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Skele-Tom's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #12 | 3.829 | 3.829 |
| Music | #12 | 3.771 | 3.771 |
| Fun | #24 | 3.657 | 3.657 |
| Theme | #25 | 4.071 | 4.071 |
| Sound | #37 | 3.486 | 3.486 |
| Mechanics | #38 | 3.543 | 3.543 |
| Aesthetics | #62 | 3.786 | 3.786 |
| Story | #79 | 2.757 | 2.757 |
Ranked from 70 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How many people worked on this game in total?
1
Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
KayKit, RGPoly, AssetQuest, finalbossblues
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Comments
I haven't gotten to try out Godot myself yet, but I am absolutely loving the abundance of Godot games in the jam. This was a fun and clever little platformer.
Without soapboxing too much.. man. I'm glad you were upfront about it, but it did bum me out pretty hard that the music was AI generated. People have opinions and I respect that and try not to judge. The song was a banger. However, as a music educator and composer myself I'd be lying if I said that knowledge didn't make me a little sad.
I'm glad you enjoyed the game.
I appreciate your thoughtful response about the music and sharing your feelings. I knew being upfront about it could potentially tank my ratings. The indie game community is pretty anti generative-AI and I know this. In fact I used to be rabidly so. Then I ran into a cute little game with really good music in a Jam. In fact, it was the GameDev.tv Tiny World jam. So I decided to try it. I speak about this in my Eternal Echoes Pots Mortem DevLog. In there, I also talk about my mixed feelings. I've also had some very long discussions about it in the Godot forums. Including this week, an off-topic reply about generative-AI that sparked interesting discussion.
I don't want to put artists out of work. In this game jam, no musician lost out on money because I couldn't spend money on them to make music. Could I have found a music producer to do this for free in a week and make the song I envisioned, as well as two chiptune versions of the same track and a fourth version of the track with Skele-Tom humming it to himself? Maybe. My brother is a DJ and music producer, and we didn't have the time to do it together. And the fact of the matter is while the generative AI didn't perfectly recreate my vision, it was close enough for a game jam.
Sure, the generative-AI did a lot of work in literally seconds. But it wasn't like I took the first version it spit out. I wrote the lyrics to have a particular feel. I asked for a particular type of song, and it took a number of tries of me tweaking the lyrics and prompts to get what I wanted. I believe it was the 8th version I picked. I do not think I could have done that without my own (limited) musical training. I definitely know it wouldn't have been a banger if I'd chosen the first version. I literally tweaked the number of syllables in the verses and chorus to make it flow perfectly.
I've read discussions on music forums about generative-AI in general and Suno (the tool I used) in particular. One example was a songwriter who uploaded him singing and playing guitar to a song he was working on, and then using Suno to add a backing band to him so he could see what it sounded like. does that take away from other musicians? Maybe. But I wonder if there's a world between AI-slop and "pure" music where these tools can be used as creative tools instead of creativity replacements. One of the (amusing to me) things I've seen on Suno is people copyrighting their lyrics in song descriptions. Which misses the point of how generative-AI steals from musicians to work.
It's an ethical question that I have been pondering. I thought the courts were going to shut it down with the MidJourney AI lawsuit. When they didn't, I realized it was here to stay. So I'm wondering is there way to use it ethically. There are for example, ethical implications to using LLM AIs to help out in school. But students don't seem to care based on what I read. So do I become an old person who just won't change on principle? I honestly still haven't decided.
However one feels about it - I couldn't have made this game without the music. It would not have been nearly as good. I listened to it all week, over and over as I was testing levels, and I never got tired of it. I could have probably found a banger chiptune track for free, but I couldn't have put the story of Skele-Tom into it and gotten the feel I wanted for the game. And yes, it is in one way upsetting that it's so good. In another, as someone who always wanted to write songs but had the poetry but not the musical knowledge (not for lack of attempting to learn), it's been really fun to write songs just for me as a way to process and express my own feelings. And I see a lot of people on Suno doing the same thing. Processing heartbreak, loss, hurt, frustration, and celebrating love, happiness, excitement.
I do have opinions, but they're not fully formed. And I appreciate thoughtful dialogue with people on both sides of issues like this.
This is a very well thought out and detailed response that I was not prepared for. I don't have time to respond to every aspect of it, but I'll try to boil down my main thought about it as best I can. First of all, it clearly didn't hurt your rankings since your game did very well it looks. A sincere congratulations.
I think my main sadness in all this is primarily the fact that it just goes against imo the spirit of the entire idea of a "GameJam" in this day and age. Why are we doing this? Why are any of us doing any of this? In 5 years (give or take) what will GameDev even be? Will there be any point? Will it just be a big button you press once and the computer will generate the whole darn thing? Yeah, probably honestly at this rate.
Ultimately, no I don't judge you, and I'm happy you made a fun game. But one of my favorite games I played in this jam was one where some dude's main music track was a recording of him doodling on his guitar and whistling lol. It was charming, it was silly, it was human.
I always wanted to make games growing up, I almost chose the field for real, but life had other plans and I'm glad it did. I've accepted that this is a hobby for me, but I worry how much longer there will be a point in even that.
I know I sound like a grumpy old man shaking his fist at the clouds, but our time to make our silly little human games might realistically be limited here.
I'm someone who got into the games industry when I was young, and was burnt out by it. I went and had a career in computers and raised a family. For me I'm doing this game jam to teach myself how to get a game out the door. I want to make money at it without stupid marketing people telling me what makes a video game sell. Because I want to make games that are fun and will hopefully make some money.
You're right about push-button crap and AI slop. So the only thing I can do is try to make bespoke games that are good enough that people will shell out some money to play them. And hopefully someday I will have enough money to pay a musician to create the game music I want.
As for my results, yes I got 12th in overall and music. But TBH, based on the comments I received I think my AI music hurt my scores in other areas. That, and not perfecting the gameplay a bit more. I'm currently halfway through writing a post jam article, and I think I my be copying large parts of my former reply into it.
Very well-polished, and the dimension shifting from some of the candies was a nice twist. I like how the levels were designed with that mechanic in mind.
Thank you! That was a mechanic that developed during the jam as I realized I could use that to implement a "trick" mechanic.
this was very cool, looks like a high quality finished game,
everything went smoothly until level 3, jumping extra high on cars was hard, took me several minutes to get all candy. as i understand the logic is this, if player on car accelerate up if jump also pressed accelerate more. so jump must be timed frame perfect with landing on car, real hard. you should consider using jump buffer, if player press jump and in air, remember that press and countdown, if player haven't touched ground within x seconds clean buffer, but if yes act like player just pressed jump. this should make big jump much easier, and how much easier can be determined by the time x.
level 4 wasn't passable at all unfortunately (the one with 2 camera switches) there seems to be a collider in the middle of the road, and no portal in vicinity. so i could not progress, any suggestions? i really tried for several minutes for way around. there are 2 tall buildings but couldnt make the jump. got stuck and geometry and had to restart and go trough all levels (the level sweetching doesnt properly work and resume start round 1
the camera switching was a very fun mechanic.
bonus points for music, so what if its ai it certainly makes atmosphere twice as good
amazing what you was able to achieve in the time of jam solo
Thanks for the comments. I'm glad you liked my "trick" mechanic.
Ok, so the car mechanic is in fact very hard as you have to nail it on the one frame, and this was my first platformer and I didn't really have time to figure out the jump buffer. I appreciate the advice. I will look into it. What I did do was place the cars in the first two levels so that if you jump at their rear bumper, your jump will be perfectly timed every time. In level 1 it's the fastest way to collect the candy. In level 2 it times the jump onto the trash cans perfectly. In level 3 and 4, you are then supposed to be primed to jump at the same time - which if you are at the bumper of the cars you will be flung up into the air to collect all the candy. This will also fix the camera issue you are having on level 1:4, because the candy to fix the camera is at the height of the second propelled jump. I have found that my psychological trick was not enough, and I need to spell it out. Or even better, fix it with a jump buffer like you said. Props for timing it though. That is HARD.
If you feel like trying the levels again, using the rear car bumpers to fling you into the air always gives me a lot of pleasure. Also, there's a mushroom on the ground for level 1:5 to help you time the jump so you can stay in the air. And warning, 2:1 ramps the level difficulty WAY up throughout the level.
I'm glad to hear you liked the music. Yes, it was created using AI, but I did put effort into creating something that I thought was a banger of a soundtrack and helped tell the story of the game through music. (On level 1:5 the soundtrack is Skele-Tom humming and singing his own theme song to himself while he steals candy.)
Really loved it. felt pretty polished, in my playthrough, The suno song is pretty funny... this will def- be high in the jam list for sure
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm glad you found the song funny. I had a lot of fun making it very like fun Halloween-y.
Neat! I had played through the whole thing and somehow managed to not crash out after jumping past the exit on the last stage. Some things I noticed:
Thanks for the feedback!
So you're saying you jumped past the last portal and didn't fall to your death and restart the level? That should be impossible because the player controller just triggers the death sequence when you fall below a certain y-value.
I did a lot of trying to create plane and box colliders to cover over all those hang up spots, especially on the building models. If you remember any particular places you got hung up that would be helpful to me. Ultimately, I considered redoing the colliders for the buildings by hand but didn't have time. I was just using a tri-mesh collider and letting the engine determine them. Faster for development, but well here we are discussing it. Also, the player already is a capsule shape unfortunately.
Unfortunately for the shadow, I did actually try to do that on the isometric levels. However he is actually casting a shadow, since it's a 3D environment. It's not a decal. When I put the light directly above him to facilitate that, the graveyard in particular was so dark you couldn't see much. But now that we're talking about it, I might be able to create a second directional light that *only* casts a shadow for him and nothing else. I'll look into it.
Speaking of shadows, I've been waiting for someone to notice his a distinct detail in his shadow on level 1:5. No one has yet. Ha.
Edit: Ah, I see what Tom is missing in 1:5 😉
I did fall to my death, it just stood out as annoying because it was the very last jump of the game 😂
The character is already a Capsule? Are you using CharacterBody3D and move_and_slide? Or your own custom movement?
For the blob shadow, in the Forward+/Mobile renderer you can use the Decal node with a radial gradient on it (screenshot below.) For the Compatibility renderer you need a custom shader like this one but the same basic idea applies. It's not that natural, but the idea is you use it in addition to the lighting shadow just for assisting the player. You can fade the decal out as the player gets close to the ground, or keep it as a sort of cheap ambient occlusion.
Hahaha he's actually carrying it in his other hand. LOL
Ok good, I'm glad. And yeah it was supposed to be frustrating, but probably should've been that hard on level 2:5 not 2:1. I just didn't get that far.
Yes I'm using a CharacterBody3D and move_and_slide().
Ok that is SUPER helpful. Thank you very much! I'm learning a lot from you! I will play around with the decal.
I will just spare you the details and say we have a winner :) Very well done, I enjoyed it a lots and lots!
As I am a total Godot fan as well, did you create the custom Godot splash screen yourself? I enjoyed the intro as much as the game itself! :D
Haha thank you so much! I admit I was aiming for winning. We will see. A lot of people seem to love it, and some people seem pretty critical of the issues I didn't iron out - which I get.
I did not create that myself. It was in fact a free asset that I have been using so long I forgot to credit it. It's part of a FREE Godot Logo Redesigns by StayAtHomeDev. I have a framework I created that does a lot of things in my game, including the splash screens. If you want to use it you're welcome to check out my free, open source Game Template. You can easily lift the splash screen functionality out, or even just grab the .ogv converted versions of the videos. If you check out my game jam submission Eternal Echoes, you can hear the audio of the animated Godot splash screen video, as well as my other splash screens. I muted all the video for this jam to feature the music and make it feel more like a movie intro.
thank you so much as well! :)
Hey — I liked your game Skele‑Tom's Candy Caper a lot. The perspective-shifts mid-level are bold and fresh — switching from 2D platforming into first-person was a cool surprise. A few notes I found:
The first-person segments felt much harder than the 2D ones — sometimes the jump timing and camera felt less forgiving, which could frustrate players.
The CRT/shader effect is stylish but occasionally distracts from reading the action — maybe tone it down or add an option to disable it.
The UI/mouse support seems a bit rough (as noted in comments) — adding a clear “keyboard/gamepad recommended” note or improving the mouse experience could help.
If you’ve got a moment, I’d really appreciate it if you checked out my game and dropped a rating: /jam/gamedevtv-halloween-jam-2025/rate/3971977
— thanks so much and good luck in the jam! 🎃
I'm glad you enjoyed my game and the "trick" mechanic. :)
Thanks for the detailed feedback, and I already reviewed your game and left comments yesterday. :)
Thanks for the detailed explanation! That all makes a lot of sense — I really appreciate the thought you put into the design. The first-person part was clever once I got it, and yeah, maybe a small in-game hint would help new players. I think the rolling lines were what caught my eye with the shader. Thanks again for the insight and for checking out my game too!
A very polished platformer with a very charming art-style and catchy music! I had a bit of trouble in the graveyard level due to the constant perspective shift when jumping mid-air, but other than that it's a really fun ride throughout!
Thank you!
Yes, the difficulty in the graveyard level ramped up significantly. The perspective shifts with the candy were the "trick" mechanic, as you need the candy to get a perfect score, but they cause some difficulty. You can actually finish the level with only one perspective shift. You can also land on the coffins and then jump straight up to collect the candy without moving in a direction to collect it. I introduced the coffin platforms without spikes, then the perspective shifts with guardrails that prevented you from falling off the side, then perspective shifts without the guardrails. I had originally meant to have 10 levels and the last five were going to ramp up the difficulty a little slower. The first five were to introduce the mechanic without being too punishing.
I'm glad you enjoyed it overall.
Incredibly good game! I love the idea of switching perspectives mid-level — it gives everything such a fun and unpredictable vibe. Thinking it was a regular 2D platformer and then getting surprised like that was priceless! Definitely one of my favorites from the jam.
Also, I really liked the music — I actually stayed on the menu just to listen to it hahaha.
Great job!
Thanks! I kept the perspective shift out of the documentation and the screenshots, which led to some people saying it was jarring, and I explained that it was in fact the "trick" of the game and meant to be increasingly jarring.
I'm glad you stayed on the main menu long enough to hear the whole song. It loops after a 30 second pause. You can actually find all the music in my Skele-Tom's Candy Caper Playlist. The main menu/splash screen music plus the three songs for the levels. Funnily enough, I had built in a music player in the main menu that would allow you to hear all four once you'd encountered them in the game, but it really requires mouse support, so the feature is disabled due to the issues with the menu inside the TV.
Thanks so much for all your kind words!
Skele-Tom, Skele-Tom, sneaky and sly, steals all your candy while you cry!
This game felt like a bag of Halloween candies to me, in that it was a mixed bag, but overall a joyous experience. I was positively amazed by the variety of mechanical tricks you've thrown at me, although not all of them landed for me. Camera switching mechanic is really cool, but more often than not it just made the game harder and more frustrating (platforming is notoriously not very fun with first-person perspective, to give the most glaring example), but still, the trick was very fresh and unusual! I feel like in terms of mechanics, this is a very good prototype with lots of cool ideas that could be iterated upon and improved into a really good and unique game. Visually game is really interesting, it has has kind of a generic look with all the assets, but the way they are arranged and rendered creates this unique, unusual style. Music and sounds are really cool, very Halloweeny, the song is just a banger, I really loved it, and it made my day :)
Thank you so much!
Originally it was just going to be a 2D side-scroller with 3D assets made to look 2D. Just artistically making a modern game look old. But then I realized a cool "trick" would be the perspective shifts. They are supposed to be annoying. I specifically made it so you could run straight forward in the first person level and skip it if you wanted. I had more candies implemented but it was too much to cram into 6 levels. I had planned on 10 levels total and ran out of time. I talk about it in my port mortem devlog.
If you want to re-listen to any of the music, I made Skele-Tom's Candy Caper Playlist.
Thanks for the kind comments!
Good basic set up. The music is something else! The CRT effect got a little distracting and the UI was giving me a lot of trouble. It's some good work for a game jam game to be sure!
Thanks for taking a look. I appreciate you taking the time. Yes, the UI doesn't work well with a mouse, which I mentioned on the game page; but perhaps should have put a disclaimer on the page. It should work with the keyboard or a gamepad just fine.
I'm interested in what you said about the CRT effect being distracting. I modified the shader parameters to be less distracting during gameplay, but I'm curious what exactly you found distracting? The rolling, the pixelation, something else?
- super into this one. I really like the changing of perspective. Its could be a little glitch at times but I really like what you are going for.
- I think there might need to be a little tuning on the levels design. Some are really ez and other like the dumpster one are like impossible to get a perfect score.
- Loved the music.
- I think when you hit the goal portal you could make a bigger deal about it. Something that makes you feel the same way you feel when you get a start at the end of mario 64.
Thanks a lot!
I'm curious to hear how the perspective changing was glitchy for you. It was supposed to be off-putting and disorienting as the "trick" mechanic in the game.
The second level (1:2) with the dumpsters, you can get a perfect score by jumping right before you reach the red car every time. The first level has you jumping right before the red car to get the fastest time. Doing so on 1:2 lands you perfectly on every dumpster. On level 1:5 (the first person one) there is a little mushroom on the ground in the forest and if you jump when you're on top of it, you can literally bounce from dumpster to dumpster to get a perfect score. Each level has a different completion time requirement and I made sure to make it about five seconds above what my best times for the levels were.
I'm glad to hear you like the music! And I agree about the portal music. I kept it short because I know people these days have shorter time spans and it's already 5.2 seconds long.
aw I see what you are saying with the disorienting thing.
🤔 I wonder what it would fee like if:
1. maybe the camera moves into the new perspective kinda like how you have zoom out on pause.
2. Or you replaced the candy a remote or something and the had tv change channels and put a little static in between the view.
Idk just throwing ideas around. Anyway, great job!
I appreciate the thoughts, I think mid-jump that camera rotating even slower might make it unplayable, but I'll keep it in mind. There were actually a number of candies I didn't get to introduce, including two third person controller views, and a bunch of screen effects, like separating out the RGB into red/green/blue sections so that it's harder to see where your character should be landing.
A pleasant platformer with a cool perspective-shifting idea — well made and fun to play. I really enjoyed it! I like how the assets were used, great work!
Thanks so much!
Wow.. I'm amazed at how much you achieved as a solo dev! Great polished look and feel. Bugs, sure, but they were understandable for a jam and easily fixable. I think all the different game styles were great to mix things up, but they maybe could do with having more reason behind them. My biggest gripes were the platforms seemed overly tricky for some reason, and I couldn't get why I'd only super spring jump at certain times, maybe a hitbox issue?
I think you were very bold to do a hardware upgrade in the middle of a jam, but this whole game exudes boldness, so I'll guess it's your modus operandi! Post-mortem is a great idea, I'll try to do my own. I always do a retro of them anyway, otherwise you can't improve. Hope you score well!
Thank you so much for the kind words!
Yeah I tried to use a psychological trick for the car springboards. In level 1:1 and 1:2, if you jump from behind them, they propel you in a perfect arc to collect candy or land on the dumpster. Then in 1:3 and 1:4 if you are standing right behind them, they fling you upwards. Also, if you press jump when you land on them at the exact right time they propel you upwards But basically you only had a few frames to get it right. This was my first platformer, and I didn't have time to figure out how to make the springboards better.
Honestly the reason for all the camera changes was the "trick" part of the game. The candy helped you get a perfect score, but played a trick on your vision. When I started, I was just planning on making it a side-scroller, basically using 3D objects to look 2D. Then I realized with some camera flips I could make it look cool. I had even more "trick" candy I never got around to using.
Haha yeah I'm still paying for that hardware upgrade. I'm just glad that I got my game out.
Yeah the post-mortems are just for me, but I've found that they get 100 to 200 views every time I write them. So hopefully others are getting something out of them.
Very polished and fun gameplay! The perspective shifts were super cool — they actually reminded me of Super Mario Odyssey with the 2D-to-3D transitions. I can already tell you’ve got strong programming skills behind this.
The only feedback I’d give is that it was a bit hard to tell which objects were interactable — for example, realizing that cars could be used for jumping took me a moment. Maybe it’s because players don’t usually expect cars to be “bouncy” objects like mushrooms or trampolines.
Also, since jumping is such a big part of the game, I think making the jump feel a little less “floaty” and more snappy or physics-based could make it feel even more satisfying.
Overall, really well-made and impressively polished — great job!
Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! The game itself was modeled after the original Super Mario Brothers a bit. I've never played Super Mario Odyssey so it's super cool that there's a connection there.
The confusion over interactable objects is the most common feedback I've gotten. My play-tester told me about it too, but I didn't have time to fix it before he jam. I have plans to fix it after the jam.
This was my first platformer, and I spent a while researching jump mechanics. I actually have different gravity modifiers for the jump and fall parts of the jump. Someone early on in the comments linked me a great video that I learned some more from. When I first balanced the jumping, it was on level 2:1, the graveyard, and I had no plans for those super huge jumps. The problem I was having increasing the fall gravity, is that then you got very little horizontal movement. But I agree with you, playing it now it feels a bit too floaty. Although without the floaty feel I imagine the 1st-person level (1:5) would feel insanely hard. I will play with it though and maybe give a horizontal boost in the air.
Very solid game! 2d in 3d can be surprisingly fun, the only thing that I would change is the fence/stakes. They look a bit too similar to the rest of the world, makes you think it would be fine to step on them. Mby making them red would help them stand out a little bit.
Well done! It looks very polished =O
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.
Funnily enough, I did make the fence stakes silver and the base red in the last level once I took away the walls to indicate more danger. It makes sense to really call out dangerous things better though. I also had plans for a police car that can run you over, but I didn't get around to it.
I played almost 20 games for now and this one is probably most fun in the whole jam! Max rate in every category but only 3 in the Story. The music is super cool and captivating. It was holding me in levels that I didn't want to end just to listen to this piece :D
Could you share this song?
Thank you very much! I'm so glad you liked it! I appreciate the good reviews.
If you would allow me to make my case for the story, I tried to put it in the music. So take a listen to it and see if you feel like altering your score. :) All the songs are here: Skele-Tom's Candy Caper Playlist The lyrics are there for you to read. There is the intro song, and the 3 songs I did for the levels. The last is on level 5:1 and is intended to be Skele-Tom humming his own theme song to himself, but he only sings the chorus, which I wrote to sound kind of like a nursery rhyme. So I tried to tell the story through song, but your vote is your vote.
Funnily enough, I have a feature I disabled which actually creates a music player in the game so you can listen to all the game music in the game. There were a few issues with it not working well inside the TV I didn't have time to fix.
Yeah I didn't reach level 5 but will try if I find time. My rating will be overwritten to story 4 just because I trust your words :)
Nevermind I was past level 5, just was too absorbed in gameplay to notice xD
Very polished submission here! It's pretty fun, the visuals and audio are great. Nicely done!!
Thank you very much! I really appreciate the kind words!
It's a very creative and fun game, and I liked the music!
I found it a bit hard to land jumps on the last level because of the camera angle.
Also, in the 2D levels, it was a bit unclear which objects I could jump on and which I couldn't.
Other than these, I think you have a great foundation with the camera changing mechanic. You can easily create many more levels and extend the game. Great work!😊
Thanks!
Yes it was supposed to be harder to jump with the camera angle switches, and the last level really ramped up the difficulty at the red and silver spikes, as the guardrails go away and you can fall off the edge. But I admit if I had more time I would've ramped the difficulty up slower by doing that through multiple levels.
The problem with some objects being springboards and others not is the biggest complaint. I knew about it before. I didn't have time to fix it, which I talk about in my post mortem devlog.
I do plan to add more levels after the jam.
Oh, it's very cool to have a devlog. I'll read it for sure. :)
Again, good job on the game!
That was fun, the music was great and suited the game well despite being AI generated. I experienced the known issues you mention about mouse difficulties in the menu, but was able to work around it.
Look like you had a lot of fun with trying out different perspectives and camera angles, which was generally pretty cool but...In the later few levels it became difficult land certain jumps, partially because the camera was in a sudo-isometric angle where movement was now all done diagonally is not something i find especially easy with a keyboard, but certainly less of an issue with a controller), and partially because the camera often changed mid jump meaning you had to alter your orientation, and how you were controlling your movement in the air, because the context had changed from when you started the jump.
Beyond that I felt a little inconsistent, that in some levels you bounce on top of dumpsters, other levels its the cars, the height of the bouncy changed based on whatever was needed for the particular jump to reach some candy etc, and then some buildings you can stand on top of, and others you cant.
This all made it a bit harder to really fall in love with, but overall a decent game, with some interesting ideas for sure. Good stuff!
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the music despite its origin. I talk about my own mixed feelings about AI music in my post mortems for previous game jam entries Eternal Echoes and Prisoner 42. I also plan on writing another devlog specifically on it after the game jam.
Yes the difficulty was supposed to ramp up through the levels. I was trying to cram in too many candy types in too few levels. The changes at jump apex were intentional. It was part of the "trick" mechanic. I actually made the buildings higher in level 1:4 so that you wouldn't fly over the edge of the map and would instead land on the building. In the last level (2:1), I made it the first coffin float over grass so you could learn that without dying, then the first camera change happened with guard rails, and the last without. I also made sure it was possible to land on the front of the coffin and jump up and grab the candy without lateral direction to create an easier way.
I considered changing the controls to rotate with the camera, but I felt maybe this would have made it harder, not easier... Plus it was work I didn't have time for.
I get the inconsistency. I wanted to change colors of buildings, cars, etc to make the differences clearer, but the KayKit models were preconstructed, and used a single skin. So I would have had to go into Blender to change them to alter colors and I didn't have time for that. It's the biggest complaint I've gotten before and during the voting, so I'll remember it next time. Someone suggested darkening the background models, which I like. Technically, you can stand on top of any of the buildings you can reach, as by the end I think all of them had collision shapes.
Thanks for the detailed feedback, I appreciate it.