Cool game with a simple moveset and a lot of skill expression. I could see me playing more levels of this.
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Pogo Boy Saves The Day!'s itch.io pageJudge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- Playability - Easy to pick up, fun to master. Good tutorial. Polished, I did not encounter any bugs. Satisfying air control, it's nice that you have a bit of leeway in landing angle. - A little bit difficult to get stars on certain levels despite pretty good execution due to the time metric (give a bit of padding for accessibility, even below average gamers want that shiny star!). I would try a 3 star system, one for each metric you track at the end, as well as implementing a bonus star system where you can introduce level specific challenges, such as perhaps doing a 1080 on level 3, or not landing on your head, or not breaking any boxes, etc. You could also add a leaderboard in the future if speedrunning is a direction you want to take with this game. - Some controls features I'd recommend: make controller triggers and right joystick also spin, make spinning axis based instead of on/off so that you can slowly or quickly spin (on keyboard you could introduce a mod key such as shift to slow down spinning) Theme Implementation - Being a superhero certainly embodies the theme. Cleverness - Great platformer innovation. Feels similar to how I might feel playing 2D Sonic games. - Add some powerups! Maybe one that turbo boosts your spin rate, makes you invulnerable, maybe allowing multiple air jumps, etc. Gives players something to aim at high in the sky. - Add some environmental obstacles/enemy variety! So far the enemies can't hurt you and simply walk around. Maybe there are pedestrians/bystanders that you have to avoid, pitfall traps, tar/concrete pits in construction zones that slow you down, etc. Artistic Style - Charming pixel style, though there may be some pixel perfect inconsistency/stretching issues. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FCJWPYqV0TI?feature=share - 360, 720, etc popping up is a great detail! - "Poop" graffiti is a bit crass, I'd recommend a poo emoji, etc, to keep it more kid friendly. - Great color choices, love gradients in pixel games, though a trick you can do: although your game is a pixel art focused, you can use vector graphics for BGs and skyboxes and it'll still look nice, if you want. Same for on screen text, see Celeste as an example. Rife with potential, I can easily see the finished product after some polish and gameplay work. Great job! Thank you for participating!
Link to your Game Design Doc on Google Drive.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bQ_ZRIL3GSzJaYJefC897qXOVQgkoBVPs2ufaegfhu8/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.lr899156xjnx
Have you checked that your GDD is publicly accessible ?
Yes
Is your game set to public on itch.io so we can see it?
Yes
Summarise your game!
Pogo Boy Saves The Day is a side-scrolling platformer where you play as a pogo-stick riding hero, bouncing off the streets and the heads of criminals as fast as you can.
Using several different bouncing mechanics, the player will navigate through levels and bounce on enemies before reaching the goal. For a full score, players must bounce on all enemies and reach the goal within a specific amount of time. In a series of 6 increasingly difficult platforming stages, players must play and replay, learning how and where to use the bouncing mechanics to achieve the fastest time they can.
Controller recommended but not required. Thanks and have fun!
Please explain how your game fits the theme:
Our interpretation of the theme “You Are The Weapon” is that the player character itself is the projectile, launching, bouncing, and dropping onto foes. A pogo-stick riding, bouncing, flipping character, hurtling themselves through levels, became the vision upon which our game was made.
Is there anything you'd like the judges to pay particular attention to?
The game can be played and finished without using all the mechanics, but the game shines when using all the mechanics to improve your score. After finishing the levels, you can pause to select a previous stage.
Comments
On the title screen and I already really like the scrolling parallax background, the music and the logo!
The music gives a lighthearted feeling to the game. Also, the graffiti on the buildings only speak the truth, I'm afraid...
The idea of you needing to do tricks to use certain abilities mid air is quite interesting. Going for beating the developer's best time showed me how fun and intricate this mechanic is. You really have to take advantage of it as much as possible to get through some of those best times!
The art of the game is very lovely and the sound effects are fitting. I was surprised with the many different ways you could tackle each level, and planning a proper route through them is key to getting a good time on each stage. I could definitely see this game raising more and more challenges by having more levels that would encourage exploring possible routes.
I really enjoyed this one, it was fun! Here's my total time!
hmm you beat me by... OVER FIVE SECONDS!!! WHAT?? I thought someone could beat my stage 5 but not by that much! I'm kinda speechless. Once the jam is over I'll update the game with your time (if it still stands) :)
These are my times for reference:
- Stage 1 - 16.1
- Stage 2 - 3.18
- Stage 3 - 9.17
- Stage 4 - 19.37
- Stage 5 - 12.4
- Stage 6 - 14.25
If you have a video of how you got close to those times on stage 1,3 and 5 I'd love to see it, especially 5. No idea how you sped up stage 3 by a second either.
Absolutely bonkers! Thanks again for playing and pushing the limits!
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