itch.io

Initially planned on my game having a narrative revolving a mad scientist creating an AI that turns against him.

The original story pitch was: "Mad Scientist creates a sentient AI that he was going to use for world domination. One problem though, he forgot to turn the morality crank from a hundred to zero. This ethical AI then turns against him taking control of his whole lab only leaving him with his first invention, the SCALE gun." The plan was to have some hopefully "funny" interactions and dialog with these two. Unfortunately halfway through the month, I was still behind programming some essential stuff for the gameplay and haven't even started with the art. So I decided to scrap the whole narrative thing, though I did repurpose the dialog system to be used for the tutorials.

In terms of gameplay mechanics, I planned on including another tool, the "Grappling Hook" which was the 2nd tool I thought of and probably the one I spent the most time programming. Ended up scrapping it since I felt it was cluncky to use and there were still a lot a bugs with it. I also felt like there were too many tools which may distract from the main theme which was scaling things. There were also additional interactions between the differentl tools (e.g. objects that can only be destroyed when scaled down, anchor points for the grappling hook that only works when they are scaled to the right size, not moving ,etc.). A lot were killed due to time constraints, others were murdered for the sake of better gameplay.

Lastly, there were supposed to be more levels - a total of 20 to be exact with 5 levels for each new tool and a new environment and theme to go along with it. The problem was that there were only about 3 days left before the jam ends so I ended up sticking with the placeholder tileset and background.

Looking back, I definitely OVERSCOPED and OVERESTIMATED what I can do in a month especially since this is just my 2nd game jam while still learning a new engine (transitionng from very basic Unity knowledge to Godot). But overall, I'm just happy I was able to finish a (mostly) working game in time.

Here's the link to my game if anyone wants to try it out: Mad Lab by John Rolan Ferrera (itch.io) :)

This is a very well polished game especially the graphics and sound! Those pop-up messages and the days ticking by so fast I didn't even noticed them at first (I was scrolling through the list of features and when I checked the date again half a month already passed) really reminded me what it felt like doing this jam XD. Overall a really fun, short game with awesome presentation. Congrats!

Thanks! Yeah there were a couple features that didn't make the cut such as an additional tool and more levels. I'll try to share it on the topic you mentioned :)

Thanks! I'll definitely try out variable jumps and double jumps.

Loved the writing and art style although I do agree it doesn't seem to fit the theme that much. Still, I enjoyed playing it and almost left me teary eyed. What a beautifully told story. 

Hi @Xentios! I was able to replicate your scenario thanks to @cubixsphere's comment. Seems like there's an issue with the jump height being tied to the framerate. Current workaround is capping it to 60 or 30 using your driver settings or something similar. Again, really sorry for the inconvenience.

This was so much fun to play! Really great use of pixel art. Mixing it with 3D kinda reminds me of those 2.5D games like Octopath and Triangle Strategy. The opening cinematic was also a really nice touch. Overall a really polished and fun game. Congrats!

Ohhh I also didn't know that the jump height was tied to the FPS. I'm also new to Godot so that's something I'll have to look into fixing. Thanks for thoroughly testing it and providing detailed feedback! I really appreciate the effort :)

Nice game! First played this with a keyboard and mouse so I found the controls a bit tricky and some moves hard to execute. However changing to a game controller really helped improved it a lot. Also impressed with much you were able to put into the game in just a month. The 3D models are great and the aesthetic has a very charming and nostalgic feeling to it.  Great job guys!

Sorry not sure why it's happening. Can you try jumping from the yellow pod? As mentioned by @Polanski the jump height could definitely use some improvements. See test on Firefox  below.

Thank you! I'll definitely look into refining the jump height. As for the blurry sprite, I'm actually processing the movement in the _physics_process so I'm not quite sure why it's happening although I did encounter some occasional screen tearing on my end.

There are actually two solutions to this. The first one is to shrink all the boxes then jump until you reach the uppermost one then enlarge that to reach ledge as seen in this gif. The second one is to just shrink the 1st box then enlarge, and then jump all the way to the top. Not sure why it became unreachable since I didn't modify the jump height on the last  update (just bug fix for crashes and alternative control inputs). Although some players noted that the jump height varies depending on the browser like in Opera GX where the jump height is super high.

If you have some spare time check out my game here: Mad Lab by John Rolan Ferrera (itch.io). It was made as part of my month-long challenge to learn Godot (and actually apply the things I've learned). So far I've been loving the engine!

Awesome entries in the comments! Dropping the link to my game here: Mad Lab by John Rolan Ferrera (itch.io).  It's a short puzzle platformer game where you scale objects to progress. Hope you like it! :)

Curious bug indeed. Can I ask what browser were you using? I've only tested it on Edge and Firefox. Anyways, hope you enjoy the rest of the game! :)

Thanks! As for the second area, have you tried changing the size of the crates? 😉

Thanks for playing and appreciate your feedback! Yeah I agree the controls are a bit of a mess haha will definitely look into improving them especially with your suggestions.  Also seems like there's a bug that's causing some crashes since the last level should be quite obvious.

Great premise and execution! The art style is charming and the gameplay involves some really nice puzzles. Congrats!

Really awesome and polished game! Love the aesthetics and the attention to detail especially in the animations.

Thanks! Yeah I wish it had more levels too but run out of time haha

Thank you!