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thank you so much <3

thanks for confirming that it works, and thanks for playing! yeah managing our music player is pretty finicky so i can see that happening haha

ohh that's interesting. this might be related to the issue the other mac user was having..  since you're on windows that might be solveable for us. would you mind sharing your computers specs?

hi, thanks for playing! the game is pretty short, so we chose not to spend time on saving in order to finish within the game jam's deadline. you should be able to finish the tutorial again pretty quickly and play the rest of the game :)

ah i'm sorry for that. i added the mac version today by request and it worked for the person who requested it. we don't have macs so we can't test it or fix the issue i'm afraid D:

To me there's no real difference between how I approach soundtracks and other types of music. For this jam I just played around with silly compositions and sounds until I hit stuff I liked, really.. I've been putting a lot more effort into making music this past year and it helped me improve a lot. I will say though, I usually have a very hard time being inspired to create music. Essentially just coming up with stuff to create, and sticking with a project, is very challenging for me. Game jams like these usually give me that inspiration, since the game we're making provides context to the music. 

Something that I felt always held me back was my limited set of samples to pick from. All of the percussion and some sfx in this soundtrack was pretty quickly laid out with samples from my sample library. I use FL Studio and they recently got a subscription system for samples (such as other similar services like Splice), and getting access to that allowed me to way more easily look for sounds to use in my tracks. Just having access to a huge library of high quality sounds helped me achieve a good foundation for the music, and it really boosted my creativity too I think. That said, my previous OST was made almost entirely using free instruments from spitfire, where I heavily focused on composition. So it just depends on the scenario I think. But even then, just high quality sounds and instruments in general helps a lot for how the song turns out.

Although I think for the most part I focused on the composition itself for these tracks too. I usually just pick or create some instrument and play around on my midi keyboard to find something interesting. Some of these tracks I didn't even have any plan going in - not even where in the game they'll be used lol. I just had fun! Others spawned from an initial idea, such as the beginning of Gogogo!. 

I think composing interesting melodies and arrangements just comes from experience. A lot of the time when I put stuff down, it's either just intuition or landing on an instrument/melody/sound that I either think sounds good, or I just find funny. Most of the time you gotta just trust the process and play along. Make a lot of stuff and use other songs as references! I'm sure you'll get to a point you're happy with soon enough :) Good luck making music!! 

Wow, thank you so much! 

Actually, we were super stressed out since we barely had any actual gameplay before the final day since we spent so much time on literally everything else before that part lol (including the intro + tutorial section). So unfortunately we only had one day to finalise gameplay. But that last day melon worked probably 20 hours straight on the game, and I did 15 hours following my already 6 hours at my job haha. Melon worked pretty much non-stop all day this final week. There was quite a bit of reuse from other projects such as the spherical movement which we had experimented with before (and assets that we didn't have time to make ourselves). 

The dipshits are indeed horrible to catch with lower fps lol. We added a graphics slider which helped for my laptop, but we didn't know about the memory issue, so that's a shame. 

And thanks for liking the music!! I was so happy with it myself that I released the soundtrack already. There are links in the game's description, and it's coming to Spotify and Apple Music soon! 

After watching some people playing the game after submission it indeed seems incredibly hard to learn. Curse of the game dev's knowledge about their own game I guess! As for the mechanics, the arrow keys point your character in the direction you input (with a controller, it's with the analog stick) in the game world. Spacebar increases momentum quite a lot if timed correctly while exiting the droplets. The X button is probably the most confusing, but it essentially converts any speed into lateral movement, and (unfortunately!) is almost essential to progress. It's really a shame we didn't have time to play-test or include some tutorials in-game.

It's really unfortunate you didn't get to experience more than the first layer. We have included a little playthrough video on the game's page if you want to at least partially experience the rest of it. There are also some hints on the page if you care to try playing it again.

Thanks a lot for the very positive review and for playing our game! We really appreciate it.

Apparently the game file in the Windows build is broken, but I found you can copy the .pck file from the Linux build and it works!

I like where this game was going but at it's current state it is not very enjoyable. The art-style is really nice, I liked it!

Unfortunately I soft-locked myself between two wind nodes and was unable to progress, haha. Would've liked to see if there was an ending.

Love this game! It's really charming with a very unique use of the theme and gameplay mechanics. That ending scene was amazing, and I love the music. Well done!

This is fun! I really like your interpretation of the rain theme. Love that you actually implemented leaderboards for this, that's a great touch!

Moving around is pretty difficult as you can't jump over a single spike without gaining height. It's pretty challenging to keep a consistent playstyle since the spikes spawn randomly. But I really liked finding strategies for placing the barrels.

amazing!

pressing the E button constantly is no joke the most fun i've had this entire game jam

I really like what you've got going here, it really does feel like a Zelda-like. That quote by your girlfriend made me laugh lol

Excellent. The puzzles were fun and very creative! 

It would be nice if there was music playing for every stage. Also personally would have liked a bit higher movement speed and more fluid motion, but it's perfectly fine for a puzzle game like this. Otherwise the game is pretty much perfect in my eyes. Really fantastic work!

the thunder kept going off right next to me and it was SO LOUD lol

The game looks very nice and I'm impressed by the amount of content you managed to put in it. The soundtrack is very strange, but I really liked it! It has a really good eerie feel.

 I managed to reach the part that reset the game and couldn't find any way to progress from there. It's unfortunate because I really wanted to experience the full game!

Movement is way too slow for this being a platformer though - I must have played this game for over half an hour without progressing very much. Some jumps were really confusing as they were barely reachable and therefore I thought there had to be other ways to progress. The game reminds me a bit of Yume Nikki, which also has slow movement, but for the platforming parts (especially the ones without the wind mechanic) I would've liked some faster movement in general (and my pinky did not appreciate the run button... existing, haha).

The time based wind mechanic is also a bit frustrating. I like the way it's used for the platforming, but I think just having it be constant wind and just holding a button to ride it would be more satisfying. 

The voice acted monologue was a fun part of the game and should have been utilised more. It could really help with progressing in the game if voice lines were used when you made progress with something.

The way you combine the wind and rain clouds as a game mechanic was very clever! The gameplay loop felt pretty unique in that sense. I would've really enjoyed a difficulty curve as you progressed, such as increasing the wind speed gradually. But it was fun!

Beautifully presented game! The artstyle is so nice and feels really unique. I adore that how the level are laid out.  Very cute intro cutscene and UI for the menus. 

I failed to read the entire description before playing so I didn't know it was an endless runner. I think the gameplay would be clearer if there was an indicator for how far you've travelled (that'd be pretty challenging to implement without numbers!).

 The wind power was nicely implemented for what it is, but I think it would be enough to just let you use it without restriction since the game already drops your health if you're going too fast. That way it could also be a time-trial kinda thing! 

Other than that, the only thing it needs for me is more sound effects and some music. Really well done!

Thanks for the feedback! Really happy to hear that you finished the game and liked the ending, that's definitely the highlight of the game for me as well. The SFX were actually supposed to follow the chords of every music track, but I only had time to add that to the first layer. But at least it works really well there!

mayyyybe the arrow was a little too big hahaha.  I think 3D sound effects for this bundled with a more subtle visual hint (such as light rays?) would be a better fit if we had more time.

I'm really glad you managed to come back and experience the game in it's entirity!

We're very proud of the ending! The final descent was something we realised we needed far too late, so being able to actually implement that in time was a big feat for us. We're both so happy with how it turned out too, it's so cinematic and triumphant. We keep humming that melody over and over haha.

And I totally agree, displaying hints would be awesome if you're stuck for a while. Some actual explanation in game of the controls is also definitely something we need, such as a little tutorial sequence in the first layer.

Thanks so much for your heartfelt comments and feedback! It means a lot to us.

A pleasant experience! Each stage introduces new and interesting gameplay mechanics. Some rough parts that you'd definitely be able to even out with more time than you had for this one. Well done!

Love the way you tie the theme into this game! Beautiful animations and visuals. Would really be perfect as a mobile game, especially considering the levels are procedurally generated (wow!). 

That said, I didn't really feel like the generated levels were very interesting so it feels more like a time-waster, as much as I dislike that term. They're fine as an extra game mode, but a selection of hand-crafted levels, perhaps with some more unique mechanics, would really make this game more fun for me.

Minesweeper with walking was actually pretty intuitive! I liked it. The one feature I'm really missing is the ability to activate a number tile after placing flags to clear the surrounding tiles that haven't been flagged. Minesweeper is way slower without this. 

The game looks very nice, but I feel the music didn't quite fit. Good use of sound effects and the fail scene was really nice.

I don't understand how this fits the theme, but an otherwise cool game!

Unique use of the theme! One of the enemies got stuck behind the houses in the second stage before I had understood what the houses were for so I just got stuck there until I found them thinking I had to destroy the houses lol.

Really enjoyable game! Almost feels complete with the exception of the short amount of levels. Level design is definitely where this game shines. The final level was a great culmination of the different mechanics introduced throughout the earlier levels, and they're all very creative. Love the steam mechanic and especially using it as both an ascend mechanic and as an obstacle when falling into it from above.

The art style is really consistent and looks excellent. I feel that a tile set would really glue it all together. Audio was very basic and a song for the gameplay would be great. 

Perhaps a small thing, but the ending scene was very nice with a lovely piano piece! Overall excellent work on this game. Looking forward to more Lighthouse Studios creations.

The animations and art are very nice. Really cool intro scene and textless tutorial hints. This interpretation might not be intended, but I liked how the rain part of the theme are enemy attacks. 

I didn't really understand the gameplay loop as the controls feel really sluggish and not very well balanced to the difficulty. 

I don't understand anything and I'm totally down for it.

I had a lot of fun playing it! The visuals and animations are great, but the audio is pretty basic. 

Level design and gameplay works really well. Very good job on balancing levels so that there's a clear path, and only one path, that you must take to progress.  I only found one screen I could skip by following what seemed to be an unintended route. The levels before the final area are quite forgiving with how far you fall down, which I believe is good for the pacing of the game. The difficulty scales well as you progress. I also really appreciate the one checkpoint in the final area. There are also some parts with conveyor belts that are very hard to time because you have to be on the ground before you can start charging your jump. 

The use of rain as a gameplay element is a creative spin on Jump King, but from the perspective of someone who never played that game it seems like it's otherwise mostly the same idea. I wish you used more puzzle elements involving the rain, such as the one part where you block it with a gate by flipping a lever.

The gameplay loop was very fun once I got the hang of it! The UI and animations are very clean, and I really love how the score is presented as flowers. 

Understanding the mechanics took me a while.  I think animating the rain would go a long way in teaching the mechanic visually.

Layer 3 is pretty hard, yeah. A good strategy for this layer is traveling horizontally following the droplets and using the schwoosh ability to gain height when you have lots of sideways momentum.