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A jam submission

SEARCHING FOR HIMView game page

Who is he who resides in the blackest depths?
Submitted by krameraad — 1 hour, 19 minutes before the deadline
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SEARCHING FOR HIM's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Enjoyment#24.0004.000
Overall#63.7053.705
Execution#73.7273.727
Sensory#83.6363.636
Metroidvania#183.4553.455

Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Engine
Unity

Team/Developer
krameraad

Prizes eligibility
LearnIndie

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Great game I like the movement it feels like the prince of phrisha game it have juice it to it. Amazing work.

Submitted(+1)

amazing, the visuals are AMAZING i trully like it, gameplay feels great overall fantastic game, GOOD JOB!!! :D

Submitted(+1)

Pretty cool concept. Reminds me of a rotoscoped game I used to play with my cousins. I liked the basic game mechanics and the art style was quite fitting. Controller support would make it even better for people not used to keyboards, especially once you've unlocked the wall jump. The floor was a bit too slippery near the edges (a problem I often had to overcome when making games in Unity due to their physics system, it's easy to make the ground seem icy). The color changes were a nice touch to diversify the areas without having to create more art assets. A fun game overall and an excellent example of building a good game around a couple of simple game mechanics. Nice work!

Submitted(+1)

The visual style is very cool. The controls are convenient and intuitive. Good job

Developer

Haha thanks! I tried my best to make the controls intuitive, so the player wouldn't have to endure any boring tutorials and could just learn through playing the levels.

(+1)

Super creative game here, really loved everything about it....Took a minute to get the hang of only arrow keys to play...Once again lack of game-pad support really looses points for me, but overall this game style and creativity was 5 star. I got the H and the wall-slide, and found the I and M block...but trying to wall slide upwards with only arrows keys to get back up to the level above was near impossible and I quit here as much as I was intrigued to know how it ended.

4.5 Creative but lack of gamepad I think made the one part a little difficult to accomplish and therefore uninterested to try to get to the end of game...

Please check out Chick-Magnet (Unfinished/work in progress/lack of narrative to guide the puzzle) Enjoy!

GameDev&Design

Developer

Sorry that the lack of gamepad support turned you off. I wanted the controls to be simple and able to be played one-handed. But you're right, it's subjective whether gamepad or keyboard controls work better (for me, I play Rain World on keyboard, but Celeste on controller) so I could have added gamepad support for those who wanted it.

I'll definitely check out Chick-Magnet!

Submitted(+1)

Wow, tThat was indeed very creative by using the most basic mechanics in the platforming genre. Very well designed game, congratulations!

Developer

Thanks! I really did my best to build a minimalist platformer: simple control and mechanics, but used to their fullest potential.

Submitted

If that was your objective, you really did it! Honestly it was a very well thought game design and level design

Submitted(+1)

NGL, the game's difficulty ramped up way too fast for me. Had to watch the rest of the game on your playthrough video.

The visual style is great. I'd love to see more of that. Maybe in a sequel or bigger game?

Very well designed game. Just a little difficult.

Developer(+1)

I'm sorry you couldn't finish the game because of the difficulty. In a full game, I'd probably still have sections similar or even higher in difficulty, but add more intermediate levels to smooth out the difficulty curve while making the hardest challenges optional. I'm glad you could still enjoy the game's design and visual style!

Submitted

It would be really cool to see a full game of this

Submitted(+1)

Here's my review and rating of your entry!

Developer

Heyy, great video! Really nice to see a playthrough, even if it's not full. I didn't have enough time to properly playtest the game, so difficulty was hard to judge, but from your video it got pretty clear how the challenges ramped up a bit too quickly. Even the room after the first turret seemed too intimidating from your perspective.

I'm still glad the game felt good to play if a bit clumsy at times. I don't want to excuse bad game design of course, but some of the clumsiness is intended. The goal is for the player to start off as a normal guy surviving in a tough situation, and then becoming a skilled freerunner more through knowledge and experience than just through new abilities.

It's kind of an undercooked mechanic, but I wanted facing direction to be an important aspect during certain actions like when ledgegrabbing or wall sliding, so you can't do those things while facing away from a wall. I noticed it was a little hard to control your facing direction sometimes though, so that would be one of the things I'd improve upon. I also wanted to add moves you could *only* do while facing away from a wall.

The palette changes were because I originally intended for there to be more distinct areas, but I ended up not getting to use all the cool palettes for them, so I mixed them into the normal rooms. Maybe a bad call since the changes happen so fast, and because I haven't looked at the alternate palettes nearly as much as the default, but I figured some variation would be nice.

Thanks a lot for the video!

Submitted(+1)

Great game! The character feels great to control & the controls are also intuitive. The level design is challenging and the gameplay is addicting . The visuals are also great despite the limited color palette.

Developer

Thank you! The feeling of movement was really important to me. Simple controls, but a wide variety of different actions the player can take. The later sections really require full use of all the character's capabilities.

Submitted(+1)

Bro this game is SO GOOD! As an avid enjoyer of precision platformers, the controls are amazing. The jumps are really tight, so you really have to use the wall slide and wall cling. Each room plays like a puzzle. The turrets are so cool, and the "AHA!" moment you get when you figure out how to complete a room is only surpassed by the feeling of actually completing it. The area I eventually gave up on was where there are a bunch of turrets on the right side and you have to fall down and then climb back up over them. I got through it all going down, but when you grab the upgrade and have to come back up, it was tough. It's the kind of game where I could definitely get it with practice. Great job!

Bro knows game design really well.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the kind words! Nice to hear that the difficulty isn't turning away people as much as I feared. It's funny that you say the rooms play like puzzles, because that's the exact mindset I used to design them. Movement where you have to use your brain and think about different routes and how moves link together.

Submitted(+1)

Ok so I made it past that part, but the difficulty just ramps up way too quick from then on. I made it to the next letter but I quit trying to backtrack after. There needs to be at least one or two checkpoints in that part.

Having said that, this game looks and feels great! I'm not sure if you did it or not behind the scenes, but you should definitely track how many times the player dies and possibly even display it on the screen while playing, at least as an option!

I'm not really sure about the lack of music. It's interesting because it makes it feel lonely and rough and matches the aesthetic, but at the same time some future techno or ambient could do a lot to fill the space so to speak.

Great entry!

Developer

I appreciate the feedback. I was a little worried that it might become too difficult, and I'm actually surprised you got that far! I've only played the game myself, but if I had more time I would've had my friends playtest the game for me. I actually made getting the final letter much easier than the second-to-last because I felt the player could use a break after that hellish backtrack. If you want to see hints or just the rest of the game, there's a walkthrough on the itch page/my youtube.

A death counter would be great and pretty funny, that's for sure. There are more things I'd add if I had more time/the game was a bit larger, like a save system and music. I was also thinking of something ambient.

I read that you couldn't use the down key as well. There is no real indication that the down input is necessary or does anything at all, and it's never strictly needed, but it does make the game a lot harder in some places if you don't know you can just drop down a ledge. In the future I'll try to communicate more clearly the player's complete arsenal.

Thanks for playing!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Well, I think the difficulty is fine, especially if that is what you are going for, but the difficulty ramp from before and when you get the wall jump to that next section is HUGE. Like there isn't enough time to get that good yet so you just have to keep dying over and over to get good enough to do that section.

I might be going a little far here, but if you put some more time into developing this into a full game (6 to 10 hours), or even full mini-game (like 3 or 4 hours in length), I think you could probably publish and sell it, with some marketing and such of course.

If you want any help with some music, let me know. My friends and I play around and write all kinds of music all the time.

As far as the down input goes, it works but you seem to have to hold it down while you are on a ledge to make yourself fall. I think it would be nice if it was more of an instant or near instant effect.

P.S. Add controller support!

Developer

Hahah, thanks! It does ramp up a little fast, if I made this a full game I'd definitely add a few more rooms between getting the wall jump and reaching that section. In general I'd add a lot more rooms, and design them to be more open and "generally challenging" rather than focused "celeste-like" obstacle courses.

I'm taking a break with the project for now, but when I resume, I'll definitely send you a message about the music. Maybe we can work together sometime, who knows.

The ledge thing also bugged me. I had a solution for it, but that caused other problems, so I put it on hold until I implement an elegant system for it. Controller support is another one of those "more time/larger game" things but I'll keep it in mind!

Submitted(+1)

Yes, please do. I think this concept, idea, and implementation so far has tons of potential!

Submitted(+1)

Love the aesthetic and feel of this game!

I'm not done playing yet, but I feel like I am stuck right here. I feel like I am supposed to drop down and hang on but I just cannot pull it off. Is there something I am missing?

Developer

You're right, you can drop down there and hold on to the ledge. You can do it by jumping off the edge while facing backwards, or by running towards the edge and turning around right before falling. It's pretty tough but you're almost past the hard part!

Submitted

Thanks so much for the reply! I'll try that here in a bit!

Submitted

I figured out the problem now. I am using a controller mapped to keys to play and I forgot to map anything to the Down arrow! hahaha