Sanity Check by BinaryPrinciple

Sanity Check: Play it on full screen
Story
Mike is not at his best, the last few weeks were really tough, but there’s a silver lining: he finally managed to get a job. His mental health has been very UNSTABLE lately, what nobody knows is that there’s one very brave positive vibing neuron that is doing it’s best to make sure that Mike’s thoughts fall into the proper emotions.
The problem is that these emotions need to be continuously fed to keep them from exploding. If all Mike’s emotions disappear, then it would be very bad news for Mike.
The good thing is that you just need to hold for a couple of turns, at least to give him time to recover and get well set in his new role

How to Play
Description
Each emotion is color coded and if you are grabbing the right emotion a yellow arrow will appear above the pipe to let you know that you can throw it to the pipe.
Thoughts can be grabbed when a white arrow appears above them, and you can throw them anytime.
Each round is timed and you must survive it.
Core loop
- Grab a thought.
- Throw him to the emotion (pipe) to feed it (or let him go if you don’t want to hold it anymore).
- The pipe will explode if it reaches its minimum.
- Games ends if all pipes explode or you survive the round
Loose and Win Conditions
- Loose: All pipes explode.
- Win: You survived all the rounds with at least 1 pipe standing.
Controls
Gamepad and Keyboard are supported.
Gamepad
- Move: Left Stick
- Jump: (XBOX): A/B | (PS): X/O
- Grab and Throw: (XBOX): X/Y | (PS): Square/Triangle
- Pause: (XBOX): Start | (PS): Options
- Tutorial: (XBOX): Select | (PS): Share
Keyboard
- Move: WASD / Arrows
- Jump / Double Jump: W / UP
- Grab and Throw: SPACE
- Pause: TAB
- Tutorial: CTRL
Ratings
| Overall | 433th | 3.098⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 385th | 3.054⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 402th | 2.989⭐ | 48🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 340th | 3.378⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 277th | 3.411⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 281th | 3.089⭐ | 47🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 91th | 3.488⭐ | 42🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 263th | 3.233⭐ | 45🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 58🗳️ | 68🗨️ |
It was a bit difficult for me to get the hang of jumping, which made it difficult to maneuver around the levels at first.
Overall, you have created an enjoyable gameplay experience. Nice work!
It reminds me of the movie the pixar, inside out haha.
The control does not convince me at all, I think it needs more agility, but in general everything is very well done, with beautiful graphics and good sound.
Jokes aside, there's surprisingly quite a lot in this game! I found the controls to be a little clunky, especially when trying to pick up and drop thoughts, but you put in a lot of detail with Mike's thoughts, the dialogue of the player, and the animated 3D environment. So aside from my struggles trying to pick up and drop off things, I think it's a well-rounded and impressive game. Nice work!
@alec Glad you liked it! It was my first time setting up double jump, maybe next time I simplify it and avoid the mechanics I added to it (timers, button pressed).
@javicoder Glad you enjoyed and thanks for the kind words. I won't lie, inside out was an inspiration LOL. Yeah controls could have been smoother, guess is one of the risks of play testing alone, you get use to it. Next time I get more testers. BTW your game was very stylish!
@polkoii Thanks! Well, the idea is that you can only control where the toughts go, since Mike is a little unstable.... I thought of maybe adding a hint of what thought is coming next in line.
@tcastillo Hope you had a better time with it. Just FYI, have you tried to double jump? I think one of the issues might be having a small separation among platforms.
@diego-escalante Thanks a lot! Sorry you got a bit frustrated but I appreciate the feedback a lot. It's my first platformer, and well, I will keep working on the mechanics of it. I adjusted a 3D controller I made and had to do some fixes. Thanks for acknowledging the art and animation, it's been my main struggle since I'm no artist.
@katanoueki Glad you had fun with it! Mmm, maybe I should resize the trigger box and reupload. I think is allowed since is not a new feature.
@ludokultur Thanks! I adjusted a 3d controller I made for this platformer, agree that I can keep it more tight on the sliding side.
@mejzlosh Glad you liked it! Initially the events you see on top would modify the demand on each pipe, but it might have become way to hectic.
@louiejams Thanks! I keep a light on for Mike, he needs it.
@pdotjpg Wow! that's an amazing feedback! Thanks for the kind words, I see that controls are becoming a common pain point. It's my first platformer but I appreciate how everyone is objectively giving me tips on how to fix it in the future.
@reccy Thanks! I hope Mike is doing well too, he was a bit down lately. I added a double jump to experiment but a strong jump would been more responsive. My challenge was that he was "cutting through" the platforms but I could have embrace that for easier jumps.
@myles-doupe Thanks for the feedback, now that's interesting, you had issues in one computer but another one did not? Mmm, did you expand it full screen? since is a HD resolution.
@n00begon Thanks!Like many others, I struggled with the theme, finding a new direction to take it, I thought of breaking horses on a stable, or choosing chickes in a barn, but this came to mind. Glad that it paid off, and become an interesting take on the theme.
Again, thanks everyone for your feedback, if allowed I can make some fixes and help others to improve their experience. Thanks!
I wish there was more of a detriment to losing one of the emotions, like screen distortions as the character's psyche becomes more unstable. The platforming experience was also a bit loose, as jumping felt a bit awkward.
I was able to beat the game though!

Overall it was nice !
Technical difficulties aside, I had fun! Chasing the colors was enjoyable, and the level design was nicely laid out where I felt like I was skillfully navigating the terrain to get to where I needed to go. Also enjoyed the neruon's little positive messages every now and then!
The physics of the platforming are a little weird, but functional. I kind of wish the screen wrapped like an old school arcade game (player exits from the right side of the screen and teleports back to the left side, kind of looping around) Transitions between levels are abrupt, and somewhat jarring, but especially anti-climactic. That's an opportunity to make the player feel really good with some kind of "daa daaaaaa" confetti and horns!
I like the smooth look of the characters, especially the emotions (the droplet cyclops' dudes). At first glance the bg looks kind of bland and boring, but with a closer look it turns out to be a neat effect; what's going on back there? Is it pre-rendered? Particles?
Overall this is a good fun entry! Good job!
Good job ^^
@shellofagirl Glad you liked it!
@fakefirefly Glad you beat it! I agree, I need to work on adding more player feedback and I like the idea of having distorsions or alusionations.
@pkzinpo Thanks! Is tricky to grab the right emotions, since they move and you have a limited "trigger box" to get them. Prioritizing whoever comes last near you.
@llaumegui Thanks! True, is my first platformer, and need more steady weight or gravity.
@maximeg Glad you enjoyed the comments! I thought it would add some personality, glad I was correct.
@quoc Nice to hear you had fun with it! Thanks for the feedback.
@glenugie Thanks for your feedback! I believe I can get these platform controls tighter, since is allowed as long no new features are added. I will give it a try and update it. I agree that it can be better regarding control.
@cabjhegas I love the idea! A realtime that shows the emotion that is coming. Originally Mike thoughts were going to impact the thought "drops" and demand of the pipes, but then it would have made it too demanding for a LD. Thanks for the feedback!
@wedgiebee Glad you like the positive messages and been a neuron! I find it weird how the Web5GL version cropped the game, since I setup the canvas and all up to 1080p, maybe next time I can make it run in a lower resolution and avoid the cropping and perfomance hit.
@solah Good idea! Like an Inside Out Basket ball... I like it! Maybe not a platformer but make it more agressive and have to play the against Mike's negativity.
@lesinvisible Glad you liked it, you game was very interesting and we both went with the idea of mental balance. I agree that the control are a bit slippery.
@gorypixels Thanks a lot! I enjoyed your game and I was impressed by the look and feel of it.
@pbg Thanks for feedback glad you like it! Oh, now this is an interesting take. You know, I thought about it a lot, adding some accesibility for color blindness, more so on a color coded game. Thanks again for the feedback, I will make sure to keep in consideration in the future. BTW, you game is really cute!
Funny you mentioned transitions and screenwrapping, these were darlings I had to kill to meet the time. I have a transition coded and even some slow mo for the final droplet, but for some reason it was giving a hard time, although it's a simple coroutine for some reason the timescale was not helping. The wrapping would have make it feel better. Player feedback loop is one of my biggest challenges.
About the background, I wanted to make something that looks like brain activity or neurons, so I made a shader, using a voronoi scale through time mix it with another (higher scale) but with a "negative effect". Both of them with mixed colors. My first shader using shadergraph from Unity. Glad you like it.
Again thanks for your feedback and happy you had fun with it.

It would be nice though to have some clearer indicator when it goes so bad that I'm gonna loose.