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A jam submission

Everything starts smallView game page

a charming 2d platformer where you are a snowball that grows while rolling to solve puzzles.
Submitted by Khaled — 1 day, 3 hours before the deadline
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Everything starts small's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Creativity#414.2954.295
Overall#444.1334.133
Presentation#544.3814.381
Fun#1383.7243.724

Ranked from 105 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Preferred Name
Khaled

Newbie?

Newbie

Yes - I'm new to game jams!

How does your game fit the theme?
The game represents the journey of a beginner game developer. The player starts as a small snowball that grows in size when rolling forward—symbolizing learning and growth. When idle, the snowball shrinks, reflecting how progress slows without action. A snowman character acts as a mentor, teaching the snowball mechanics and tools (representing coding and development skills). By the end of the game, the snowball transforms into a snowman—signifying the transition from beginner to experienced developer.

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Comments

Viewing comments 40 to 21 of 92 · Next page · Previous page · First page · Last page
Submitted(+1)

Very fun and well polished game. The growing/shrinking mechanic could lead to some really interesting and fun interactions!

Developer(+1)

Glad you liked the growing and shrinking mechanic, thanks for playing.

Submitted(+1)

Bro, your game is very very good! I liked every thing about it, the movement is precise, each dialogue inspires motivation, and the level design is pretty good too. The visuals are excelent as well. Good job!

Developer(+1)

Glad you liked my game and the story lore and the visuals, thanks for playing.

Submitted(+1)

This is extremely polished and well presented, the robots annoyed me too much especially with the fact that you need to become a bigger target to deal with them and you're less mobile. I hope to play more of this though and with you just starting out? I'm gonna be here for many more games like this.

Developer(+1)

Glad you liked the game and thanks for your feedback; this is my first time joining a jam but not my first game i have 1 year in experience in game dev, anyways thanks for playing.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

This  game is too creative..amazing art style, dialogues and game mechanics.

I liked the fact that somewhere you needed to be small and somewhere big which indeed sends a message...Perfection it was :D

Best of luck for next games Khaled

Developer

Glad you liked the growing and shrinking mechanic, thanks for playing.

Submitted(+1)

While I would've loved some mid-level checkpoints, the levels weren't too long for that to affect the experience too much. But other than that, this is a phenomenal experience, looks good and feels good!

Developer

Thanks for your feedback, glad you liked it.

Submitted(+1)

The mechanics are great, great concept and idea, love the sound effects and everything plus the dialog, its just perfect!

Developer(+1)

Glad you liked the concept of the game, thanks for playing!!

Submitted(+1)

Really polished! I liked the artstyle and the movement of the player, the level design was also very well done. The references to gamedeve was slick! The dialogues were also good. Enjoyed the experience overall

Developer

Glad you liked the artstyle and the story lore and the level design, thanks for playing!!

Submitted(+1)

This is really a better platforming experience. Everything is just perfect. The snow particles make up the scene more realistic. The “roll to get bigger using snow” is such an intuitive mechanic, really makes you think how to solve the puzzles.

Pretty cool, well done!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing!!

Submitted(+1)

Really cute game! I did not expected that ending lol but it was pretty cool. I also liked the dialogue along the way. It legitimately encouraged me to keep going, despite the difficulty lol

Great game!

Developer

Glad you manage to beat the game and witness the ending aswell as the story of the game, thanks for playing!!

Submitted(+1)

Such a creative and lovely take on the theme, with a beautiful environment to go with it. Reminds me of Celeste in terms of the atmosphere, and the little guide helping you. So charming and lovely, a terrific entry, especially for a first-timer! 

Developer(+1)

glad you liked my game and how the snowman guided and teaches you the mechanics, thanks for playing.

Submitted(+1)

Really enjoyed it creative game mechanic. It was very challenging and as has been pointed out by others I feel like checkpoints would have been nice.

Developer

Thanks for your feedback, glad you liked the game.

Submitted(+1)

I haven't quite finished it yet, but the game looks amazing. The message is nice, but the golems are.... yeah they're far too... i dunno, they feel a bit too unpredictable. They feel too much like a significant hurdle in comparison to all the other obstacles in our path.
I hope to finish the game after work today.

Developer

Thanks for your feedback, i really appreciate it.
i would recommend you to read the story of the game and beat it to witness the ending i think you will love it, thanks for playing!!

Submitted(+1)

Short game with a really nice message! The art is really nice and the cutscene at the end is adorable. 

Some criticisms:
- having music would have been really nice. It can get a bit repetitive to only hear the sound of coins
- The golems didn't feel consistent. Sometimes, they would just stare at you without shooting, and then just randomly shoot after a while. It felt a little hard to predict them
- More checkpoints throughout each level would be nice, but I don't think this would be as big of an issue if the golems were more predictable
- Button to instantly melt would also help with the pacing of the game

All in all, you did a wonderful job, especially for your first game jam!

Developer(+1)

thank you for this honest feedback.
-  i aimed for an atmospheric bg music vibe rather than some music i felt it fits better.
- yea the golem ai needs probably a rework on the random action pick up.
- checkpoints is the main concern for most players that played this game.
- did not thought about it even tho i personally like the idea of standing still to melt.

thanks for playing.

Submitted(+1)

The snowball mechanics is extremely creative, and you get maximum marks for presentation. Difficulty level is too high too soon for my liking though

Developer

thanks for your feedback, i aimed to have a fair difficulty scaling as much as i can but every player has their own skills, thanks for playing.

Submitted(+1)

it could've been one of the best game of the jam but it's really frustrating to not having checkpoints. ill keep playing it because i want to put a good rating on this game so yeah ill try to do my best. visuals are PERFECT and sounds too. i would have loved to have a mini tutorial for the sweating system of ice golems. AMAZING JOB

Developer (1 edit)

Really good feedback i appreciate it, yea i messed up by not having checkpoints implemented, thanks for playing.

Did you manage to beat the game?

Submitted(+1)

i couldn't unfortunately, but i dont give up, ill try my best until the jam ends

Submitted(+1)

The game looks really pretty and cute! I would really like a button tho that just lets me become small on comand because often times youre just kinda forced to wait to become small again which kills the momentum of the game a bit. I also got a bit frustrated at the enemies since in some sections it felt a bit hard to become big enough to hit them, and even when the like crying thing appeared that indicated you can roll them over now i would still get killed touching them and then i had to replay the whole section. 

The game has a really creative and fun idea tho and was fun to play!

Developer

 The crying thing you are referring to is actually sweat meaning he is scared and you can roll the golem up, yea the game should have checkpoints, so it becomes easier and less frustrating, thanks for playing.

Submitted(+1)

Great fun! Beautifuly presented aswell!

Developer

Glad you liked it .

Submitted(+1)

I love the snow particles falling during gameplay. A small detail, but it makes a huge impact! 

Also the growing and shrinking mechanic is super cool and well thought through! Well done! 

Developer

glad you loved the growing and shrinking mechanic.

Submitted(+1)

Very cool platformer! The golems look awesome; it really matches with how difficult they are ;D

Developer

thank you!!

Submitted(+1)

Very cool and novel idea! My one criticism is I would have liked to have more direct control of your size, since that would allow the player to stay in a flow state instead of having to stop and wait every once in a while, although I do see that that might've gone against the theme of the game. Very impressive, especially for a first jam entry!

Developer(+1)

thanks for your feedback, yea i think i could done better in the way the snowball melts, the way it works is with a timer of 30 frames - half a second if you stand still long enough you will start melting.

Viewing comments 40 to 21 of 92 · Next page · Previous page · First page · Last page