Thanks so much for playing! As for making a full game out of this, I'm still working on it, so we'll see where it goes :)
JayLeCavalier
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Thank you so much for the insightful comment! That is all some really great advice on level design. I definitely want to have an enemy that punishes shielding, but I'm realizing how tricky it is to introduce such a concept to players. It's tricky, but not impossible. I will take all your feedback into consideration as I continue development. Thanks again!
Nice job! This game held my engagement for more than a few minutes, which is more than I can say for most of the other jam games. Here's a more detailed review:
Design [4/5]: I think the mechanics were explained to the player very well. The concept was easy to understand, there were varied enemy types, and I really like that every upgrade also came with a downside. The fact that you're constantly being killed by the parasite and that the only way to heal yourself of that ailment is by killing enemies means you have a lot of incentive to engage with the enemies rather than just running past everything. In general, the exploration feels fun. The graphics obviously aren't totally there, but I was still wondering what was lurking around every corner, which was nice.
I would have gladly given this a 5/5, but there was one thing that kept bothering me about the game design: I wasn't sure what the "potential" meter did from the explanation at the beginning, and I never figured it out from the gameplay, either. I also never figured out what triggered the upgrade menu to open. My theory is that the potential meter opened up the upgrade menu at certain intervals, but I'm not positive about that. I thought that could have been a little more clear, since they both seem to be essential parts of the core gameplay.
Adherence to the Theme [1/5]: I don't understand how this game relates to the theme. It's not obvious to me. It just seems like an FPS with a corruption twist.
Originality [5/5]: I'm honestly surprised I haven't seen another FPS out there that focuses on corruption. The corruption is basically a time limit you have to complete the level, and the green blobs you get from killing enemies basically just grant you more time (among other bonuses, apparently, but I'm still not sure what the "potential" meter does). That's a pretty simple concept, and I'm surprised I haven't seen any other games do that in either the indie or AAA gamedev scene. Then again, I don't play a lot of FPS's.
Overall, you've done a really nice job! Keep up the good work and keep working on games!
Nice work, team! Here's my detailed review:
Design [2/5]: The concept behind the game is nice. It's cool that each character only has one minute to live, and I like that you're put under such a high-pressure situation. However, there are some drawbacks in the details that hindered the overall experience of the game for me. Here are some examples:
- The art is cute, but it can sometimes be difficult to tell what is and isn't safe to touch. For example, I actually thought the female snots were enemies for a bit. This example is particularly frustrating because there was some tutorial text at the beginning explaining that the goal of the game was to find female snots. I think this would have been a good opportunity to show us what the female snots look like.
- The movement mechanics and controls are not adequately explained to the player as they are needed. Because the first level is so open, sometimes a player will reach a spot where they need to use a certain mechanic (like speeding up time, using a double jump, or flying). For example, there are several spots on the first level where using the "speed up time" mechanic might be needed. However, the only place you can learn about it is by going down and right from the start position. It's possible that players will explore the entire level without coming across that explanation sign until the very end, which is frustrating. The other movement mechanics have similar frustrations. I had no idea I could double jump initially, and I was extremely frustrated when I found out that aging actually removes your ability to double jump. It's really cool that the player's abilities change as the snot grows older, but I don't think this is explained to the player in a straightforward manner at all. I had to die many times before I even fully understood the basic mechanics of the game, and I don't think that's a positive player experience. To summarize this criticism into a single sentence: the level design does not adequately teach players everything they need to know to solve the first level efficiently.
- I think the selling point of this game is that you have very little time to execute a plan. You have to look around you, analyze the level, and then plan out your path all within a minute. That's actually a really clever idea for a game. However, the level design makes it nearly impossible to make an accurate plan until you've already explored the level and died several times. Let's say I start the first level by exploring the left side of the map. I go over there, die, and have to restart the level. This time, I decide to explore the right half. For argument's sake, let's just say I discover that it would be most efficient for me to explore the right half of the map first. However, I had to die to find that out. I don't think that type of trial and error makes for a fun gaming experience. I think it would have been much better if the levels were smaller and you could see more of the map at once (more zoomed out camera). That way, players could analyze the situation and form an accurate plan without a bunch of trial and error. I died a lot on the first area before I came anywhere close to finding all the female snots, but it isn't because the platforming is challenging or difficult to execute. Rather, it's because I had no idea what 99% of the level looked like on my first playthrough, and the short time limit did not form a good partnership with that fact.
I don't think the short time limit was a poor decision at all. However, I think the game suffered from being exploration-based rather than being execution based. Showing all of the level at once isn't necessary, but I think more linear levels would have fit the mechanics better. If the levels were linear, I would have felt like my deaths were caused by my poor execution, which is a positive player experience because it would encourage me to get better at the game. When I died in the game as it is now, I felt like it was just because I hadn't seen everything yet, and that I just had to grind out a few more tries to see what the level actually looked like before I could start executing a plan. Overall, I think the decision to make this game exploration-based is probably the biggest flaw.
Adherence to the Theme [5/5]: Not much to say here. You only have a minute to live. Cool concept!
Originality [4/5]: I have seen platformers with extremely short time limits before. For example, most of the levels in New Super Luigi U have incredibly short time limits. However, those are straightforward platforming levels while this game is more about exploration, so that makes it a somewhat unique experience (ironically, I think this decision is also the game's biggest weakness).
I know I had a lot of harsh criticism for this game, but that's partially just because of how much potential there is here. The art style is cute, the music is nice, the game is generally well-put-together. I think that if the level design was more thought-out, the objective of the game was more focused to emphasize the strengths of the core concept, and the game did a better job of teaching the mechanics to the player through level design and tutorials, then this could be a really nice game. I know the developers put in some hard work here, and I appreciate all of that. Having said that, it wasn't a very enjoyable experience for me.
I think the sliding enemies on the ground are probably the weakest element I came up with. I'm glad you were able to get through the game!
I appreciate the feedback about the toggling platforms. I tried to design the level in such a way that players knew how the platforms worked before they had to jump over bottomless pits involving them. I wanted to avoid a patronizing tutorial or dialogue box that tells you how it works. Again, I'm glad you eventually figured out how it worked!
Thanks for all of your constructive feedback! I appreciate it!
There is a known bug that I easily overlooked before submitting. Usually, for testing purposes, I program my games so that pressing the escape key will exit the game. However, the code I used to exit isn't compatible with the browser player and causes some memory issues. That might have been what you were experiencing.
I'm glad you liked the game! Thanks for all your great feedback.
I made a sidescroller you control using only one button. Feedback is greatly appreciated :)
https://jaylecavalier.itch.io/jellyhead
My game is in the middle of no-man's land right now. Would greatly appreciate some feedback!
https://jaylecavalier.itch.io/jellyhead
Nice job with all your hard work for the jam! Here's my in-depth review:
Design [2/5]: I'll start with the positives: the concept of controlling one character at a time to get a princess through an exit door makes for a very nice puzzle game ripe with opportunity. I think you have a nice cast of characters that are all creative and unique.
Having said all of that, I thought the execution was weak and the level design is incredibly frustrating. It is possible to get completely stuck on the very first level if the Knight falls into that first pit (happened to me). At first, I realized I could no longer collect the coin at the bottom left of the screen, but that frustration turned into a huge eye-roll when I realized I also could no longer finish the level. To make matters worse, there's no obvious way to restart the level, so I just had to refresh the browser page and start the game over. In general, I think the level design is incredibly frustrating, and the fact that there's no way to restart the level after making a mistake means that the best players will be punished the hardest for making a mistake (seems backwards to me). If I make it all the way to the last level and make a mistake, I'll have to restart the entire game just to see the ending, which is a poor design choice. It's too easy to become stuck in the middle of a level, and I think that should have been brought into consideration (especially in the earlier levels).
That was my experience when I first played the game, but it wasn't until I came to this comments page and read through some of the other comments that I realized you actually can restart the level. However, you have to open the options menu and click through a couple of buttons to do it. Aside from that being a clunky way to handle restarting (a simple press of the 'r' button on the keyboard would have done just fine), the player is never told about that in the game. There is a tutorial screen, but it mentions nothing about how to restart a level. Since dying or becoming stuck is such a strong possibility, it's really important that players know how to restart the level, so that was a huge problem for me.
I also faced some other minor annoyances while playing. I was frustrated that your character always faces to the right whenever you stop moving, even if you were moving left. This can become a problem for any of the characters with an attack, since attacking left means you have to be moving and attacking at the same time.
Again, I want to say that this game is a nice concept in theory, but I was so frustrated by the level design and the lack of an obvious way to restart the level that I couldn't finish playing it.
Adherence to the Theme [5/5]: You have multiple characters, but you only control one at once. Nice job!
Originality [3/5]: As nice as this game is conceptually, I've seen it before in a game called Thomas Was Alone. I don't want to dock you too much, considering that's a relatively unknown indie game, but the idea of a puzzle platformer with multiple characters that you control one at a time is not completely original.
Overall, I can tell you've put some nice effort into this project. The game looks nice, it's an interesting concept, and it's (mostly) bug-free. Keep working at games and I'm sure you will improve as a developer in time!
Thanks for your encouragement. There's so much experimentation I can still do with the controls (I don't want to feel like everything is set in stone), and a lot of the feedback I've gotten in the comments has helped generate some ideas for that. I think the main thing that will help me improve the controls is just having people playtest the game and iterating on my original idea. I really appreciate this comment.
There are definitely some optimizations that could be made to the audio code in the game. I'm pretty sure that's responsible for any lag you're experiencing. It's also noteworthy that the character doesn't jump immediately when you tap the spacebar. This is because the game has to compute for a moment whether or not you tapped or held the button. That may have contributed to the lagginess you experienced, but that was actually intentional.
Only 1 Frame Per Second - Puzzle Game jam comments · Posted in Only 1 Frame Per Second - Puzzle Game jam comments
Nice job! I played through the whole game. Here's my in-depth review:
Design [2/5]: I think this is a cool game theoretically, but I don't think the execution is very strong. I'll go over this using some specific examples:
- It's really cool that the game moves in discrete chunks of time rather than moving continuously. Having said that, I think the choice to have everything move at one frame per second was highly questionable (even though it fits the theme). It was too slow for me to feel engaged, and it made the game feel incredibly punishing if you mess up close to the end of one of the longer levels, since it will take you a long time to get to that point again due to how slow everything moves. So, again, having everything move in discrete chunks of time is a great idea for a puzzle game, but I think the execution was off: rather than having everything move at 1 FPS, I would have rather seen a game where things move only when you do (i.e. time only progresses one frame at a time whenever you press an arrow key). This would have allowed you to design the same sorts of puzzles, but it would have left the pacing entirely up to the player. You wouldn't have even needed to compromise the theme to accomplish this, since you already adhered to the theme by employing only one inventory slot.
- I like that the game employs lots of different puzzle elements, but I don't think they were always put to the best use. I really like the pitfalls, the ice, and the bullets, but the level design didn't always have the best ways of introducing them. For example, the first level where you see the bullets was good in theory. I like that it had a long hallway of bullets and that you could take advantage of the discrete time mechanics by sliding between two bullets. However, the level starts you off in another long hallway, and I think it would have been a much better choice to put the player in a more open space leading up to the hallway, so they would have a better chance to roam around a bit and plan how to get into the bullet tunnel safely. So, the puzzle elements are nice features, and they add some variety to the gameplay, but I don't like the level design used to support them.
- I like that you have only one inventory slot and that walking over another item forces you to drop whatever you have for the item you just walked over. That's actually my favorite mechanic in the whole game, and I think it fits the theme perfectly. Having said that, I think the level design is weak when it comes to this concept. A good example is level 13. There's no way I would know that I need to have the shield last unless I already know what's at the top of the screen. The trial and error there, coupled with the fact that everything moves so slowly, made that level a little frustrating for me. I think that this game is at its best when the player has all the information they need to solve the level and they just need to make a plan and execute it. My favorite puzzles in the game were the ones that forced you to juggle keys and swords between a bunch of pitfalls, and I wish all of the levels were as well-thought-out as those.
I offer you all of this criticism because I think this game has a lot of potential. I just think the level design and the pacing need to be more carefully thought out.
Adherence to the Theme [5/5]: The game runs at 1 FPS and you only have one inventory slot. Personally, I think the first decision was a poor one, but the second one is brilliant. Either way, the game adheres to the theme well.
Originality [4/5]: I haven't seen too many action/puzzle games that move at discrete time intervals. The only one I can think of that comes close was Trapped, an old flash game series from the early 2000's. The puzzles feel uniquely designed, but I can't help but feel like I've seen these sorts of puzzle elements before in other games.
Overall, nice job! Keep working on games. You obviously have lots of different ideas. Game development is an iterative process, and your levels will get better if you keep going back and revising them.
I played through the whole game, and you've done a nice job here! Here's a more in-depth review:
Design [4/5]: I'm very hesitant to call this a shooter game with only one bullet. It really just feels more like a stealth game to me than a shooter game. Having said that, it's nice that there are two phases to the gameplay. The first phase is complete stealth, the only goal being to get to the gun while avoiding enemies. The second phase is hunting down the enemy. My biggest complaint about the design is that the second phase is completely trivial compared to the first phase. Once you have the gun, it's pretty hard to get caught since you can just shoot the enemy from so far away that it can't even see you. I wish that the gameplay changed in some way once you had the gun. Maybe collecting the gun suddenly wakes up some sleeping enemies? Or maybe collecting the gun changes the layout of the level in some way? Right now, things are so trivial once you have the gun that the gun might as well have just been an exit door to the next level (although that wouldn't have fit the narrative you were going through - but that's basically how the gun functions mechanically at this point). That criticism aside, it's a nice game! The levels are nicely designed. All of them are challenging, but fair. You can always plan ahead and analyze the situation before you have to move into it. The art style clearly communicates what is an enemy and what is part of the level. Nice job!
Adherence to the Theme [4/5]: It is a shooter game with only one bullet, but I think it's more than that. It's really a stealth game. I don't think the stealth aspect fits the theme, though.
Originality [5/5]: Cool idea! I've seen lots of stealth games, but most of them take place in cramped buildings with human guards. This one really makes you feel like you're on the hunt for a creature far more threatening than you are.
This is absolutely fantastic. The rest of the comments are raving, and I'm all aboard the hype train for this one. Easily one of the best submissions for this game jam. Here's my more detailed review:
Design [5/5]: I was a bit concerned that this wasn't going to really be a tower defense game. Thankfully, my concerns vanished as soon as I started to play. This is very much a tower defense game, and a well-thought-out one at that. The varied enemy types are all balanced well with your character's move speed, the tower's range, and your attack power (all of which are upgradable, but why would you when you can have a cool hat?). As far as balance goes, the game was challenging, but completely fair.
Most of the time, when you're playing a tower defense game, you aren't just sitting around idly. You're usually looking through tech trees and upgrade menus and building more towers. I was worried that, since you only have one tower, you weren't going to have anything to do while the tower takes care of the enemies on one side of the battlefield. Thankfully, there's much more to do than just move the tower around thanks to the brilliant upgrade system. Rather than accumulating currency by picking off enemies like in most tower defense games, you accumulate currency by collecting crystals that appear in random locations in the battlefield. It keeps you occupied while the tower fires away, meaning there's almost never a reason not to be moving, but it does even more than that. Since the crystals are the only way to upgrade the tower, you have lots of motivation for collecting them, so you have to strike a balance between moving your tower to the optimal location and hunting down crystals. There is never a dull moment with this game because of that system.
Another thing I love about the upgrade system is that it's only as serious as players want it to be, thanks to to the "cool hat" upgrade option.
The boss battle is a brilliant addition to the game as well. It forces you to juggle three things at once: fight off the waves of enemies, collect crystals, and hit the boss. The game had me fully engaged from start to finish. What a brilliant design!
Adherence to the Theme [5/5]: This is a wonderful interpretation of the theme, and I think you guys turned an odd-sounding restriction (only one tower) into a brilliant little game.
Originality [5/5]: The game is totally unique as far as I'm concerned. It's a breath of fresh air in the tower defense genre. Well done!
I seriously can't applaud you guys enough. This is a contender for my favorite game of the entire jam. I don't know whether or not you two have future plans for development on this game, but I would support you morally and financially if you chose to do so. Great job! Bravo!
I played all the way through. Nicely done! Here's a detailed review:
Design [3/5]: Having to control both what you're seeing and your player's movement at the same time is an interesting concept. Having said that, I don't think it's explored anywhere near its full potential in this game. The bulk of my gameplay was broken down into two phases: the planning phase and the action phase. I would typically stop moving and use the light to look around and then actually make my moves in the direction I wanted to go. I think that idea is executed well within the game, but there's not much more to it. I wish there had been some situations that require me to use my light and move at the same time for some variety. The core mechanics of the game allow for that type of gameplay, but the level and enemy design never seem to require that from the player. The enemies are a nice addition, but I never found them threatening. I don't think I was hit by one even once.
I think this game would have gone from being interesting to being really good if there had been a puzzle element or enemy type that requires you to keep the light on it while you move around in the dark. I just felt like this game was lacking the sort of situation where you needed to move around in the dark. Again, the core mechanics allow you to move around in the dark, but the level design, puzzle design, and enemy design never require it from the player, which is disappointing.
Having gotten all of that criticism out of the way, here's some positivity: what you actually did implement is executed very well. Exploring is fun, but never frustrating. It's cool that you have to keep a mental image of everything you've seen so far when navigating the level (especially in the levels with keys and locked doors). Nice job on this one!
Adherence to the Theme [5/5]: You only have one little sliver of vision in the game. Well done!
Originality [5/5]: I think this is one of the strongest selling points of the game. I've never seen a game where the sole focus is controlling the light with the mouse before. I've obviously seen games with light controls before (horror games especially), but that always seems like a texture element rather than a core mechanic like it does in this game.
Good job! Keep making games and keep up the good work!
thanks for the detailed review! I definitely considered just removing the ability to turn around by double tapping spacebar and adding puzzle elements that turn you around throughout the level. I didn't come up with that idea until too far into development, though.
All of this feedback is helpful. Thank you!
Thank you for the constructive feedback. Many have commented on the controls, but you are the first to comment on the fact that the game has to wait to see if you're wanting to do a tap, hold, or double press. "Waiting" is exactly the right word for it, and that's exactly how it's implemented in the game's code as well.
I'm also glad I didn't trash the idea. As I've said elsewhere, it was a nice exercise in level design under extreme restrictions. I have watched Mark's video about Celeste, but I wasn't considering it when designing this game. The way I was thinking of it was this: if you tapped the button and you were grounded when you started the tap, you intended to jump, so you should get to jump. The game shouldn't punish you for not jumping with that sort of precision, especially when there's a delay between pressing the button and actually jumping (due to the "waiting" I described above). I'm glad it's consistent with what he mentioned in the video, though.
Yeah, playtesting will always remind you of how to improve your controls. However, I know playtesting isn't always a possibility during a game jam, so take it with a grain of salt.
Yeah, The Swapper is a really amazing game. The puzzles are challenging, the artwork is beautiful, and the narrative is super interesting. It's worth a few hours of your time, in my opinion.
Platty: The Single Platform Adventure jam comments · Replied to beanc16 in Platty: The Single Platform Adventure jam comments
It's important to recognize that I wasn't criticizing the game for being a sidescroller, but for being an autoscroller. That is, the problem is that the camera is always pushing you further along the level. It puts you under constant pressure to keep moving, when what players really want to do is take their time, aim shots, and take them. In fact, I think that if the game was a sidescroller that didn't auto-scroll, it would give you much more freedom as a level designer. One way to implement it would be to simply have the camera always point directly at the player, regardless of where the platform is. This keeps the pacing in the player's control, so they have lots of time to aim and prepare a shot. Hopefully that makes sense. If not, feel free to ask more detailed questions. I'm also happy to talk about it on discord if you want :)
As for your question of "should we continue development"? My answer is simple: if you still feel passionate about the project, definitely! Nobody gets their design exactly the way they want it in 48 hours. If you still feel like the project has potential and you want to keep going, then keep going with it.
I like that you're thinking critically about your design and looking for ways to improve it. If you keep that attitude, I think you will only stand to improve as a game designer.
Hey, nice job! I appreciate the fact that you only were able to work on this game on Sunday, but I think this game provides a polished experience nonetheless.
Design [3/5]: There are two things I love about this game. The first is that every puzzle has multiple solutions, allowing players to choose their own path. The second is that the game doesn't bombard players with a patronizing tutorial. The developers knew that players were smart enough to figure out how the game works without hand-holding or even any text tutorials. After poking around for a bit, it becomes clear what the objective is and what you need to do to avoid trapping yourself into an unsolvable situation. I love that the goal of the game and how to achieve it isn't immediately obvious, but something that you have to discover through the gameplay itself.
Having said all of that, I don't think there's too much to the experience after that. A dominant strategy quickly emerged for me, and it wasn't long before I was just blowing through levels. I don't think there's enough depth to the gameplay to keep me engaged for longer than a couple of minutes. I think that what is there is executed brilliantly, but I think the gameplay gets repetitive very quickly, and I don't see how it could be expanded upon to add variety without destroying the simplicity (which, I believe, is one of the selling points for this game).
To sum up: I enjoyed playing it, but only for a couple minutes, and I don't feel very motivated to go back for more.
Adherence to the Theme [5/5]: The object of the game is to remove all the puzzle pieces until only one remains. Nice job!
Originality [4/5]: There's a card game called Set which is pretty similar to this game. Players have to form sets of three cards based off of color, shape, or number until the deck is exhausted. It's an interesting puzzle game, and it's functionally very similar to your game. Having said that, I think your game is still original due to the artwork and the ultra-simplistic design. After all, Set has an instruction manual that teaches players how to play the game, but yours doesn't require any such handholding. It's really nice!
Great job! Hope to see more from you in the future.
This is a very nicely done game! I appreciate the art style, especially. I love the way one level transitions into the next, and the background is a nice, fitting animation.
Design [4/5]: This is a nicely designed game. The mechanics are simple to understand, but difficult to master. I also like that the game throws you into the experience without a patronizing tutorial. It trusts players to be smart enough to figure out what the goal is and to figure out that you need to get rid of all the clones to finish the level. I love that there are two phases to some levels: the first phase is getting yourself to the exit, and the second is getting rid of all the clones without losing your footing or killing yourself. It's really cool, and it forces you to plan ahead before just mindlessly moving around.
I would have loved to give this five stars instead of four, but I think there's one thing holding the design back in this game: the sections that require precise platforming. First of all, the platforming controls are not very precise. This isn't a problem in and of itself, but the level design often requires very strict and precise movement. In particular, the fourth and sixth levels had some really frustrating, narrow hallways with spikes. On those levels, I had figured out exactly how to solve the puzzle, but then I was frustrated because I couldn't execute my plan due to how close together everything was.
Adherence to the Theme [5/5]: All levels take place on a single screen and all clones are controlled by a single input. Nice!
Originality [3/5]: I can't give full credit for originality because I've seen this concept done before in another game I've played: The Swapper. The difference is that, in The Swapper, you can create up to three clones and you don't need to destroy all the clones to finish a level. I think those differences are enough to make this game unique, but the idea of controlling multiple clones with one controller is something I've seen before.
Congrats, developer(s). This is one of my favorites from this year's GMTK jam. It was very inspiring to play this one.
Design [5/5]: What a cool idea! It's basically an ice-block puzzle where you can only move in one direction at a time. However, you can't see the entire level at once. The visual effects really sell the idea and it ties everything together.
My favorite thing about this game is that it requires you to make decisions on incomplete information, but doesn't rely on randomness to accomplish this feat. You can acquire all the information you need by expanding and contracting the level in the right way, and solving the puzzle is often about trying to keep a map of the area in your head and reconciling that mental picture with the limited view you have on the screen. My only complaint is that there isn't more content, but that's to be expected from a 48-hour game jam game. You've done a great job with the design, and the content that is there is engaging and well-thought-out. Designing the levels for this game must have been a treat, and I think this is the sort of game that would be great with a level-editor for community involvement. I'm also glad that you're not just sticking to one mechanic, either. I noticed the teaser for the "one-way" gates at the final screen, and I think it's cool that you're continuing to expand on the original concept in interesting ways that add things.
Adherence to the Theme [5/5]: As advertised, each level only occupies a single screen. The camera doesn't move.
Originality [5/5]: I have never seen a mechanic like this before in a puzzle game. It's a unique idea, and it's fresh and exciting.
Well done! Please continue making games. I'd love to see what you come up with next.