Doesn't launch on wine https://dpaste.com/A8BH8LPTX

This was really fun! I like how the different enemies are much easier to kill when you're specifically one of human/chicken, it made the larger rooms with both enemy types interesting puzzles where you try escape the enemies its too hard to kill in your current form. The sprites all fit together very nicely to give the game a good aesthetic overall as well. If you want to keep up development I think some music/sound effects would add a lot :smile:

Your game has potential, the controls are a little too rigid for my taste.

A rpg game cool. I remember my old days playing on my Nokia phone. Nice job for your first participation!

That was challenging. And very interesting! Great job!

Very nice! Great aesthetics, especially the 2d/3d combination. With a bit of sound and maybe another layer of gameplay this could be a really good game. Well done!

I like that we had similar idea about connecting with the theme be we had vastly different implementations of that idea. Nicely done game, i would love to play it with sounds, as i think that that would add much to the experience.

Weirdly enough 1.0.1 doesn't start for me, 1.0 works fine but i have a bug(?) that sometimes ladders or key items (like key) disappear.

Ah, yeah, sorry - it is triggering Windows Defender which deletes the exe quickly

Aight, 1.0.1 works. I love the art style, very consistent and effective, and the subtle 3D effect was a great touch I didn't expect. Unfortunately, a ladder disappeared in the room to the right and I think it was a softlock

The gimmick has a lot of potential. Both forms have their strengths, like the chicken is unusable against ranged mobs, but much better against thornies. However, you can often just wait out the form that's more inconvenient at the moment

Thanks for the comments! :)

@delpod @alaah Yes there is a bug. I hoped it only affected enemies and not items and ladders. It seems I was wrong. I have a hunch where the bug is in the code but I think it might be too big of a change to fix it and upload a patch this late after the compo has ended.

@delpod Weird that the earlier version worked for you and not the patched one. It's quite unsettling actually.

@ugly-robot That's a shame :( not sure if I can do anything to fix that.

Nice game. I enjoyed the top-down parallax effect. Would have been nice to have some indication of how much health you had, but otherwise a very nice game.

Pretty cool game. Wish there was a bit more clarity towards cause and effect: (aka, having doors appear barred while there are enemies, have the twin door locked with two locks.) Was gonna say that with only ranged enemies the chicken form is just useless, but when you introduced melee enemies that chase you chicken form becomes very good in certain situations so nice job adding those imo.

This is a very nice game! Love the 2.5 effect, it looked gorgeous! Otherwise, would be nice to have at least 3 lives; 2 felt a little bit harsh, and would be nice to be able to walk diagonally. But totally understandable that there was not a time for this. Otherwise, I had a lot of fun playing this and the amount of levels was pretty generous, especially considering the fact that this is Compo game. Well done!

While obviously a little unpolished in some areas, this was still pretty cool! I appreciate that you did it in just SDL2, couldn't have been easy.

How funny, our team floated a similar concept during our planning, though we took a different take on our chicken-based game.

The dungeon looks great, I like the subtle 3D that lets you see the sides of walls and doors as the camera moves. It's great that both the human form and chicken form have different weapons that let you fight enemies different ways. Well done!

Nice game. It was a decent challenge.
Locked doors could have used some graphical indication, I initially didn't realise hey were doors since the first time tried to interact with them nothing happened, so thought there was only the first two rooms for a while.
Also a health indicator would have been useful.

:D Nice game! I love the pixels. The enemies are great. The differing chicken/monkey abilities are great. I like the 10-second switch. I wish there were some simple sounds, and I wish I could move at a diagonal. I didn't notice the depth-perspective on the walls until the second room, and then I was like "Ooooooooh, nice touch!"

(in a rush to test many, don’t mind the cursory style)

0. "SDL2" -> yay, low-level! :)
1. the story on the page feels like a whole tale, this is great! :) Like reading the good old manual out of the box (I always read the manual!)
2. hey, we chose the very same keys! :) (I was wondering if Enter/Return to restart was weird, apparently not so!)
3. I also like the good old README.txt :)
4. 1.0.1 does not work?! Following @delpod’s advice: 1.0 works, phew!
5. like the purple blinkering and purple cloud
6. wow, so THIS is the 3D effect comments were referring to! :D This is great, I am not aware if some other game used this (amusingly, an idea of mine for a big project involves a play on perspective, especially fiddling with the 3D-2D relationship)
7. descending ladder, bone-throwing skeleton, slingshot: someone likes his *Legend of Zelda* ;) Oh, and these are the "bombs"! Same remark
8. a health bar or anything (hearts? :p) would help
9. three-skeleton room: just trying to rush to the door, to see: the death "animation" straight to the tomb is funny!
10. the tile-based movement makes it hard to avoid the bones!
11. not always clear when doors are open; is the image any different?
12. underwater room with water: a key! This is so much *Zelda* XD
13. crabs: the enemies are definitely more challenging than those of *Zelda*, at least the later episodes (maybe not from the first one?… I played a bit the second one, and not the first, although seen some parts of it)
14. no limit on number of simultaneous "bombs"? That hen is more powerful than *Super Metroid*’s Samus! ;)
15. underground room with many skeletons after Eastward room with crabs: as I had already noticed once, there is apparently a bug: when destroying a skeleton, it can destroy another one too, somewhere else in the room
16. two keys! Now going North. General thought: human form more efficient against skeletons, hen form more efficient against crabs
17. ah, you can collide with the skeletons with no damage! Interesting difference; the two types of enemies from *SquareHunter* are analogous (long distance vs. close contact)
18. even more northern room: OH MY GOD. This is over the top! XD
19. actually, totally manageable, BUT the very first crab is underhand X)
20. Potion! Weird, cannot take it as a hen? After all, logical, cannot open it. XD Beat the game!

**Takeaway:** this is a great theme-related concept, and you really managed to settle a full *Zelda*-esque dungeon! As you say, several things would need some enhancement (I am thinking health indication, door status indication — I see I agree with "someone"! —, and sounds), but not that much. The two forms each have their strengths and weaknesses (just like the two enemy types!). For the future, apart from combat, you could imagine clever ways to use the mechanic even more (including different NPC dialogue?), and design places so that merely waiting is not an option or a risky one (alaah rightly pointed this out); for example, have ground that turns to lava if you stay for too long on it, this kind of things. The other mechanics are way more classic (*Zelda*!), but the "classic game + a twist" formula is a fair one, and it does work here. :) Also, very glad you developed a full (humourous) story, I was really immersed once I started playing, and it made the potion make all the more sense!

This is a great prototype, you could clearly extend it! :) Thank you.