this is really fun good job!

Tough to do all this in the time constraints of a game jam, but here are some quality of life improvement suggestions if you make more games like this in the future:
- Check that you're falling down before sticking to a wall (jumping next to a wall kept sticking me to it) or REQUIRE pressing shift to stick.
- Seems jumping requires you to be on flat ground, but the character has a capsule controller, meaning you can't jump when standing on an edge. Perhaps use a box shape instead and have a little leniency check on the surface angle.
- If you press jump before hitting the ground, jump
- If you press jump when you were just touching the ground, maybe rewind to being on the ground or jump in the air (coyote time).

Little things like that can go a long way toward making your game more enjoyable!

Dear @neowhoru,

I've played your Game. I think the game concept works well.
It's always difficult to build handmade levels in a Gamejam.
It's really impressive, that you found the time to create those.

The Graphics are fine, the movement works and it is overall fun.
Unfortunately the climbing mechanic it not that intuitive.
The other thing that annoyed me was, that you can climb while you
are on the floor. So i got stuck. But it was not that bad.

But keep in mind, it´s easy to say those things. But you were
in a rush and you did your best.
You can be proud of yourself.

with best regards
Max

Thank you @jitspoe and @maxi1324 - i should try to replace the capsule collider with the box and adjust the collision points.

Cool game

The game itself is lovely and pretty fun but the climbing and jumping mechanics are driving me insane

Cool game idea. Really love what you did with the artwork and sounds. I found the control layout a bit off (Chrome kept trying to do something with my bookmarks) and the climbing / jumping mechanics were quite difficult to contend with. Great work though, really enjoyed it

Great game, thought the graphics and overall style was great.
Loved the vibe.

I would suggest checking to see if the player is moving towards a surface before 'climbing' it? Had difficulty not climbing or sticking to a surface, even when not holding the key.

The transition between levels was really cool and it was a nice challenge. Good job!

Fun game! The art and animation are really adorable, and the gameplay is fun but a little bit rough around the edges. I got stuck to walls a lot which could be frustrating when getting unstuck meant losing more precious health.

It might be cool if health only went down when you moved/took actions, allowing players to be a little more thoughtful and plan out their moves

Challenging game! I love the giant carrots. I found the levels pretty well balanced. Well done!

Personally I don't think the climbing and wall jumping mechanics were annoying at all, as someone who has played the game Celeste the climbing felt very natural to me! The difficulty curve in the game was also very good, and I like how there was a reminder of the controls at the beginning of every level. The music was also very nice, it matched the pixel art well and wasn't too loud and wasn't obnoxious or distracting.

The controls concerning climbing need some more work, but jitspoe already mentioned pretty much everything I noticed. The only thing I can add is that it is a bit strange that you still have to hit ctrl after you jumped onto a wall to move up.

The level design is good, there was just one leap of faith jump that I didn't like.

Overall a nice entry with cute graphics!

What a challenging game! I included it in my Ludum Dare compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/hRXrVepHVBk

cool

You have a cool style going here. Good job with the character controllers too, it feels good to move around apart from when it wall clings when I try to jump near a wall.

I had a lot of fun speedrunning around the first few levels, and appreciating the art. Good job!

Love the graphics and the screen transition effect, the sound effects are good. The background music is quite bad and climbing is very frustrating I used jumping to get everywhere. Good take on the theme though gives a sense of urgency to the platforming.

Fun game idea and the character controller is good! The only complaint was climbing walls was really tough

the concept and the design are REALLY good! The controls are a bit clunky, which makes the climbing part a bit frustrating, and I honestly think the hearts should give more health, since most of the time it's not worth it to try picking them. Congrats to you and your son for the game :D

I honestly love the jump sound, makes me remind of the the sound effect for knuckles jump (the red char in sonic :smile: )

The charm in this are the sounds I think

... and the carrot

oh I can't get too far, I am a very very bad platform gamer

haha thanks very much @velvetlobster :)

the thing with the health is very very clever, makes me a bit too desperate though ... I would love to see some twitchers and youtubers rage quitting on this :laughing: like that one with the bucket, "getting over it"

The assets are all beautiful! The controls near walls are a little clunky, but the rest is very well done!
the cat head transition is adorable!

Cute game, started playing but it cost me to grab the walls but it's really well done!

Couldn't get past level 2, because the mechanics are driving me crazy =)
- You can't jump when you're next to a wall. The climbing mechanics kicks in without my pressing shift. It shouldn't.
- When you climb to the top you can often get stuck on the corner and can't jump.


1. Anyway, you should make so that climbing would only be activated when shift is pressed, like in Ori or Celeste, etc.
2. Maybe a longer delay between dagger throws or single dagger for one keystroke? They just fire off like a machine gun and waste a lot of precious life.

Overall, it's an interesting concept of actions draining life, but you should make it a bit more player-friendly.
Cheers!

I found this game really cute, graphics were nice and the concept was cool. As someone who makes a lot of platformers, my best advice would be to watch this video by Mix and Jam on recreating Celeste: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STyY26a_dPY
It goes over some really nice points on how to make a smoother, more functional platformer controller with concepts such as coyote time and climbing. Still impressive how you managed to create a decently lengthy game in such a short time, and it was really nice to hear the idea of the game came from your son, I found that really nice. Great entry! You should be proud :smile:

Like “your” idea for the game :)

@cakts thank you. To be honest this mix and jam video was a huge inspiration in the past and my base player movement controller is heavily inspired on it...i really loved that (but mine is not as good as this this approach hehe).

Btw. i am currently watching some other vids i found and try to improve now the logic (added coyote time woohoo :D).
This was pretty helpful : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFix_Kg2Di0

@adncoach thank you - yeah you are right. It might be better to hold the shift key for climbing.

Nice platformer with cute character and enemy design! I liked traversing the levels trying to solve them with minimum jumps, climbs and shootings. Controls were a bit sticky, especially the fact that I couldn't climb over the top of the wall.

One thing that bothered me (a little) was the pixel art that had different resolution for different assets (environment vs player and enemies). I think what's good about pixel art is the coherent design it forces, and mixing resolution can really break that.

Besides that, nice game for a jam :)

Maybe it's possible to extrapolate the idea to make a more "puzzly" game, single-screen-micro-levels where you literally have to count every step or shot you make in order to finish the level. That would be a different game of course, but it got me thinking :)