jumpgolf by torcado

keep the ball alive as you climb your way to the top. how far can you get?
shoot: click
checkpoint: space | enter | c
respawn: r | z
pause: escape
remember not to fall :)
(also, feel free to post your winning screenshots in the comments! let's see who has the best times/fewest checkpoints)
Ratings
| Overall | 269th | 3.708⭐ | 74🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 182th | 3.74⭐ | 75🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 552th | 3.257⭐ | 74🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1070th | 2.082⭐ | 75🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 585th | 3.356⭐ | 75🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 509th | 3.058⭐ | 71🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 614th | 2.542⭐ | 61🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 624th | 3.077⭐ | 67🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 5🗳️ | 5🗨️ |
So, a little bit of feedback!
Feel free to ignore most of the things due to jam scope etc, but as always I’ll give feedback considering you’ll work on it after the jam.
Could’ve been better:
- Lack of dopamine. I play your game but I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere, my objective/role in this game isn't clear
- Lack of movement/animations/eye candy. Since the world is very still there's nothing to "distract" me or something that I can enjoy while climbing. Be it a moving platform (I didn't get very far), animations, flags, environmental changes, etc.
- I missed some music to listen while playing
- No "relax dude you won't lose any progress after this"/checkpoints, falling from a high-place was what made me quit
Good points:
- It's cute, nice art
- Sound effects are great
I feel like this could be improved a lot by adding something to motivate the player. Be it showing the top and panning the camera to where you are, or a height counter of how far you got, small collectibles or mini flags/holes that you get on your way to the top. The question of where should I get to or how long is it going to take was prominent in my head.
Hope that helps, and if you happen to update this game, drop me a tweet or something!
If you have time, please click on my profile and give me some constructive feedback on my game (:
See ya!
@nyunesu thanks for the feedback!
1. this differs person to person. in these types of games i personally find the main motivation comes from not knowing what's up ahead and wanting to find out. (other than that, the layout of the level guides the player upwards)
3. you can place your own checkpoints!
The golfing felt satisfying, however it wasn't exactly interesting. Sure there was variation in the walls and the level design, but fundamentally doing the golfing wasn't intriguing in any way :(.
Neat game other than that!
I guess I'll post my winning screenshot :)
Very good game now I want to speedrun it.
let me know if anyone else experiences it!
Very polished feel; audio and sprite design is great. I adore the melodic notes that play when you make a new checkpoint.
I think you could have expanded on the theme; I don't feel like I am keeping a golf-ball alive (can a golf-ball be alive? What is life anyway??).
i love everything you make ok
Phew that was difficult. I tried the browser version first but the checkpoints weren't working (Chrome, maybe I couldn't focus on window?) so I switched to desktop version.
On my laptop there is a bit of lag (maybe 30 fps or potentially less) which makes the timing a bit hard so I have to spam the mouse (though maybe you kind of have to do that anyway at certain points).
I think there's some slight game feel things but may be my personal preference. Currently the ball feels a bit weak - I always want the ball to go a bit stronger and everything feels a bit out of reach. There's also something about preserving momentum. If I click in the same direction the ball is going, I want to add to the existing velocity to go further. But if I click in the opposite direction, I would want to cancel the current velocity completely and start the momentum over with the base velocity.
I found the Slugger Bunny and Ghost Bird though :). Nice job!
About the velocity thing, that's definitely something i considered during development. I mentioned it to some friends and they had the opinion that they preferred it the way it is, but I think it adds some confusion because its not necessarily intuitive, so i agree.
As for the power comment, That may just be due to how i designed the level? I proportioned the velocity to the outer ring in such a way that the ring is indicative of how far you can go (against gravity) so you can use it as reference when targetting a platform
thanks for thee nice comments everyone!! i love you :heart:

It tastes like "Getting Over It" but with checkpoints (good point for me), and the mechanic to refill "the shoot" is clever.
In conclusion, I really like the game, even though I don't really see how it's related to the theme. Good job for this entry :thumbsup:
@mika-la-grand @noxalus i used a synonymous phrase "still in the air" to the theme, as the goal is to not let the ball fall.
The only issue I kept running in to with the web version was that I kept clicking outside the window. Don't think there's much you can do about that, though. Seems like this would work really well with touch controls if you ever wanted to take it further.
I love the ability to place your own checkpoints, and the visuals and audio are slick.
Well done on such a great entry.
It gets a bit too hard too early when you get to the rocky areas, and it'd be awesome with some catchy music.