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A jam submission

EchovaniaView game page

Classic platforming metroidvania action
Submitted by Xaoka (@Xaoka) — 8 hours, 40 minutes before the deadline
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Echovania's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Metroidvania#93.9443.944
Enjoyment#113.5003.500
Overall#123.4223.422
Execution#143.2223.222
Sensory#163.2223.222
Relevance to the theme picked#183.2223.222

Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Theme chosen
Echoes Of The Past

Team/Developer
1 - Xaoka

Engine
Unity

External assets
Tileset Assets - brullovEffects Assets - jasontomlee Blood Effects Assets - XYEzawr Particle Effects - RagnaPixel Background Assets - FreeGameAssets Audio - FreeSound.org Gothicvania Enemies Assets - ansimuz UI Borders - Kenny UI Sounds - Atelier Magicae Character Sounds - TomMusic Merchant NPC - Atari Boy Character Audio - Dillon Becker Corpses - szadiart Cage - Estúdio Vaca Roxa

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Great game! This is a really fast paced game which doesn't overstay its welcome. I thought the echoes of the past related puzzle mechanics were a clever addition.  This game hits all of the Metroidvania beats to a competent level.  I only have a couple suggestions to improve the game. I suggest tuning because it was too high when dropping down to lower levels. I also suggest tuning the Final bosses' attacks, because there was there wasn't enough time to react and dodge them.

Submitted(+1)

Wow! Great presentation! From the start, really cool soundtrack, then the intro was great, also with its own great soundtrack.

When the game begins, it's filled with cool effects, the effects of coins drop/pickup is rewarding, the map was easy to traverse and the challenges were interesting. I think I managed to jump in the air before unlocking the wall jump, but once unlocking it, the effect is very rewarding, how the character sticks to the wall right before, it looks cool overall.

I didn't like the attacks on the last fight, they can be memorized, kind of, but they don't give time to react, so when the intro to the attack starts, if you're in the area, you receive the hit. I'd prefer to have a "tell" to react to, because otherwise it feels every hit is entirely by luck. Having that said, the game gave me so much health that it was totally ok to be hit randomly by the boss, because it's still beatable. The effects towards the end of the fight are incredible, and the ending scene is also incredible.

In terms of movement, the jumps feel a bit unruly, specially the time-trial part feels that the jumps are unreliable most of the time. The double jumps require speed but feel good overall. The attacks feel responsive and enemies have fair hitboxes, but it's tough because it feels still to attack. and not being able to attack in the air makes fight moves more difficult.

Overall, a great experience, with a great presentation. Congratulations on your great work!

Developer

Thanks so much for all your feedback! That's a very valid criticism of the boss, I know what the attacks are so I probably tuned them a little too quick and difficult - there's a small window to dodge out of the way but maybe that needs to be longer!

I think I need to go back after the jam and really have a second look at the jumping, it feels good to me but I've had a lot of comments on it!

Submitted(+1)

I am all in on this game's soundtrack, it got my adrenaline pumping and ready for some monster slaying. I wish there had been more monsters to slay though... The mechanics themselves have a lot of potential, the first time I used the echo attack I thought it was super cool, and rewinding recent events opens up a lot of potential. Finding armor upgrades felt good, and there were a lot of neat touches here and there - I really liked the flame aura ability. It wasn't used much, but just like the echo stuff it has a lot of potential, and the way it lit up the wall hangings was very satisfying.

Some feeback:

- The jump was pretty rough, it felt very uncontrolled a lot of the time, mostly due to its relative speed. There was also a section where I'm pretty sure I was wall jumping to get up to a cage even though I hadn't unlocked that ability, but it was somehow the intended route?

- As mentioned above, I wish there were more neemies to use my cool echo attack ability on. When I tried to use it on the archer enemy, he kept knocking me out of the attack animation and once he was defeated I never really got another chance to use it on him. And with the final boss, he teleports after you land a hit which means you can't use it on him either. I wish he'd stick around a bit longer just so Ic ould use the echo attack on him.

- It's a bit of a nitpick, but from a level design perspective it was kind of silly to unlock the wall jump just to go up a wall in the same room and get the fire aura. Maybe it was because of the jam's time constraints, but a bit more exploration or backtracking to get the aura would have felt nice.

Anyway, a very solid entry. The audio and visuals were spot on and running around / dodging through lasers felt very good. Some creative skills scattered throughout and a mechanically compelling boss fight show that this game has a lot of potential. Nicely done!

Developer

First of all thanks for writing up so much feedback, it's invaluable!

I definitely wanted to have more ... everything! More monsters, more puzzles, more opportunity to really flex the abilities - but as you guessed I was working right up to the deadline to fit in what I did! I've gotten a lot of constructive criticism on the jumping and it's a shame I didn't have more play testers to catch that earlier in the development.

Absolutely valid nitpick on the level design for the walljump -> holy flames abilties and in a future update they'll definitely get rearranged to have a much more rewarding discovery route!

Submitted

I'm not sure how your jump is implemented, but if you're interested I found these videos to be super useful for learning more about jump intricacies.

Rigidbody 2D: Improve Your Platformer with Forces

Custom Physics: Ultimate 2D Platformer Controller in Unity

Submitted

I think this game was good, especially in the audio and visual department. My main gripe is that the jumping (and wall jump) felt unintuitive at times. Also I only found out about the echo ability after reading some of the other comments, I managed to get through the lever and beat the game without it. Feels like I missed a big portion of the game.

Developer

There are two optional abilities (Heavy slash & Echo Slash) and some secret areas but I would be fascinated to know how you beat the game without the faint echoes ability! I didn't think that was possible!
Thanks for playing!

Submitted(+1)

Since the lever takes time to move up/down, I just pushed it on the way down and got on. Switching the lever seems to buffer the platform's movement so I was able to get up.

Submitted(+1)

wow, the sensory on this game feels so so good. that said the jump feels delayed a bit, a minor nitpick but when jumping is one of the most essential mechanics you gotta make it feel good, but other than that wow this is cool!

Submitted (4 edits) (+1)

After completing it, i can say it was a lot of fun overall. The exploration was intuitive (for the most part, i'll get there in a moment) ,the levels were well designed, the secrets were well crafted and the boss fight was challenging but fair (or at least, i felt like it). Also the "echo" mechanic was creative, reminded me a bit to Braid. It has potential to be expanded for greater puzzles/challenges.

That being said, my biggest criticism is the movement. While it feels ok on ground, It gets very floaty on air and the jumping physics felt very inconsistent, sometimes feeling as high as they need to be, and other times feeling very short, which makes platforming and exploring more difficult than they should be.

Another criticism is the audio. The music is great, but the sound effects are louder than they should be (as good as they are).

In general, i really liked the game, hope it gets more attention and gets more improvements in the future.

P.D: The accessibility option was a nice touch.

Developer(+1)

A couple of people have mentioned the 'floaty' feel - I'd agree it's not perfect for sure! I spent a lot of time trying to tune it and it never felt quite right...

Audio balance a few people have said felt wrong - I think an options menu to allow people to tune to taste is in order!

Submitted(+1)

Accessibility settings is always  a major win in my book for a game, especially a jam game. Mad respect for considering that for this game. I did find the game itself a bit unpredictable to control though, mainly because you move too fast while also not having enough leeway to jump while at the edge of a platform. Most platformers give you a few frames to jump even after leaving your feet, which makes the platforming feel a lot more tight. The bosses were the highlight for me though, I really appreciated how tough they were, I found them quite fun to figure out and they complemented the frenetic pace of gameplay really well. The music also rocked very hard I had to stop myself from bopping my head into oblivion!

Developer(+1)

Coyote-time jumping would have definitely been an improvement! I'm glad you liked the bosses though, a lot of love went into those!

Submitted(+1)

Had a lot of fun playing through this. It was very fast paced which is fun, but made it a lil tough in spots to accurately place my character. Took a lil while to figure out how to use my abilities, but would have loved to see a few more puzzles involving these. Felt like I got through it rather quickly and was yearning for more to play great work!

Developer(+1)

Thankyou so much! I definitely wish I'd had more time to make the ability learning flow better and add more puzzles! Maybe in a future update ;)

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Suffering against boss second phase. T_T

Okey killed, i forgot to drink the health potions.

Submitted(+1)

There's a lot of things to like here. Without take a look at every individual external assets, the game looks and sounds like meshes, which I personally find very hard to do. So big kudos there. I was extremely impressed with your considering of players' preferences regarding screen shakes. Then taking it further to actually demo it before choosing the option to go with. I chose to go with no screenshake because I wanted to see specifically if and how you compensated for that. Would it be clear that I took damage without a screen shake? And it absolutely was. Loved that.

Criticism-wise, character movement immediately comes to mind first. At first, it doesn't feel bad, but then I noticed that the jump height vs the  horizontal speed was very out of sync. It didn't feel right. Wall slides felt off too because of that. I wasn't able to complete the game because I got stuck near the merchant. I didn't have enough coins to purchase whatever it sells. I tried going back the way I came but I couldn't figure out how to get out and find more coins.

I think that covers what I have to say. Congratulations on submitting!

Developer

I think I needed to make the 'Echoes of the past' powerup you get just before the merchant more obvious, or lock them in there until they figure it out - you can hold C (as it says in the popup) to re-activate your echo and the lever will restore the platform you rotated!

Thanks for the feedback, it was definitely tricky to get the movement feeling good so I'll try to really focus on that for my next game!

Submitted

No problem. I'll give it another go when I get the chance.

(+1)

Ok, awake and alive again. After 2nd impression. I think the impact of sound is just a little loud at first, I love the intense music but it also just peaked out and no room for me to turn up, I had to turn it down to half way to feel comfortable in headphones playing. That being said great jams, great art. I felt the movement was fitting for the game regardless of the previous comment. The UI was a little hard to decipher here...but I understood it was just the white/black on white/black . Mechanics great and simply and punchy.  Great job! Hopefully on a reply of my game you don't have dialogue issues? I thought I had accounted for this and had yet to come across this issue while play testing myself. 

Submitted(+1)

Very cool! I really like the "echo" mechanic, I wish it was used more later in the game. I was impressed how many upgrades you managed to fit into such a short game, and some of them are pretty creative too, the "burning nearby objects" one is a type of key I haven't seen before, and it really made me rethink how the level was structured. Overall good level design, I never felt lost for too long. My main criticism is that the movement doesn't feel great. You gain height really fast when falling, but you fall really slow, which I found a bit jarring. Still, I had a fun time, and the final boss was a good challenge. Nice work!

Developer(+1)

Yeah I'll admit I struggled to find the right balance on getting the movement & floatyness right for this one! I Definitely wanted to add a lot more echo puzzles but I only just managed to get in everything I did - something for a future update!

(+1)

Wow intense vibes...Lots of controller movement and sensory and sound right away....Will 100% come back and check this out further along with the view I have glanced at tonight....Just too tired to give proper plays and reviews tonight! Can't wait to play all these games!