Play game
Mousey Tales's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #3 | 3.938 | 3.938 |
| Execution | #4 | 3.813 | 3.813 |
| Sensory | #4 | 3.813 | 3.813 |
| Overall | #4 | 3.766 | 3.766 |
| Metroidvania | #15 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Engine
Game Maker
Team/Developer
ShadowHawkDragon / Solo
External assets
CC0 sounds and music from Freesound and Soundcloud, free extension from Game Maker Marketplace for 'circle gauges', Shaun Spalding's tutorials
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Apologies for micro-reviewing. The first one got lost somehow.
Enjoyment 4 - I liked almost everything. The 5% I didn't was the boss being a giant hit sponge.
Execution 4 - Pretty good overall, not much in the way of jank. One weird freeze that forced me to quit the game and retry the boss from scratch.
Sensory 4 - Music doesn't quite fit the vibe of the graphics for me, but it's not bad and it feels kinda awesome to use that grapple when that music is playing. If you made a game with either more fairytalish music or a more heist-movie visual tone I would be so in.
Metroidvania 3 - What's there isn't extensively based on movement upgrades, but the one movement upgrade you do get in the demo is really made to shine by the level design.
This is one of my favorite games I've played so far in this jam, you really understood the assignment.
This game is juicy, everything seems to have an animation and sound associated with it, the movement feels really good. I particularly love your grapple, it shows you put a lot of time into it. Not only can it bring you places, but you stick where you land, if can be used to pull enemies, or even pull you towards the boss. Fantastic. I really liked that the boss could also grapple and dash just like you. Great animations and art style, glowing praise from me awesome work for such a short amount of time.
I think the only piece of criticism I have is at first it was hard to tell what pieces of wood were part of the foreground and you could run through, and what ones had a hitbox to block you. I realized they're a different color after a bit, but some more clarity on that somehow would be good.
Thanks for the great feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed the game.
Yes, visual clarity on what is collision and what isn't is definitely something that needs improvement.
This game had great tutorial build work. Then I got this scene in the picture and I didn't understand? I couldn't get back up? nor go anywhere else? is this the end of the game. 3.5/5
Good job
Use the grapple ability you just obtained on the ceiling above you, the tutorial with the button input is just above you (for controller that's Y or triangle)
Huh, not sure how I missed this? Given how clear everything else was….i re-rate this game 4/5 because honestly its better than a good amount of games on here. Its deserves the 4 regardless
It may seem obvious, but in the heat of the moment even the most obvious solution can be missed. And honestly yours isn't the first comment I've had about not realising this mechanic straight away.
It just shows how you should never assume your players will figure things out without clear instruction. Also that corner needs a complete redesign, its just a disaster waiting to happen.
Awesome please check out the WebGL version of Chick-Magnet and give it a rate and review when you have the time!
Thanks!
It was awesome I like the level design and the movement was very nice I enjoyed playing it and nice character design : D nice job
I truly believe the movement was the highlight for myself, being able to traverse and think about it with the needle is a really fun gimmick! Good Job!
Great game! I really like the Aesthetic & the music is good throughout the demo. The combat feels good & the needle grapple is interesting. I really like the addition of shortcuts similar to dark souls. I only had a couple issues with certain enemies. It was hard to read when the throwing enemies would attack. Also, I found an AI exploit to corner the final boss and noticed it was a very damage spongey.
Thanks for the feedback and I'm glade you had fun playing it.
The throwing enemies do indeed need tweaking to be less punishing, they still hit me nearly all the time and I made them.
As for the boss, should I further work on the game, I'm planning to give him a few more punishing moves (such as a parry he'll only use when hit too often too quickly) which in turn would let me greatly reduce his health pool whilst still keeping the challenge. Because yeah, right now he can just be rushed with little punishment once you know how, hence why I inflated his health as a bandaid.
Very cool entry! With a little experimentation the needle dash combos became very fun to combo and travel around the area with. It made me be strategic with the movement, yet felt encouraging and fun. Very cute MC too, and the movement feels very smooth and reactive. I was really enjoying it and it feels well-developed. Unfortunately, in the 2nd locked room the game crashed from this error:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
ERROR in
action number 1
of Destroy Event
for object obj_blobspawner:
Unable to find instance for object index 131368
at gml_Object_obj_blobspawner_Destroy_0
############################################################################################
gml_Object_obj_blobspawner_Destroy_0 (line -1)
gml_Object_obj_blobspawner_Collision_dmy_wall (line -1)
*Still an excellent prototype and very enjoyable! Just wanted to report this to help with bug fixes. Keep up the awesome work!
Thanks for playing my game, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Sorry about the bug, I'm not sure what's wrong here, it looks fine on the code side and didn't bug out in the test run I just did.
All I can tell from the error message you sent is its something to do with the blobs that drop from the ceiling and when they hit the floor
If possible do you remember anything specific that may have caused this bug?
My pleasure, very cool start and I hope you keep improving and expanding it after the jam!
As for the bug, it was probably one of those freakishly rare glitches. I was in the 2nd room with the drop-down gates and had fought about 7 of the instantiated creatures. I remember using the needle attack upwards soon before the error occurred. Is there any way an attack could disrupt the instantiation point? —This is my best guess as the first room worked fine
I'll have to agree with it being a super obscure glitch.
From what I can tell looking into the error message further, it appears that for some reason the blob forgot its own unique 'instance id' upon hitting the floor which caused the 'delete' event to fail.
i.e. Steve hit the floor and must now delete himself, but, for some unknown reason he also forgot that he IS Steve and then when told to 'delete Steve' he just freaks out not knowing who Steve is.
What I don't know is why this happened at that point and only that point in the game. I guess from the fact you made an attack shortly before, that its possible hitting a blob at the exact frame it hits the floor could cause some weird interaction... I'm not sure, and further testing by deliberately hitting them as they hit the floor still doesn't produce the glitch.
Its also possible its a bug in game maker as an update for the engine dropped shortly after I released the game, I've installed said update just in case and will release a new version of the game after the jam finishes on the off-chance this solves it.
Either way, thanks for the extra details I'm sure they'll prove useful should this bug pop up again.
btw the game does save when resting at a bench, so if you want to play more you should be able to continue from your last used bench.
I've never worked with Gamemaker, but your explanation makes sense. I bet I could play it another 1000 times without seeing this glitch again. Thank you for adding the save checkpoints, btw, I made use of them many times, haha. I like being able to take risks and try crazy things without worrying about starting from the very beginning. I'll definitely give it another play after I've rated some more
This game has everything! The mechanics feel so good and the grapple sewing needle thing is so cool! I absolutely love this. Great job!
Nice game!
I loved the little mouse character, the design is very cute and it's well animated. So are the enemies. I liked the whole thread-and-needle aesthetic that runs through the game.
I had a bit more trouble with the environment as I just wasn't always sure at the beginning what was solid and what I would be going through. I was a bit lost at times and I think a map would have really helped. There was a switch and a nice shortcut at some point, which I appreciate.
I also really appreciated the extensive tutorialization, which is always nice for a jam game.
The thread-and-needle was so nice it did overshadow the dash to the point I forgot I had it. I only remembered it near the end, but I like how you can chain the two moves. I loved that I could grab enemies into spikes!
But I did have a few frustrations with the combat. I felt the reach of the needle to be too short. I was often trading blows with enemies, unsure how to avoid damage. I also think the pogo would feel better and be more useful it if launched you just a bit higher in the air.
It took me most of the game to understand the red gauge and the bottle sound effect you hear sometimes. I think it restores one HP, but I'm still not really sure...? I also suspect the additional red thingies were "Piece of Hearts", but I only found two so I could never confirm that.
The boss fight at the end of the game was very well done. It had interesting moves and clear telegraphed attacks. After a while I could avoid them and then grapple myself toward it for a few punishing hits, which is a very satisfying thing to do. But it went on too long and overstayed its welcome a bit.
On a similar note, the gamepad controls were also a bit strenuous for me, with the jump on A and the grapple on Y. I did most of the platforming with an uncomfortable "claw" grip.
But overall it was pretty fun! If it's a demo, the full game has a lot of potential ;)
Thanks for playing the game, I'm glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the clear feedback.
I'll certainly give everything you brought up a good look at should I further develop the game after the jam.
As for the red meter, that is indeed a heal. It builds up as you hit enemies (when you are missing health), then heals you once maxed. It was actually a last minute addition which certainly needs fine-tuning and proper tutorialisation.
I love the 4-way attack. I implemented that, too :D
I like the visuals very much, but at times it is hard to see which block is in the foreground and which in the background.
The move where you shoot the blue yarn and then cling to a wall is awesome.
The fights were a little too unforgiving for me, though. But I am also not good at Hollow Knight. So take that with a grain of salt.
Also, a map would be nice.
Overall very good job. And you made it in only 13 days. That's impressive.
P.S.: the music rocks
Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed the game.
Yes, background clarity is an issue and its something I've been looking into on my end for a future update. A map is also on the list of things to add should I take the game further once the jam is over.
Just to clarify, I actually started a bit earlier (start of November to end) as I knew I'd be too busy during December, I still kept it to 30 days to honour the timeframe of the jam. I did leave a comment for the host in case this means I should be disqualified. Honestly, I just wanted to take part in the jam disqualification or not.
I hope it is gonna be fine. :) You deserve to be part of that jam. Your game is really good
I really enjoyed this - the character is really endearing and I love the little pitter patter footsteps.
My main point of feedback would be around the control scheme. It's sort of unusual to use J/K/L so my fingers weren't very used to it. Also because space is jump but also skips dialogue, I kept skipping dialogue by mistake. Regardless though, this felt really polished.
I'm glad you liked the game, keybinding is definitely at the top of the list should I take the game further.
you captured the "silksong vibe" really well and also the main character is really appealing to me, gj
Oh, this game is very good and well-made.
Art are very cool
needle hook mechanic is interesting.
yooo this was great
can you make this a browser file please