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Gvalt's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Sensory | #19 | 3.769 | 3.769 |
| Execution | #19 | 3.538 | 3.538 |
| Metroidvania | #22 | 3.769 | 3.769 |
| Enjoyment | #22 | 3.462 | 3.462 |
| Overall | #26 | 3.492 | 3.492 |
| Relevance to the theme | #64 | 2.923 | 2.923 |
Ranked from 13 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme interpretation and application
Played around with minimalist style of architecrure.
Team/Developer
Kirixon - sprites, tiles and animations. https://gingerg.itch.io/ - music. Kostomach - everything else.
Reference info
devinthedevdevvin@gmail.com
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Comments
Almost time for voting to end, I wish I had more time.
I managed to get to the part with the coyote boots, neat ability btw! And tried to return to base but got blown up I think by one of the explosive drones.
Graphics, sound effects & environments are cool.
The combat I feel could use a bit of polishing, the standard enemy runs toward you, and you just need to keep spamming the attack button, these enemies are too tanky. However the soldier with the vest with X, those are hard BUT I feel its the most fun as far as I played, it required quick movement and positioning because it was no pushover.
The drones are cool, the explosive ones give you a sense of urgency, shoot them down or you´ll be blown away (just like me haha).
Man, I really wish I had started playing this game sooner so I could have given it the time it deserved. I only managed to get as far as the long jump ability, but I'll definitely be checking it out again after the jam!
The pixel art is immaculate, this game might have the single best designed and animated protagonist I've seen in the jam, and the enemies and backgrounds are great too - I love the brutalist, almost Source Engine-esque aesthetic. I liked the music too, and the sound effects were just perfect and created an amazing sense of feedback that made every action fun.
The controls and combat were snappy and felt great for the most part, though I have to agree that the window on the dodge roll was pretty unforgiving. I never found much use for the melee attack while playing since the game was so generous with ammo capacity. The humanoid enemies that I encountered were fun to fight against, but I wasn't a big fan of the flying robots. They felt blander than the humanoids appearance-wise, the small exploding drones were hard to see against the background and tended to swarm you right after entering a room (and on one occasion even knocking you out of the door entering animation while trying to escape), and the bigger, shooting robots just felt like a more annoying version of the humanoid sniper.
Like I said, I will definitely try to beat the rest of the game after the jam, but I dare say what I've seen is more than enough to give it high ratings in most regards! I'm only a bit torn on the minimalism, since minimal pixel art is kind of the norm for most gamejam games, and I'd say this one goes well above and beyond what you'd normally see in a gamejam. Regardless, the atmosphere is top-notch and I had a lot of fun exploring around and fighting!
Glad you liked it.
After replaying the game, yeah, I feel like I went a little overboard with drones in some rooms. I get what you mean about the visuals, looking back, it’s a bit much for a jam project. I should’ve gone with something simpler and focused more on the game design instead.
Thank you for the review.
The core movement works really well, but a few of the abilities could be inconsistent to activate - the period where you're considered "rolling" after a dodge really needs to be a bit longer as the timing for both of the abilities that chain out of that felt awkwardly tight, and the wall run seemed to just... randomly refuse to work at times. It felt really good when it was working, but some walls just refused to work with it for reasons that I could not for the life of me figure out.
Ranged combat generally felt pretty good, especially after getting the time slow ability, but the dodge roll honestly felt kind of useless as one - the fact that it couldn't dodge melee attacks (and even seemed to instantly trigger them when I tried!) meant that getting into melee range or getting backed into a corner basically felt like suicide, so I ended up resorting to pure run and gun tactics and jumping over shots, which was fun enough most of the time but left the melee attack and stun system feeling totally worthless.
Exploration wise there were many many times where I could not for the life of me figure out where I needed to go to progress and ended up wandering around in circles. The signs pointing you towards new abilities help with this at first but after gaining a few of them the ones for the abilities you already have start to just confuse things. The samey architecture all throughout the game often makes it hard to tell exactly where you are or where you haven't already been. A map screen also would've been really helpful for figuring out where I hadn't already been, but I think critical paths also just need to be a little more prominent, as often it felt like most of the prominent blocked paths I actually remembered only led to small optional upgrades. I was not able to complete the game due to these issues - I got quite a few abilities but could not find anywhere to use the wall run to progress.
Aesthetically the game looks great - the environment really sells the gritty and drab atmosphere and the player is very well designed and animated. I also really liked the sound design in this - I have no idea what the person who said the jump sounds like jet booster was talking about, it reads like a metallic spring type of effect to me and suits the general vibe of the player really well, although I think it could stand to be a bit deeper to fit better with the player's other sounds. In general though I think the heavy metallic sound effects on the player really added some personality and helped add a lot to the player's design - it gives the sense of them being heavily armored or perhaps some sort of robot, which isn't easy to sell from the visuals alone.
I did have one very odd issue which is that the game window seemed to force itself onto the top layer by default? It meant I had to minimize the game every time I wanted to tab out or it would keep displaying on top of the other window. I don't think I've had a game do that before, I'm not sure what would be causing it.
Overall this game was a lot of fun when it was at its best, and I think I put more time into it than any other game this jam - it's just a shame how much of that time was spent running in circles through the same few rooms unable to progress.
Thank you for playing the game.
I'll tinker with the roll duration. The wallrun inconsistency may be because of its activation period - it activates only during the jump ascent, not while falling. I thought it added an element of planning, plus synergy with the air jump, but I probably underexplained it in the game. Or perhaps something is wrong with it and it's not working as intended. I'll look into it.
The dodgeroll pushback was a late addition and needs work, you’re right, maybe outright cut. My general line of thought was to use the dodgeroll for offense, pushing back enemies or retreating and the slide to dodge through enemies. But as always, my intentions matter little if it’s not properly explained or convenient to use.
Problems with the general map layout and design have often been mentioned, so that will be a priority for me. I could have mitigated it a little better, at least with signs, like crossing out signs that lead to main upgrades you’ve already obtained.
Thanks for your detailed feedback.
Sensory 5/5: THIS GAME WAS A VIBE. Certainly doesn't hurt that it feels a little like Stratum in this jam and Gunpoint of indie yore got married and had a straight up cyberpunk baby.
Metroidvania 5/5: Mobility abilities to start AND then MORE to unlock.
Minimalist Theming 4.5/5 rounding up to 5. Not sure I know enough about minimalist architecture to judge, but I did feel a fair bit of sparseness. Things got 'busier' with the pipey areas. Giving benefit of the doubt though; it's notable that in overall vibes the game that felt most fitting as a comparison was Stratum, which is almost all shapes and colors in style.
Execution 4/5: Everything's just a little bit bigger than it probably needs to be and there's a rough edge or two in platforming.
Enjoyment 5/5: But oh man, was this fun. I made a point of saving my game before quitting. I'm not great at always finishing things but I wanted that save in place, just in case I'm able to come back. I got as far as the wall-run ability and will link a play video when I have one.
Video!
Glad you enjoyed it. Wallrun is the last main unlockable, so you're in the final stretch. I think you have everything you need to climb the western tower. There isn’t much at the end because I was short on time, but you are given one last upgrade as a small reward for finishing the game. And thank you very much for the video, very useful.
The movement is well implemented and offers plenty of options. The game has a save system, a shop, melee attacks, and ranged weapons.
The weapon is very satisfying to use; it could be used for puzzles, such as shooting buttons to activate platforms or doors.
The soundtrack and graphics are a good match.
I couldn't get very far in the game because I got lost on the map. My recommendation would be to use the doors cautiously, as they break the natural mental flow of a 2D map and can lead you anywhere, making it more difficult to understand a 2D map with so many doors. For example, to the left of the base you find a staircase leading to some small rooms, but I got lost because there are 10 doors in that small space, and it's impossible to predict where the door you enter will take you. In several parts, there's no need to use doors; they could place stairs or platforms instead.
The jump sound is quite irritating; it sounds like a jet propulsion effect, but the character doesn't have anything like that.
Going down a platform could be done by pressing down and jump, instead of E. I think it would feel more natural.
Grabbing a bar from above makes the character accelerate towards the bar, which creates a slightly strange snap.
Thank you for playing.
I guess the map in general fell victim to my inexperience. It was my first jam, so I was hurriedly crunching, trying to make something playable from start to finish. I’ve already received similar feedback, so that’s something I need to work on.
Yeah, weapon puzzles seem obvious now, but they got lost amid the little things during the race to release. I’ll implement them further down the line.
I get you about the doors, I’ll tone it down in general. I tried to somewhat mitigate it by using signs that show door direction, but I see they didn’t help.
Down + E is a remnant of the old system. I previously had High Jump activated by pressing Down + Space, so I used the E button for dropping down. Now that I have alternatives to High Jump, I’ll change it to the proposed key combination.
Thanks for the detailed feedback.
I also would be very happy if you can rate my game too, i am looking for more ratings before the JAM ends.
Pretty good base for the game, the movement and combat were solid, the art was pretty good too.
But I think the world is too big and sparse, it felt like it had long sections with very little on it. And because everything looks pretty similar its confusing to navigate. It really needed something to help aid navigation.
Yeah, the map would definitely help with navigation. Just didn’t have time to add it. I’ll probably either trim down the levels or throw in some points of interest, encounters and other goodies. Thanks for the feedback!
Great game I like the gun effects, it feels really nice. I wish there was a little option to heal since theres not that many save points. Its fun to figure out that you can shoot people off screen without them noticing you. I like the controls the only thing id change is the down platform idk if its because of terraria but holding down would be nice to just go down platforms.
Great game overall Had a lot of fun :D:D:D
Haha, damn, I actually forgot to mention that you can heal on F key. Will add this to the page description at least. Thank you for your feedback.
Super cool game. I like the sprites and the animation is super clean. The combat feels really good, but I think its a tad bit difficult, maybe if the melee was a little bit stronger or something it would feel more balanced. The movement feels very heavy, but overall nice. The SFX are really nice too I like how boomy all of the sounds are.
Thank you for feedback. Yeah, melee is a weak spot here. It's underexplained and unnecessarily complicated by enemy stats. Your hits first deplete enemy stamina, after which he enters a weakened/stunned state. In that state, your strikes begin damaging health. So that's why it feels weak. A weakened enemy also receives increased damage from gunshots. I was more focused on ranged combat and tried to create a symbiotic relationship between ranged and melee. Something like: beat the enemy until he enters a weakened/stunned state, and then finish him with a handgun, spending less ammo than usual. I'll increase damage as a temporary solution and probably rework or just streamline the system further down the line.
Woah that's a lot more in depth than I thought thats super awesome. If you continue working on the game I could see the combat being kinda crazy especially if you get some cool upgrades.