Conceptually, this game is great. The mechanics and puzzles on their own are interesting, and the tie-in to the theme is one of the most creative ones I've seen this jam. The game is also very nicely polished from a graphics and sound perspective, and they both compliment each other very nicely.
As a puzzle game, however, I do think there's a major flaw in the design: you are not told which set of buildings you'll be working with for the level. Instead it's up to you to guess, check, and remember their order and their specific quirks (i.e. placement requirements and affected squares). This doesn't really add anything meaningful to the puzzle design: it doesn't make the puzzles any more interesting or challenging. It only really adds more mental overhead.
It also stands perpendicular to the type of puzzles this game offers. Due to the forced order, they're inherently focused around working out a plan beforehand to set everything up. This currently isn't possible without running through the level blindly at least once.
The tutorialization of the mechanics themselves is great. The visualization in the top-right could be clearer: there's no obvious distrinction on the visualized grid between buildings that cover only the adjacent square versus buildings that cover a whole row or collumn. The difference between the gray and white tree/water symbol is also very subtle. Consider not displaying the icon at all when it doesn't restrict the movement instead.
I think overall, though, you've managed to make a very interesting, well-polished game given the time frame. Very well done!
Snowy
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I'm an avid fan of puzzle games, especially those of the thinky variety. I thoroughly enjoyed playing this one. Being relatively experienced in the genre, the puzzles weren't super challenging, but the mechanics are simple, elegant, and--most importantly--very well explored.
There's a clear foundation here for a great thinky puzzle game; there's plenty room for both deeper exploration of the mechanics (or expanding them by making use of the verticality through e.g. slopes or ladders), as well as harder puzzle design. For a jam game, however, this is phenomenal. Would love to see this expanded upon post-jam for sure.
Also thank you for having an undo button, it's a nice QOL feature I've been missing in a lot of the other puzzle games made this jam.
I did not personally partake in the jam this time around but I still like seeing what people pump out.
This is Top 5, if not winner material, hands down.
The graphics are great, the jazz is amazing (and sufficiently smooth! Your audio person needs a raise). The game, though admittedly short, is still extremely engaging. Also props to whoever thought of and implemented the car sequence (they also deserve a raise)! Every game I've played where driving is not a focal point has the most agonizing controls for cars. Your game pulls them off so smoothly that it's actually fun to nyoom around the city.
The game isn't perfect, of course. There's some wonky animations in places, some lighting issues, a very poorly paced comic relief character, and that one supernatural event where driving makes the trashcans in the entire city fall over all at once. Mostly just minor issues, really. Except for that scene where the woman's face is an endless black void
That doesn't take away from how incredibly well this game was executed, especially in such a short amount of time.
I'm a very hard-to-please critic (as anyone who's known me for a while is probably aware of), but you guys have earned the Seal of Approval™. Bravo!
Ay! Thanks for playing, Garrett!
That mechanic is wholly intentional and has been the cause of a ridiculous amount of headache (my programming skills are still sub-par!). I figured people would stumble onto it themselves at some point; wondering whether you just outsmarted the game is exactly what I was going for.
Considering it's a puzzle game, though, everything's a spoiler! So I feel kind of obliged to ask you to remove the image and either edit out the explicit mention of the mechanic, or put it through rot13. I hope you understand!
Thanks again for playing and for the nice words! <3 Good luck with the rest of the game, hope you enjoy it!
Gurer'f n (creuncf fyvtugyl pbhagrevaghvgvir) fhogyrgl nobhg gur "fzhttyvat" zrpunavp juvpu znxrf vg cbffvoyr gb serr gur ohggba sebz "Ubyq". Gubhtu, gur flfgrz vf fgvyy hc va gur nve. V zvtug yngre erqb vg fb vg jbexf fvzvyne gb ubj Erphefrq unaqyrf vg.
Orvat noyr gb hfr gur ibvq va "Fgnpx" vf qrsvavgryl na birefvtug. Jvyy or svkrq jurarire V pna trg gur arkg mbar bhg.
Gunaxf ntnva sbe cynlvat! Ubcr lbh rawblrq gur tnzr fb sne!
Obgu "Cyhfu" naq "Ab Jnl" ner vagraqrq gb erdhver gjb qbbef sebz bgure yriryf va beqre gb or haybpxrq naq pbzcyrgrq erfcrpgviryl, lrf!
Gur jnl V vavgvnyyl unq raivfvbarq vg jnf hfvat gur qbbe sebz "Ubyq" gb trg bhg obgu qbbef sebz "Gbjre". Guvf jnl nyfb erdhverf lbh gb unir haybpxrq "Gbby" gb rssrpgviryl zbir gur qbbef nebhaq, V oryvrir. (Hayrff V zvffrq fbzr pyrire jnl gb fgber gur bowrpgf va bgure yriryf grzcbenevyl.)
Tbbq yhpx svaqvat gur svany yriry!
The BGM in the current version is "Sad Day" by HeatleyBros. It's available for free in the description of this video.
Thanks for playing and giving feedback! The undo/movement thing is something I'm looking to improve in the near future (if not in a "Push" patch, definitely alongside the release of the next zone).
I'm familiar with Puzzlescript, haven't used it before though. I know it's probably worth learning, but for now I figure it's easier to stick with an engine I'm relatively experienced with.
Love how it looks and sounds, but I didn't like how it played, so I unfortunately didn't get farther than the second level.
The player's gravity feels a bit whacky at times (he just kinda floats down) , and the lack of any coyote timing means it feels like my jump input gets dropped half of the time when I jump off a platform (and I plummet to my doom). Not to mention the rewind would occasionally dump teleport me forward again seemingly at random, so it was extremely hard to predict how I was supposed to move.
The game looks great though, I love the art and the effects, and I think the concept of the rewind being more detrimental than beneficial. It's a very refreshing take on the mechanic.
I love clever puzzle games like these, usually, but I didn't find myself falling in love with this one. Don't get me wrong, the idea is great, the art and music are cute, and the game as a whole was very well-polished. But I found myself to be frustrated more than I was solving puzzles.
For starters, the control scheme was really clunky to use (imo, I see others didn't have an issue with it). Maybe I was just using them wrong, but I much more would've preferred E to be pick-up and Shift to be rewind (and rope just to be on the left click). I ended up losing whatever block I was tugging more than I care to admit because I pressed the wrong button and picked up the coil instead (breaking the rope).
Additionally, I didn't like how ropes just kinda snapped even though they didn't seem to be under any stress yet (still dangling), or how they disconnected automatically when reaching the coil. That also made me lose the block I was tugging more than I care to admit.
The player blocking the connection for ropes was also less than enjoyable, especially because it's pretty hard to move only slightly (especially on slopes). I'd regularly just move out of the coil's range entirely on accident, which was less than ideal.
All that combined, just kinda made me quit out of annoyance in the middle of stage 6 (sorry). But I suppose that's a fault of my own, not of the game's.
Don't let my comments discredit the work you did, though. I liked what you put together and I liked playing the first 5 levels (...for the most part). Excellent work!
I'm a sucker for clever puzzle games, so I might be a tad bit biased, but this game was great.
The mechanic is simple and intuitive, and the puzzles seem to have infinite potential. The puzzles all seem deceptively easy, but do really make you think at times (as a good puzzle game should). Fantastic!
The art was great, and I loved the use of the 2D lighting system. The distribution of particles per body of lava was a tad bit off (small pockets have a lot of particles; bigger ones have them more spread out) but at that point I'm already nitpicking.
The platforming felt pretty good (but only in the younger years, although I'm guessing that's the point), although I definitely would suggest adding a friction-less physics material to the player so they don't get stuck on walls.
The final "boss" was challenging, but mostly due to the way the camera worked. The camera didn't start scrolling quickly enough, making the jump upwards tighter than it probably should've been, especially with the player getting stuck on walls occasionally. At least there was a checkpoint at the top, so restarting never felt too punishing or frustrating.
I liked the concept for the rewind mechanic, but right now there's no reason to be the old man besides an arbitrary hole in the level design (even for dodging enemies, the old man moves too slow to merit switching). Would've made for a more interesting/clever dynamic if the old man had his own skillset over the younger variant, to make up for his pathetic walking speed and jump hop (no offense, old people).
I loved the audio though. Good vibes.
Overall, I'd say you did a great job! Definitely one of the better games I've played this jam!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed our game :D
We actually really cheaped out on the CRT effect. Instead of doing the responsible thing and using a shader, it's just an semi-opaque overlay graphic (alternating black and transparent lines) on a separate Camera Space canvas, so it gets affected by the post-processing.
The screen curve is using the lens distortion post-processing effect from URP.
Thanks again for playing! <3
I liked the part where I was fighting the game's cover image.
The boss turning into a bullet hell was a bad choice, considering the movement wasn't fit for that kind of gameplay; it's hard dodging bullets by jumping if I can barely control where I'm going to jump. I also had no idea when I actually hit the cover image, because there was no indicator whatsoever, nor a health bar.
Platforming was okay, except the double and triple jump felt more like "air breaks" than actual double and triple jumps.
The rewind mechanic is also massively underused for the game; it's essentially only mandatory once (at the very beginning when introducing it), and even then it's just the caveman. I only found out the third stage was a cyborg because I specifically went out of my way to see what would happen if evolve too far (spoilers: it's nothing!), other than it wasn't used at all. But I do think the mechanic itself it interesting.
But at least the graphics look nice!
I love 3D platformers as much as the next guy, and I feel like there are too little of them being made nowadays.
Unfortunately, I absolutely could not get into this one for the life of me (sorry). Maybe due to my FPS dropping down to 5 on the regular, due to the player not controlling very well, or due to the fact that some pipes I jumped off randomly decided to eat all of my velocity. Or maybe all of the above.
At least the environment looked very nice.
Good puzzle/platformer, although I was struggling with the controls (partially because hardware limitations; my keyboard doesn't allow me to press any two arrow keys + space, making the second-to-last level a chore).
I also felt there were some collision issues (died to lasers in cases where I definitely felt like I shouldn't have), and the player tends to kinda slide off the edge of platforms. No coyote jumping either.
The soundtrack bangs, though, and the graphics are really nice.
Overall, good game! You did a great job!
Could not get past the first rewind section due to the uphill battle with the controls. The sensitivity is through the roof, the rewind felt jittery and the physics were whack when coming out of it. Not to mention I had no idea where I was supposed to be going after the "Press E to rewind" sign.
The concept is unique; the graphic look pretty good as well. But as it is right now, the gameplay itself is not that fun (no offense), but you could definitely still improve that after the jam (if you're interested in that, of course).
Very innovative and commendable idea, but unfortunately didn't have much fun playing it myself.
Figuring out where the next key was located (without hints) essentially came down to noticing something arbitrary (like number of empty slots) as opposed to actually finding a solution. In a similar vein, I would've liked to see the jumping to earlier levels used in a more meaningful way (e.g. doing something in one level affects something in the subsequent levels).
The music was very nice, though. Very cute and relaxing!
I enjoyed playing the game, although it felt a bit on the short side. The art and music were quite nice.
Only minor complaint I have is that the first spike level and the very last level drag on for quite a while because of the infrastructure you have to build and the time it takes for the player to fully rewind before you get in control again.
Or maybe I'm just bad at building...
Very well done, regardless!
Good game! Was fun to play, and I like the cassette take on the theme.
Felt a bit ehhhh about the graphical style though. The cassette character looked good, but I found the overlay in the foreground a bit too much (might've been better on a lower opacity).
Swinging around using the tape is fun, although it did have its problems; the momentum when swinging felt a bit off at times, and the click detection on the light bulb felt kinda unforgiving.
Other than that though, really liked it. Good job!
The level design and difficulty curve needs some work.
Half of the levels are very easily cheese-able by walking in the narrow space between two lasers (or the laser and a wall), making the rewind essentially redundant. Additionally, the final stages 8-10 were considerably easier than the ones preceding it.
That being said, I do think you've got a good idea going here; it could just do with ironing out the kinks (though I understand it's a jam game). The music and graphical style were also very nice.
Overall, I'd say you did a good job!
Good concept, but I would've liked the indicator to also show how the disk actually bounced off the wall (at what angle); it's really difficult to gauge the trajectory it'll take sometimes. The levels were well-designed either way.
The rewind mechanic felt... just kinda out of place; it didn't really serve any purpose except to give the player some more busywork while trying to line up the shots. It also doesn't really limit or enhance the main mechanic, as far as I could tell.
But hey, the art and sounds were pretty good!
A very interesting game indeed.
The graphics are solid and consistent, and it definitely radiates charm with the portal-esque vibes.
The mechanic was fun to play around with, but the rewinding felt kinda jarring at times. Combine that with needing to reload the page to restart, and some wonky colliders, and it admittedly made the game (slightly) more cumbersome to get through than it probably should've been.
Other than that, no complaints. decent voice acting, good puzzles, great atmosphere!
Overall, good job!