Graphics

I liked your ostrich and background sprite work. I did find that the colors didn't clearly distinguish the playspace from the background enough (specifically in the opening sections) which made it difficult to process what I was looking at. Nice touch on coloring the sprite when underwater.

Character Controller

I think you've got the perfect amount of acceleration/deceleration while grounded. That's an easy thing to get wrong, but this felt really good. The values still feel off to me on the jump which feels floaty, but since you're going for a Joust kind of a thing, maybe it's fine. I'd like more game feel stuff here. However, since one of your goals is to actually be able to release a GBC/NES version, you're somewhat limited in how to accomplish this. Doinksoft (the indie devs behind Gunbrella and Gato Roboto) showed me you can still do it in GBA by adding sound, impact and death effects, screen shake, and hit flash.  (I knew GBA can handle this, but unsure on GBC/NES). Regardless, right now, the attack feels like it does nothing and isn't useful.

Story

The character suddenly appearing on my back made no sense, though I'm sure you're already aware of that. That opening cutscene is a cool idea. Here's some things that I ran into that would help you pull it off better. Due to the small pixel count and comic panel frames moving right to left (which goes against what's intuitive in American information flow [left -> right]), this is confusing to parse what's happening. By the end, I get that there's an explosion, but I had no idea what I was looking at until after it was over. It seems to freeze on the first frame and require a button press to continue, which makes me think the game has crashed. This would probably be clearer if you had the screen flash white / the color of the explosion, then fade down into the scene. While I like the style choice of the comic panels, if you actually want to design this for GBC/NES, I don't know that it will work. The screen/pixel count is so small compared to the amount of information you're trying to squish into it. Full frame would fit your platform of choice better. Either way, keep an eye on this when playtesting with other people if you continue development

Sound

Nice job on the music (and a lot of it!) The world and controls would feel a lot more alive with more sound work.

Level Design

This would be improved with more intentionality about how you introduce challenges. Right now, it feels like enemies are just thrown at you without consideration for teaching how each one works and how to deal with it before mixing and matching to try and create interesting gameplay moments. The little exploration teaser on the right is fun, nice. Expanding the game space as you move downwards is an interesting choice. I think this works as long as you don't try and introduce the enemy at the same time, as reacting to it can feel unfair when it's impossible to see. Especially for an early section of the game where you're still "teaching" the player exploration.

I'd be curious to see where you can get with this in six months!

Even though unfinished, it feels really nice in terms of character controlling and the feeling of it movement. It might become a really nice game! Will you go on 3 month version with it?

It might just be the fact that I'm a fan of a rather esoteric game, but I was really hoping for horrible drifty controls and a short multi-jump. I don't know how well known the game "Joust" is but whenever I see a knight with a lance riding on a bird, I hope for the terrible controls of that legendary classic. I understand that this isn't a "Joust" metroidvania, but I still think that the concept  should still be thought about. Rather good for an unfinished game, I just wish the bird had a bit more inertia!

I guess there's not really anything I can comment here that other people didn't already comment, so I'll just be a broken record and repeat it as well, that the art and music here are really good. I even stayed on some rooms for long enought to be able to hear them entirely, and probably even a little more since I couldn't notice the loop on some of them (Wich is a nice thing I must say) x)

I didn't record a video since you did say this is was just a test course, so that means there's no real stuff to really comment on here. But hey, while that is true, it still is the best test course it could possibly be. It even managed to have a proper setpiece! I certainly can feel a lot of soul here already :3c

I guess the only minor nitpick I could be pesky to say is that the camera is a little finnicky as of right now, but I assume you already know that since you did say to refrain messing with it during combat.

Either way, good luck with that if you do continue with it, and I hope you have fun doing so!

Look forward to seeing this develop, especially if you port it to godot! I hope it goes smoother for you. Cus the art and design here has a lot of potential, and will serve you regardless of what engine/platform you develop with. Can't wait to see! Good luck

It goes without saying that this looks so incredibly beautiful. It would be nice to have some game to go alongside it - but the potential here is clear. I would absolutely play a game that looks like this, no questions asked! The character design and aesthetic of the water/cave world are perfect. Hope this keeps moving forward!

PS: as developers working in Godot, we highly recommend it

I’d been following your progress on the GB Studio and MVM discords and was looking forward to playing the game because of the gorgeous art. I’m still wowed by the art. It looks so amazing! I liked the music after the cutscene played where you integrated the explosions into the soundtrack. Very well done!

But as this was unfinished, I hesitate to comment more. It’s obvious you needed more time to polish the controls, camera, combat, etc… but what’s there already… wow. Certainly has potential. I hope you continue working on it! It looks soooo pretty on my IPS-modded Gameboy.