like look of game, but link broken soz :(

I got a bit lost on what to do next after a while... but thats probably by design. Art & mood work well for me. Simple solid game. Nice scripted camera!

very nice so far that i played - added it to my play again list nice job

Is a pretty fun little platformer! I, too, like the scripted camera to show various events and emphasis. Music and sounds fit well, and the art has a good look to it that played well into your theme.

I got to the potassium part but on my way back from that, I fell through the level and couldn't get out.

yeah i fell through level two, restarted game twice, one second go fell through level to hanged dude?

but interesting game, great atmosphere and an intriguing story :)

I like this Graphics!

Interesting, sucked me in but then I got caught above a doorway (jumped therough a wall) otherwise I probably would have played it for quite a while!

This game was awesome. I am amazed at the amount of content and puzzles you guys managed to design over the jam. One gripe I have is the washed out color scheme of the tile set occasionally blends in with the equally washed out background, but this is a minor issue. Well done.

It's very nice to play. Not very innovative maybe but a clean entry :) Had fun playing :)

One of the most fun that I've played this LD. Some of the dark rock walls aren't obvious to my colour-blind eyes, combined with a very open (maybe too open) level design gave me some trouble figuring out what to do at times, but I'm going to go back to it. Nice work.

A pretty good atmosphere... But I really don't know what the point is and I couldn't find where to go and what to do. For a game to be explorative there needs to be intrigue and interest to be found. I got as far as the body of water with the scuba gear... And I had no idea what to do after that. The thought of backtracking to find more stuff was too painful as the game wasn't giving me anything interesting to engage with and the movement was super slow, so I left it.

Love the graphics and the game mechanics. But how to dig, I didn't find how :/
So, the music is pretty good and totally adapted.
I could see the tiles picture on your tweet, and it spoiled me to the 'happy' ending ;)

Beautiful Art! 5 Stars!

Well that was simply amazing, great work! Felt very polished and the amount of content and planning was very impressive even for the jam timeframe. One of the best I've played this LD for sure.

Although I like the lack of handholding, I have to say the game is maybe a tad bit too obtuse. Also you can get trapped on an elevator trip back up if you don't step off in the beginning, which is pretty aggravating.

Very cool little platformer.

The fact you've managed to implement such solid platforming mechanics in just 3 days is black magic. Bravo. All though I have to say some of those wall jumping puzzles are hella frustrating.

Woah, that's awesome! Solid platforming as well. I love the camera panning and zooms, it's lovely!

Nice atmosphere, camera and graphics. I love how big it is, and the physics are perfect. Dynamic music is very good, too.

However, there appear to be fake-difficult elements and a general lack of conveyance... I got stuck after receiving the scuba gear & gave up because there appeared to be no way out. Other comments tell similar tales of user frustration.

All in all, nice work on a game with lots of potential, even if it doesn't quite reach it.

Really awesome, the camera movement was really smooth and the detail to audio and music really brought out a good mood. Good job! (Also thanks for your good criticism on my game)

Can honestly say this is pretty amazing, especially for the timeframe... the world feels very large and well-built; the wall jumping puzzles and dash puzzles are difficult but not too difficult. Graphics = amazing, sound = amazing.

If there is anything to point out as maybe needing consideration is the usage of the theme in the actual gameplay mechanics, but it is still pretty fantastic as it is. I am honestly amazed xD

This game is epic! The scale that you've managed to convey is amazing, it felt like there was so much to explore. There's some excellent level design in there. The art for the little guy is great and the music is really good too.

Great job!

This was really well done.

Sometimes figuring out where to go next could get tough, and collecting rocks was somewhat frustrating.

Really nice game ! But what you're supposed to do isn't always obvious. And that causes a lot of wandering, which is ok at first but becomes quite boring very quickly... Very nice graphics and audio though, which sets a really strong mood.

Woah! This game is epic! WELL DONE!

Another marvellous entry! Couldn't put it down until the end. Amazing everything! And everything adds to the atmosphere.

Oh my god phi, you made a super meat boy metroidvania?! SO TIGHT

AMAZING!
I got this jam's favorite so far :D
Great level design, great sound, smooth controls!
:D

That music was great; really set the atmosphere. I am impressed by what you accomplished! Great job!

A fun little game, though I felt the platforming could be a bit too precise for me

Fantastic game, from music to atmosphere great job!

Wow, I really like this game. I made it to the end and I realy loved the sound and atmosphere of this game. The jumping and wall jumping sometimes was a little bit frustrating, but overall this was ok for me.

Very well done. Very well done.

Phew! Wasted way too much time on "hanged man" before realizing there must be another way. Good game :)

Very nice graphics and great, moody music. Sold gameplay.

Wow! This game is HUGE, and very well done! It was a bit hard figuring out what you could interact with, but I really liked the game. :)

This game excelled on so many fronts-pacing, level design atmosphere...but I particularly applaud the outstanding music/sound design, and low-rez pixelart. Camera events were also spot on; the nute tank zoomout-letting the player see a letter or two for a couple moments before showing the big picture. A well-crafter narrative indeed. 5/5.

Great!!!!!!!
Wow! Its incredible!

Well...
It´s the best LD32 I`ve played right now(and I´ve played some really good.)
You are really a good team. I´m searching your other games, I want more of them.
That was AWESOME.
You left me without words.
Please, keep doing more!

The camera work is really great here. That and the music create a great mood. The platforming works well too. I'm impressed you were able to make such a large level! Good job!

Well done, gameplay fells very nice, good job.

Was fun while I knew what to do, got stuck after obtaining the globes =(. I know is a metroidvania but I wish there was a little more guidance, less possibilities, or a clearer path.
The art and mood got me though, really nice overall, and as someone said, nice scripted camera.
Also, diagonals colliders! nice job!

nice work :) music was awesome!

I absolutely loved this game! Maybe my favorite game I've played from all of LD32. Amazing music, great platforming, fantastic art, an intelligent camera and a well-made Metroidvania setup.

The only problems are ones that all Metroidvania games face -- what begins with a sense of exploration can turn into tedious backtracking or a lack of any idea of where to go or what to do next. With that in mind, I think it would be best to help the player whenever possible, for instance:
- A map that automatically gets marked appropriately when players discover an area, when they discover that an area contains some interactive element or item, and when they have fully used that interactive element or gotten that item.
- Clearer indication of which key will open which doors, and also which doors the player currently can or cannot open.
- When a new ability is gained, have the player be immediately required to use it in order to figure out its potential.

I think there is lots of potential here if you keep working on this beyond the post-jam version, but what you did in 72 hours is already stunning. Awesome job!!

I saw your reply to my last comment, and it's funny you should mention the idea of letting players manually annotate the map, since I've been thinking about that exact idea recently. I think it would be a fantastic way to approximate the old hand-written maps players used to make for games like the original Metrood and other games of that era. I think it would give players a real sense of ownership over their experience, and solve a lot of the issues inherent to Metroidvania games. If you want to discuss further, feel free to comment on my game again or get in touch on Twitter, my username is @themeorch

From your reply, it sounds like you're excited about expanding this game, and you should be! It has lots of potential as a larger experience.

And yes, I think if you make more levels like this one, some outside-the-box mechanics could really help this Metroidvania stand out in a crowded subgenre. It can also provide great opportunities for secrets, since you can let the player optionally take Weird Mechanic X from Level X back into a previous level and discover new possibilities there.

I look forward to playing the Post-Post-Jam version at some point :-)

Beautiful little game! Large map, nice pixel art, great background music, good sound effects, screen shake, what more to ask for?
One of the best entries I've played so far. I missed some hint system on this huge map - didn't know where to go after I found the scuba gear...
Thanks for pointing me here after rating my game!

Great art, music and general mood. I found some of the dash/wall jumps a bit hard, but that's probably because I'm rubbish at this type of game. Super entry. Good stuff.

Awesome feel and very polished!

This is the most bestest Jam game I've played since the beginning of my future! TRANSLATION: Nice work.

This was a great little game. IT was at times difficult to know where next to go, but the in-game hints were sufficient to move forward, eventually.

Very well done!

This is an unbelievably amazing entry! The camera work and sound design are incredible, the pixel artwork is crisp, and the gameplay is stellar. Excellent work!

Incredible game! I can't express how much I love your entry. This is my favorite LD entry of all time. Perfect setting, story, gameplay, progression, music, sound, mechanics, length, ending, EVERYTHING. Amazing job guys! I'd kill for a full length game in this exact manor, but it would be hard to keep the atmosphere for a full length game too, so that is a challange. Keep up the awesome work guys. 5 stars all the way!
Only a few crit for improvement:
* A too bit floaty movement
* For newcomers, there are some spots where it's easy to get stuck and they may quit, I'd suggest early in the game atleast offer a few "notes" as tips scattered around the map as tutorial.

Cool intro and great atmosphere. Maybe I felt a little bit much exploration at the beginning and would prefer to be slightly more "driven". Later when you are used to, I started enjoying the game.

I'm a sucker for these types of games. My only complaint is that I spent far too long trying to get the Phospherous next to the hanged scientist because it almost looks like you can reach it just by dashing and I wasn't sure if there was another powerup.

Fantastic game, though. Great twist, though I saw it coming about 80% through the game.

Lazarus-omin (from Creative Sectors):
Now this is what I'm talking about! Absolutely my favourite so far.
Controls are comfy (even on a simple keyboard), design is graphics-wise pleasant, I'm in love the music, and the atmosphere is cool. And you've managed to develop a game like this in 72hs? That's just sickeningly sweet!
Loved the level design too, (the stage is huge, and interesting, the occasional camera movement adds up to it) even if some exploring have lead me to points, where I could do nothing at the given moment. The various items, 'n utilities always gave some new value to the gameplay. Otherwise I've noticed some oddity: I've tested some resolutions, and if the frame-rate dropped: the game (at least the collision detection) became increasingly buggy. I've jumped in to walls, got stuck in elevators, 'n stuff like that. (I've played the Post-Jam version) Anyway...

Good work guys! A solid, polished and fun platformer.

The camera, the mood and the scale of the thing are great but it it SO BUGGY. I tunneled through walls twice and got stuck. I will try the post-jam version later.

Nice entry, great job

This was a very fun metroidvania, with a surprisingly large scope! The powers were really satisfying to find, and it was good to see areas that really made use of each of them (though at the time I was hoping for even more challenging jetpack areas). Wonderfully crafted little world and story! :)

The soundtrack is cool, one of my favourite in LD32.

Great job - quite a lot of content for a jam game. Haven't tried the post-jam version yet, but will soon - looking forward to seeing what changes you've made

Holy fucking shit Phi, this was fucking AMAZING.

Normally with metroidvania games I get really bored, but the physics engine was tight, the game was polished as shit, the experience was extremely compelling, all the upgrades were cool, and the ores weren't frustrating to find.

Like, holy fuck man, this is in-fucking-credible on all counts. Nice one!

Very solid package. We've played the original Jam version, so many of these complaints might have been ironed out. Anyway, a few wall-jumps were really hard to make. Some things were hard to tell whether we're supposed to get a new power-up or not to traverse. Kind of easy to get lost, so a map would have helped.

Still, fun, has solid controls, and I was able to beat it, so nice job!

Super challenging, but super fun!

I absolutely loved this game. It captured the metroid-mania feel very well. Awesome work!

Loved the atmosphere, but I felt the design was a little lacking. I was unsure of where to go next several times, and the level design didn't flow as nicely as it could have. Great work overall though!

Wow this is incredible!! the graphics are amazing, and the level is designed really well. the new mechanics really keep you interested. some of the jumps get tedious at times but i persevered and it was totally worth it. that ending sequence is really awesome! incredible amount of content for 72 hours.

Incredible entry, one of the best I have played. Overall presentation and atmosphere was good. I could not completely understand what the context was, but I could tell something was going on in the game world, if that makes sense. I like the attempt at Super Metroid style of environmental storytelling.

An inherent problem with Metroidvanias is that they frequently allow infinite backtracking, which means searching for a missing piece of a puzzle requires traversing the entire game world. This is a rather daunting task which affects even greats like The Minish Cap and Super Metroid, if I remember correctly. The designers tried to limit puzzle solving to the immediate surrounding dungeon, but nothing prevented players from searching the entire world for something they thought they missed.

One potential solution is to make leaving impossible till players complete an area, perhaps by gaining a new ability at the end of the dungeon that allows players to leave. Super Metroid did this with the morph ball by forcing players to leave through a narrow opening that only the morph ball could fit in.

Platforms were not always distinguishable from noninteractive foreground elements eg the pipes.

FX, camera panning, shaking, shooting recoil, cutscenes were really cool.
Dashing onto a tiny platform is harsh because players do not have much practice to get used to dash distance.

Music kicking in when the sky elevator activated was hella cool.

Hiding the last yellow ore on the left of the sky elevator was clever. I have to admit I got that one by checking your playthrough. I would reserve that kind of thing for optional items, though.

Overall, really impressive entry.

The ambience sounds are off the charts! Great ambience, atmosphere & mood.

WOW! What am amazing LD game! The game was designed very well. After I got the gloves I felt like I was given too many options on where to go, though, and got a bit lost

Wow! This was great, I loved it ^_^ :D

Solid execution. nice little story. kind of conventional mechanics, but they work.

Played the Jam version. Managed to get to the ending but missed an objective indicator/objective screen along the way. I only knew what to do because I interacted with every possible object (well, it was fun anyway). It is amazing how much you guys could accomplish in such a short time. Game feels complete, really enjoyed playing it.

Solid. I love it. I don't really think it took advantage of the them, but Everything was so well done, and the controls so tight, and everything polished.... definitely an A+

Wow, this really sucked me in. It's amazing how much depth and polish you were able to create in 72 hours. I loved that the camera would fly around and show me what had changed when I activated something. Great balance of "can I get that using what I have" vs. "should I be looking for another powerup?". Fantastic work!

I can't beat this because the shaft that starts wide and narrows as it goes up, where you have to combine wall jumps with dashes after using the scuba gear and from which the blue key card can be seen, is too hard for me. I can get to the top, but not over the lip into the next room, and falling all the way to the bottom is super frustrating.

That said, I've always been bad at that kind of thing and don't hold it against you. Even without getting to the end, I am impressed. The level design is solid, the graphics are not just appealing but also show the player everything they need to know (with the one caveat that powered and non-powered doors are indistinguishable to most colorblind folk), the audio cues are fantastic... this is just great. And I didn't play the post-compo version. I'm not gonna rate on the theme, though, since I haven't gotten to your implementation of it.

Nice job. I love the ending!

This is a great entry! I love metroidvanias and this is a very good one. Felt like I got lost a bit too often though. The audio and graphics were great. The way the camera was scripted was beautiful too... Really a great entry Good job guys!

And finished!
Impressive content for the amount of time. The game is a little bit hard/frustrating when you need to mixup wall jump and dash. Otherwise I'm a big fan of metroidvania and you can feel exploration in your game. Good work! :)

The BGM and sound and the timing is great! This game and style reminds me of "Cave Story+", I think this game has good potential.

I love this game. Not sure what mood you were going for, though; the introduction and overall theme suggest something more somber, but flying around and shooting dirt up doesn't reflect that at all. That's my only reticence. The gameplay is really fun, the graphics and music are amazing, really 5 stars all around. Great work!

Really great game. The construction of the world and atmosphere worked amazingly well together. Unlockable abilities were also a lot of fun. Fantastic job.

Your game has been rated by our team member Antonin Charvat (music composer). Here is his comment: One of the best and most catchy game I've played here. Atmospheric piece, pretty challenging for me, since I am not quite patient player and sometimes I needed to think more than I wanted to, but it was worth it.

Fantastic game, I love the presentation and sound. The concept is pretty great too, and environmental puzzle game is intriguing. Nice work overall.

This game is absolutely amazing. Such an epic feeling you get, rummaging around the level, unlocking things bit by bit. The controls are great, I love the zooming to tell a story without words and the soundtrack is amazing as well. Great job, this would really work as a full game!