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Groveyard's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Is it related to spring and does it follow the theme? | #7 | 3.941 | 3.941 |
| Overall | #12 | 3.247 | 3.247 |
| Audio / Music | #13 | 3.118 | 3.118 |
| How much do you like the game overall? | #22 | 3.059 | 3.059 |
| Gameplay / Fun | #22 | 2.941 | 2.941 |
| Graphics / Visuals | #26 | 3.176 | 3.176 |
Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Please list ANY pre-made or AI-generated assets that you used (it's the rules!)
Audio: music from pixabay.com + SFX from freesound.org (CC0). AI: ChatGPT/Gemini for visual concept inspiration (refs redrawn from scratch in Aseprite, no AI art in final game), Claude for brainstorming/design, Claude Code for programming/debugging support.
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Comments
This is so lovely! I can't remember the last time I played a top-down platformer, but you really pulled it off well here. The word puzzle was fun. I'm a little embarrassed to say that I was almost about to look it up when I got it, so maybe it is a little difficult? That might just be me though. The art and general aesthetic is really cute and calming. Very very cool!
Cute game. I managed to reach the end and become a big tree! There is a lot of content for a game made by 1 person: the platforming area, the maze, and the word puzzle. It makes the game longer and more interesting, but each area is also a little unpolished in the feedback it gives to the player.
A small thing I personally would've liked to see is how when the player character evolves, their abilities evolve with them. I know the camera view becomes bigger, but it feels more like it takes a negative away (super tiny camera view) instead of adding a positive (e.g. bigger jump/double jump).
Overall, it has a lot of potential! The base is definitely there, the art looks very cute, and you picked good music to accompany the vibe of the game. I'd focus on one area/gameplay loop first and polish it until it feels really good to play through, before adding more content.
Examples:
For the platforming, I initially thought the rain clouds wouldn't be hazardous since I picked up water drops earlier, so I walked into them intentionally.
For the maze, I thought I could still jump at first because I had only been platforming so far, until I walked into the water and then saw my jump button had turned red.
For the word puzzle, I knew I had to press the buttons to create a word, but it wasn't clear how I was supposed to know which letter would appear after clicking the button.
I really like the game! The leaves are realy satisfying to jump on and its nice to see the little plant get big. At the maze I noticed some places where you can walk over the water without going back to start.
Nice Concept!!
Very cute game. I played for a while but I couldn't figure out how to leave starting area.
Thanks for playing! There's a wooden spiral staircase out of the room, and a second entrance you reach by hopping across leaves — both probably read more like decoration with my rough pixel art
Overall a nice little platformer. I will say that the camera almost feels a bit too zoomed in and it would be easier to navigate if it was pulled out just a tad bit more.
Thanks for the feedback!
You're right about the camera being too tight, especially at the start. It's actually a deliberate choice tied to evolution: each form gets a wider view (sprout sees the world small and close, the great tree sees much more), so the camera grows with the character. But the sprout's perspective is probably too cramped for the first stretch — fair point, I'll keep it in mind
Glad you played it 🌱
This is a pretty nice little game~ The direction is quite unclear - took me a good minute to figure out what I should even do but it's easy enough to figure out after a bit of trial and error. It can get a bit enraging because how easy it is to die in this game. Good thing each death isn't that punishing because of the save points.
You're spot on about the unclear start — there's currently no hint that the drops are the goal, you only realize it once you stumble onto one. Real design gap I should've caught. Thanks for pointing that out!
The difficulty's fair too — I've already widened the safe zones around the leaves, but the death zones could probably shrink a bit more. Will tune in a post-jam pass
Glad the checkpoints kept it from being punishing — that was the intended trade-off 🌱