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Pitch Black's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Topic | #90 | 3.951 | 3.951 |
| WOWIE! | #139 | 3.639 | 3.639 |
| Sound | #140 | 3.541 | 3.541 |
| Visuals | #155 | 3.836 | 3.836 |
| Creativity | #170 | 3.738 | 3.738 |
| Simplicity | #177 | 3.984 | 3.984 |
| Fun | #185 | 3.557 | 3.557 |
Ranked from 61 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Music Source
Music was taken from "Absolutely Free Music" Asset Pack by Vertex Studio
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Comments
To give an honest review: I didn't like the "theme" much - probably just because I've played several games in the jam where you uncover dark areas - but this is a very good example OF that theme. :P The choice of character is fun, the attention to details like coyote time and stretch and squeeze of the player sprite is really nice. As someone below said I think, my main complaint was that the jump seemed somehow inconsistent, and led to frustration when combined with all the pitfalls. Sometimes I could jump out, other times not.
Hey, thanks for playing! Yeah, it's pretty difficult to come up with original ideas because there are so many people and so it's pretty much guaranteed you'll have some similar ones. My hope was that the fog of war effect and the death timer would kind of separate my game from others, so hopefully, you didn't play a game with the exact same mechanic. If you did, though, and you remember the name, I would love to check out the game as my fog of war implementation was really messy so I'd like to explore alternatives. The jump is pretty buggy, yeah. Even I get frustrated sometimes when I played it and I know where everything is, so it must be even more frustrating when you don't know where you're supposed to go. Anyway, thanks for the honest feedback! I hope you still got some fun out of it despite the bugs!
I like the animation and the sfx of the candle and the controller feels nice!! Uncovering the map bit by bit feels also very nice, although sometimes you have to rely on trial and error a bit too much imo
Hi, thanks for playing! I'll keep the trial and error part in mind. I tried to make the right path relatively easy to find, but perhaps the obstacles are a bit unfair at times. I'll look into using some sort of indicator to kind of guide the player in the right direction. Maybe a way to throw a part of your light so that you can see ahead without actually having to jump? Anyway, I appreciate the feedback!
Very fun! The process reminds me of those old boss battles, where you just keep dying, but the patterns start to reveal themselves and bake into your muscle memory.
Thanks for playing, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Really interesting game! I enjoyed this one a lot!
It was really fun and simple and the concept was really good :)
The visuals were really nice and simple but I think the light could be improved maybe its intensity going up or down to make it feel more realistic. Other than that the visuals were really nice!
The sound effects were smooth and nice :) Also, the music fit very well and I loved it! Good job on the sound design!
This game was really creative and I liked it a lot! I made it to the fourth level but I stopped playing because the jump didn't always work and it was frustrating. I don't know why that happened but you have to somehow fix it. Amazing job!!
I will appreciate, if you have time, to rate my game :)
Yeah, the jump is a really big problem, and I've figured out a solution. Sadly I didn't notice it until too late so for the duration of the jam it's gonna have to stay that way. I really appreciate your feedback, though! Thanks for playing, and I'll definitely check your game out!
Enjoyed this one! like the art and the music gave a good atmosphere to the game. A good concept that fits the topic. Like other users I did have problems with the jump which was more noticeable on the more platformer heavy level's. I also think perhaps switching the sacred torch from the far right to somewhere different each time would add a good challenge. Overall great job!
Hi, thanks for playing! I appreciate the suggestion about moving the sacred torch to other places so it's not that linear. I did move it on a couple of levels along with the spawn point but I definitely could have had more levels like that. Thanks for the feedback!
The artstyle was awesome! The idea was also great and well connected to the theme :) Fun to play, good job!
I noticed that the jump didn't work sometimes, I also had problems with this because I put the jump input in the FixedUpdate method instead of the Update method, maybe its the same problem here? :o
Hey, thanks for playing! Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know what's going on with the jump, it's just that I don't know a good way to fix it. All the movement is being processed in Update by a custom controller I wrote that works very similarly to the Unity character controller component (I hope) where I evaluate all the movement inputs, convert everything into a velocity vector and pass that into my controller to move it by adding that vector to the current position. The problem here is that well the y velocity sometimes is way too big and so when I set the position, it sets the position into the collider, and so I set up a script to counteract that force by pushing it up. Of course, this makeshift approach is pretty bad so as you can see, it didn't turn out too well. I'm having trouble finding a good way of getting the point on the tilemap collider since unlike if it was individual box colliders, the center is at the center of the tilemap and so I can't calculate the point where the player should be. I'm thinking of using a raycast downward. I don't really know, though. Do you have any thoughts? Sorry I kind of just sent a wall of text at you.
Wow haha, that was more complicated than I thought xD But adding a raycast sounds like a good idea! I don't really have any better ideas actually :)
This game was very fun to play, and very unique. It fits the concept well. It was more polished than I expected. I recommend updating the thumbnail and screenshots, I think the game is better than it sells itself to be.
It was challenging, but just the right amount; new concepts introduced the further you get, and even some trolls in the later levels. The art was good, the music fit the serious and focused nature of the game.
A very good game!
Hey, thanks for playing! I appreciate the suggestion about updating the thumbnail and stuff. To be honest, I'm pretty bad at the advertising side of things, and making a thumbnail is definitely not my forte, but I'll try to come up with something better! As for screenshots, I'll definitely try to get those up. Originally I thought they just looked bad, but after looking at others' games I think it's probably still better to add some. If you have any tips on making an attractive thumbnail, I'd love to hear them. Your game's thumbnail looks great, by the way.
Nice, good fun
Thanks for playing!
I like the idea
but the jump won't jump sometimes and the hitboxes on the water were HUGE
Overall nice game! can't wait to see what you make next
Hey, thanks for playing! The jump is pretty glitchy yeah, but the water hitbox should be the same size as the ground tiles (since I'm using a tilemap). I'll look into it though, thanks for pointing it out.
No problem!
I liked the idea a lot. The thing that bothered me was that the Hitbox was bugged sometimes and i couldn't really jump.
Yeah, I've been looking into the jumping. It's a pretty big problem haha. Thanks for the feedback!
A fog of war based platformer. I didn't think it would work, since blind jumps are the bane of platformers, but it seems like you pulled it off quite successfully.
I think some of the jumping could be tweaked further, but that's almost always the case with platformers. A good, solid entry!
Hey, thanks for the feedback! I totally agree with you about the jumping. But I'm glad the fog of war mechanic worked out, haha it was a toss-up for either being a cool mechanic or a frustrating one.
At first I wasn't sure how it fit the theme. Then I started to notice that exploring, even when you knew you would most likely die, would help you uncover de "Fog of war" of the game.
That's a good use of the theme.
Good job!
Hi, thanks for leaving a comment! I agree the theme isn't obvious at first. I think I'll include an explanation in the description. I hope you enjoyed playing, though!
wow, We both made games about candles in the dark xD it was pretty fun, I didnt understand how it fits the theme, but still the game fells was nice and overall pretty fun.
Yeah, it was pretty indirect. The idea was each time you die, you reveal a little more of the map, hence making progress through failure. I don't think it really is apparent until after the first few levels, which was a mistake on my part. Regardless, I'm glad you enjoyed playing it!
I like the concept and the music is so cool :D
Thank you so much! Glad you liked it!
Would be great if the flame can permanently lit up the area you died previously, I guess it fits the theme better :)
Yeah, I was debating whether to implement it that way. The problem I had with completely lighting up the area was it felt like there was 1, no extra feedback on where the player was and it kinda changed the atmosphere, and 2, I felt like it made more sense for your previous life to have a different brightness as your current one, as light should probably fade over time, right? Although, I think I could've changed it to be a little brighter than the semi-darkness just to tell you "Oh, this is where you died". Anyway, thanks for the suggestion!
I like the pixel art and the sound effects. I didn't understand how this fits "failure is progress" while playing it myself. After reading the comments i understood that even after death you explored the map and this knowledge carries over into the next life, so i get this fits the theme, even if it wasn't so direct to understand why. Maybe an explanation sentence in the description in the game page or an in-game pop-up window would have helped to understand this earlier to enjoy the game even more!
That's a good idea for sure. It is a pretty indirect take of the theme. I'll make sure to sneak in the explanation in the description. Thanks for the suggestion! :)
Satisfying soundtrack :)!
Like the idea that you discover the level so even when your candle went out you have made some progress for your next try. Good for the theme.
Art style also very coherent throughout the game.
Fun to play and to keep trying to make an extra level!
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm glad you had fun!
I loved the idea of uncovering the level, but what I found even more interesting is the idea of a candle living just long enough to lit the torch, so that then in can "die" in peace. At least that's what the story felt like to me. :)
Wow, what a beautiful take! I haven't thought that far but that's just beautiful, and a bit sad, too. Thanks, that really touched my heart, haha.
wow, this game is beautiful! and the concept is really clever! nice job!
Hey, thanks! That means a lot to me! :)
EPIC MUSIC, cool idea, good graphics!
Thanks so much for your kind words!