Love the vibe- it's fun to just bounce around and explore even when I'm not making a lot of headway. I really like how when you discover things you missed on the way down, you can figure out ways to get them later. Will say, there are a lot of controls to be using at once and not all of them feel intuitive.

Very beautiful color pallette. The feeling of a dream-like deja-vu is strong.

I`ve no words! Perfect

This is such a pretty game, and the gameplay's really great once you get a handle on it! I'm hoping I have a chance to revisit it to see the promised, "end game"

Really interesting mechanics! It took a while to get going but once I was able to bounce and glide I could bounce and then glide immediately after bouncing to gain a lot of height!

I managed to get 2 of the chimes and I think I need to work more on hookshotting to get further. It feels like you lose all your horizontal velocity for some reason and doesn't seem quite natural (at least to me).

Also really enjoyed the chill exploration atmosphere of the game!

Wow, I love this entry! The art, music, and gameplay fit together so nicely. I also liked the "metroidvania" type feel to it - get items to gain access to new places and new items. Very well done!

This was super impressive!! Reminded me of Breath of the Wild in some ways

@herman-chau Thank you for the feedback! We've realized that the hookshot is not as intuitive as we had originally hoped. I think players are expecting it to work at any height or speed but it doesn't function really at heights lower than the player. We designed it to be used like a slingshot where you hook onto something while falling beside it, gain momentum, and let go at the correct time (around the apex) to get a slingshot effect.


Like this:

This was really helpful feedback though, thank you!

This entry is sticking in my mind the most after playing it. That beautiful pixel art really stands out among other entries. I think I may come back to this and try to finish it! Played it on my stream, here's the VOD: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/762084595

Really great idea and mechanics.
A bit difficult to handle controls, feels easier with a gamepad.

Man, these graphics are so awesome!

This is really damn nice. It looks awesome, ad the movement feels awesome too. It's lacking some intuitiveness though. The path you need to take isn't clear. I think the camera would have benefited from being pulled back a little more so we can see more balloons.

@finn-truman Thank you for playing. There is no set path! it's just designed to be open ended. We added the compass upgrade at the beginning of the game to add some guidance, but we wanted it to feel like the player was exploring an unfamiliar place, searching for upgrades and learning about the world. We may have leaned too hard into this though! Thank you for this feedback!

Great game, i had a time figuring out how to use the hookshot and how to let go of it. The camera movement is probably my biggest issue, it keeps darting around, up and down based on my keyboard inputs and since i had a lot of inputs the camera was going crazy. Solid game tho, just need a bit of refinement on the movement

Great game! I like the idea of a metroid-vania type gadget unlocking platformer, but it was too hard to build a mental map of the level to have any coherent plan on where to go next. Art is beautiful. Would suggest adding arrow key binds in addition to WASD, why not?

@rhoff95 thanks for playing! Yeah we thought that was the case so we added some items to help navigate but maybe we tucked them away too well!

We’ve also implemented that exact suggestion regarding arrow keys on the post-submission build on Newgrounds

Woah this is such a cool game!! it's amazing! the art is extremely beautiful, music fits really well, and it's a really cool take on the theme!! Congrats!! Great job!

Beautiful! Art, design, music, sounds! My favorite for this jam!
Controls felt a bit awkward for me, but got used to them pretty fast.

Great art and good music create a nice atmosphere.
Nice adaptation of the theme.

The controls feel a bit inaccurate, especially at the start (I had a bit of trouble getting used to the hook especially, and some of the other tools, like the float, take some getting used to as well).

Great work!

Wow. This is without a doubt one of the best games I have ever played. I love how, at the start, you use the grappling hook to swing down to lower balloons, but by the end, you're using it to shoot yourself upwards.

Also glad to see someone else knows Catch-22 :) We put a reference to it in our game but I'm not sure anyone gets it...

Great job. I look forward to seeing your future jams!

@forgeronstudio Thank you for the high praise! You're right about the origins of my username- I love that book (clearly). Appreciate you taking the time to play our game and to master the grapple hook- it seems in our playtesting we got a little too good/comfortable with our own game and inadvertently put in a tricky mechanic. Glad you got the hang of it.

Cat's Cradle is also one of my favourite books :) And we also are guilty of becoming a little too comfortable with a hook mechanic, in our own game...

I spent way too much time trying to beat this game that I got a cramp in my thigh. The entire experience was A E S T H E T I C . Music, Graphics, Mechanics all added up to a very chill experience that I ignored because I'm a true gamer(tm). The hook mechanic wasn't as well implemented as I'd hoped BUT I would have probably felt more comfortable with it if I had practiced instead of trying to bounce my way up the wall of balloons. Like I explained during the stream, this was a well done entry, you guys should be proud.

Love the art and music, the mood you guys put together was very polished. Some suggestions I thought of while playing:
- When diving (holding down) the camera shifting up was kind of jarring and sometimes hard to follow. I think if you moved the camera downwards so that the player can see more of where they are falling and possibly a slower transition of camera for that, it could be satisfying since the falling itself feels good.
- Possibly showing the abilities you have unlocked/have no unlocked in game somehow, but I see why you guys went with a more simplistic ui to match the mood more

Overall a great submission and am completely in love with the complete and polished style of it!

Very Sweet game, once I figured out the grappling hook it went a lot smoother. Super fun from there on out. Well done!

Wow. The gameplay is neat, the sound is incredible, the design is on point... such an impressive entry, everything is put together nicely

Really amazing game, super interesting! My only complaint is that the grappling hook felt unresponsive sometimes (id click the button, but nothing would happen and i'd just keep falling.

@dev-dwarf Thank you very much for playing and for the feedback! We implemented this mechanic with a fixed rope that grows with each hook upgrade and we do a check to see whether or not the hook-point is in range.

We attempted to convey this range with a hook indicator that would appear over the hook-point but I suspect this indicator is much too small. This is really valuable feedback and something we will address in a post jam version.

This was an interesting take on the theme, I had some difficulties at first but I eventually got the hang of it... sort of.
I enjoyed a lot the aesthetic and general vibe of it, I just wish I didn't got stuck and found out how it ends. Great work!

this is great!

Hi, I played your game on my livestream today!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/772381107?t=1h59m1s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady

https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin

I'm usually a bit harsh with ratings cause I want the rating to actually reflect the work that's been put to the games. I don't think I've done this in another game yet, but this is, without a doubt, a 5-star game through and through.

The gameplay was super fun and addicting, the music and sound design was so calming and the graphics and animations were just so beautiful. Best game I've seen so far in this LD! Your work is amazing and you all should be proud!

So good! Really fun exploring while figuring out the controls, and the Music/SFX feel totally in sync with the action. A really compelling game all around, great stuff!

[Thanks for submitting this to the stream last night!](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/773852287?t=00h57m26s)

This entry is shockingly well-done for being put together by such a small crew. I'd say you really nailed the tone and aesthetics perfectly. :ok_hand: The controls were a little clunky here and there (I felt that combining jumps and glides required a bit too precise of timing, for instance) which detracted from the experience a little bit, but not enough to really pull me out of the game.

Really really solid entry, this one. :thumbsup:

Well done! That was really fun :) That was kind of a nice twist on the old metroidvania with a hint of a rouge-like twist. The art was gorgeous and together the soundtrack you really created something unique. I wasn't really happy with the controls though... The key bindings were all over the place and I had problems to quickly adapt to them (I kept pressing Shift to float and up to swing for example) which lead to a lot of tries just falling and restarting. But that's really a minor issue which could easily be fixed with rebind-able keys.

Congrats to this great entry!

The graphics and mood are amazing, and I really like the mechanics! However, I wish the grappling hook range had a little more initial range and it gave you a little more momentum for horizontal swings. One way to do this that might make it a little more intuitive is to allow players to swing freely on the rope by pressing A/D.

Really great aesthetic and nice mood, with unique and interesting gameplay! ^_^

This stirred emotions within.. The track that starts after you collect all the chimes. Damn, this is cool. 11/10 on mood. Amazing achievement on the mechanics side i'd say, the visuals and audio drew me in and then the mechanics made me stay all through the ride. Very very honestly - I loved this.

The only change I'd try to make (though not sure how) is make the player aware of how far their hook can go. Probably not all the time (as that'd be too easy), but maybe every time they fail they can see the hook go out and not reach the target.

Very fun game, i enjoyed playing it didn't realize i had sunk almost 30 minutes into it