I found the first level to jump dramatically in difficulty. The vertical shaft just after the first checkpoint seems to be far too tall to traverse using the character's double jump. I was unable to progress any farther than that, I'm afraid.

You can wall jump, and time your wall jumps too.

I feel like this would a be a game you would see all the Youtuber raging over!! Great fun

Quite intense, overall pretty fun.

Reminds me to VVVVVV more than SMB, frequent checkpoints and aestetics. Good game, but can be much better with more polishing in control & camera. I've seen just before completion that it's only a prototype, so keep going!

Thanks all! The goal was it to be VERY hard.

Looks nice, but there isn't a Mac version :(

Holy meatball maneuvers batman. That was some punishingly tricky platforming. Took me a bit to figure out I could wall jump. Instead I would try and clip my head in the wall to get another double jump :D

I played all level and it was real fun! would play again

Art style like a itch.io game... Forgot the name...
The controls, the wall jumps, the text over heads, the changing colors, there are great. Personally pick!

haha, yes it is weird, cool weird. I loved this! Everything was spot on. Only downside was that sometimes you would keep dying on a checkpoint or spawn without getting to do anything. Other than that this is a great game! Looking forward to the continued version!

Nice artstyle

Can you upload a mac version, please?

Very good game, but I got spawncamped alot. I don't think meatballs disapear when you get teleported back to spawn. Once you know the proper input the controls are really smooth.

Hard to do wall jumps! Fun graphics. Liked the music.

I'll try for a Mac build.

Game was fun. Difficult to read the text, I wanted to know what was being said but I was always in a rush and the difficulty not very balanced. However, the game was very enjoyable challenging, and never frustrating, you were just back to the beginning of the level which was nice. and the music and art were a nice touch. good job.

Really difficult, but a lot of fun. Sadly I just couldn't seem to get past some of the earlier levels so I'm not sure what's going on with those meatballs...but one day I'll find out!

This would be hilarious on YouTube, seeing people rage on it. <3 Also, I need a Mac for a Mac build, so I can't do that. Someone comment if they have a Mac and a Professional copy of GM:Studio, and I'll send you the source to compile if you're interested.

I find the graphics quite adorable and you successfully maintain an exciting and often intense atmosphere throughout the game.

hey, I came back after you told me about wall-jumping and found the game to be quite fun past the first level! My advice to you is to always try to teach a player new mechanics when they are in a safe environment. Having to learn about wall-jumping is a reasonable goal, but having to learn it for the first time while also dodging meatballs for the first time feels overwhelming.
I think the other issue with how walljumping is introduced is that there is nothing in-game to suggest that the player has that capability. If the character squished up against a wall a little bit when the player presses against it, that would help to visually suggest that the character is getting ready to spring off of that wall.

This was adorable. I really felt for the monster being hunter especially after dying so many times.
My favourite detail was the platforms how they had the moving fur and changing colour. It was a nice touch.

I think it's not perfect (some collision problems) but it was fun to play, the music was good and it was challenging but not frustrating. (but it was hard to read the texts with all the things to dodge...) Anyway, well done!

Wasn't as hard as description says. I like the graphics, also the music is nice. Was fun to play. The text was visible for too short time sometimes though and the same messages repeated, making not much sense to me, not sure if that is intentional.

looks great, I think that thing that shoots brown balls fires them too quickly. then again, I am terrible at platformers

The graphics and audio are nice, but this must be one of the strangest games I played this Ludum Dare. Also, dude, you shouldn't develop games when you're THAT hungry.

This is a hard game, but if you pay close attention to how the meatballs are shot and where they can and cannot land, it's beatable. (but still really hard)

A nice little platformer. It doesn't really do anything special, but it's fun for a while. The controls feel a little floaty, though, which IMO doesn't really fit platformers in which you're mostly dodging things. I consider the comparison to Super Meat Boy to be preposterous as this game is rather easy.

I liked the graphical style and the audio was simply excellent. I felt the link to the theme was extremely weak, present only in a tacked-on story and being hard to justify even there (they hate me -> therefore I am a monster? That's quite the leap of logic there).

VDZ- It's supposed to be a vague story, with just small references and hints to the theme. Read the description for a better understanding. And everyone seems to have a very hard time with the game. Hmm..

@Acerio
I did read the description (I always read the description before playing to judge). My point was that the game wasn't based on the theme and even the way the story implements the theme feels awkward (he is a monster because...why exactly? What did he do to deserve being considered a 'monster', despite apparently feeling immensely guilty about whatever it was?).

The controls were really tight which made the game very enjoyable. It was also a nice little art style. Good entry!

Nice difficult platformer with a cool story.

@VDZ
You also do realize it wasn't heavily influenced on actual monsters. I focused on Google's definition of monster. Which you should check out :)

I talked about in IRC and everyone agreed that it was a good way to go about the theme without straight up being a monster. It's not really the traditional monster that eats people and shit. Because that's not the definition of "monster" according to Google.

@VDZ
And despite not really being "evil", I did hint it a bit in the extremely vague story. It's a very vague and weird story, and apparently a lot of people enjoyed that it was weird. But I tried very hard not to make it a game that was about your stereotypical "monster". A monster is not a villain, though can be referred as one in most cases

Great game with an old-school challenge. Looks, sounds and controls quite well. Difficulty can become just a tad unbearable at times due to the random aspect of the game. Good job!

Great game! Could use a little more mechanics and a more consistent difficulty progression. Good job though, keep developing it!

Very hard to get the first few levels right! I had trouble with timing the jumps and the wall jumps. However, the audio is awesome, and I enjoyed the narrative bits. I think you were able to nicely insert story and give depth to a game that is action-packed. Good job! :)

Graphics are simple but efficient. The music is cool. The game is super harsh but i think theres is a bit a frustration in it. I mean respawning directly after being hit is a good thing but when you fall it takes too long. I found out that you could double jump after a long time. Maybe put the controls in the description ?
Also I find that the ennemies lacks a pattern, making it to progress when you do the level for the umpfteen time. Good job anyway ;D

I posted a hint in the description that you can double jump and wall jump because some people did not get that. I also posted a walkthrough video that some random guy made, in case someone needs some help figuring out how to do it.

Over all, a very solid title. I had a lot of fun playing your game, and had only a couple of critiques.

Pros:
Fun game mechanics
Solid iteration between levels
Smooth difficulty curve

Cons:
1. Your levels should completely reset on death. Sometimes when I started a level, I got shot with two meatballs, sometimes one, sometimes not at all. With skill based gameplay, it's important to give the same challenge every time your player begins.

2. Your controls are a little... floaty, I think is a good word. Basically, the controls feel inconsistent.

Those being said, I would buy a full version of this game. Excellently done.

Wow that's difficult, the projectiles shouldn't stay when you die to stop you from dying the instant you spawn.

@Acerio
I understand what you were trying to do. If the game was about Adolph Hitler having a nightmare about being in a concentration camp, a dictator being chased by his army, or a loan shark being attacked by his money and the poor people he got into debt, I would have liked the interpretation of the theme.

The big issue here is that we are only directly told it's supposed to fit the theme. ("He later realizes it's because of his actions in real life that made him seem like a "monster", and he was giving revenge on himself as punishment in a dream.") However, it has little relation to the game's actual events; he could just be having a random nightmare for no reason, or he could be punishing himself for overeating. How do you get self-punishment from avoiding meatballs in a dream world? Why assume he's a monster when there's nothing in the game remotely hinting you towards that (other than a direct statement 'oh yeah, he's a monster').

For higher theme scores, I also expect the gameplay to be related to the theme. Why did you go with a platformer focusing on avoiding projectiles to represent a monster punishing himself? For an obvious example of gameplay inspired by the theme, in Last Chance for Bernie (http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=49432) the game mechanics were chosen specifically to reflect the options and objectives enemies in the Mario series have. Your mechanics, on the other hand, seem like they're chosen just because you wanted to make a platformer or because you're best at making platformers. As a result, you could almost always make it 'fit the theme' by just replacing a couple story lines; for LD32 you could argue the meatballs are unconventional weapons, for LD30 you could argue he entered a parallel dimension, for LD29 you could argue he found a magical area underground (or that it takes place in his subconscious), and so on. The game has so little to do with the theme that they can be cleanly separated.

Very fun game. Awesome

@VDZ
I suppose you're right, but that argues against my point of it being vague.

My point of it being about Google's definition of monster still stands. Here, I'll copy and paste it for you.

an imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly, and frightening.

My character is a parody of Meat Boy, who's name is Sauce Boy. The meatballs are just a joke my friend came up with, because Spaghetti. You could just ignore that. But being a character who's weird looking (ugly) and mythical makes him a monster, by definition.

I totally get where you are coming from, and you are right, I could have done MUCH better in the theme section. Thank you for your input, and I will know this for next time. I just went by my own interpretation, the example you argued about was just a small section I did just because, even though that wasn't what I was going for.

Thanks though, I really appreciate it :o

cool little game overall.
A couple of basic tweaks tho :
- rocks are REALLY too dark since you have a dark background
- checkpoints in general should be safes spots
- the camera is maybe a bit too close

Great game =]
Once you understand how walljumping works, it becomes fun.
Could use a quick tutorial or some kind of animation for clarity.
(also, pressing r shouldn't reset the level to the start, but to a checkpoint!)

Really enjoyed the game, quite fun. A few pieces of constructive criticism I would like to add include the following: 1) Spawn Killing. On some levels, you can be killed upon spawning, maybe you could add some sort of short delay after spawning to prevent this? 2) When you walk into a block left or right your jump function is being activated. Possibly a simple fix. Great game though ^_^ like it a lot.

Nice game, the atmosphere is greatly done and the levels are progressively hard, but sometimes a bit unfair :P

Great graphics :D I like how instead of choosing "Hard red", the reddest red, you chose a much softer one, giving a new level of graphical detail. Nice game

The first version had solid red. :P

@Flygamer101

Nice suspense story.

This game was a lot of fun! The controls feel tight, the platforming is intense and it's great that you added so many awesome levels!

Tough to control, but a cool look!

The meatball turret timing is a little strange, and doesn't reset when you respawn, which can get annoying. Good entry overall though :)

I know that turret thing. I plan on resetting turrets when a checkpoint starts for the full release. Or maybe just have a timeout for the player, so nothing can hurt you for a second.

Not sure which, but I definitely know of the issue.

This was awesome. Though it was pretty hard for me, but it is definitely one of the best I played. Good Job.

The graphics and art style are awesome!
great job was done and a nice game as a result!

Sucks people are not getting your take on the monster thing, personally I like it. My game was a little too vague for people as well. I guess its asking a lot for people to think outside the box a little.

:) I'm glad you understand. I'll check out your game.

I like the soundtrack! The plot was a little bit hard to understand, though.

It's a very well planned game design. It's not that difficult if player keep running even after death. It think you must keep level not reset after death.

I really like the way the level changes colour, The gameplay and mechanics are solid and feel good, the graphics are nice. Excellent prototype like you said at the end, one suggestion and this isn't a criticism because I loved this, with the enemies shooting the meatballs, it's hard to judge timings and things when they are random and for a hardcore platformer (which I would consider this to be) perhaps don't make them randomized, instead have a few different ones with set rhythms. Randomization in a game like this causes difficulty inconsistencies, sometimes not allowing someone to complete it at all, while others would move through the area hardly getting shot at. Just a suggestion. Loved it none-the less. Excellent job.

Love the style of the game very much, also the music was great as well. The whole atmosphere of the game was top notch. Only thing I felt was a bit off was the respawning, sometimes I'd respawn and get hit by tons of "meatballs". Other than that little thing it was great! Awesome stuff.

I really liked this. It's hard, but the restarts are instant and no significant loss of progress. Could easily polish this up and extend it. Great effort. Iike the visual style. p.s. would replace the meatballs :)

This is fun. The graphics are cool. I tend to get stuck while trying to wall jump...

Pretty easy for a player experienced with platformers, but was fun nevertheless. Oh, and that level with "which way" start - checkpoint is seen right from the beginning and I expected the end of level to be in the opposite direction. Was that a double prediction by you or just didn't want to use that twist? :D

Great game!

Good job! For the next version, you should reorder levels to make the difficulty graduating (wall jump is really hard to begin with)

Really nicely done, great tempo :)

That was a lot of fun to play, loved the little dynamic narration and responsiveness. Best feature being the instant respawn because holy shit this was hard! :)
Still a lot of fun though, looking forward to a full version.

That instakill is frustrating...

Cool little game! I included it in part 11 of my Ludum Dare 33 Compilation video series, if you would like to take a look :) https://youtu.be/ypxK5QAWPFI