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I'm glad you enjoyed the game despite its incredible difficulty. The jump was intended to feel short and unsatisfying to allow for upgrades later in the game to provide a more significant boon. You may have noticed that the controls feel a bit drifty. The reason behind that is to make the game more bouncy and knockback more impactful, though,  I definitely overdid it in some areas. Without the drifty air movement, you could just wail on most bosses without them being able to do anything, and I really dislike adding in invulnerability phases. Some of the movement options like the dash and double jump along with the melee attack could have used a bit more polish, so I'll return once the jam is over to refurbish some of the more iffy features and turn this into a full game.

ah its fine. I've just had a lot of players who never realized that this game uses save files (ran out of time making the menu even though I implemented save files) so I tend to jump to conclusions. I won't lie though, I definitely made the game too hard.

What I mean to ask is whether a game has to be of the visual novel/interactive fiction genre, or if it can more akin to a character driven RPG where dialogue between characters is a major part of the game, but not the game's sole focus. I was thinking it would be fun to make a game where the dialogue between characters is handled not in the standard 4 choice system, but as something more akin to a turn based battle.

I put a Warning right under the description that points out that there is a functioning save system and that the game needn't be completed in a single sitting. There are multiple fountains that act as checkpoints throughout the game that can be used with "J" when "?" appears above Char's head. Additionally, every non-boss powerup saves the game (but not player position). This game was designed to be a rage/speedrun game, so if you are having a hard time its because you are playing through what would be the hardest difficulty (in a full version if I ever make it)

There are fountains you can set as save points before bosses, and if you didn't know this already, despite the lack of a main menu there is a working save file system! As long as you load a save before the fall you can resume where you left off. Honestly I underestimated how easy it would be to get lost given the fairly small scope of the game, but my friends tell me its a maze, so I'll definitely add some sort of map and compass when the jam is over.

I found  myself enjoying the artstyle in particular. Must have taken a while to draw up all those ability cards, and I quite enjoy how every upgrade changed the character's appearance and face sprite. Would have been nice if bosses had some sort of health bar to help keep track of the damage you have dealt, but other than that I'm left with no complaints! You even managed to have a working dialogue system and were able to implement a sort of story. Great game!

Do any specific steps need to be made for a game to qualify, or are all jammers simply going off of the honor rule?  I personally just wanna know if I need to gather proof a game was made in 3 hours. Additionally, is a person only allowed one shot at making a game in 3 hours, or are they allowed to submit multiple games each made within three hours as long as it was made over the course of the jam?

I love the Castlevania feel! There is a spot where you can't reobtain pages making it so that you have to get a deathless playthrough in order get the good ending. And its really, really hard to do that. The statues are a bit buggy, I've noticed, and can sometimes softlock the game. Kind of interesting how you need to guess if the spirit is good or evil. Still I loved the game (I'm a fan of the first Castlevania), and the hidden powerups were fun! I completed the game without dying and collected all 100 of those darned pages! (And with one hp remaining)

I got a little excited when I realized that colliding with an enemy at a higher altitude dealt damage the same way though! Perhaps having a sprint upgrade that lets you move really fast, but turns on inertia would work! Lance doesn't really do anything although you can swing it.

When I saw that UP, "W", and spacebar all jumped I decided to spam all of them to see if I could break the game. Surprisingly, it didn't, but what did was the infinite coyote time granted to the player that allows the player to infinitely jump up walls as long as they collide with a wall while falling. Players also have a double jump by default as long as the hold jump for long enough when jumping. Lastly, the screen transitions sometimes bug out essentially softlocking the game, which isn't a huge issue except there are no saves or respawn keys! It has great art, audio, and polish, but I feel like the game needs a bit more challenge to keep the player engaged. Loved the witty wall text!

It might just be the fact that I'm a fan of a rather esoteric game, but I was really hoping for horrible drifty controls and a short multi-jump. I don't know how well known the game "Joust" is but whenever I see a knight with a lance riding on a bird, I hope for the terrible controls of that legendary classic. I understand that this isn't a "Joust" metroidvania, but I still think that the concept  should still be thought about. Rather good for an unfinished game, I just wish the bird had a bit more inertia!

Sorry! I was going to add arrows, but those darned keys will end up failing if you press UP+LEFT+Spacebar so I default to WASD controls by habit. I'll try to implement a keybinding system when the jam is over so that people can set controls that work for them. The first room was supposed to teach the player not to face challenges head on, and to try and find a way to cheese past obstacles which is why it was intentionally rough to do it "normaly". the game lacks linearity because its a metroidvania, though the game really did need some sort of map. I do agree that the respawns should have been room based though and the bosses truly are obscenely difficult, when I tackle super month I'll implement an easier difficulty for the game. Unfortunately, this game only has a hard difficulty as of now. At least I managed to set up a working save file system so the game doesn't need to be completed in a single sitting (it just isn't obvious as there is no menu).

Yeah, the first room was trying to teach players to not tackle the challenges the game provided head on, and to instead use tricks to bypass them, but most people just ended up trudging though anyways! I'm certain that this is a bit of a niche game, and the difficulty isn't for everyone (I was going to add different difficulties, but this game was made in the final 10 days of MVM so some corners had to be cut). I had trouble making a useful map, because the whole thing would have to rotate based on character orientation, and I think players would still get lost even if I provided one given the ways most rooms are divided.

You know you could have reloaded your save with R. The game has a functioning save system, just no main menu. Its a shame you ended up losing your progress because you can complete the game right after beating the nose (or hand)! As for the attacks, there is a pattern! the nose will only attack in the first three rows up from the ground, and like lightning it will never attack in the same row twice in a row. Once you learn that it becomes a game of jumping through the space that the last bullet traveled through, or you can cheese the boss (by staying in the fourth row up). If you stay on the ground and run right, you should almost never get hit by spikes, as you will typically recover from the attacks in time.

The platforming segment was kind of meant to encourage the player to go a different way, it feels hilariously rough because gravity is constantly swinging in that room, that's not just a visual effect! There is an inkheart at the end, so I hope that makes up for it. That section like most is completely skippable though. Instead of straight corridors, the rooms in my game go in loop de loops. Out of 16 rooms (not counting houses) you can complete the game only visiting 7 and fighting 2 out of 4 bosses.

Did you get the double jump or dash upgrade? the double jump upgrade can be found to the right and up from the drop off, while the dash can be found three rooms to the left and two rooms up from the drop off. While you can theoretically beat all bosses with only the stick and no powerups, you really need either the double jump or the dash else the next few bosses will be of a nightmarish difficulty. Finding a few Inkhearts helps a ton. Only reason why I didn't force the players to get some of those powerups before the boss is because it was designed to be a speedrun type game that allows some progression skips.

Seriously though, not even I can beat that boss without dash, double jump, or with just three hearts... (also if you fall next to it instead of falling directly into it you can dodge its attacks a lot easier)

So this is what happens when you use the whole month to make a game with a whole team. Wow, this feels like an actual game that would be on the market. At first I wasn't invested in the story and only skimmed through the dialogue, but after reading log #6 (because it was so hard to get to) I realized that I had to go back and read every log. The story was incredible and the gameplay was innovative and awesome. There was a bit of an issue of being able to rapidly spam the spin button to auto parry/rapidly damage opponents, and most of the launchers would send the player a single tile too far to where one really needs to spam the parry in order to use them. But those are just nitpicks, this game is a work of art!

You will now have to beat my high score or else it will forever remain as the funny weed number:

ah, yeah that would have been great! My highscore is now 420. I put it in the game comments.

My favorite part is where the character's family tries to communicate with them using Christmas lights. Jokes aside, the audio and art style was really good, I wish I could do lighting the same way you did it. I feel like there needed to be a checkpoint or something, because the more progress you make, the more progress you lose when you miss a jump. Unfortunately, without enemies, upgrades, or even bosses this is a platformer. Still a great game though.

It was actually made in 10 days, 'cause I joined the jam late! This game was originally going to be a much smaller 2.5D game, but I had a little too much fun with knockback and world rotation, and scope creep led to this game to being fairly large for a jam game. I'm glad you liked it!

The movement in this game was totally slick! Though I feel like it might have been a good idea to split up the character's move set among multiple powerups instead of starting off with so many options right off the bat. It took me quite some time to realize that the character has a triple jump and can dash by double tapping a direction. Powerups in metroidvanias typically (and quite sneakily) act as a subtle tutorial for each of the characters abilities by telling you what the ability does and then providing a scenario in which the ability would be useful. Spitting up a character's moveset into powerups would let you use the abilities themselves as keys! Just be careful to build the maps so that the players don't softlock themselves... Or you can include a panic button so that players can respawn when stuck.

There is a softlock where if you take damage when crawling through a gap you get stuck. Fortunately, this game has a save system (may want to despawn the items that the player already collected on reload and drop the player off at their last checkpoint). My game has its fair share of softlocks and minor bugs too though, they can be really tough to notice before submissions. 

This is one of the few games where the in-game art is better than the cover. Both the sound and art design were phenomenal, and the movement and mechanics are about as satisfying as they get! I was looking forward to using all the character's different moves in a bossfight, but I understand that one only has so much time for a game jam.

Out of curiosity, does the ultimate power upgrade mark the end of the game?

I like the way all the powerups felt. using the groundpound as a method to reach greater heights was a genius idea! when I used the ground pound near the start though, the game crashed, but I think I got most of the powerups before then. If there is a boss or something else that I'm missing after obtaining the ground pound powerup, please tell me and I'll return to finish the game. Great 3D Metroidvania! Its uncommon for a jam game to have full sound and have this much polish put into it.

One of the best pico-8 games I've played out there. Its kind of hard to compete when using such a limited software, but this is a pretty good game, even if you don't take the software into consideration! Is getting the crown the end of the game or am I missing something?

It was hard to fight things when every attack you perform means an enemy gets a hit off on you. That was the case until I figured out you can attack behind an enemy and drop down ledges to avoid being hit. Movement feels great, though it would be nice if holding down sped your fall (fortunately moving towards a wall midair speeds it up). The game looks beautiful even if fighting enemies is a tad awkward. This game is a short yet solid Metroidvania, and quite the pleasure to play!

Loved the boss fight! Ramping up the difficulty halfway through was a great way to introduce the attacks  so that the boss wouldn't feel unfair when attacking at full speed. It was also fun to knock slimes down into the spikes.

Don't got this way without the Stick! you will find yourself stuck and need to respawn! I can't fix it right now do to jam reasons

The other spot blocked off by crates wont softlock you, however. So feel free to check it out early.

Kinda weird that attacking cancels velocity even when in air. It was kind of hard to tell what was taking and dealing damage without damage sound or effects. Bosses felt great though. Great game! I beat both bosses, but then got softlocked in ice. Might want to add that to the known softlocks list to not freeze water you are jumping onto. keeping the respawn key used in bug testing  whenever launching a new game can be a good idea, as a respawn key helps mitigate the pain of softlocks. Still, I don't judge when it comes to softlocks, as they can be really hard to find when you are constrained for time. I like how the throwing animation is different based on direction!

Every time I think I'm making progress I end up going full circle...

Wish you put the gravity indicator on the player instead of the corner. Its hard to juggle enemies while constantly glancing over to the side to check gravity. Also it was a bit rough when the knockback from killing an enemy compounds with gravity to yeet you off the stage at the speed of sound. It was still a Great arcade game though! 

Physics is a bit funky, but funky can be FUNky, and I had a lot of fun with its eccentricities. I noticed that you can jump at any time after falling off a platform, is this intentional? Anyways, its nice to see how a different game handled gravity swapping balls : ) . The background changing with gravity was a nice touch!

Thats some darn good gameplay right there!

Starts a bit slow, but gets better quickly. I kept spawning beside a horde with a boss though. I feel that the pixel art should use pixels of the same size, but that's just my personal preference. Great game. It was satisfying to maximize fire rate and spread to the point at which it starts feeling like you are the boss. Reminds me of "Adventure" for the Atari.

For some reason adding or upgrading cards doesn't work. Still was a fun game though. Was insanely goated so I guess that means you'll end up winning.

Oh, no I sequence broke and got it early, I just thought that the Q key looked like a mouse ('cause I'm an idiot) and didn't know how to use it

The world is big, and the platforming challenges were nice. Only thing I could possibly complain about is how the melee enemies just kind of sit there (unless you wait beside them), and most of the platforming challenges can stop being challenges after getting the teleport lightning. Since I learned how to use that late I actually got to enjoy the game a bit more! Kind of felt like it needed a boss song or a few more sound effects, but thats just my preference. I got everything, its a great metroidvania!

ah, I see it now. Must have mistaken the Q button for the mouse. Oh what a fool I am.

Hey um... How do I teleport to lightning? It shows the mouse but no buttons are selected.

This has to be my favorite game on all of itch.io. Its proof that if you make a game bad enough it wraps back around to being good again... Is what I would say if the game was bad in the first place. It has sound, a goofy little art style, depth, challenge, plot twists and a circular plot. What's there not to like?

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