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A jam submission

Sis' Day OffView game page

Jam entry for the sake of it
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Sis' Day Off's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Relevance to the theme#543.1223.250
Sensory#772.4822.583
Enjoyment#802.4822.583
Overall#822.5462.650
Execution#832.3222.417
Metroidvania#912.3222.417

Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Theme interpretation and application
Minimalist was interpreted in a few ways: In terms of visual design, with environment and actors being mostly basic shapes, using 8 colors total. Control scheme, only utilizing one set of directional inputs. Resources/fail state, in success and failure only ever interfacing your motion and your position on the map. In terms of completion demands, the game should be completable without any power-ups. In terms of text utilization, the intent is to not require instruction or explicit narrative, though this currently manifests as unfinished due to lacking design to compensate.

Team/Developer
Chakri Lazuli

Reference info
Discord: chakrilazuli

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Comments

Submitted

First of all: I like the key-mechanic of the game very much and appreciate that you took the real theme and not like many others said "the game is minimalistic", no in this game the player is a minimalist, which is awesome. Also the animation of the player is very good and underscores the movement mechanics. The only major issue is, that I got stuck in an area where I did not know how to proceed. Also it is fairly difficult to do precise jumps. Other than that you every now and then get stuck on edges, which is a bit immersion breaking since the player is a ball: I would not expect box-colliders with respect to that. Some sounds would have been nice as well, even just simple ones when the player moves and or jump. 

I want to mention that my critique is much more on a high level and I am well aware that this is a game jam. I think that the core concept is cool and that the visuals are solid. 

Cool project: keep making games!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing! I'm glad you think the theme was well-interpreted, that always feels like such a shot in the dark.

I understand the issues with getting stuck on edges, I think it's a state machine bug, but got to fixing those things way too late. It being a bit hard to do precise jumps is mostly intentional, as character control can be a core challenge in a platforming focused game, though it's not as common in metroidvanias. I suspect you got stuck in the areas with the mushroom pickup, that gives you a bounce such that you can jump back to the height of your fall if you jump when landing. It isn't communicated very well, should probably be something you do by default, unless you press down to opt-out, that's what a later ability would've added anyway. Lots of lessons learned, thanks for the feedback!

Submitted

i can't even explain why, but i found it oddly relaxing? usually when i pick up the game and feel it's more "physic -ky"(?) i always expect trouble, but it actually felt really nice. the upgrades being a bit katamari is pretty cute too! The arstyle is great, and only bit of feedback is to maybe make the cactus? upgrade a biiiit more visible, i didn't notice i got a new power until my bf gave me a heads up (he liked it a lot too btw)

otherwise i think it's a pretty solid game,  just wish it was a liiiittle bit longer,  but i'll probably try what the other commenter said and try to complete it without upgrades for now lmao  

i wish there were more games like this, ive been pretty tired but i can just melt in the chair and just play it with one hand while i dissasociate

Developer

Great to hear you both enjoyed playing, thank you so much! I have to agree that this jam theme has been particularly nice nudging towards controls that allow for one-handed or otherwise relaxed play. While it's unfortunate I ran out of time to make more content, it's nice to hear there's audience for some more.

I didn't expect the art style to become a part of the appeal, but it turns out picking a tight, small color palette can help a lot. It does however indeed hide the grass-colored powerups. I'm not sure if it's also the tiles being a bit busy, but using your feedback should get it to a better spot.

To lift a bit of the curtain, all the "physics" are being handled very explicitly, like traditional platformer controls. There's just the layer of spinning and simple traction going on, to where you can have spin independent of your momentum. You influence the spin, the spin influences movement, but every player state has its own tuning for how fast you spin and how much it transfers to movement.

Submitted

I had a weird enjoyment out of mastering the heavy momentum of the Sisyphus bolder. It did feel sticky in some spots like corners where I had to move a little away from the wall in order to be able to jump. I also couldn’t fully understand the wall climb momentum, it seemed like sometimes I’d ascend further than other times. I liked the added challenge of trying to beat the game without any upgrades; it took a few tries but once I mastered the movement system, it became a speedrun challenge for me lol I actually found it way harder to beat the game with the upgrades and couldn't beat it when trying to get the mushroom upgrade, maybe I don’t know how to fully use it or didn’t see a path to take

Developer(+1)

Thank you! I'm glad you parsed the boulder as such, haha. There is admittedly some stickiness in the current character controller when it comes to walls, not intended but it crept into my late fixes. 

I can see why the momentum for climbing doesn't read too well. It's supposed to come from the amount of spin you build up before hitting the wall, but the animation of the spin and general effect of the wall climb powerup could use some iterations. A similar thing goes for the mushrooms, they let you bounce to retain the height fallen from, but nothing indicates that, and the bounce is too opt-in to run into naturally. Very useful feedback to iterate on! 

It's nice to hear the low% speed run approach landed for you! Even though it was at the expense of the base movement working out better than the upgrades. There was supposed to be a little bit of trade-off to the upgrades, but they should generally be stronger than without. I'm guessing the instant-stopping that the wall climb powerup gives you feels unwieldy?

Submitted

I liked the animations and the idea behind the mechanics. Something that I would improve if I were developing is make the blob/rock/log (Whatever it is) a little bit faster. As far as the wall jumping "special ability" thing, I could get up some walls but not others. I don't know if it's just me being bad or something else, but that's all. Great game so far! Rolling up walls is smart, and for my circle shape in my game I was actually considering something similar when prototyping my game.

Developer

Thank you! I agree it'd feel better to make movement a bit faster, once the controls are tight and clear enough to accommodate it. Right now the wall climbing indeed is a tad finnicky, as it demands mastering of the spinning and traction physics, which aren't quite tuned satisfactorily.

I'm eager to play around POLYGON soon and see your takes! 

Submitted

Thanks!

Submitted

I like the animations of the blob, and the concept of building up momentum and rotation to climb up walls was a lot of fun to master. Controls could be better as sometimes it would get stuck on corners of the environment. I would love to see this concept fleshed out further.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for the feedback! There is indeed more polish needed to get the controls working cleanly. I'm glad you could catch onto the rotation/momentum management and its potential. I hope to explore it further in the future, and bring some of the stuff from the drawing board out better.