That was the most different take on a platformer I've seen. You can't control your speed once you're in the air, kinda physics based, except the swing has no momentum, it's like you record the horizontal speed the character had when he tethered something and give it back once he untethers. Combined with the jump mechanics, that means the speed you will come out of the rope is the same speed you had when you got out of the ground. If you jump in place and tether, you will come out straight up. If you go in and change your mind and try to release when you swing back, you're still sent forward if you jumped forward to tether. This is very unintuitive but fine, once you learn how it works you adapt to it and plan accordingly. It all combines into this game where you completely lose control of your character once you jump/fall off. You might as well let go of WASD and just focus on K, and keep in mind you must leave the ground with the correct speed (which is usually full speed, at least this is easy to find). Now, tethering was another beast too, you only had a very small window to tether, given how short the rope is. But the window is even shorter because you couldn't tether too close to the platform or else you bonk your head while swinging and lose all vertical speed. But it gets even shorter at times because you have to tether while falling from high up, meaning your character is falling quite fast by then. Point in case, the game is extremely precise, very hard execution. The fact that instead of dying and respawning at the last checkpoint you just fall to the start of the level made it like a rage game, like Getting over It. Was that the point? It reminded me a little bit of Jump King too. Anyway, I yapped for too long. Unusual take on a platform, but not a bad one. I think if the swing momentum was more physics based it would have been better, but who am I to know what you're actually trying to make, right? Good job anyway, cool game.
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Understone's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Art | #15 | 3.929 | 3.929 |
| Sound | #27 | 3.214 | 3.214 |
| Gameplay | #29 | 3.071 | 3.071 |
| Overall | #29 | 3.243 | 3.243 |
| Originality | #40 | 3.143 | 3.143 |
| Theme | #60 | 2.857 | 2.857 |
Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Thank you so much for the comment! I did try to experiment with making the swing more physics based, but it ended up getting extremely buggy, so I decided to go with this more rigid approach instead, especially considering I didn’t have much time to focus on the game. The lack of checkpoints was intentional (one of my inspirations really was Jump King), but I agree that it ended up being very punishing. Anyway, thank you again for the feedback! After the jam I’ll probably work a bit more on the game and try to fix these issues, and you’re more than welcome to test it again if you’d like, haha.
Cool art and music! The grappling mechanic was neat. Sometimes it was tough to get the grapple to attach to platforms and it was super punishing to miss them at times. Level design was really well done! Nice job!
Teff is very cute, but man... missing those jumps was rough. Some of them were pretty tight timing-wise, and missing it sometimes sent you all the way back to the start. I thought the art was very charming, and I would have liked to help Teff escape from Understone had I not fallen 5 times in a row lol. Great work, keep it up!
The art was fun too look at. The controls were tough indeed but I did like the physics and the momentum mechs, and it got a lot funner once I got the hang of the swinging. I think in addition to what others here mention on the controls, maybe a bit more of a safer space to get the feel of the mechs in the beginning. However, I did get a laugh of the rat sitting on the bench having different dialogue every time I fell and tried again XD
Great job!
Awesome game and very fitting soundtrack. Controls are difficult but swinging is rewarding :)
Seems pretty tough, but I imagine after spending time getting used to the controls and mechanics it'd be super fun to zip around with the hook! Good job :)
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