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Gizmo's Quest for Treasure's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Art | #20 | 3.812 | 3.812 |
| Sound | #20 | 3.312 | 3.312 |
| Gameplay | #21 | 3.250 | 3.250 |
| Overall | #24 | 3.325 | 3.325 |
| Originality | #46 | 3.062 | 3.062 |
| Theme | #48 | 3.188 | 3.188 |
Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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0 years old but maybe older because it's kinda hard
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Comments
Nice graphics and controls, particularly when I learned how to mine upward.
I enjoyed the use of light as a single point on the player. This is about the only way to do it in 1-bit and the scale was good so I didn't lose too much screen to it.
If it was mine, the next improvement I would be add would be a 2x speed up option. Some rocks take too long, and the pace is such that impatient players might get frustrated. I loved the pace BTW.
Very well done, lots of fun. Looks and runs great and makes lots of sense. Awesome game :)
The art and ambience is cool, the sounds with reverb are a nice touch to add to the cave atmosphere. Theme is implemented and it is original.
Gameplay is not bad, it's a good base, but I feel it could be improved a bit? Please don't take it the wrong way, it's all constructive criticism and all those things are easy to fix.
The falling block mechanic was hard to understand at first, I had to die a lot until I got it (white falls no matter what and black non-attached horizontally will also fall) but it's not intuitive right away. Maybe a small tutorial at the beginning of the falling mechanic would help a lot because it's actually a fun part once you figure how it works.
The lamp and its limited visibility to be honest is more annoying than difficult. It doesn't let you fairly decide which blocks to break and it doesn't let you enjoy the falling mechanic since it would be fun for the player to figure out which block to strategically break first (like a puzzle), but first they have to see the whole picture. Maybe increase the radius of the lamp?
Progress is a bit slow, too many upgrades and too few levels, you either finish with a strong pickaxe but super slow, or fast with a weak pickaxe (since lamp is basically mandatory or you won't finish the levels on time). So maybe increase the prices so you can buy all the upgrades by the time you reach level 6?
Level 6 difficulty spiked and I agree with someone else who said they got lucky to find the chest, it felt more like I got lucky I semi-randomly chose the right blocks to destroy and I was like "Oh, ok, I won I guess". I didn't feel like I earned it.
They're not game breaking and as I said, they can easily be fixed and the game will feel a lot more smooth and satisfying. But you did a great job with the rest of the game, I enjoyed playing it and I'm hoping you add more content to play it again!
Wow! Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed review. Reviews like this make the whole game jam experience worth it :) Your criticism is all, of course, valid here. I hope you'll forgive me using your review as a diving board into some of my post-mortem thoughts.
I received a lot of feedback around the falling block and lantern mechanics, and I think the root issue with the game is that it doesn't quite know what type of game it wants to be: A methodical puzzle game, using the falling blocks to your advantage to navigate towards the exit--or a mad rush to the exit a la Spelunky. I think the game would be way more fun if I had pushed it more towards either direction, squatting in the middle as it is now, the mechanics fight with each other and leave a pretty tepid impression. The changes you describe would push it in more of the puzzle game direction, a direction that I agree this game desperately wants to be.
As for the decisions and circumstances that lead to the current state of the game... I think my initial vision was more in the Spelunky direction, and I never reexamined those initial decisions and assumptions. Or, to be honest, I ran up against the time limit pretty hard and didn't have time to do that thinking around what the game actually wanted to be. At the start of the final day before the deadline, I hadn't built any levels, didn't have the shop or lantern implemented, and essentially didn't have a game. That Sunday was spent in more or less in a state of panic haha
The lessons to take from this are pretty clear though. In my next jam, I need to spend more time on early prototyping and play testing instead of polish. Spend the time upfront to make sure I'm not polishing a turd. If I have particle effects and camera shake implemented before prototyping a single level, I've done something wrong haha
At the end of the day, to partially fix Gizmo I would:
- Remove level timers, increase lantern size
- Rework levels to be more puzzle-y
- Add a couple of tutorial levels to introduce players to block mechanics
...and some more comprehensive changes that I think would resolve Gizmo's identity crisis:
- Take a second look at upgrades. Possibly remove incremental upgrades in favor of tools that allow for new puzzle mechanics.
- Possibly remove ores/gems or find another purpose for them
Thank you so much again for playing my game and sharing your thoughts. I feel like I've learned a lot from my first jam, and I'm excited to make more games! Also a side note, I really enjoyed my time with _your_ game last night :)
This is your first jam?! oh in that case you did a terrific job, I actually thought you were an experienced dev (at least in jams, you game is super polished, well presented, well thought out) and all gameplay issues I mentioned are a bit nitpicky, it was my opinion, you don't have to change the game for that, if you think some mechanics are what you expected, all good, I'm just sharing what it felt to play it. As I said, most of the game is great, just a few things to tweak here and there, but nothing critical.
Congrats on your first jam, you did an amazing job so far!
Well hold on don't go too easy on me! I do write software for a living, and art as a hobby, so it's not like I started from 0 here haha. But thanks for your praise anyway
I received similar feedback from the majority of players (just check the other comments on this page), so it's not just you. Apologies if my long reply made you think you were forcing my hand in some way... I just wanted to broadcast some of the thoughts that have been percolating in my head since I released the game :)
Chances are I'll let Gizmo rest and not change the game. I think there's some beauty in letting a project stay flawed, a product of its short development time. But I'll be sure to take the lessons to heart for my next jam!
Yep, it's also a good call to leave it as it is. Sometimes you just need to learn from what people tell you, move on and start fresh with that knowledge in your backpack for your next project.
It does show you are an experienced developer, I didn’t mean to sound condescending. When people tend to say it's their first jam their games tend to be... well... bad. There's no other way to put it. But I didn't check your profile and I didn't assume it was your first jam because it's a really well made game.
I meant it as a compliment, if this is your first jam and you made this game (which is awesome already and you clearly brought to the table everything you know) you clearly will only improve after this. That's what I meant, sorry if it wasn't clear sometimes my english is not the best.
Anyways, good luck on your next projects!
Your English is great and truly I took no offense to any of your comments! Thanks again for playing my game!
Really cool ! :)
Thank you!
Great game! It looks impressive and plays nicely. But I felt that Level 6 is more about luck. It’s too easy to dig yourself into a spot you can’t escape from. Also, I don’t get what triggers regular blocks to fall. Lastly, some fitting background music would really elevate the experience.
Fair criticism! Thanks for playing all the way to the end :)
Very nice particle effects on the block breaking. I wanted to do the same with mine, but didn't have time to. Still, it wouldn't have been as elegant as I saw in this game. Love the pixel and sound as well.
Mining was fun, and figuring out which blocks to make fall to leverage for hire blocks was engaging. At first, I spent all the gold towards mining speed, until my lantern fell short the next run XD. Didn't realize the lit radius decreases as well.
This was a charming, fun game.
Thank you for the extremely kind review! I'm very glad you had a good time playing :) Particles can be quite a time-sink, but very satisfying to implement :)
I killed poor gizmo too many times :( I think the game was fun! Essentially adding mining to a platformer. Im a fan of the sound as well, but we all know gizmo is the star here
Gizmo is a star and deserves the treasure and also the world... Thanks for playing my game, glad you had some fun :)
Very cute game, adored the sound design!
Thank you for the kind words!
I love the art for Gizmo and mining around as him. I did not realize how the physics worked for the black blocks. I assume they have to be attached to either the close wall or the far wall to stay lifted but I was not really sure. I also encountered a few bugs where Gizmo would get caught on blocks and I would have to wiggle back and forth to get out. However, I think the difficulty curve ramped up nicely, and saving after each level makes it feel less punishing when I would make a mistake. I loved the upgrade screen, the UI was very clean and the upgrades felt impactful. Overall a good game!
Thank you for the kind words! I agree that the logic for when a black block falls and doesn't is pretty opaque. The rule is that it must have a grounded block next to it to not shake loose. I wont change it to maintain the spirit of the game jam, but I will take your feedback as a lesson for next time to explain mechanics better through gameplay or tutorials. As for gizmo getting stuck on blocks, I'll see what I can do to fix that up, I have a hunch it started happening after some last second change's to gizmo's physics. Thanks for helping gizmo find the treasure :)
Art is very beautiful, the particle effects added a nice touch of detail, the type of polish we devs can't help but notice and appreciate. Lack of music also added to the sense of isolation and slight discomfort of mining alone in a dark cave, everything from graphics and sound created a great atmosphere. Gameplaywise however, I encountered a number of bugs. I would fall through blocks and get stuck, sometimes the game would let me hit blocks diagonally, other times it wouldn't, sometimes you could mine and move at the same time and weird things would happen. Other than bugs, I would add that the blocks falling mechanic felt arbitrary, I never understood what caused the black blocks to fall, so a lot of my wins felt like I just lucked out. The light mechanic also made the game feel a lot like it's trial and error, you would use your first run to scout out the cave, restart and then take the right path because you can't see the whole cave due to the light mechanic. The upgrades were very well implemented though, going from the simple beginnings to that monster labyrinth at the end was nice. Good job!
Thanks for your detailed review! Polishing is my favorite part of game development, I had particles implemented before I even built the shop page lmao. I have to say you're giving me too much grace for the lack of music, I confess I just ran out of time to find or make anything fitting...
I'll see if I can fix the bugs you've described. Very fair criticism around the falling blocks and light mechanic. I didn't think too deeply on the incentives that the light mechanic would give the player, I was thinking more along the lines that it would be cool aesthetically and add a bit of tension around finding the exit. Thinking back on it now, the leniency around restarts breaks the light mechanic and causes it to work exactly how you describe. C'est la vie, lessons for next time.