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Shrew!'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Sensory | #73 | 2.550 | 3.250 |
| Execution | #77 | 2.451 | 3.125 |
| Enjoyment | #83 | 2.451 | 3.125 |
| Overall | #91 | 2.334 | 2.975 |
| Metroidvania | #97 | 2.157 | 2.750 |
| Relevance to the theme | #106 | 2.059 | 2.625 |
Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme interpretation and application
Minimalist art style and our protagonist only uses items that are necessary for them, trading power ups as they go (this isn't communicated in the game well)
Team/Developer
Quivscor, Mr Wolf, Scuttlegoat
Reference info
@quivscor on MVM discord
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Comments
Wandered around for a while but I couldn't find any abilities, or much of any way to progress at all. The core movement mostly felt fine, but the wall run hardly felt like a wall run and mostly just launched me off into the distance whenever I tried to use it. There was one bit in the forest that looked like it was built around a normal wall run that would actually cling to the wall properly which I was not able to complete, and the thing at the end of the sequence looked fairly important, so maybe that was the key to progression I was missing? I wasn't able to find anywhere to properly enter the brown or blue areas, but I might've just not searched around enough. The map kind of felt way too large to search effectively and had a lot of empty dead space, especially at ground level - I feel like a smaller, more densely populated map would've been a better way to go, as it feels like there probably wasn't enough time to fully populate or refine the current map.
Visually I had similar issues to Dreamnoid, the protagonist model was pleasant enough but the fog banding was often really disorienting. Audially most of the sound effects were fine enough but the glide sound effect seemed a bit oddly delayed - the big poof felt like it was playing about half a second after the parachute had already been pulled out, I think the sound needs to be moved up a bit. The music was kind of a mixed bag, it all sounded pleasant enough at first and I think the initial track stayed that way mostly, but the forest theme got really really grating after a while.
I have returned from post jam slumber to leave a message for any people in the future that might struggle with things not explained in the game, so will leave a small list of niche/bugged things:
- Air Currents can randomly break and will not give enough thrust to work, I wasn't able to fix that, but I made sure that the game is completable regardless of that (;__;)
- In Factory, the little interactable things require you to jump on the wrench to finish activating it, I was going to put an arrow over it, but ultimately forgot to
- Powerup exchanges are: Gliding lost in favor of using Air Currents (which are broken); Fixing Interactables lost in favor of riding Power Lines; Wall Running lost in favor of Sliding on Ice
If anything more comes up during the rating period, I'll update this comment. :)
Thanks for playing everyone!
I loved the intro cutscene at the beginning, it was a great way to set the mood.
I love the mouse and its animations, it's very squishy and cute. On the other hand, I'm not a fan of the shading on the terrain. The fog banding was disorienting at times and there were quite a few occurrences where I couldn't tell the ground from the cliff, or what the incline was. I missed a few stairs that felt completely invisible until I was right against them. The lighting change between the regions was super abrupt and could have benefited from some interpolation, but it also seems like you see the distant regions with the same theme as the one you're in? I also thought the world was way too big, though I appreciate how the ziplines let you essentially fast travel.
I had a bug(?) when I interacted with a ghost and it sent me back to the last zip line I used? Or is it a feature I didn't understand? I was puzzled by quite a few things. Like, you start in front of a locked gate with three symbols, so I set out to gather all 3 and the door opened. Except it opened on nothing, just a bit of terrain I had already visited (almost got stuck there) and the platforms I had fell from and couldn't reach again. So I'm not sure what was the point? But then again, I didn't really understand the wall run. It felt more like an uncontrollable wall jump to me and I fear I've been sequence-breaking quite a bit by using it...
I also never lost any of my powerups. I have no idea if I was supposed to or if it comes later into the game? But I like the "reverse-metroidvania" idea and from what I saw, I can imagine how you could compensate for some missing abilities, so that's pretty cool.
In the end I was too lost and I had to do my taxes, but there's a cool concept here that could shine with more polish. Good job you all! ;)
I really liked the movement of this game, it felt largely fluid and fun to chain things together to go fast. The scale and open feeling of the world is impressive, and the music fits in with each area quite well.
The major downside here is that I couldn’t actually find my way to the end of the game. I got the mcguffin in the ice area and turned on the wind gusts in the forest, but after that I was at a loss. With the forest area taking away my glider, the wind didn’t seem to be strong enough to get me further in the forest area (despite the seemingly obvious diagonal wind), and anywhere else I went felt either inaccessible or completed (or I’m just blind??). I couldn’t even backtrack through the part of the forest I was already in because the wind couldn’t get me anywhere.
I probably would have completed this game if there was a bit more guidance. Either way, really liked what I did play, enjoyed the whimsy, but in the end I had to do my taxes.
Hey friend, one of the game's devs here! Thanks so much for your kind words!!
I didn't work on the movement but agree, it was easily one of the things I loved the most when testing. It looks like the wind gusts love to misbehave sometimes, something we'd definitely have to fix in a future build!
For anyone else feeling lost, there's a gate that opens right at the end of the glacier that leads to the third area (a factory). If you complete that one, there's a failsafe mechanic that gets unlocked that will let you get to the top of the canyon with the wind gusts as well, just in case your build has weak gusts too.
Great points and feedback on having a bit more guidance in the world though, I see where you're coming from.
Either way, thanks for giving it a try and hope others enjoy it too!