itch.io

The controls were confusing to understand at first (I blame my own lack of ability to read simple instructions place right in front of me 😅), but once I got into it it felt so good to move around, dodge, juke enemies, and just control my character in general! My goodness, you got the controls for the character down really good, to the point where if this was an actual 2.5D style Souls game, it would feel so good to get back up after a death and go fight that boss again, only to die for the 40th time. 

And that art style, my goodness that art style! It looks really good with the character, the enemies and the actual room. They seemed to not fit at all with the pictures being made however, to the point where it is very jarring to see the picture being made in this setting. I get that you wanted to make it like a jigsaw, so you used jigsaw-like pictures, but it just doesn't sit well in my eyes. I noticed a couple of issues with the rest of the gameplay aspects too.

The placing down mechanics was pretty confusing as well, till I realized that each piece is numbered so you know exactly where to place the pieces. But then the question became "what is the challenge behind placing the pieces?" It took me a while to realize the enemies had just not been aggroed onto me, so I replayed the game with all the enemies aggroed on me first before placing the pieces. Still, placing the pieces felt like there wasn't a challenge to it, especially when enemies would try to attack me, leave, and just never come back. Even after trying to aggro them, they would still just leave and even disappear entirely at some points. In the end, it felt like you had the start for a really good action-adventure/dungeon-crawling game with mechanics shoehorned in for assembling a jigsaw puzzle. If you do wish to work on the game in the future, I would personally like to see you lean more towards the mechanics and aesthetics you already have in place, or to revamp the puzzle mechanics more to better fit with everything else you already have. Please, whatever you do, do not throw away your current movement coding. It feels so pristine, I kinda wish you would use it in any future games you make too.

Also, a small side note, it was kinda weird to be kicked out very suddenly after finishing the puzzle. That isn't a good or bad thing that changes the ranking of your game to me, it's just a thing I noticed 😅. 

Your game started to give me nostalgic flashbacks to this really old game called Chip's Challenge.  I used to play the heck out of it back in the day. I wish there was more to this game, because literally, everything about it is amazing, from the use of the theme to the mechanic to the concept, to the art. But in the end, it just felt like it ended so suddenly with me wanting to play more or seeing what other challenges you had in store. Not to say the game is any worse because of it, but I get the feeling the possibilities if you ever extended the game in the future would be endless. Good stuff man.

When I read "Avoid the reflections", my first thought was "Wait, why do I need to avoid them?". Walked in front of the first mirror and I actually jumped from the scare. 

The atmosphere ended up being super eery and creepy, but that first regular section ended up being super easy on repeat playthroughs once the initial shock passed and when I learned you can just walk past the mirrors with no consequence. As for the dark section, the platforming and enemy challenges seemed a bit simple with a little patience, all except for the section at the end with the spears. It seemed a little unfair that there was no indicator when the row of spears was gonna come from the ground or the sky besides those first initial spears, but it really wasn't that bad considering how there weren't too many of those, so no harm no foul. 

I feel like the way you used reflection was really clever, where your reflection was after you, and where you had to become your reflection for the second section (at least that is how I saw it). This game I feel would be especially amazing if you had a chance to flesh it out with more levels and a story, but for a game made within the week timelimit, it was pretty good.

The difficulty was a big aspect of the game, with 2 obstacles in particular placed in such a way that it is possible but very difficult to dodge, as to create a sense of improvement to those that replay the game, and a sort of "clutch" feeling to those that end up actually able to dodge the obstacles. I will admit, the fact that you can slide with the top and bottom character at the same time by holding up and down even after the jump ends was not conveyed well enough, which is something I definitely would have changed if I could. Thank you for your reply!

The idea of making it a mobile game only came up super late into development, which in retrospect we really wish we went with. Thank you for the comment on the art style, it actually took way more iterations and designs than you would think to end up landing on this one, so the fact that you liked that we went with the minimalist art style really means a lot. Thank you for your reply!

Thank you for the reply! A lot of the assets were made by hand, with almost all the art designed by Christian Lee Poy. I will pass your words about the design and art to him because he really is the one that deserves all the praise for that. Sadly, with all the assets made by hand, a lot of things like more in-between animations and more songs/levels had to be scraped to submit on time. As for the difficulty, we were going for a "really hard, but doable song in a rhythm game" sort of vibe, so the fact that you felt the difficulty but want to continue, get better at the song, and win means the world to my team and I. Thank you for the reply!

I am actually super happy you felt like that! The experience we went for was one similar to rhythm games, where there is a really hard song where you want to beat it really badly, so you try over and over till you finally overcome it. The game was made hard, but possible, on purpose to convey that, while also making use of the old NES ideology of "extend your game's length by making it harder". This is especially helpful when, if you already know what to do, you can beat the game in two minutes. The fact that you felt the high octane feeling from the music and movement, you didn't have the easiest time, yet were able to preserver and overcome the challenge we presented to you mean our vision was met! Thank you for your reply! 

1 hour, 18 minutes, and 17 seconds. That was the time I had on my final save file when beating the game with the best ending.  A game made in a week took me that about of time to beat. And I loved every single second of it. 

I want to rant and rave and scream about this game to the high heavens, but to avoid spoilers, I won't. But I will say one thing when the moment with the diary happened, I knew I had to stop playing and get my girlfriend to come to help me, as to get a better idea of what you were trying to convey with the story. I have no clue if this was your intention or not, but the experiences of the main character from then on to the ending made my girlfriend feel better about her own personal experiences. Forgetting the categories for a second, you made the person I love so dearly feel better about her past, even just a little and for that, I can't even begin to show how thankful I am.

The story was beautifully written, with the dialogue and small details being the best parts. There were areas where the detection on checking places where items are was off. There was a room where the music just switched off randomly. I left that room immediately because of the utter terror I felt from the music just stopping all of a sudden. Turns out, music was just not set for that room. But on that last point, at no point in the game did I not feel a sense of dread while playing. The creepy and eery atmosphere was constant throughout, and it just made the entire experience better because of it. Using self-reflection as your main mechanic was a genius move, that idea was always present throughout the entire game, from start to end.

 This game was by far one of the best games I played in a long time, even outside of this game jam, and I will be waiting patiently to see what other ideas you have in store for the future. Never stop doing what you are doing, because what you can do is amazing.

Just gonna say off the bat, I wish the controls felt more consistent with the turning and stepping.

Now, to have that out of the way.

MY GOODNESS THIS GAME IS SO COOL!! You have a working highscore system, the mechanics and usage of the theme was extremely creative, and the challenge of being careful not just in the game, but in your actual movements in real life. By far the most creative of the games. The idea of being careful, but then having to watch the timer and having enemies which can move and hit you later on does seem a bit counter-productive, but that's only really because of my main complaint making it worse than it really was meant to be. Besides these, I should point out the red flashing when losing life seemed a bit too 'epilepsy warning' levels of flashing.

At first, I had some trouble understanding the controls and what to do, but once I did, the game really made for an enjoyable experience. The material design was really clean and subtle, simple enough to make the focus really be on the puzzles. Just when I thought the puzzles were getting easy, boom, you have the player choose between two lasers where they have to be careful where they point to first. In retrospect, the game was overall easy, but I feel like that just has to do with the length not being long enough to let the game build up to the level of difficulty I expect. Which is just me saying, I really wish I had more. Your game was a blast to play from start to finish.

The art style reminds me of those Five Nights at Freddy's minigames, and I love that. It's cool yet unsettling at the same time, and with the story being how it is, I find it fits. The mechanics took some time to get used to, with the fact that you can jump repeatedly when you touch the sides of platforms being the main thing that took the most time to figure out. I can't count the amount of time the switching of the control messed me up, it made for a really challenging but fair challenge to overcome. For the final boss though, the controls were changing at what seemed to be randomly, and I couldn't tell what was happening

A couple of the platforming challenges took some time to actually beat, however, mostly due to the block-pushing feeling a bit inconsistent at times, and the momentum to increase jump height also feeling a bit inconsistent. But my goodness does it feel satisfying when I finally beat those platforming challenges. Amazing game.

My goodness, this game's mechanics are janky in the best possible way. The fact that you can move your player with the blocks and the openness of where you can move the blocks just made the entire game so open-ended with how to solve puzzles, it was fun to say the least. I will have to comment on the use of the theme, reflection, though. There was nothing here that really represented the idea of reflection. Maybe with how you can move the blocks, it is a double reflection of the controls? Maybe the fact that you block lasers as a way to stop their reflection? Besides that, amazing game with a great atmosphere and great mechanics.

The colour palette, art style and music just fit so well together for the aesthetic that you made. The sort of "Sky reflection" visual is absolutely breathtaking with the landscape background you have. The platforming itself is not too hard yet not too easy, a good balance. The jumps seemed short and shallow at first, but the platforming challenges are built around that so it works. My only complaint would be the length because I ended up wanted to play more in the end after finishing the final stage.

Amazing game to say the least.