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A jam submission

Fragments of TimeView game page

Submitted by Heartcat, Sonic (@Son1c_Sound), scradyS — 13 seconds before the deadline
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Play Fragmented Time

Fragments of Time's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall#13.9743.974
Visuals and Sound#14.3084.308
Fun#34.0774.077
Creativity and Theme#193.5383.538

Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted (2 edits) (+2)

Oh boy, people seem to really like this game (so much so that it won the entire jam), but im afraid im a bit of a 10th dentist here; i thought overall the game was just,,, fine.

The good: The sound stood out to me as a really, really great aspect. Congratulations to your composer, because they did a stellar job. All of the art from asset packs was ended up cohering very nicely, and it all looked very pretty! Early level design was very good, and the difficulty curve ramped smoothly.

The bad: i've got a lot to say here unfortunately...

  • The character controller felt very wrong. Precise platforming was very difficult, which, given your game is a platformer, is a cardinal sin. The character slides around when movement keys arent held, the dash is imprecise (and was endlessly spammable prior to a patch), and the jump feels quite heavy. A platformer lives and dies on how well it's character controls, and i think this game fails to pass the bar. The speedrun uploaded on your game's page is a prime example of just how poorly the game controls - even the dev died in bullshit ways several times over.
  •  Tutorialisation: There were no keybinds in the game. I had to read the itch page to figure out that there was a dash, or that there was a time change mechanic. This kind of tutorialisation is sloppy - at the very least, i expect keybinds to be visible in games alongside the tutorial that demonstrates that mechanic.
  • Visual clarity: Due to the usage of asset packs, visual clarity was, at times, poor. The standout here is the level with the electricity pylons - it's impossible to know which objects are solid and which arent without trial and error. i threw myself in several pits trying to figure this out. Under this heading i also want to put the time change mechanic - if it's used inside another object, it fails with (i think?) a quiet audio cue. This felt very, very buggy before i realised what was happening (after quite a while)
  •  Moving platforms: This game copied a lot from celeste. One lesson it didnt take was that your standard, slow-moving platforms are not a very fun mechanic. Celeste features exactly zero typical moving platforms, but despite that, this game based it's entire latter half around them, much to its detriment. My enjoyment absolutely tanked when i had to contend with standing perfectly still on platforms, or while waiting for platforms, or while waiting for them to come back around after i died.
  • The level with two moving platforms, and the blue zone that kills you was *miserable*. Seriously, i had such a bad time trying to complete it. Celeste can make levels far more difficult than this, but because celeste is a game that operates at the player's pace, they're fine. Fragments of time demands you play at it's pace because you have to wait for those fucking slow-moving platforms, and it's just not fun. I spent as much time on this level waiting as i did actually clearing it.
  • There was dissonance between the mechanic of "time period switching" and the level design. Usually, changing time period caused sensible changes (i.e. growing of moss, crystals, or a tree). Often though, it caused changes that were absurd, like a large segment of level geometry spawning out of nowhere, or moving inexplicably to the side. In these situations, it felt more like teleporting between two discrete locations than the same location in different time periods. Only having one tileset and one background reinforced this, and on some screens it was impossible to tell which time was the future, and which was the past


Did i like this game? Well, I dont know. i dont think it was bad, but i dont think it was very good either.

Developer (2 edits)

alr alr
-The character controller felt very wrong : all the thing you said were actually intentional, except the dash part that was cuz i forgor (also "the jump feels quite heavy" this is the problem on the tutorial part but do you not understand the jump machanic? if you just press [SPACE] or just realease early you'll do a tiny jump and if you hold [SPACE] you do a bigger jump (i thought the electricity pylon level would taught poeple that but I'll make it clearer on the tutorial update))

-Precise platforming was very difficult : it wasn't suppose to be precise? it's a casual puzzle platformer non of the levels made for the player to be supper precise, but it's made for the player to fail if they forgot which part is in wich timeline

-The character slides around when movement keys arent held : cuz it wasn't suppose to be precise and  it force player to just send it and do the level in 1 go this part was by design (but also it's not like it slide that much even if you land in the middle of small platform you won't slide off if you just tap the movement key)

-"even the dev died in bullshit ways several times over." nah that was just skill issue and I was sleep deprived and the dash glitch is pretty goofy so I thought it would be funny to speedrun the game so ye

-Tutorialisation : thats because we ran out of time the game literally submitted 13 seconds before deadline lol 

-Visual clarity : for the second level I was gonna make the platform part of the electricity pylons a lil difference color but out of time 

-if it's used inside another object, it fails : yes that was there to prevent the collision from pushing the player through the ground and YES I FORGOT TO ADD THE FAIL SFX that one is on me

- Moving platforms : I ma be real with you i couldn't think of a solution at the time (and also the level ain't that hard) well even if I do not that I would have time to implement it cuz ya know "submitted 13 seconds before deadline"

- The level with two moving platforms : ahem ahem uhh.. skill issue (the problem with waiting for moving platform is real tho but I have an idea on how to fix it now but I'll fix it later (rn I am in another jam cuz the grinds neva end))

-There was dissonance between the mechanic of "time period switching" and the level design. "i.e. growing of moss" you just said it the vines and grass only grow on time shift what are you talking about 

-Often though, it caused changes that were absurd, like a large segment of level geometry spawning out of nowhere, or moving inexplicably to the side. well what else can you do with just the tilemaps the electricity pylon level is as much as we gonna be able to stretch it without an artist and also it's like a puzzle platformer "game" it's not suppuse to be that immersive

-Only having one tileset and one background reinforced this : huh their are 2 tileset albeit they looks very similar cuz only the outside layer changed and THERE ARE 2 BACKGROUND the use the same color scheme and art style(it's from the same creator but difference assets pack) but they are WAYYY difference how did you not even notice???

Developer (1 edit)

actually there are more sfx I forgot I also forgot the platform sfx you suppose to also hear them even when you are on difference timeline to tell that the platform was close by 

Submitted

My feedback is what it is - this isnt a debate.

Submitted(+1)

Great game, level design was great and the mechanics were implemented well

Developer

thanks!

Submitted
Deleted 302 days ago
Developer

glad you enjoyed it!

Submitted(+2)

This one is really well designed. None of the levels felt unintuitive and the mechanics were easy to understand. The visuals are really good too.

Well done.

Developer (1 edit)

thanks!, we was trying to keep it simple since this was the first time we worked together :3

Submitted(+2)

One of the best games ive seen so far, so clean in the art and sound dang. Its one where you think "Yeah this is a real game"

Developer

let's just say i didn't spend 2 hours looking for assets and 2 days adjusting them to fit together for nothing
>:3c

Submitted(+1)

I loved the art a lot! The ambience was there and the controllers also were smooth. Spamming the dash button was funny but nonetheless I love the concept!

Developer (1 edit)

the dash cooldown is glitch rn but idk why

Submitted

Do you have a cooldown system?

Developer (1 edit)

here's the patch fixing the dash cooldown bug

https://heartcat.itch.io/fragments-of-time/devlog/980676/dash-cooldown-fix

Developer

albeit the dash cooldown is still really short

Submitted(+1)

Reminded me of that one mission from Titanfall 2. The game feels good nice to play and all assets really fit together. I wish that the player could see how the platforms would move. My goldfish attention span could barley remember the platforms movements. You could also dash forever in a straight line which felt like cheating. Outside of that I found the game great! I feel like the game has plenty of potential to be expanded. 

Developer(+1)

i was gonna just make the platform translucent like a ghost effect or something but we ran out of time

Developer (3 edits) (+1)

here's the patch fixing the dash cooldown bug

https://heartcat.itch.io/fragments-of-time/devlog/980676/dash-cooldown-fix

Submitted(+1)

Probably one of the most polished entries to the jam in my opinion. While I thought the use of the theme was a bit basic, the rest of the game is very well put together. Levels are built up great, there's lots of sound and music and the player movement feel very nice (except maybe jumping off a vine felt a bit weird). Really nice entry!

Developer(+1)

we didn't even prepare anything for this jam tbh and even though we start designing the game since the begining of the jam, most of the game were made in the last 3 day as in like 90% of the game and a lots of things were rushed, but i pulled an ungodly hours to polish it as mush as possible which end up in a

Developer(+1)

also I was trying to make vine jump like the "mantis claw" wall jump in hollow knight

Submitted(+1)

This is really cool game, good looking too :)

Developer

glad you enjoyed it

Submitted(+1)

Lovely game! very polished and smooth for the time we had, and amazing pixel art! , well done!

Developer

thanks!
but we didn't have an artist in this jam
so  all the "amazing pixel art!" is from the free assets linked in the description

Submitted(+2)

It felt like playing the tutorial of a well-made platformer. I’m excited to see the full, complete version! Above all, the sound effects were great. Had a lot of fun

Developer

glad you enjoyed it and sorry to disappoint but
all the pixle art assets comes from the free assets linked in the description
so the full,complete version probably not gonna come anytime soon not until we have an artist for it anyway

Submitted(+2)

This is really good! I love the sounds that you chose for this game that really enhances its feel, as well as the art being really good as well, I also like the jumping puzzels that you have here, great job!

Developer

Hey Shamtrolls! Thanks for your feedback! The sounds and music was design by me ^^, so that part is custom. Heartcat and Scrady did amazing job in developing, programming and game designing. We didn't have an artist for this jam, so the only thing we used assets for is visual part (background, player sprite and other stuff). This is my first game jam that was actually finished and submitted! Hopefully more to come!