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Escape From Loveland's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #2 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Metroidvania | #2 | 4.154 | 4.154 |
| Overall | #2 | 3.904 | 3.904 |
| Sensory | #7 | 3.885 | 3.885 |
| Execution | #12 | 3.577 | 3.577 |
Ranked from 26 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Engine
Godot
Team/Developer
Not-Only But-Also (me!)
External assets
Ultrapixel by josemwwarrior, Bongo-8 Mono by nathan scott, Music from 8-bit Gameboy Songs Vol 1 and 8-bit Gameboy Songs Vol 2 by TipTopTomCat
Prizes eligibility
LearnIndie
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Comments
The worldbuilding was awesome how it added bit by bit and the cool charachters all over the walled towns.
The bubblewand I had so much fun with it and backtracked everywhere to see what I could do!
The enemy variety is great but I found them a bit too aggressive but they have great interaction and where fun understanding how each one worked. My favorite are the jumping guys on the surface. Personally I would have loved checkpoints instead of roomrespawn, I bruteforced some rooms and felt guilty by doing that instead of approching in a more cautious way.
Awesome stuff I enjoyed it a lot
Glad you enjoyed the little world! Writing and making goofy characters and stories is the stuff I really love to do.
I was back and forth on checkpoints. Ended up the way it was mostly because it was easier to set up and level design, haha. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be changing that post-jam, but I definitely don't disagree with your assessment.
Thanks so much for taking the time to play, and I really appreciate the feedback!
I was wondering if some goofy one would be a charachter chekpoint! Yeah the game is alteady good as is that was just a minor thing.
Major points for the bubble wand. That one had some good uses, of the best type--a 'lock' I didn't even identify until I had the key, but then I almost immediately knew what it was. Brilliant!
Enjoyment: 4/5: Kept back from fullness by that knockback/ease of damage loop
Execution: 3/5: Similar, slightly jank movement and some of what seems to be unoptimized performance on occasion, but not too egregious.
Sensory: 4/5: All pleasant enough stuff. Pixels > music but nothing was bad.
Metroidvania: 5/5: By jam standards, definitely about as Metroidvania as it gets. Bonus points in my heart for doing so without the double-jump or wall-jump/climb.
Glad you liked the bubble wand! Definitely my personal favorite as well. I intentionally wanted to see if I could steer myself away from traditional double jumps, wall jumps, dashes, stuff like that, haha.
This is some very thorough feedback. Really appreciate it, and hope I can fix up some of the issues you recognized after the jam.
Thanks for playing!
This game has a lot of small details that just overhauls the quality! I noticed there's random pitch variation when shooting so the sfx doesn't become too repetitive, a technique I can only recommend! Also the NPC next to the sewer changes its dialog once you destroy the crates. Absolutely love those small details! The game felt very consistent through and through. Loved it!
Hey! So glad someone noticed some of those little details, especially the NPC dialogue changing. There are actually quite a few NPCs whose dialogue changes after doing various things; I figured most people wouldn't notice, but hoped the few who would might appreciate it!
Very interesting game! There's a high chance of getting hearts when defeating enemies, and once you get skilled, it's hard for the player to die. This makes the overall gameplay very smooth. However, if I had to point out some downsides, after getting the flame ammunition and going underground, I found that it can be fun to continuously shoot by long-pressing, but the game became a bit laggy. Also, when surrounded by left-right monsters, the knockback distance is a bit too large, making it difficult to control the character's position. Of course, these are just nitpicks. I seem to have mentioned many shortcomings, but that's because I think everything else is great. Well done!ˋ( ° ▽、° )
Happy that you like the amount of heart drops; I had actually planned to change it and just kind of never did because more important things had to get done, and, well, at least the heart drops worked, haha. Hearts will probably be just a little more rare in the post-jam update.
Yeah, I've noticed and I've gotten a few other comments about lag, especially with the fire wand, and (for reasons I still can't quite figure) in the sewer. Hoping to get most of that smoothed over.
And the knockback! Totally agree! Woo buddy, it needs work! Probably the worst feeling part of the game in my opinion. It's already been changed a bit, so hopefully it will feel better once I upload the new build after the jam.
Thanks so much for taking the time to play and leave some feedback!
Man, that was great! I always find a bit frustrating being forced to jump multiple times to hit enemies that are one level above me but since the game is short, it didn't have time to bother me ^^' The 3rd power felt really smart and I would've loved seeing it used a bit more throughout the game ! I had some difficulties telling enemies and npcs appart but trying to shoot everything solved it for the biggest part haha!
I really liked the style and music, everything clicks very well together! The gameplay works very well, and the small dialogues with npcs add to the charm of the whole experience! However, the font is quite hard to read, I think some people might have a hard time reading it :(
I don't want to end on a negative point so let me just say one more time that I loved it, this is a very nice little game! Very well done!
Aha! I've been working on adding some settings for the post-jam update, and you reminded me that I wanted to let players be able to switch out the font for something a bit easier to read. Had completely forgotten about that to be honest, so thanks for reminding me! Yeah, that font can definitely be pretty difficult to read.
Thanks so much for playing and commenting!
Awesome game! I loved the art style, the buff mushroom and guys smoking by the wall the most. Played really well, the player enemies and weapons were great. Nice job I had a lot of fun with it!
Glad you had fun! That's the best thing to hear.
The buff mushroom sprite was actually the very first thing I made because while brainstorming I came up with the idea of a Metroidvania where the upgrades would be Street Fighter style combos. That mushroom guy was going to be the player character, and the game was going to be called "Muscleshroom." So the buff mushroom holds a special place in my heart.
The weapon pickups felt really refreshing as upgrades. I was exciting to know what the next one would be, the bubble one was very nice! I also like the pace braking with the NPCs. Here's a recording of my playthrough at timestamp 19:08
I had hoped the weapons would feel a bit different, and the bubble one was definitely my favorite as well. And I just love writing for goofy little characters, hence all those NPCs, haha.
Haven't had the chance to watch yet, but really cool of you to record your playthroughs for all these games. It already takes time to play and rate, so you making these videos too is pretty crazy. Not to mention, watching someone play your game seems like a great way to learn more about how people play your game and make changes based on that! Seriously, that's awesome!
Thanks!
Very cool game, in the top 10 overall for sure! I had a lot of fun playing, the pixel art is very nice and clean and the music and sfx give the game a nice vibe! I got to the water bubble wand and the slime boss, couldn't beat him, unfortunately. Good job!
Glad you enjoyed it! Top 10 seems very generous based on the amount of entries and the quality of some of what I've played so far! But I suppose we'll see, haha.
Thanks for playing!
This game evoked a wave of traditional game nostalgia. Thank you for crafting such a memorable experience. The level design was fantastic. Excellent job! Keep up the outstanding work.
So glad you enjoyed it! It sounds like you've seen things that I didn't even see in my own game (like fantastic level design, haha)!
But really, this is great to hear. So motivating. It's why I love making games and it's why I love engaging with the awesome community that makes games. Making games rocks! (Sometimes.)
Have the most joy among games i played on this jam so far. The player abilties amazing interpreted into this game through master worked level design, huge props to you for astnoshing job on this. Also loved the dynamic of your game and the difficulty increases moderately with game progress. Like the design of npcs that one with a cigarette near the wall is my fav:)
A bit baggy sometimes - enemies that bubbled with a gun can stack in the tiles or in some rooms i had fps drop. Wanna see what u can do with your game in future so good luck!
So nice to hear that you enjoyed it as much as you did! I imagine making things that people can have fun with or get something out of is part of why many of us like making games, after all.
Yeah, fps drops are something I have plans of addressing in a post jam update. As for the bubble wand, you're right in identifying that it is quite buggy at times; most of this stems from issues with collision because I (stupidly) move things by directly altering their positions while they're in the bubbles. I probably won't be fixing this, unfortunately, unless I decide I want to really flesh this out into something larger because it would mean reworking the entire bubble system. Maybe at some point, but not a commitment I think I want to make right now.
Thanks for taking the time to play and leave feedback!
Have the most joy among games i played on this jam so far. The player abilties amazing interpreted into this game through master worked level design, huge props to you for astnoshing job on this. Also loved the dynamic of your game and the difficulty increases moderately with game progress. Like the design of npcs that one with a cigarette near the wall is my fav:)
A bit baggy sometimes - enemies that bubbled with a gun can stack in the tiles or in some rooms i had fps drop. Wanna see what u can do with your game in future so good luck!
Bloody good game. The artstyle and the meta undertale-like climat is awesome ! Character design is adorable i love it! Minimalistic retro tiles with dittering and a lot of black background works very well here, looks very pro, very thoughtful. I need to say that i am impressed with the 3rd wand! We all here trying to make dash and double jump for the 100000 time in gamedev history and you make this bubble which acts like weapon but also as a platform when you inprison anyone in it, super smart, well done ;)
One thing that i struggled with were super quick jumps, because of that sometimes fighting was quite difficult for me. I could not use to it, but it can be my personal thing ;D
Overall GREAT entry, congratz!
Hey, dashes and double jumps are what they are for a reason... they're super fun! But yeah, the bubble wand ended up being my personal favorite mechanic for this game too. Glad you liked it.
The level design is pretty questionable, totally agree. I think I made the player's jump pretty weak, which doesn't feel terrible, but then I didn't design the level with that in mind. Not to mention I have the terrible habit of leaving level design with very little time left, haha. And the combat was just something that I generally struggle with. I'm alright with how it turned out for the most part, but it lacks much in complexity, and I agree that sometimes it can feel needlessly difficult in a less than fun way. Might be something I try to fix up after the jam!
Thanks so much for playing! Really appreciate it, and hearing your thoughts is helpful as well!
Very nice game! love the artstyle.
Thanks! Always shocked when people like my goofy art, haha, but feels good to know it's worth the (way too much) time I put into it.
Fantastic game! I had so much fun playing it! Felt super polished I loved all the wands you end up getting. The fire wand made my computer lag after using it for a while so I didn't use that one much. I loved the bubble to get up to high places and would have loved to see more platforming sections with that ability. Great game!
Hadn't noticed lag with the fire wand, but it makes sense since it's just making a ton of instances of a projectile class, haha. I had plans to make it particles with just one hitbox, but never got around to it.
And the bubble was definitely my favorite mechanic! I could really see it being fun in a full game, and kept thinking of cool uses for it (that I couldn't do in time, or that didn't really fit this particular game) while working.
Thanks for taking the time to play! And the feedback is great!
Very cool soundtrack. Gives original NES vibes. Well done!
That music is sweet isn't it? But I can't take credit for it (wish I could, haha); that goes to TipTopTomCat. Sourced the music from itch as a last minute thing when my music guy told me he wouldn't have everything done in time. Still thinking about having some original music in the post jam version, although I have become quite fond of what's already there...
a very polished and complete feeling entry! I had a lot of fun and completed this game. There were a good variety of upgrades unlocked at a pretty quick and satisfying pace, some cool boss encounters, and fun writing and characters. This is a really good entry for sure!
Glad you liked it enough to play through! It ended up pretty short (not necessarily intentionally), but I think that's a good thing for a jam entry! Thanks for playing!
Nice art, and the game is quite complete.
Missing a bit of juice during the damage (to player and enemies), and the jump is a bit hard to master, but overall very solid game!
Yeah, I could definitely see the damage systems popping a bit more. Could probably use a bit of refining in general as well.
Thanks for playing and leaving feedback!
Love the pixel art . But it sometimes get stuck on scene change .
Uh oh. That's no good. I think I know what issue you're having, so should be a decently simple fix for the post-jam update. Appreciate the feedback! And I'm glad you like my goofy little art, haha!
flamethrower my beloved
I can assure you, the flamethrower loves you too. Thanks for playing!