The camera is slightly violent. The graphics are cool and fit in well with the atmosphere of the game.

The concept is just incredible.
I was amazed by your work guys !
Well done :)

Concept very nice, good job! Sometimes i confused in layers((

Changing depth layers is a super neat mechanic. I struggled a little with telling what was on what layer but it wasn't too bad.

Love the art!

Really cool idea and really high quality. Some more visual differences to separate layers more could help a lot. A lot of my first couple attempts including me dying because I pressed q vs. e etc. But overall, definitely convinced you can get a lot out of this mechanic.

And LOVE the music!

Well done on your entry guys. It's an interesting concept for a game. I think the mechanics could have been introduced in a more friendly way. It took me ages to realise I could jump, and a number of tries to get over the first obstacle. Maybe it could have started with a hole you need to jump over and then a wall in front of you that you had to teleport backwards, walk a little and then teleport forwards. Overall though a very neat concept, great job.

Very inventive idea! I'd love to see this go further. I did find some bugs - like how you can infinitely jump if you clip yourself in a wall, but, hey, 2 day game jam, what you going to do.

I can say I've honestly never played a game like this before. I thought the concept was pretty clever and the difficulty felt just right. It took me a bit to figure out the controls and the layering system (even though it was clearly written in the instructions. I do think the switching layers buttons might have felt a bit nicer if it was on the right side of the keyboard somewhere so you could have both hands working. Like maybe the right and left mouse button? Other than that nitpicky critque though I enjoyed your game. Thought it had great mood and sound too.

Really cool mechanics, have never played a platformer like this before, awesome soundtrack. Unfortunately I was inept at judging the distance between the platforms so I couldn't even get away from the first 2 platform reliably :(

Very cool idea. I love the mood of the game, and the central mechanic is an incredibly creative concept.

I do wish it was more clear which layer the platforms were on. Maybe some different colors or symbols or something.

Also I keep forgetting which buttons go back/forth and it feels kinda awkward (in my opinion) to hit the Q/E buttons. I would've maybe put them on the left side of the keyboard since my left hand was completely free while playing the game.

Another thing that I'm not quite sure how to put into words, but movement felt a little janky especially when moving between layers.

This mechanic feels very fresh! Good job.

great fit with the theme. I wish the move forward and back buttons were 'w' and 's', that would have been a little easier to control. I really enjoyed playing through the game.

When I try playing in itch, it doesn't load and the JavaScript console says, "indexedDB database could not be opened"

That is a really cool concept. Took some getting used to but it was quite a bit of fun. Some of the platforming was a bit difficult, having checkpoints throughout the level might be a good idea. I am generally bad at platforming though so that may just be me. The moving vertical moving platforms were annoying to wait for if you got there are the wrong time especially if you kept dying over and over like I did. Overall great game though, this is one I could see a fully fledged game come out of.

Game looks really nice and i like the concept, however layer changing and camera jumps make it really confusing, and basically unplayable for me at least. It's hard to judge the distance and also if you aren't just going to fall trough the floor after jump

I really like the idea of shifting layers and how that blends with the "deeper and deeper theme". I think this game could benefit from playtesting for difficulty, more polished physics, and less jerky camera movements. Even so, I love the idea and the challenge it provides.

Really cool game. Pretty difficult at some points and I wish there were checkpoints but otherwise really well done!

The layer shifting mechanic feels awesome to play with, though the difficulty curve with some of the platforming is a bit tough for me. Overall, a nice atmosphere and a super cool idea!

Incredible game. I really like that the later parts of the game (and your wife at times) are visible in the background. Nice touch.

I would agree with others that the difference in platform depth is unclear. Maybe three color shifts (One for the current depth, and one each for a depth level in either direction)?

Will come back to this and see if I can make it through the whole thing. Nice job!

I played it both in browser and on windows. Sometimes it would duplicate the music when it started the game. Also on windows, somehow my player got faster at some point, where I could move left and right very quickly. Restarting the game didnt even fix it. The layer switching was interesting, but I found it difficult knowing what was on each layer. Maybe a color filter or something might have helped?

It was a novel idea though to traverse a 3d space in a purely 2d game, and it was very creative of you to think of it.

I love this concept, 5/5 for innovation on this one :)

very cool idea, I couldn't make it through the whole game but I think I made it quite far. I agree with some others that it would've been nice to have layer switching be controlled by the right hand, since I did have a bit of a hard time doing it all with my left (but I'm also mostly a controller user, so I'm also unfamiliar with advanced keyboard controlling). Nice work!

Here is my live commentary:

First of all there is a wall of text in your intro. Fair enough, this gets information across. I do this myself when I have no time and forgot to introduce the controls properly, that is what happened to me this LD :-) But still, a nice little tutorial level demonstrating the controls and letting the user do it rather than read about it, that is what really makes you internalize controls. Reading and trying to remember a bunch of things is hard. Remember that a person can keep 3 to 7 things in their head, I count 9 pieces of information on your front screen. This seems a little overwhelming to me. In our game I tried to circumvent this by really choosing the right words, i.e. the lowest number of words, to describe the controls and I animated them to make them stand out against the background and introduce one at a time. I feel that items appearing one by one, rather than a wall of text, are less overwhelming.

Escape key to pause first gets me out of fullscreen, I guess this was not intentional and it is not a bad thing, I just noticed it. It takes me out of fullscreen, then when I press it a second time, only then will it pause the game.

I read something about E/Q for controls, then forgot it and dropped into the world. Left/Right to walk, Space to jump. Now I try E and drop to death, seemingly through the ground of another platform. Only when I go back to read the start page again do I notice that it says Go Forward and Backward. Nice mechanic, I like the 2D but really 3D game idea. But in this case I can hardly get a feeling for when I am on which plane. I had to press E three times, this also makes my guy jump, to get to the platform below me. I guess that is because this is supposed to be kind of secret place, right? I can only get out of there by hopping a lot. Placing this right at the start of the game when I do not even know how to handle the controls feels a bit daunting.

I like that jumping has that extra frame that you are allowed to drop off the platform and still be able to jump. I have read about that and it has a specific name but I cannot remember it. Something like weasel frame. Do you know what I mean? What is this called? Wow, actually it seems to be 10 frames or so.

When I die and respawn I sometimes jump. You seem to be missing some reset code after deaths.

Some people hate jump puzzles but I don't, I find them OK when the controls are tight, like Super Meat Boy. Your controls feel a bit laggy. Jumps are hard to time. Along with not knowing which plane I am in makes me drop to death a lot.

I love the little guy and his idle animation. Also the sound effects are cute, sounds like you just hit your desk to make the foot steps :-D

The atmosphere is very nice, your pixel skills are supreme! The backgound, the color palette, it all fits together. The music adds to the slightly dark and depressing feeling of this world. Very consistent, good job!

Now I have had enough, this game is too hard to get right, as I said above, and it frustrates me. This is a pity, I really like this game. The esthetics, the idea, very nice. But for a jump 'n' run the main thing you need to get right are the controls. Maybe focus on those first in the next LD.

I know that my review sounds a tad critical but please do not get a negative vibe from it. I have nothing but respect for your cool creation. It is really minor things that could be easily fixed that made me quit this game early. But what made me stay is the great graphics and an interesting idea. You have everything it takes to get to the top of LD ratings, I look forward to your future creations!

I just tried cheating my way to the platform waaaay in the background below the starting point by hittng E 10 times but I could not make it :-D

Good thing you get 4096 characters per comment :-D

Edit: only now I see that this is not a Compo game and that you are multiple people, so please each of you take the feedback that falls into your responsibilities ;-D

This is a very nice game with an interesting concept! It is really confusing first but then ista quite fun. Perhaps it would be a better experience to introduce the mechanic slower. The graphics are really nice as well as the animation. The sound is fitting, with the exception that the jump sound seems to be a bit too late.
One of the best games I played so far.

The game is a too difficult to easily be picked up, but the concept is very interesting. Perhaps different colors could be used to visually distinguish the different layers a bit more in order to make it easier.

Cool mechanics! Only thing I would like is a bit more noticeable active layer.

Unique conecpt. I liked it. The movement between layers looked unusal but all in all the controls are fine. Solid entry!

The mechanic is very cool. The camera was really hard to play with. I think it could have floated behind the player a bit more and it's movement could have been dampened so it would move more smoothly.

Great concept, i was just a little bit confused and sometimes souldn't figure out if I should press Q or E. Great job.

Interesting concept. I liked the parallax effect