The same passwords should work in both the demo and the full version. I wanted to make sure people wouldn't lose their progress in that exact scenario.
You found a good Flobby! the glitched out cat enemy is 100% intentional. it's an easter egg. he just wants belly rubs.
I appreciate your comments about the amount of enemy HP as you play through the game. Yes, you almost certainly did miss upgrades. The fact that enemies become almost unkillable is supposed to be the hint to the player that you missed stuff and should go back and explore more. I think this is just a difference of opinion in style. when I play an open world game, I tend to progress slowly, checking in every nook and cranny before going forward. When I reach a new area, or find a new item, I tend to take that as a signal that I should go back and make sure I haven't missed anything before progressing (slowly and methodically). The game is designed to make you backtrack through areas you've already played through. Seeing and hearing how OTHER people play my game has really opened my eyes to the fact that not everybody plays that way, or enjoys that type of layout. This game's map is already done, but if I design any more games in the future, I will learn from that lesson.
Also regarding fast travel back to earlier areas.... well, explore a little more! (and talk to the sages!)
I'm currently working on a new version to fix bugs, clean up some graphical issues, etc. I may release a new demo that only includes half the game instead of 75%. But to be honest, I'm less concerned about money than that people enjoy playing it.
Thanks for taking the time to play through the whole demo! Due to trying to fit such a large game world into 64 KB, I had to do a lot of recycling level design elements, but I tried to keep each area unique by changing up the palette, enemies, etc.
The Isostasy Soundtrack is monetized through the Content ID system and is available for steaming on multiple platforms, including YouTube. I apologize if this is causing any inconvenience, but it is not something I am willing to opt out of. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Thanks. I appreciate the comment on the map system. it was a lot of work to add it, but I I always felt NES games like Metroid or Zelda 2 could have used a built in map system.
You're close. The demo omits the last 2 zones, Space and Fortress. once you exit the Marine zone you'll get a message thanking you for playing the demo and asking you to buy the full version.
I have been told that the demo is too long, but I wanted to give people a fair chance to decide whether they really wanted to finish the game before paying for it. if a player gets to the end of the demo and says "meh, that's good enough, I'm done now", then that's OK with me.
I love the way this game looks and sounds. I struggled with the controls, but I know lots of retro games used this type of control scheme, so it seems to be right in line with that style of game.
This is really good! I played through the whole thing and I'd love to see more! One minor issue, at one point some stray pixels appeared in the background tiles, as if CHR RAM got corrupted a little somehow.
