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In level 8 you learn that you can jump higher by starting higher even when the steam is providing some updraft. You can use this in lvl14. It is intentionally a bonus level because it is a bit unfair and does not provide all the information necessary to execute it, only hints at it. (Look left)

I see many people say the controls were difficult and too fast, I didnt notice it for myself during development even though I played it a lot. Sadly there is no chance to playtest a lot during a jam.

Some of the tricky jumps become trivial if you figure out a good approach to them, I would consider that a puzzle in itself. To tell you the truth, I am not 100% satisfied with the puzzles either, most of the time I found them too trivial, but I also know that people wont spend so much time on a jam game to figure out very difficult puzzles.

I'm not critizising the difficulty of the jumps. Off course they get easier when you learn how to do them or get more used to the specifics of movement. The problem is that they are only one half of puzzle. The other half is figuring out how much energy you need. So the learning process is "is the energy level wrong or am I just not doing the jump correctly ?" 

The quality of a puzzle ultimatly comes down to it's mechanics and the ones you have in your game are just not that easy to work with. The steam only interacts with the player. The Lava only interacts with the Player.

Maybe you should have gone the systemic route. Let's say fire powers the cauldron and the steam can be used to let objects float in the air. Then let the player pick up the fireplaces and place them down. Lava is like a fire but stationary. Then add some sort of button that needs heat and you probably can see how this opens up many possibilities for intresting puzzles that don't envolve some trivial solution followed by a platforming section. 

This is just an example though and you could probably do a lot with the energy mechanic. 

Someone in the comments below posted a link to a video by mark brown were he talks about the importance to seperate puzzles from skill based platforming.


And yes. A lot of people will not finish your game when you make the puzzles too difficult. But what's the point then. If you want to make a game then you should make what you want to make in my opinion. Even if most people are not going to finish it.  My game is a precition platformer on a timer. It's stupidly hard and super stressfull. But I put all my effort in making it the best version of that particular idea. And for the people who want to get invested in your game , they will find something worthwhile hopefully. 

That's just my opinion on that question though. 


And the hint you gave for the level kinda confuses me.  Am I supposed to go over the the top of the level ? because I tried that and I thought there was a ceiling there. But I could be wrong.

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There are parts with no ceiling that you can reach by starting your jump from the right side of the steam. Like in level 8.

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Regarding the gmtk video, I saw it a few days ago, and it was one of the few videos where I tought he got it 100% wrong. I think mixing genres like that is great. I know not everyone likes games like that, but I dont think you should not make a game because not everyone will like it. Mixing genres is fun but narrows your audience to people who like both genres. Im ok with that.

Systemic game is a great idea and would work really well with this games mechanics, but im glad I didnt choose it given how much time I had in the jam.