Very cool, I was a huge fan of the art. I really loved the environment and atmosphere you created. I got stuck for a bit on the first fire door cause I whipped the fire to grab it and thought that was how it was deposited as well (after I finally looked at the controls I figured it out lol). I noticed some soft locks though when dying with the relics which was a bit of a bummer.
Play Jam Game
RelicQuery's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Graphics | #16 | 4.300 | 4.300 |
| Gameplay | #24 | 3.667 | 3.667 |
| Overall | #31 | 3.742 | 3.742 |
| NES Feel | #34 | 3.733 | 3.733 |
| Audio | #46 | 3.267 | 3.267 |
Ranked from 30 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
Yeah, sorry about the softlocks. Late submission, didn't catch 'em in time (and didn't have time even if we did ><;;)
I do also agree it'd be nice to put down relics with the whip button as well. I did mention it in testing, but our current character controller made that difficult without breaking things I think. (mostly our other coders worked on that so I don't fully know the ins and outs, I'm still a beginner at the coding part ^^;;
I'll see if we can get that put into the update too, but the softlocks will be addressed best we can in a week or so if you want to play it then.
Thanks for giving it a go!
I liked it, got through to the end. Thought I had softlocked myself after dying on the screen after collecting the treasure because all the eye statues deactivated, but I didn't. Was fun overall but the water section really could have used a another pass as the controls and collision there just didn't feel good. Collision in general was pretty wonky, and in some cases there were some issues with readability (the mushroom walls didn't look like they'd hurt the player). The puzzles were fun to figure out though and I kept pushing through because despite all of that I was having a really good time. :)
Submitted
The Sun AwakensThanks for playing!
Yeah, the eye statues aren't fully coded right in the jam version, but are already set up and working proper for the next time we update the game!
Yeah, that's fair with the water segments. I do like the controls I made for it (there's a surprising amount of precision you can have once you get used to it) but they're a bit experimental, and don't really mesh too well with the maps I wanted to (and did make). Maybe if I make it easier to sink faster or just only have vertical movement on the jump button it'll feel more natural. I'll fiddle around with it some before the next update at least.
Yeah, I was a bit worried about the readability in the mushroom area, though I do enjoy the contrast. I figured while it might throw people off at first the way it's layed out indicated enough that it was an obstacle, and worse case scenario they'd know after touching it once, and since you respawn nearby and can get back in seconds, no real harm in it. I was more worried about the opposite, making it look too dangerous and then the player sees purple mushrooms later (the platforming ones) and is like 'heck no I'm not touching that I'll die!" which'd be real bad for the puzzles that need it. But I think it's laid out well enough that it's not an issue in that regard. The fact I like to make my games look less 'blocky' than most NES games does come at the expense of restricting an already restricted palette. With that in mind I can still do a bit more, maybe add in some skulls or biohazard symbols into the inset wall art (like the glowing mushrooms) would help clue the player in before they find out through more direct means.
Great feedback, I'll keep those in mind!
Also here to report I died with the first tiny item and then got softlocked and had to restart.
I think the art is fantastic, the areas feel distinct and very well crafted, great color choices and really lovely tilework!
The music isn't really in the NES spirit, lots of FM / Mega Drive sounding bass and big siney pads... love that crazy bassline in the jungle area tho.
I thought some of the mechanics were very neat, the flame was cleverly done (and the puzzles were tense), the big/tiny portion with the launching was cool! (I might have turned the gravity down a bit just for that portion, landing without taking poison damage was difficult in some parts, I died a very frustrating number of times to hitting poison because of the spring mushroom)
I think some feedback on the spring mushroom would have helped a bit too, at least in terms of knowing when it was going to launch. Maybe some longer buildup so it feels like it's charging a spring up? The window in which it shakes before springing up is very very short. I thought it was a switch at first.
Really nice entry all around! Good luck in MVM!
Submitted
Captain Dasia and the Viper's BaneThanks for the feedback!
Yeah, we'll try our best to fix any potential softlocks so we can have a more polished experience good to push out once we can update again. Thanks for continuing in spite of that!
Fair shout on the music, with the time constraints it was just more viable for the musicians to compose how they're used to, as they didn't have as much time to spend on the jam. If they had more time they'd have tried translating it to a tracker and stuff. Not sure if they have plans to change stuff later, it's a decent undertaking for sure, especially getting stuff to sound as good with the limited channels/notes played at once. I won't make any promises on that part, but it would be cool, maybe as a toggle-able option.
Yeah we were running real short on time by the time we got the code finished for that mushroom, so there wasn't enough time to playtest, or even add the sound effects we actually had made for it. I have since made that toxic growth in the second spring mushroom section not go as far due to the awkwardness of the jump, as well as added most of the sound effects so it'll be more obvious that it 'pops' back up again. Might add a bit more to it just to be sure, maybe some NES capable screen shake or something before it pops up again. It's already a lot more obvious.
Cheers, thanks again o/
Phenomenal platforming puzzles! This was a blast to play and the thorn level made me sufficiently angry, I mean challenged. Thank you!
Submitted
Drury Lane Damage"THE END" Ending scene looks awesome!
I tried the game a few days ago, got stuck because I moved back to the previous room with the item which gets you small, died and couldn't find it anywhere, or something like that. Don't get me wrong the game had already left me with a strong impression anyway but with so many games I wasn't sure I would try the game again during the jam. Among other things what finished to convince me to try again was when I eventually noticed that you were the team behind Beat Beet ;) .
The game is amazing! It looks awesome and sounds ever better if that's even possible, I love the tunes. It feels so, so good to control and the levels are all excellent with always the perfect difficulty and plenty of little twists which keep you all the more engaged. The fire part in the beginning is so cool, super cartoony, I love it. Finally the NES vibe is about as strong as it can be, in all aspects.
By the way, I saw you also submitted the game to the Metroidvania jam and I don't think exploration on a large scale is even really a thing but on a small scale exploring each zone including through different paths for various reasons is an absolute joy. Note that since it's the NES JAM here ;) the lack of large scale exploration is not necessarily a bad thing, if exploration is going to be linear anyway (because you would need a given ability to unlock the next one, which is not that rare) rather than open then I prefer to simply advance through the zones in order rather than doing useless back-and-fourth.
Thanks for sharing!
Submitted
The pizza curseThanks for giving it another go!
Yeah, Poyo and Bucket put a lot of good work into the soundtrack, I'll be sure to pass that along to them!
(I feel a bit bad because we forgot to re-add the title screen as we just launched into the start of the game during testing, so you can't hear the intro track. It'll be added as soon as we can update the game again.
And yeah, I completely agree with your opinion on the Metroidvania aspect of that. (to be honest, Ste kinda did that without consulting the rest of the group first) To be fair, it was initially going to be much more of a Metroidvania with relics you could drop and pickup freely, but partway through I just had to admit that our plans for it weren't going to be doable in time (that and the prospect of dropping relics wherever not only led to a million possible softlocks it would just result in a lot of backtracking. I proposed the relic pedestal idea, and that helped designing go a lot smoother (though not softlock proof, we'll try and make contingency plans for those, sorry ^^;)
Had it been my call I wouldn't have submitted it there, as you said the current game is entirely linear, just with a few mandatory detours (and only keys as far as progression unlocks in a Metroidvania is kinda lame imo), but it is what it is. (it might have also been setup earlier to upload to both via Godot plugin, and seeing how late we submitted there wouldn't have been time to tick that box off ^^;;)
And yeah the ending scene is super cool. Flinigan whipped that up in like the last couple of hours or so too. Dude's crazy skilled, idk how he does it. Really solid fundamentals and a lot of practice I guess.
Thanks again!
I loved the tileset y'all came up with and the animations, too! Some of the puzzle mechanics were really cool, but I think I broke the puzzle/game in the second area? I accidentally left the area and got back into the first area and then found I couldn't progress back to where I was at previously which ended my run. I might give it another try after playing a few more to see if I can make it to the end. Thanks for making and sharing your game!
Submitted
IsfetThanks for playing!
Yeah, unfortunately there are some softlocks that we didn't get to patch in time (currently working on a post-rating period version to address those)
In general the side paths are pretty linear, and if a door leading out gets unlocked it's best to continue through the door soon as you can.
Otherwise make sure not to die while holding a key ^^;
Sorry about those, hope you have better luck with it if you try it again during the jam o/
(also there's supposed to be a checkpoint in the final room which has already been addressed for the post jam version, but feel free to just head back if you die after doing the event in the room (you'll know when you get there) (or just call it complete there, but there is a pretty cool ending screen Flinigan made if you go back)
This was a really cute and fun platformer. I had a little trouble at first getting good at the jumping, but after getting the hang of things I found the puzzles fun to solve
I really enjoyed the way the items worked, and how they offered new ways to explore the area. I would of liked if the fire item had 1 more second on it though.
I loved the art and environments, but sometimes I would get lost. I noticed transitions acting strangely sometimes as well and couldn’t tell if I was just turned around or if I was actually being sent to a different area than the one I was expecting.
Overall I think it was really well done, great job!
Submitted
Sister PigThere is at least one transition that's broken in the jam version (duplicated it and forgot to change the path ID to the right door, whoops) that one's fixed at least, I think they're all good now for the next update but I'll be sure to triple check just in case!
Fair shout on the fire item, for me personally it has enough leeway to allow for a slight amount of mistakes but not long enough where it doesn't feel like a satisfying challenge.
It actually used to be tighter! (secretly each of those 'seconds' is actually 1.1 seconds, we extended them to be more lenient while sticking to the single digit partially because it felt cooler and also so we'd be asking for less sprites to display on the character for NES constraints.
Thanks for the feedback!
Despite the respawn issues (it seems the game forgot I had gotten the artifact, because the rocks on the way back from the final room stopped shooting at me, but I somehow still got the ending screen when making it back to the start?) , I had a lot of fun figuring out each room. Felt a bit empty at first, but from the second area it picks up the pace. The way each biome has a very different visual mood makes the journey exciting, lots of pretty environment elements. The music's good, but a few of the loops felt a bit too short/repetitive. I would have favored a bit more lenient hit detection with the spikes, sometimes I didn't feel like I was getting hit, but hit I did get. It's a bit hard to get around while swimming. The HUD makes it look like you could get more hearts, but I never found any - are they hidden that well, or was that unimplemented? Only having three hearts felt quite punishing by the final room. Anyway, this is certainly one of the games in this jam I played the longest, good job.
Submitted
Curse CatchersGood job, well done ! I enjoy finding little mistakes/bugs and i've come to love standing on spikes <3
Submitted
Vampire BatReally liked this entry! The puzzles are really well designed with the right amount of challenge. Though the final screen with the relic could've used a checkpoint or two imo. Was pretty close to ragequitting when dying on the spikes at the entrance after finally making it the whole way back. xD
The art style is really nice and the audio fits well. The only other nitpick, is that I wasn't too keen on the swimming mechanic, luckily it was only a tiny part of the game. :)
Great job!
Submitted
Night ShiftGreat game with a strong visual identity. I was impressed by the amount of level design and the variety of areas in this short time. The spike area felt a bit frustrating, mainly because it comes after areas with plenty of checkpoints and is much longer and harder without a midway checkpoint. Aside from that, the experience was really enjoyable. The graphics and music are impressive, and the overall quality is excellent. Well done ! :)
Submitted
scarab'There was planned to be a checkpoint after grabbing the relic ^^;;
Unfortunately due to how our checkpoint system was made, it was tied to our door system, so adding checkpoints midway proved to be a bit more challenging than we could push out in time. (literally this was the final bit of code we attempted to add to the game, but as you can see by the submission time, we had to give up on it and just send the thing as is.
Once we can edit the game again, it'll be there. o7
Glad you enjoyed it though!
Great puzzle design! Since it was so Indiana Jones inspired I thought the music could have reflected that a little bit, but I grew to like it more as it went on! Love a good water level too!
Submitted
Such a Strange NightThe game has pretty good art, the music felt a little repetitive like it was a little short yk, the pause menu wasn't very nes tbf maybe you could've integrated it in a different way but i won't complain about it alot, i liked the puzzles even tho they were a little confusing at parts, plus i got stuck the part where you have to put the mini effect and that effect that makes you bigger into those 2 plates, and i weren't able to go back to get that mini effect, but it's a good game so good job
Submitted
Cursed FloorsLoving the color work here, lots of fun to look at these sprites. 🤩
Submitted
Double Double Time
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