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| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Relevance to the theme | #12 | 4.130 | 4.130 |
| Execution | #23 | 3.391 | 3.391 |
| Overall | #29 | 3.461 | 3.461 |
| Sensory | #35 | 3.391 | 3.391 |
| Enjoyment | #43 | 3.087 | 3.087 |
| Metroidvania | #49 | 3.304 | 3.304 |
Ranked from 23 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme interpretation and application
The game's visuals are almost entirely monochrome and use simple flat polygons. The world is also mechanically "minimalist" in a literal sense in that a minimal amount of objects are able to move. Audio-wise, the game only features music at a few select points, and said music is relatively ambient and minimal.
Team/Developer
nevermind3476, squeakyfoxx
Reference info
nevermind3476, glacieawn on discord
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Comments
Very cool game, and definitely one of the most unique sets of powerups I've seen in the gamejam! The monochrome style definitely has potential, and I'd love to see it more polished like in the initial area. I think some of the puzzles could use some reworking, since I often ended up resetting the room to fix what seemed to be an unsolvable state. The part with multiple rotating platforms involved a lot of waiting for things to be in the right position, which made it all the more painful if you missed a jump all the way near the top. On the other hand, the section with the bull miniboss breaking the wall was a really cool moment!
Cool game! Any game that doesn’t use standard upgrades like dash, doublejump, walljump at all always gets bonus points from me, and this is a very creative ability set. I also enjoyed the structure of mostly guided progression towards the end, followed by two “final boss” backtracky puzzles, that’s very fitting for a MVM jam game I’d say.
Aside from some minor graphical issues (character gets a bit blurry, some tiles don’t seem to align properly - not sure if this a web build issue) my only real gripe is that I sometimes found it hard to predict how objects would behave. Like is a moving platform going to bounce, or stop in place once it bumps into something? I’ve seen them do both but wasn’t really able to figure out when they would do what. The scales also felt like they sometimes didn’t do what I expected them to do. This made some puzzles a bit trial-and-error, but since the checkpoints were generous that wasn’t a big issue.
Impressively done though, especially for 5 days! The final thing you have to do to beat the game felt very satisfying.
Thank you!
Yeah I haven't seen any of those kinds of graphical issues so maybe it was some kind of weird browser issue. As far as the platforms go there's definitely some inconsistency. I think over the course of development I decided on having the ones that slide into gaps stopping at the end of their path, but I left a few earlier ones with the bouncing behavior, so they end up inconsistent.. And then, as far as the rotating platforms, they're just straight up buggy and have some things that need to be fixed. I think most janky behavior I've seen should be a simple fix (it's a change I already applied to other objects but forgot to apply to the rotating platforms as well), so that should hopefully be mostly gone in a postjam update.
Lighthop?? :0
Jokes aside, I love the concept that everything is paused and you're the one who can unpause, you usually see the opposite. Also, a puzzle game in 5 days is a feat, especially considering the complexity of certain puzzles. I get the minimalism, but I do feel like the game lacks a bit of personality mostly on the visual side (and even audio, the music was great, but only when there was some playing). All around tho, I would describe it a good experience and congratulate you on submitting!
Thank you!
Yeah, most of the game is very barebones visually. The very first room gives a bit of a sense of the visual style I originally envisioned, but I didn't have time to decorate any other rooms - just making the game actually playable got me down to the wire. I already have a few changes lined up for a post-jam patch so ideally I'd try to do a visuals pass and add some proper decorations alongside that, but its been hard to muster the effort for it.
Enjoyment and Execution 4/5 each - Some jank here and there hampers enjoyment, but pretty well-executed overall. No major glitches. Some inadvertent frustration platforming but not a ton. Hard to convey everything you want to in this sort of aesthetic and I think this is case (not the only by any means) where being minimalist fed into the conveyance problem.
Sensory 3.5/5 - rounded up to 4. Music and sound design pushes this up from a 3, but the actual use of silence didn't land super much for me.
Metroidvania 4/5 - Upgrades? Check. Exploration aspect feels a little lacking?
Minimalism 5/5 - Good use of the everything which wasn't a lot, which means good minimalism.
Thank you!
I think I responded to most of the jank and conveyance issues during your stream so I won't repeat that here. As for the metroidvania point, I def agree that it's a bit lacking in exploration - I def feel like I largely designed this as a more linear game where you happen to gain abilities as you progress, so I don't think it's too surprising it came out lacking that sense of exploration, though I did also have to cut a couple branching paths for time which might've helped bump it up a little more if they made it in.
Video from stream btw:
I really liked the idea of the only mechanic being able to move certain objects in the world, and as you progress, expanding the ways you can do it. Also liked the little visual effects you made and the music. Pretty impressive for something that you only worked on for a couple of days.
I think my only complain would be that, because of how everything worked, puzzles/areas would sometimes take a bit too long to complete, even after knowing what to do, which was a little bit annoying (but still, a very minor complaint)
Thank you!
Yeah there's a few points that do just end up forcing you to wait around a bit. I think a little bit of that helps reinforce the minimalist tone, but some of them could probably be sped up a bit.
I like the take on the theme. I feel like many people confused minimalist with minimalistic and you game is technically fitting to both themes, but the player being a minimalist is really adding something to the game in that case.
Also for 5 days of development there is plenty of content and also the art style is sufficiently good.
I must admit though that I felt lost very often, since therer were some indicators missing on were to go/how to proceed.
Overall: solid game jam entry!
I'm glad you liked the direction I went with the theme, but... I don't think the distinction you're seeing between minimalist and minimalistic actually exists? Minimalist as an adjective is a perfectly valid word, and I think what you're thinking of as "minimalistic" a lot of people (including the jam host, most likely!) would just describe as "minimalist". The word doesn't necessarily imply a person that is a minimalist.
Well. In English, it seems like, "minimalist" can also be used as an adjective, altough it can also be used as a known. Meanwhile minimalistic is purely and adjective. For me this is particularly confusing, since in German "Minimalist" is only a person which is minimalistic, while "minimalistisch" means "minimalistic". But in the end my message still holds, since your game is "both".
Except for the core mechanics not being particularly visually appealing, the puzzles are clearly ingenious and cleverly integrated. The game is simply good.
Although at first the game leads you to believe there are alternate routes when there aren't any, I got stuck on the first puzzle and tried to find another way.
Good game.
Thank you!
Yeah the visuals for the abilities are very much unfinished. My original idea for the aura visuals was a sort of plasma ball effect, but I very much did not have time to spend on any complex visual effects so I ended up with this very very basic version of the concept. Maybe it would've been best to just leave it as a simple circle compared to its current state though... And then of course the click has no visuals at all, I'll probably add a little indication of where you've clicked in a postjam update to make it a little nicer to use
I am curious what you mean by thinking there were alternate routes, I'd hoped all the ability gates were clear enough to indicate you couldn't go through them until later and funnel you into that first puzzle, were there any that had particular issues?
Really simple and solid idea for a puzzle game! Well executed. Liked the Time Cast ability, felt powerful and fun. The sound effects went a long way too, very nice. The seesaw platforms being able to squish the player was kinda funny, but maybe they should just reverse direction or stop instead lol. But anyway, great work!
Thank you!
I did actually originally have those platforms just stop when they hit the player, but the way I initially implemented it lead to lots of issues with them stopping when they weren't supposed to in the big climb room with them, so I ended up just throwing out the mechanic and replacing it with killing the player when they get squished. Maybe I'll go back to that mechanic and see if I can get it to work a little more properly at some point.
Hey good visual really into the theme, I liked a lot and the movement puzzles are really interesting. and the sound fx’s and the music are delightful
Very good job.
Thank you!
Visual style is both very minimal and pretty cool. Time mechanic is also pretty cool and fun to use. I like how the creature in that one room looks, and it following you when activated is mildly thrilling. I also like how to ascend in the final room and beat the game you have to backtrack and activate a couple clocks. It was almost like a mini version of the artifact hunt from Metroid Prime. There's a tiny amount of jank with the platforms sometimes, but regardless, the game is pretty cool 👍.
Edit: Oh yeah also, about the audio; The sound effect for activating platforms is very pleasant and musical. I actually got myself killed on accident at one point because I was trying to spam the sound. The music that was there was pretty nice. It gave off a very determined vibe, which fit the scenario well. I did wish there was some very ambient track or hum or something for those glowing ability orbs though, those felt oddly silent.
Thank you!
Yeah, there's def a few places the game could use a few more sound effects, and the ability pickups are def a big one - even the one sound they do have is a placeholder, that jingle was originally meant to just be for the clock shrines but I ran out of time to make another one for abilities. The creature chase was very nearly another awkwardly silent moment, I didn't add the sound effects for that until the last hour before the deadline.
had a bit of trouble to understand what the two icons in the last room meant, but beat it!
i was trying to solve the balance(?) puzzle with the shift button(yeah im stupid), and sometimes the platform got a bit stuck and took me some time, but when i had to go back down to get the other clock, i realized i forgot the mouse click power up.... and it went smooth to get through(the balance puzzle)
the only feedback is that it felt a bit too linear(in a metroidvania sense), but the puzzles are great, the music fits really well, and the movement/jump felt p good too. Good job!!!
Thank you!
Although, I'm unsure what puzzle you were forgetting the mouse click for... you don't get the mouse click until nearly the end of the game, after all the puzzles with the balancing platforms. Using it to make the climb up those easier the second time around is def intended, but I don't think you were forgetting anything the first time around, you didn't have the ability at that point :p
Looks really cool, visuals are great. and I think the puzzles are really clever, some timings seem a bit tight which makes things annoying at times, but otherwise its great. Audio wise, I'm hearing a pop after every footstep which is a little jarring, but otherwise great job!
Thank you!
For the audio issue, I have to turn my volume way up to hear anything after the footsteps, and frankly it just seems like a normal part of the footstep sound - it sounds like it's some little bit of squeaking in the person's shoe or something. I'm a bit confused as to how that could be so jarring, so maybe the actual issue is something else that I'm not hearing?
This game is cool! even though i didnt manage to finish it but from the game is and game mechanic it is great! The puzzle is very cool and definitely make my mind blow. anyway nice game!
This a very stylish looking game and it executes the minimalist theme perfectly. I also really like the core mechanical conceit. Occasionally I found it frustrating to play as I would work out the solution to a puzzle but then have trouble actually solving it because it seemed to require extremely precise execution and timing - sometimes I wondered whether it was even the intended solution. I feel like if there was a little more leeway I would have found it more enjoyable, especially as it is very puzzle focussed. Of course it could just be a skill issue on my part! There was also at least one time that a block failed to fit into its hole which was annoying - I guess some sort of physics issue. Overall a cool game.
Thank you!
I def agree that some of the timing esp later on was probably a bit too tight, I kind of lost the slower puzzle-y vibe a bit over the course of the game as I was rushing to just get some kind of level out to fill out the game - with more time for refinement there would've probably been more slower paced puzzle rooms, and a bit more leeway for the rooms that do require tight execution.
The bug with the block not fitting into its hole is a bit concerning, all the linear blocks are supposed to move on fixed paths and not be pushed by anything else so there shouldn't be any way for them to get misaligned like that. Do you remember which room and platform it was that happened with?
It was fairly early on in the room where you need to travel on the horizontal block from right to left. It was the vertical block near the spikes that you had to move up into the hole to pass by.
Hmm... Yeah, I've tried messing around for a bit to see if I could figure out what might cause that, but I'm not getting anything. I've ended up shrinking the platform hitbox slightly though, so if things somehow do manage to get misaligned they should be a little less likely to get stuck because of it.