This is an interesting game with some cool design choices that come up short on execution. I didn't really understand what purpose there was to be losing the abilities. I gained the double jump and would go through certain doors which would take the ability from me. This issue is bad because all of the doors and levels generally look the same. I feel game needs a better tutorial to onboard players properly. I did enjoy the art, music & theme of the game. I see potential in the games concept if developed further. Nice job!
Play game
Chrono Drift's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Sensory | #17 | 3.214 | 3.214 |
| Metroidvania | #17 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Overall | #20 | 2.943 | 2.943 |
| Execution | #20 | 2.643 | 2.643 |
| Relevance to the theme picked | #23 | 2.857 | 2.857 |
| Enjoyment | #23 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme chosen
Time. I interpreted the theme as resetting player items and having to get them back without the chronological order before.
Team/Developer
Solo
Engine
Godot
External assets
Several asset packs from https://foozlecc.itch.io/ and music from https://rustedstudio.itch.io/free-music-cyber-tracks-volume-5-corpo
Comments
Graphics / Sensory
The backgrounds and the player sprite have good quality but the big enemies are just scaled version of the smaller ones. This provokes a strange effect.
Gameplay / Enjoyment / Execution
This game needs desesperately some quality of life features.
- I can't see the whole screen...
- You don't know how much HP you had. (I supose you can take 3 hits until you die.)
- The enemies resists your attacks so you have to step back a lot of times.
- The enemy damage hitbox is active when they explode. (This is not bad per se, but the explosion should be more exagerate to indicate that it is not safe to be there.
- The flying enemies are bugged, if they touch you they stick to the player and you're dead.
- The codes are a good idea but i don't understand why they are too long, a short version could be easier to memorize and didn't make the player to see his notes all the time. Also there could be more useful codes, like healing.
- This have been already told to you, but some times the player doesn't have enough time to copy the code. Anyways playing with a txt file open or a paper and pencil it's not comfortable. If you continue working in the game i think its a good idea to save the codes in the pause menu or something or add a memo inside the game.
- I HATE the troll doors that make you lost all your progress, yeah you can memorize them but the first time...
Metroidvania
The game feels like a metroidvania, you have to explore the ship, at first i got lost a lot, but i eventually memorize the structure.
Use of the theme
The use of the concept of time in the game is used as an obstacle, that you have to deal with it using the codes.
I hope i don't sound to negative, i really like the idea of the game but the previous points ruin a little bit the experience.
Submitted
Toki the KunoichiThis game gives a very good first impression. With the cool pixelart and the setting in a cryo-chamber in space, it gives an instant picture of where I'm standing and helps build a story. Great animations and characters.
I like the action. The hitboxes are fair and the enemies leave enough room to jump around and fight/avoid. The first time I traversed it, it was confusing, but I ended up liking the map a lot. Like how the first room connects by two doors, to the same area, selling the idea that I'm in a ring-like spaceship. That's awesome, worldbuilding without a word XD.
The part about the computer codes was confusing, the text was hard to read. I find working with text very difficult. I found an open source font that's easy to read so I've been using it for everything ever since.
Submitted
Biker StoriesWow, this is such a cool concept. Like a mystery Metroidvania. Unravelling the clues and the abilities I'd need to navigate the ship was really cool. I was a bit lost at first, but I eventually got it figured out. The abilities were a good mix of traditional and unique to this environment. Every room was recognizable enough, once I figured out what was going on I never really felt like I was getting lost, although some sort of map would have been nice. The music was appropriately atmospheric, and the hit effect on enemies made it very obvious when damage was being done.
Some feedback:
- While the concept of unlocking abilities and then learning how to unlock them later remotely is super cool, its implementation was fairly frustrating for 2 reasons. 1 ) the code text would disappear too quickly. On multiple occasions I'd have to make my way back to the same terminal to get the second half of the code and I eventually pulled out my camera and just started taking pictures of my monitor real quick, and 2) typing the codes was pretty tedious once you had more than 2. It would maybe be nicer if your character just remembered the codes once collected and you could choose which ability you want to unlock.
- That fire room was BRUTAL. I like the drama of it all, and thank you so much for putting a checkpoint in there, but still... I wish the fire's speed had been consistent throughout, it was pretty frustrating having it speed up behind me when I wanted a moment to recover. I also encountered a fairly big bug by going through the vent at the end of the chamber rather than going towards the terminal, it kept spawning me inside of the big fire wall and I'd have to spam re-enter the vent on spawn to get out of it.
- Combat didn't feel super great. I do like that the character's weapon has some range to it, and unlocking the lasser weapon later feels satisfying to use (although I don't know if it deals increased damage), but I was never certain if I was going to knockback an enemy or stun it a little bit when hitting it, so I never knew if I needed to prepare to retreat or if I could fully engage.
All that said, this is a super cool concept with some really cool ideas and I enjoyed my time with it. Great work!
Submitted
Omega Protocol XHoly molly that was brutal!
Well, I'm not against a game being hard or anything and that code system works well as a saving mechanism but I think there were some things that make the game extremely frustrating were it did not need to be, like the countless times I had to go back to a terminal accessible through some very difficult and punishing platforming just to not be able to copy the code cause the text passed too fast, and the only way to get the code to be displayed again would be reset time, input all of the previous codes and do all those difficult platforming again, dying a lot in the process, which felt very unfair cause I just managed to get the code, just wasn't fast enough to copy it. It would be as simple as letting the player close the dialog or displaying the dialog again every interaction.
Nevertheless I think the key aspects of a metroidvania were well applied here and the game fits well with the chosen theme, I personally enjoyed the difficulty (aside from the frustration I just mentioned), and think it was well done.
Congratulations for your submission and good luck!
Submitted
Sorcerer's CastleThank you for your feedback as well as having the stamina to complete the entire game! When I playtested there at the end, I realized that the terminal text went by fast and extended the time it was on screen. However, for some reason, I didn't think about putting a simple 'X' button and making it a normal text box. Thay would've been so easy! I think that I will probably upload a revised version of the project implementing the feedback that I got at the end of the voting. But in the meantime 🙌 for finishing the fire room!
Very small adjustment that would make a world of difference is having enemies launched backwards a tiny amount after getting hit, it adds a stronger hit feedback to your attacks, and it makes it so that attacking enemies doesn't have this awkward feel to it where you have to hit a few times, move backwards and then hit more to make sure you don't get hit. In a game that resets a lot of progress when you get hit, having that kind of intuitive enemy hit feedback is really important. That aside though the audio-visual cohesion is fantastic, the movement is very snappy, and the interpretation of theme is really interesting despite how punishing it is
Submitted
Memories of ClosureSo I'm a huge sucker for scifi and this very obviously takes inspiration from metroid! I'm shocked you weren't in the classic category! The art looks great and cohesive.
However I ran into a bunch of issues with this game (itch won't let me post the screenshots, too big...);
Often I would leave a room, take an instant hit as I entered the next room and die
A room on the far right had a door that just restarted the game
This console (two floors up) crashed the game every time
Using the settings menu button causes it to become 'Selected/Focused' so every use of the spacebar opens the pause menu
These guys could get stuck like this, not sure if it's intentional (Tanks could get stuck on floor doors)
Not sure if this guy (Huge tank) is a 'come back later' but I couldn't deal with him or leave
minor: player and enemy hit sounds are the same, making it hard to know who got hit
minor: killing enemies seemed to serve no purpose, meaning I felt incentivised to skip them wherever possible
Unfortunately I just couldn't get very far due to these issues
Submitted
EchovaniaCongrats on submitting! Except for the enemies, I feel like everything I saw and heard meshed well together which is an accomplishment because its so hard to find assets that mesh well together. I liked how you interpreted the theme, but I feel like there were some issues in how it was implemented. I think specifically having to write down codes detracts from the experience. I feel like that should be kept in the player's log that can be referenced in game or automatically input when the time came. There were also issues with the terminal staying open if I chose not to use it.
I think if those tweaks were made, the jump in quality would be significant. I still think its a great idea and with this being a game jam, there's going to be thing like this that crop up for all of us, but its definitely worth pointing out for improvement. Congrats!
Submitted
The Curse of Stulti
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