your feedback!

There's some tough platforming, but if you perform the jumps while already moving it's much easier, without any momentum you can't get as far.

Yep it's a common argument whether the jump and attack should be like this or the other way. I should have just made it possible to change it.

I think Quincy can be mostly bruteforced if you dodge at least some of his attacks but he's still of course harder than Trice.

Not having an ingame map is very unfortunate but I was busy with getting the game finished and didn't have time to learn how to create that, sadly.

Thanks again!

Submitted(+1)

Awesome job man. You've received a lot of feedback so I'll attempt not to repeat a lot from other reviews:

The controls are simple but extremely satisfying. I was getting a dopamine rush with every jump I nailed. 

It's already been said but your character design is awesome, Special mention to Trice and his little crafty hands as he summons flies to attack, and to the dove that intentionally or not looked like he was flexing every time he flapped. 

It could just be me but while the music was good it didn't really fit the aesthetic of the game and after awhile It became a little grating. 

It's awesome that you made this on your own! especially something that feels so complete. Keep up the good work!

Developer

Thanks for feedback, appreciate it!

Lol my friend also just mentioned the "flexing" bird, I didn't even think about that myself. I also found Trice's clapping funny when I drew it haha.

I didn't really plan the music beforehand and went with the flow, the boss theme and the morass theme were even supposed to be the other way around first but I altered the compositions when I thought that they'd work better like that. It's just my own style.

Submitted(+1)

This was a really cute game, love the lil mushroom guy lol. Getting legs too was very funny. I also appreciate starting with absolutely nothing (I tried to do a similar thing in my game too). I think it would have helped ever so slightly to show the player what button to press as soon as they get the powerup, but it was designed in a way (at least with the legs and arms) that I couldn't really leave until I had opened the inventory and figured it out, so I can't really complain!

I especially loved your enemy designs, not just artistically but I thought they all had very unique and engaging movesets! There was a staggering amount of variety too! I also appreciate stuff like the spore mushroom platforms if those count as enemies, simple but good ideas.

I would recommend putting a timer on the water, or depleting health over time. It's clear that you probably will die, however it wasn't eeentirely clear that I was gonna die despite flashing low oxygen. Or rather, the danger feels less tangible. It's a little troubling on stuff like the part where you need to wait in a pool for the saw to pass overhead

The scope of this game was huge! Big map, 3 bosses?? I played for like, an hour and I didn't even get to the other 2 bosses. Made some ways in to the beach before I got exhausted. There is a looot of enemies and sometimes there aren't many breaks between them. At some point I just give up and go "I'm just gonna damage boost through this because it's going to take way too many hits, TWO totems right next to each other after this long run, no thanks"

Besides that, I think it could have benefited a looot from a map, it's very easy to get lost and retread old ground without having idea where to look next or where you've already been. Congrats on making something this big and varied, I'm interested to get to the other bosses maybe when I have time later, the mosquito boss was well put together and challenging!

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks a lot for such a long review!

I agree having a timer for drowning would have been a nice quality of life improvement. Yeah I focused more on the scale and a bit less on refinement, pretty much built all the areas in two days and only made small changes after that. There's actually a final boss in the last area as well haha. Every area has a boss so you went past the second one, it's very easy to miss though because the most clear path is to the beach zone. But as said, it doesn't matter when you defeat the bosses, they just give runes needed for accessing the final area and one stat upgrade each and you need to backtrack anyway. Yeah, especially the two totem poles section is where I expect many to just damage boost through, since they can't be avoided and can be a hassle to defeat. I wish I could have time to learn how to do a map that'd also update according where you've been, but I've never done that before. Would have been a great tool for navigating in such a big game.

Submitted(+1)

Totally Felt like a Metroidvania! 

Really liked the way of gaining ability as a mutation and the whole concept.

Music was enjoyable.

That starting cutscene really gave it a good kickstart

overall game mechanics were good and fun playing

and the game is quite hard, jumping in narrow spaces is very frustrating as I can't doge and incoming projectiles from enemies.

Fought a bug boss, his hp was too high might have to fight it afterwards in game

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks for playing!

Yeah there's some trial and error in learning how to deal with the enemies, especially the bosses. All the enemies (except the flowers) do show it when they're about to attack beforehand, for example, the first boss always changes the position of its feet before dashing, so those just have to be learnt. The bosses can indeed be played in whichever order but beating them gets you some upgrades.

Submitted(+1)

really liking this one.... got as far as the climbing ability... and it speaks volumes that my biggest complaint would be that your vomit attack is hardly visible against the background, the movement took a tiny bit of time to get used to but afterwards felt pretty reasonable. 

Great sprite work and even if I have only seen a fraction of the game I can already tell this is an incredible effort, for a month long Jam solo game.

Really appreciate the save working on such a large game as going to come back and finish this one

Developer(+1)

Thanks! Yeah, wasn't sure what the vomit color should be and especially in the first area it might blend in the background.

Due to the scale of the game I felt that including saving was essential and this is actually the first time I've ever made a fully working save system. Used a big portion of my free time to this project overall lol.

Submitted(+1)

Love the aesthetic super cute and fun. The save functionality is really handy too and I just really enjoyed collecting my own body parts along the way was awesome!!! Also loved all of the enemies, those birds spitting worms ahahaha. Plus the music was a blast love the 8bit vibe to it

Developer

Thanks a lot! How was the challenge in the game and how far you got?

Submitted(+1)

I mostly agree with dancollins' reviev, but I personally don't think that  fast movement works for this game

Developer

Yeah it's not for everyone. I just find slow movement in action/adventure games boring.

Submitted(+1)

I agree with the majority of TeamSunForge's response. Except the floaty jumps. I felt like jumping/gravity was a bit heavy. It made it a little harder initially than I felt it should be. Is it possible that I missed an upgrade that made jumps floaty?

I definitely feel like fast movement works for this game, but the gravity should be a little less intense.

Developer

I understand your view because it's surely a bit heavy, initially it was even more and I've changed it since (in the trailer the original jump can be seen). There is no upgrade to the jump.

The platforming is a bit tough, I just pushed an update that makes the second area easier.

Submitted(+1)

This project shows promise! I quit out of frustration on the second stage after gaining the climbing ability and pressing the blue switch, however. I may try again, but until then, here's some comments.

There are a number of things that make navigating around the enemies very frustrating. The enemies are very bullet spongey, your projectile is tiny and hard to hit with, and you have very little health. All of that combined makes for a lot of deaths and having to run through a gauntlet again and hope that you don't get hit by random stuff on the way.

The jumping feels kind of floaty. Combined with a speed windup from when you start walking to full tilt running, this can make certain platforming parts with long drops that will need another roundabout return route frustrating.

I enjoyed the aesthetics and the music! The flamethrower guy was a very random enemy to show up after just a bunch of wildlife.

Developer (3 edits)

Thanks for playing!

I don't know if you found any stat upgrades (range, damage and health), but there are a few in the first area and the beginning of the second area, one of which is after the first boss (the bosses can be beaten in whichever order). I've tried to make it so that hazards don't usually come as a surprise in your face but that can happen.

Yeah I was experimenting with friction in the movement and it's not for everyone. Most jumps should be doable without having to gain momentum, but the platforming has been made with platforming veterans in mind and the game's not that easy anyway. I actually think the second area is harder than the third one due to that cloud platforming.

Glad you liked them, I had fun drawing the art and composing the soundtrack! Yep, they're a bit random and I had planned them to work somewhat differently than they turned out (also killing other enemies).

Submitted

I did find an upgrade for strength and one for health, but the one extra measly health point did not end up feeling like much of an upgrade, and I still felt the enemies were taking way too many hits, haha. But hey, I get it if it's meant for a more hardcore audience.

Developer (1 edit)

Yeah, it surely is not beginner-friendly lol. Most enemies can be avoided too, usually the totem poles are the only ones you can't just jump over or go under.