itch.io

I didnt expect this game to be as fun as it was, this was just a delightful little (but also surprisingly long) puzzle game, I found a lot of the puzzles really fun to figure out. I thought it was paced well, the level design felt appropriately metroidvania, and the actual aesthetic matched the theme very well. I can't say the same about the music though, I would've preferred you go all the way with the theme and have the music give off that MSX era feel

This was a pretty awesome entry despite the bugs! I found the atmosphere stellar, and the feeling of actually connecting your shots with the enemy was fantastic. With just a bit more polish this would be absolutely top tier

The game certainly improved the more I went into it, the upgrades and the way they opened up the exploration I thought were really well done. The  main melon dude was adorable, but there are a handful of fundamentals that I'd definitely recommend adjusting. First of all, I definitely think that when you have a game where you use melee attacks, you should always make your enemies get knocked back by attacks rather than staying stationary after getting attacked. Also, after pressing the attack button there's a delay between the attack animation playing out and the attack landing. Ideally, you'd want the player's attack to register with the enemy as soon as they press the attack button. Very solid entry though, the world design was absolutely the highlight for me I found that to be very well done!  

I really really enjoyed the bits that I've played of this. I'll definitely get back to it and update my thoughts but for now I found the implementation of the theme really cool, the level design was very creative and engaging and it always impresses me when people find the time to implement full fledged bosses in a game jam. I will say though, the segment of the game that contains the shop with the healing echo is in my opinion a brutal jump in difficulty considering the lack of saves for that entire section. I reached the end with the eyeball and echo soldier combo and when losing to that brought me to the start I did have to put it down for a bit. 

I was eventually able to get past all that and to the next save though, and in terms of design I thought it was all very well done and fair, but the pacing and escalation to me felt very off considering the intro section had an abundant amount of saves. But other than that  bit of balancing, for now I don't really have much else constructive to say this was just really well done! I'll definitely be getting back to this in the coming days to finish it up

We initially required the player to hold ctrl while crouching, but changed it to just clicking ctrl to get into crouch state for this very reason, it's unfortunate to hear that it's still an issue. Thanks for playing the game to the end we greatly appreciate it! 

We really appreciate the in depth feedback! The marbles  definitely weren't explained as best as possible, but essentially the turrets will always focus on the most recent sound emitted within their radius, so when a marble makes a sound, that's when they lock in on it. Usually marbles will make a sound whenever they collide with anything else like a wall, but I think I might have made their audio source range too small since if you throw them far enough you might not be able to hear them 

You're absolutely right, once the jam ends we'll definitely adjust the checkpoints. Thanks for playing!

Thanks for playing and finishing the game! We were honestly worried nobody would get that far since in hindsight we made the game too punishing with the saves. Also yea we did make the answer behind the final locked door on the esoteric side on purpose because we felt that a blatant answer would take away a bit from the allure of the presentation and story

For some reason when I got the last two attack powerups the game bugged out and just straight up didnt have any dialogue explaining what they were. I was able to get the hang out of it regardless, but I did find that pretty weird. That aside though I enjoyed this game a lot, its sense of style and esoteric presentation of a pretty dense and abstract idea was really captivating to me. I found the infinite jump a tad excessive, and I feel like there was never a point in the game where I felt like slowing down time was absolutely necessary, but it was still a fun time from beginning to end. Just a very well designed metroidvania 

Very impressive work! Was able to beat it on the harder difficulty on my 2nd try, which I think says quite a bit about the balancing. I thought the bosses were fun and fair, and the design just generally feels exactly like your inspiration. I did find the implementation of the theme very superfluous though, the timer didn't really add or detract anything to the experience at all, it was kind of just there. But that aside, keep working on this this project really has legs! I also very very highly recommend you use WebGL to make the game even more accessible so you can get more people playing the game and providing feedback

This game was just delightful, it was unique while also being incredibly polished and just plain fun to play. Very short but fun all the way through, and I just couldn't get enough of riding around, the controls are so simple and feel so good. Presentation and theme are also great, honestly I just wish there was more because this is the kind of game I'd absolutely play a full version of. Fantastic job!

Thanks for playing!

It took me quite a bit to notice it honestly, saves and checkpoints should preferably be in a place where the player is just naturally gonna  go to, rather than an area that's off of their current path. All of the critiques for this entry really just ultimately come down to balancing and pacing though, which I think speaks quite strongly to your other fundamentals when it comes to game development which I believe are super polished

I did a sequence break with the blocks in i believe the east marsh area. I positioned the blocks in a way that allowed me to jump all the way up instead of climbing the vines, which I believe game me sprout before wall climbing. 

I'll be honest though I accidentally cheesed the final room, the collider on the final heart thing was a tad too big, so I randomly attacked when i first entered the room and just beat it. So I didn't actually get to properly experience that final room

In my opinion it's the pacing that lets you down in terms of making a metroidvania. Instead of a gradual increase in difficulty and power, it just feels like I've been thrown into the game with harsh difficulty right off the bat, which makes its pacing quite unmetroidvania like. I can definitely sympathize with that being part of not having enough time to add more rooms that make the pacing more gradual, but it does mean that the experience has a very awkward flow in my opinion. But I absolutely wouldn't say that you've "failed" in making a metroidvania at all, this game is ultimately a very competently made metroidvania,  but it's more so that I believe this game would have actually been stronger if it wasn't a metroidvania with its pacing and design philosophy. 

I definitely think more frequent checkpoints is a start in this regard, so it doesn't feel like the player is being pushed too hard by having to do these difficult rooms back to back right off the bat. I do have to stress though that this is still a very strong entry overall and I had a lot of fun playing it regardless

This was AMAZIIINNNGGGGG. Easily the best entry I've played so far, and I'll be genuinely surprised if it does not get first place because this to me is a proper 5/5 on every category. I played it for a full hour and had a ton of fun from start to finish. The design of every room was really engaging, and the progression was a proper perfect metroidvania progression. The story was really interesting, the way it fit the theme was flawless, and it just felt great to play. You really knocked it out of the park with this one!

I honestly think this game should've been an entirely different genre. This feels and plays more like a Celeste type game where every screen is a separate challenge you have to skillfully bypass, rather than a metroidvania. I think this game's weakness is ultimately the fact that it was form fitted to be a metroidvania, because if it wasn't I think it would have been an incredible amount of fun. But as it stands, it feels like the game just throws you into the deep end and excessively punishes any small mistakes with a large amount of progress lost, which made for a pretty frustrating start

I greatly enjoyed the actual challenges within every screen, the way the game controls is really clean, the feedback on every action is very tight and feels great, the audio is excellent, and I absolutely love the visuals, but the way it's all contextualized together lets all of these fantastic individual elements down in my opinion

Very small adjustment that would make a world of difference is having enemies launched backwards a tiny amount after getting hit, it adds a stronger hit feedback to your attacks, and it makes it so that attacking enemies doesn't have this awkward feel to it where you have to hit a few times, move backwards and then hit more to make sure you don't get hit. In a game that resets a lot of progress when you get hit, having that kind of intuitive enemy hit feedback is really important. That aside though the audio-visual cohesion is fantastic, the movement is very snappy, and the interpretation of theme is really interesting despite how punishing it is

Congratulations on your first game, really good job! This is definitely a strong starting point, and I hope you just continue to join jams and improve your craft. This was a delightful short game, I had a good time with it, and I found it very impressive that you even included full and fair bosses in your first project. I do wish the bosses had less HP and the player moved faster though. The pacing for a lot of the game feels too slow with the movement and bosses having too much hp despite their movesets not changing too drastically. But that's just balancing, and getting a feel for that is all about making more games and getting all types of feedback to your games

Very good entry!

Honestly one of our biggest worries was that players could get lost in the map so it's a very real relief to hear that it was relatively straight-forward! An accessibility option for the lighting would have gone a long way, I really should have added that, that was definitely a blunder on my part. I'm not sure if it would be entirely fair to edit the game now, but once the jam ends we'll definitely pace the save points better, our perspective on that was very skewed so we didn't quite get it down right

Greatly appreciate the feedback! 

Sea of Solitude is SOOO good, we actually didn't consider it as an inspiration but now that I think about it, it's absolutely there. Might've just been a subconscious inspiration on my end

This game's feedback is impeccable, hitting things and getting hit feel REALLY impactful. The presentation in terms of audio and visual cohesion is phenomenal, and the way the metroidvania elements are contextualized with the game's setup is really fun and creative. That little animation of the main character wearing a headband in the beginning of the game was such an awesome touch. I think the thing keeping this from being an earnestly perfect entry is how slippery the controls are, and the very brief but noticeable lag between inputs and action, especially when it comes to swinging your sword. I also feel like the game is too punishing in terms of how much progress you lose when you die.

But despite all that off of the strength of the feedback and presentation alone, this an incredibly strong entry for this Jam

Accessibility settings is always  a major win in my book for a game, especially a jam game. Mad respect for considering that for this game. I did find the game itself a bit unpredictable to control though, mainly because you move too fast while also not having enough leeway to jump while at the edge of a platform. Most platformers give you a few frames to jump even after leaving your feet, which makes the platforming feel a lot more tight. The bosses were the highlight for me though, I really appreciated how tough they were, I found them quite fun to figure out and they complemented the frenetic pace of gameplay really well. The music also rocked very hard I had to stop myself from bopping my head into oblivion!

I'm very surprised to see another 3D game in this jam! I always really enjoy time related mechanics in games, and this theme very naturally lent itself to something like this. I do wish the player would become a child of the platforms when they jump on them though, because having to move independently of the platforms made a lot of the platforming in this game in my opinion unnecessarily difficult. I did get the hang of it after a few levels though, which gave this game a weird difficulty curve where it was actually at its hardest in the very first level

The concept of going to different planets is really interesting and the way it's done has the scope of that concept without requiring excess in terms of presenting that scope. I quite enjoyed the idea of the game, but I actually would've preferred if maybe the entire game was contextualized through the ship, because that felt more immersive and dynamic to me than the actual combat sections  in the planets .The actual gameplay within the planets didn't really have much impact in terms of player control in my opinion. 

Huuugeee props for getting in mobile control though, this game honestly felt like it played more naturally on mobile

This game feels SO good to play, the controls and feedback are really nice and snappy. I do wish the bosses were a bit more difficult though because these controls are just too fun for bosses that can be brute forced with relative ease. Balancing a jam game's difficulty is a very tough tight rope though so I definitely get why this was on the easier side, and enjoyed my time all the way through nonetheless! 

I really appreciate the commitment to the theme, to the extent of having the controls in a manual in the description rather than the actual game. There's quite a lot of attention to detail in this regard that really brings this theme to life in this game, and the game is just so cleanly executed in its vision, that there really isn't much to critique. This is like a perfect example of what a jam should be, a concise, cleanly executed vision. As someone who's guilty of going overboard in terms of ambition a lot when it comes to game jams, a game like this is a really strong example of what can be done when you just have a strong and simple vision. 

I really love the premise behind this game! 

The running sound effect really adds a lot this was a fun time! There was a bug where someone would just leave their full plate and the game would stop progressing afterwards 

You really made the act of shooting down those enemies feel really satisfying! I just wish there was an active score counter while I was playing in game 

This is insanely impressive for a three hour jam, I especially loved the stylized hand drawn cutscene of sorts at the story I thought that was excellent

Having a two player game jam is really interesting, I very rarely see those. I like to think that the game is intentionally skewed in favor of the devil side because of the theme

Definitely my favorite game that I've played of this jam so far! The game feels incredible to play with the color coding, UI, the screen shake and just the general game feel

I thought the audio and visuals were fantastic, but the gameplay itself I felt was way too easy to cheese because I could just keep hitting the draw button until the devil had a bad hand. You could've fixed this by changing the  point in your code where the devil's hand gets decided. Have it decided at the beginning of the game, and then after you reveal and the code decides who wins and loses, that's where you decide the devil's hand and have it not change at all

Very very fun entry! Love the presentation and the music set a very good upbeat tone. Simple gameplay but really fun to go through because of how it was presented in an enjoyable manner tonally

Thanks!

Glad to hear that the some of the clues were difficulty that was honestly our biggest struggle while making the game

All you're really missing is hit feedback for this game! The rest is quite fun, I especially love the dash mechanic and how automated it is, it's very convenient and easy to use, and I always found the premise really really funny

THIS WAS AWESOME, I absolutely adore everything about this concept and it's executed pretty flawlessly here. Just a phenomenal job overall

This was absolutely brilliant! An excellent concept executed in a very player friendly and fun way. Also why does everyone hate Kendall she seems like a great person