thanks so much for the kind words! it means a lot to hear that the design of the game works, since it's a mishmash of a lot of mechanics from other games that I like. so if the core loop of Silt Spawn is fun, then the demo is a success!! :D
that said, I'm sorry you encountered this bug :( I'm tempted to say that it's more of a bad design choice on my part instead of a bug. but either way, I realize now that you should always be able to grab items, and the idea of a "selected tool" really doesn't need to exist. hopefully, in reworking this, the bug you found will get squashed! so thank you again!
thanks for the in depth comment! a mini-map is on the list of potential upgrades to add in the future! a "speed up time" button is an interesting idea, maybe there can be a pop up when entering shelter? it's worth exploring for sure
I *think* your issue comes from the controls not being intuitive. if you have the "build" tool selected, nothing can be collected. this is definitely a design mistake, and I'm sorry it's giving you trouble! fixing this is top of my to-do list, even if the demo isn't expanded upon much more than that.
that said, I really appreciate your feedback! this demo is a great learning exercise through and through :D
that means a lot to hear that the atmosphere was engaging! fun exploration was probably the main thing I was trying to achieve! if I continue this project tho, making the controls simpler is top on my priority list. thanks so much for playing! :)
thank you for playing! that's impressive you only died once! it does look like the biggest issue with other people as well is that the controls are clunky when managing every tool/building. so I greatly appreciate that you took the time to write a comment! :D
holy crap thank you so much for the message! it's super super motivating to hear from you again! I'll for sure keep pushing this project until I run out of time in 2023 :D
thanks for the suggestion! I have toyed with that idea myself! there is code in place already that would make it easy to make a simplified map of each cave, so I'll explore a map mechanic when making this project into an actual game :D
thank you again for the kind words! it's funny you mention "gamifying" since I had asked a friend of mine what they like to see in games like this, since I wanted to cut out as much of the standard fluff that lots of games have. so, it's encouraging to hear that keeping gaming tropes to a minimum is a good goal :D
wow thank you for the amazing feedback Tigran! I'm incredibly happy to hear so much positivity, even from the game in its super early state!
I think your experience with the big rock is a really good sign that the layout of the cave will serve the main goal I have for it. that is, nurturing a desire to explore and the satisfaction of finding something interesting. as for handcrafted things, I do want to have a handful of NPCs that randomly show up and have dialogue that progresses with each chat. but currently, that's second-fiddle to the main objective... which I haven't even decided on yet, hahaha.
anyways, thanks again for the kind words and feedback!! it was a wonderful surprise :)
what a fun idea for a game!! upgrades always add a hook of replayability to a game! I personally liked the more passive approach to the gameplay, but if there was more strategy involved (some Controlled randomness), it would really elevate the experience :D
I knowww I'm sad that I didn't add audio! I had two hours left when I finished the game as it is, so I really ran out of time :( but thank you so much for the kind words!! silly and cute was the goal!
yay thank you for such a kind comment!! I'm super happy you liked the art and music! we really wanted to do a good job with it :D
yeah I agree with you that it's a little strange to just fall back down into the previous room, so I'll be brainstorming a way to land onto the nearest platform!
super cute game! it was easy but not in a bad way, because the art was very pleasing on the eye <3 there was a clear vision and it was created very well!
I really enjoyed this! I'm a huge fan of hard platformers, so this was a pleasure to play! I couldn't figure out where to go after getting the eighth coin though, so I wasn't able to complete the game. other than that, I had a great time playing! :D
it makes me super happy to hear that the blue-tenna is like a puzzle platformer because that's exactly what I was going for! I think Ill find a way to make it more forgiving in the future, so the player has more time to think about how to "solve the puzzle"
yep I definitely agree that some rooms need tweaking in this way! there's one room where the beetle charges at you immediately and I think "aw man, I need to change that asap," haha!
but I'm super glad you liked the game otherwise! thanks for the comment <3
you've understood how it works! the original idea is that the ability is a weaker starting point from which to grow, by taking more abilities, into completely dominating the room, but not directly doing damage yourself. something like controlling objects' movements, spawning new ones, causing them to explode, etc. it's the "magikarp" path, if I were to use a pokemon analogy. I'll definitely brainstorm some more direct "last-resort" options for it though, so it's less punishing to be in a bad spot
right now, I agree it is very difficult to use. but I assure you that it is possible to clear every room with just this ability, having designed each room this way. it takes a completely different playstyle though, which is where a lot of the difficulty comes from
hope this has been enlightening, and thanks again for sharing your thoughts! :D
I'm glad to hear the game feels nice to play, it was very important to me for this to be the case! and yes I definitely agree that the blue-tenna is very difficult to use compared to the other two. this was intentional, but I'm also brainstorming on possible ways to buff it in the future :)
wow thank you for the thoughtful comment!! it's good to hear that people are all agreeing on how to improve the game, it makes the next update that much easier :p
I totally understand feeling weird about the controls. on pc, I've most recently played pokemon emulators and deltarune, so arrow key movements are what I am most comfortable with right now, but I do like to play with a controller for platformers, so it killed me that I couldn't implement an "edit controls" feature in time.. needless to say, that's going in the next update for sure, along with lots of other QOL stuff! thanks again for the comment, hearing your experience with the game was super valuable :D
thanks so much omg! it means a lot to hear that it's underrated, as I've been sort of obsessing over numbers these past few days haha.. but I'm really glad you liked it! <3
super solid game! though this type of gameplay isn't normally for me, I played a lot of it and had a pleasant time with it :) everything just goes well together, and it's a relaxing time <3
love this game! it's simple yet difficult while still being a great experience! I love the puzzle mechanic, I think you've made something really great here! :D
btw, did you make the buzz sound effect yourself? haha!
thank you! it's funny you mention hollow knight, because one of the inspiring questions I had when conceptualizing this game was "what if hollow knight was a roguelite?" :D
and yeah, blue-tenna is by far the hardest ability to use. I usually can't finish a run with it as it is now! I was very close to creating a system where you got more first-item options as you played the game more (on the first run you'd only have the red mandibles, on the second you could choose mandibles or stun, on the third you could choose from all three). I think I'll make this for the next version, and maybe a way to test out each ability before doing a run
yep, after some feedback, it is definitely unclear how the "choose starting item" room works, so I'll be sure to release an improvement as soon as the voting period is over!
how it works currently is that when you pick one of the three weapons, the most recent one that you picked is equipped. if it is an active item--red madibles or blue-tenna--it is equipped to your Z action slot. green stun is passive, so it is not given a slot. when you find other active items, the button you press--Z or X--determines which action slot it goes into. You can tell it's active by the text at the bottom of the equip screen, which essentially asks "which slot do you want to equip this item?" I'll definitely improve this too
hope this helps you, or others in the future, and thanks for the thoughtful comment! <3
yay thank you! I'm super happy with how the audio of the game turned out :D super glad it's a challenge, but not offputting with its difficulty. the starting abilities do increase in difficulty as you go left to right, but I tweaked all the rooms until I could consistently beat them without taking damage with each starting ability. but anyways, thanks again for playing and for the comment! <3
