Jiang Shifu by Sn4pi

Jiang Shifu is a precision platformer about being a Jiang Shi, a vengeful, tip-toeing, rigid-boned spirit brought back by Taoist magic.
You can't walk in Jiang Shifu - You can only jump and throw your Fulu, the Talisman attached to your head. Thankfully, you can also warp yourself to its position!

FEATURES:
- Unique platforming mechanics
- 20 screens of fun and frustration
- A timer to measure your skill
- A collectable lantern in each level in tough spots
- A certain out-of-bounds bug that you can save yourself from by pressing R

If you beat the game, please share a screenshot! I have a bet riding on this. ( I said 2 people who are not developers will beat this. )
| Link | https://sn4pi.itch.io/jiang-shifu |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/jiang-shifu |
Ratings
| Overall | 65th | 4.192⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 44th | 4.218⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 6th | 4.436⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 373th | 3.936⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 196th | 4.282⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 57th | 4.179⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 300th | 3.544⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 141th | 4.079⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 34🗳️ | 71🗨️ |
Everything - the main mechanic, the aesthetic, the art, music - it's all awesome.
The main mechanic specifically is very well thought out, how you aren't allowed to spam it to fly anywhere, but you can control how far you can teleport.
Let me just point that the fact that the clap is timed to the music - that is care for detail, folks!
If I am forced to nit pick, then the death animation creates jiggly pixels. Aside from that, it's perfect.!
Edit:
[brag.png](///raw/dcb/71/z/6426f.png)
I underestimated the random tenacity of Ludum Dare players, haha. 10 Minutes is crazy as well! I am sorry the last level is so unpolished ( there are some invisible elements, although I am genuinely proud of the first saw section. )
Thanks a lot for the plentiful praise! I will check out your game as soon as I am able to, Seems we chose a somewhat similar style regarding art ( Team thick outlines anyone ? )
We should try to get our times on here soon.
Thanks a lot for the comment. Are you perhaps a Chinese native speaker? ( I visited your page ) If so, I am extra glad you seemed to enjoy the experience. We were trying to explore some cool parts of Chinese mythology and a bit worried we wouldn't be tasteful enough with it :)
A taotie that worked like an aimable barrel from Donkey Kong was pixeled and designed, but sadly had to be cut x)
P.S. Want this game as a mobile
I think if I have criticism, It's mostly about the hitboxes and teleports. Sometimes it's hard to tell EXACTLY where you'll teleport to, which is very important in precision platformers like this. There was also one time where my back was up against some spikes, and when I turned my character turned around, my hitbox shifted enough to kill me on the spikes. But these are more minor hinderances than anything.

There was also this spot in the last level. I think there's an invisible saw there? I don't know how else I would've died.

There was also this random safe spot lmao. Pretty minor but fun to share regardless.

That last lantern will haunt me... but I loved every minute I played! Great job ya'll :smile_cat:
Thank you for playing and engaging with it!
Our coder has recoded the collisions post jam and now all of these edge cases are fixed and we have a lot more level design possibilities due to it, but the jam version is the jam version :) No plans to make this a full game though sadly.
The last level has a couple of insivisble talisman refills and two spikes where you died due to negligence in my cleaning it up, I made the level in the last hour of the jam x) Sorry for that, although most players luckily dont encounter it due to the better angle on the right.
It reminds me of Celeste due to the collectibles, the movements, the graphics, and the challenge.
Managed to finish it!
Only one complain, I would have loved to be able to recall the talisman with a right click.
Overall, I feel bad not to have bought it.


Still playing, I'll write a review when I reach the end ! (or when I give up, we'll see ^^')

Cursor isn't shown on screenshots, but I marked where it went.
The tension of leaping through the air relying on the talisman was very cool.
At one point I died just being in the air, not falling down. Not sure what that was, a limited amount of times I can stay jumping about in the air?

Tried again, and no, I jumped about 3 times (which is less than I did to get to the lantern) and I get this result in the air, not touching spikes or anything.
So, it is a bit unclear what went wrong here. I am pretty sure I should go up, but my character keeps dying in the air for no apparent reason.
Overall: the visual style is fantastic (background!! so good!!), the music is just the right vibe, and I love the unique mechanic. I just wish it felt a bit more comfortable to control (don't let cursor leave the window / allow fullscreen) and conditions on dying midair were a bit more clear.
The windowed bug should be fixed by a restart or pressing alt+Enter.
The other thing is a killbox, you can enter the door by clicking on it. Sorry you had that experience x)
I got a bit further and got to see bit more of mechanics and animations, and they are all pretty cool!

My feelings about this part are expressed on the picture. x)
There's really not much I can criticize, the art looks great, music and sound effects are top notch, maybe the gameplay could be slightly more polished so it feels more responsive. Sometimes the hitboxes do feel a bit unfair but it was alright.
Overall this is a very high quality entry, good job!
Given how hard it is, I wish there was at least a way to resume playing later, like a level select screen or something (on my first attempt, as soon as I left the first level I thought "wait a minute, it said every level has a lantern... so shouldn't there be a lantern there as well?", then i found I couldn't go back to a previous level unless I restarted the game)
But other than that (and the occasional clipping out of bounds that happened at some points), everything else was very, very good.
And the mechanics are very interesting. There is something that needs to be polished in time when he reappears. To become more reflective.
Congratulations for the game! :)
The art is so well done, I especially like the roofs design and backgrounds, you don't see them a lot in the game and yet they are super nice looking ! The music is awesome too, catchy, and not too repetitive, with great asian vibes.
I payed extra attention to the death animations since you mentioned them in your comment on our game @sn4pi haha, they are indeed funny !
About the gameplay itself the summoning mechanic is really fun, and you crafted some good levels ! I especially like to collect the lanterns even if it does not give any rewards, it gives some feeling of being a "good" player and it's quite satisfying haha (and it's great you had the time to add them)
One thing that bothered me a bit was that the summoning does not teleport you, but makes you travel from point A to point B, and kills it kills you if there are any spikes on the path. I don't know if it's by design or not, but I feel that the visual is giving a feeling of teleportation and it was sometimes frustrating to die while being "teleported".
Lastly some small improvements could be on the fluidity, I feel like the jump and the summoning could be slightly faster to be even smoother, even if you need to put a little more cooldown before summoning again.
Anyway, great job, congrats to the three of you !
Don't forget to post your source!
Some of the instant-recharge items were a bit redundant, since you could also fly through the air with short throws. Not sure if that was an intended mechanic.
Loved the art and sound, they were a real vibe.