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Space Story (demo)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Execution | #29 | 3.278 | 3.278 |
| Relevance to the theme | #31 | 3.667 | 3.667 |
| Metroidvania | #40 | 3.444 | 3.444 |
| Overall | #43 | 3.200 | 3.200 |
| Sensory | #59 | 2.833 | 2.833 |
| Enjoyment | #63 | 2.778 | 2.778 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Theme interpretation and application
Minimalist color palette
Team/Developer
Dron
Reference info
dron4746@gmail.com
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Comments
This is a really interesting and ambitious project, especially for a game jam, but that ambition sometimes works against it. It feels like the game is trying to do a lot at once (roguelike/Metroidvania/multiple suits/cryptic lore), which leaves some systems feeling underpolished? The roguelike upgrades didn’t feel very impactful, and suit switching rarely felt tactical, like most of the time it was just “switch to the new suit and never change back.” Movement also felt a bit too fast, with falling and camera speed making control awkward at times, and the lack of a variable-height jump stood out, would be nice to have for more precise aiming. ;-;
There’s clearly a lot of content here, but long runbacks and being sent back to the entrance after deaths or major upgrades made it hard to push through, I wasn’t able to finish the game because replaying the same areas started to wear me down. Suit change stations doubling as checkpoints would help a lot. The color customization is cool, but it’s easy to accidentally make the game pure black and nearly unplayable; swapping to white outlines for very dark colors could turn this into a neat intentional dark mode!! Overall, it’s a cool project with a lot of potential, but it would really benefit from more polish to match its ambition. I hope you work more on this! Cause this has alot of potential <3
Thanks for sharing! Most of your points are same as other people had, so I'll publish an update shortly after jam end fixing everything you mentioned except random upgrades(because they are not the main focus of the game and do not affect player's ability to complete the game)
Thank you so much for mentioning the dark color thing! This is actually something I did not think about. I'll try to add the dark mode in the next update when jam ends
yeah I noticed too aha- but hey glad you already got a patch in the works :o
also no worries! No matter how much time there's always gonna be something we forget or overlook aha- def gonna try it once its patched there >:D
Interesting concept, but it seems like you might be trying to be too many things at once. A roguelike Metroidvania with multiple characters and some kind of cryptic lore (I think?) is very ambitious for a jam. As a result, I feel like a few things ended up kinda unpolished. I didn’t really feel like the roguelike upgrades had a lot of impacts, and the suit switching rarely felt tactical. From what I’ve played, at least, it mostly felt like “when you get a new suit, change into it, and never change back”. Maybe this gets better later.
There’s a ton of content in this game, but between the huge wide-open areas and the long runbacks, I sadly wasn’t able to beat it. I’m not sure if the big stone-faced guy that melts is the final boss, but I gave it several tries before calling it quits there, getting through that alien base every time was really starting to wear on me. I really think the suit change stations should’ve acted as checkpoints as well.
Cool project for sure though, and there’s definitely potential here, but it’s very ambitious and will take a lot of hard work to get there.
Okay, I heard you, it is really too ambitious for a jam, but that's because I want to continue working on the game even after the jam. You dropped it just before it became non linear, trust me, it does get better later. Once the jam is over I'll drop an update that fixes most of the issues you have: There will be more checkpoints that will help to progress through the game, so that you will see the places, where you need to actually switch between suits
The upgrades are absolutely optional, the game is completable without them
Ah, I see, unfortunate. If the intent is for the part up to that to be a linear introduction before the game opens up, I’m of the opinion that it’s too long and difficult for that purpose. The suit changing is interesting, but as I said, I didn’t feel much of a focus on it, so I didn’t feel particularly “hooked” by the game. It’d be better to lean into that earlier; put the cool stuff about your game up front! You spend a lot of time teaching mechanics, but it’s all pretty normal platforming stuff, I think you can trust the player to use the suits earlier.
To be clear, I do think this idea has legs if you keep working on it, so even if I found it too ambitious for a jam game, I think it could become something very cool if you keep working on it. Good luck!
Such a cool game! Definitely one of my favorites!!
I liked the art style and the movement. Being sent back for the beginning of the game was frustrating, maybe add more checkpoints will improve the experience. I was not able to play too much of it because the this green color was making my eyes hurt, so reduce the bright will improve it. Also i felt very hard to read the texts while walking, so maybe reducing the amount of text and slowing it a little will improve this aspect.
I also would be very happy if you can rate my game too, i am looking for more ratings before the JAM ends.
Thank you for your feedback! I'll definitely add more checkpoints in the post jam update. You can change color in the settings to the one you think fits best. Texts will be changed. I also have an experimental idea of texts being read aloud by tts, but not sure if this is a good replacement, so this will also be an option in the settings.
I have already rated your game, I just take some time to think before writing a review. I'll add it soon
Not having a variable height jump was a little awkward but if that was a possible upgrade to get it would be VERY funny.
Other then that I think the player moves/falls a bit too fast to control easily but I otherwise didn't have too much of a problem outside of the camera moving too Slowly sometimes when falling.
I didn't fully explore the game but did notice that you're spat back out at the entrance after getting the swim upgrade so I definitely know there's More Game To Explore if I felt the desire to but I'd like to see a bit more polishing up of the audio and gameplay before really diving into it. Cool game overall!
Thank you for the review! I have a big gameplay and bug fix update coming after the jam, so I'll add variable height jump. Already balanced camera and player fall speed. Not sure what did you mean by polishing audio, but some loud sfx will be replaced
i love the art style and the frenetic movement of the player, maybe the green is too bright but looks good
Thanks, you can change the game color in settings!
Loved the minimal style, pairs very well on the web-page in minimized mode. The environments were very well done and I could feel an area transition very well. Also really liked the Pick-1 rougelike upgrade system after bosses, very interesting way to do upgrades in a Metroidvania. The beginning had a LOT of dialog and I accidentally skipped most of it since its triggered by location, but most of it was things that could be pieced together on just game experience (like enemies harming you on contact, acidic water, health items) It kinda took away from the atmosphere a little bit. Also found the save areas were spaced very far from each other, made dying way more punishing. I will also say I did NOT appreciate accidentally pressing R and resetting all my progress and overwriting my save :( Had to redo a large amount because of that, but just assuming that may have been an oversight in debugging tools or a safety button for Jam players.
Thanks for your review! Dialogs at the start are optional, I'll probably make a tutorial button that turns them on/off. More save areas will be added 100%, game needs them. And the reset by R button is not critically needed, so it will be available only in the settings along with M menu.
at first lock it appears simple, but on playing it is full of joy with large map, with variety of enemies and traps, excellent.
A standard but well executed take on the theme. The game seems to have a lot more content for the time I can realistically give it in a rating period context. Lacks a bit of quality of life, like checkpoints and health refills. Nonetheless, it was pretty enjoyable. Nice game!
Thank you! I'm working hard on re-balancing the gameplay. Check the global update after the jam ends, there will be more checkpoints and extra hp
How did you manage to get all of that done in a way that you were able to submit 25 days before the jam end?
First version was a remake of my platformer from 2017
That was one of my first games and did not knew how to implement all the ideas I had, so now with new skills I decided to completely rework the idea into a metroidvania. I just drew same graphics with better code, it did not take much time because I knew exactly what to add. The project was small, but I just kept adding stuff, you can see all the progress in devlogs. Basically it started small but because I worked on it almost every day it became so bigFun, I think maybe a checkpoint before the boss would've been good, the runback was annoying. Love the controls and art style though!
This is actually a very good idea! I'll add a checkpoint in the next update! Thank you for the feedback :D