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CLIMB(Early Access)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fun | #2 | 3.250 | 3.250 |
| Recent Work/Making Progress | #4 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Overall | #5 | 2.667 | 2.667 |
| Onboarding/Intuitiveness | #6 | 1.750 | 1.750 |
Ranked from 4 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Improvement Summary
I've added a new level and reworked many of the previous systems in the game to feel more precise, allowing for improved movement with less difficulties.
Devlog
https://fishypie.itch.io/climbgodot/devlog/1556567/construction-level-update
Comments
I enjoyed the game! At first, I did not understand the controls. I would like a better tutorial in-game. I also felt that level 1 was much easier than level 2. I would like a smoother difficulty curve. The tiny little grips were almost impossible. I did not get too see many of the updates, but the devlogs seem well made. I stopped on level 2 when I got softlocked with the rope. After releasing the rope, then falling, I became stuck to the rope, and left the game. Overall, great game!
This isn't really my style of game, and I really struggled with it. I beat the first level, but the jump in difficulty between the first and the second was enough that I didn't get very far in the second. I had a very hard time controlling the character. Part of it is absolutely a skill issue on my part. Trying to control both hands at the same time was a struggle, but only focusing on one at a time meant I was missing rocks if I focused on the wrong hand. I did find it frustrating that if I grabbed a rock too close to one edge, I'd sometimes have to cross my hands to grab hold of the same rock if I wasn't close enough to another rock to grab. It could be difficult to uncross my hands, though crossing them seemed fairly easy. The range my hands could move didn't seem consistent. Sometimes it felt like I had a larger range than other times, which made it difficult to judge what rocks to aim for while jumping.
It took me a few tries to realize I didn't need to hold 1 to control how high I jumped. I found it difficult to use 1 to jump and then move back to WASD to control the angle of the jump and the left hand. I feel that using Space would have been far more intuitive for the leap, though I don't know what other keys would have been best for the unlocks.
I'm not sure how the rope works. I tried using it, but I couldn't tell you what was suppose to do.
I had the game lock up on the first level, when I opened the note about balancing stamina. After I closed it, I couldn't move my character at all. Restarting the page let me continue playing. On the second level, one of the times I opened the note at the beginning I could no longer move my character. I could open the pause screen, and was able to quit to menu and restart the level, which seemed to fix the issue.
Unchecking the Fancy Fonts did not change the fonts in the game. The words "Fancy Fonts" would change when I checked or unchecked the box if I went to the options from the main menu, but if I went there in game the font wouldn't change unless I exited the screen and returned. But the fonts in the game itself didn't seem to be affected by that check box, regardless of when I clicked it.
One of the times I got a game over, there was a mention of being able to click 0 to enter a look around mode. It would have been nice if this had been included in the index, as it is a useful tool.
While it's not my style of game, I do think the idea is a cool one. I can see how it could be fun for someone who enjoys this type of game.
Thank you for this honest review! Although life is currently very busy for me, I will start fixing these issues as soon as possible. I've already started on making the difficulty curve much smoother in the future as the game has 5 more levels than most people have seen because of the difficulty spike in level 2. I'll look into that problem with freezing in the notes, but I will have you know that fancy fonts not working is exclusive to the web version and cannot be fixed. Have a good day!
This is quite a fun game once I grasped the control. It is quite satisfying to be able to grab onto a rock and proceed smoothly. The fonts and sound effects also match the nature of the game. This game can work with cartoon/wacky style, so I think it's worth leaning into it for now and see how other players think. I also like that you have the hard-breathing sound when the stamina is less than half. It really adds urgency/pressure to hang on for your life feeling.
The biggest issue for the current build is the on-boarding. The difficulty from level 1 to level 2 is just too much. I think it is because the gap in level 2 that you can fall over and have to restart the level every time. In the end, I didn't get to finish level 2 and quit after trying for about 40 minutes. I think having an intermediate level between the current level 1 and 2 to solidify players' understanding of the control will be very helpful.
Also, I totally didn't get the purpose of the rope, nor is there any explanation on how to use it. I suspect it is needed to clear level 2 as designed but I think it need to be communicated better.
The quotes from famous people brought me some smiles on every retry, very nice touch!
Overall, although the current game has some issues with on-boarding, it definitely has the potential to be a very fun game.
Thank you so much for this feedback! I am currently approaching both the onboarding issues you described as well as giving the rope a proper tutorial so that it is easier to understand as it is by far the most complex and unexplained feature in the game right now. These fixes should be in my next update which will most likely release within the next week if you are still interested in the game.
I wrote this as I played through, the so the notes will be in order of my experience, with some minor editing after I finished. Overall, you have a decent start here. I have a number of suggestions here based on what I think would be good, but this is your game, so do what works for you.
As a general rule, it is good to have some margins around text, between it and screen edges or borders. Your buttons with text, such as the Start button, could use with a bit of margin on the sides.
Clicking on "Touch Grass" gets an error of "Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'currentTime') at SampleNode._pause".
Challenge Modes does not seem to do anything. It would be nice if the button was disabled, or displayed a message, if it is not yet ready.
I like that you have the option for disabling the fancy font for those who would prefer a simpler one. Similarly, having the Disable Clankers option for Robophobes is a nice accessibility feature.
While Escape is a common button for pausing, on web it can also be used to exit full screen. While this game does not currently offer fullscreen, I would recommend adding support for pressing "P" to pause as well as Escape. It would also be nice to offer fullscreen for those who prefer it.
I regularly saw errors about Tweens being started without Tweeners.
While I was testing how the rope worked and trying to attache them to the broken bridge I ended up on the edge, but not over it. I seemed to be stuck at the edge. I could not jump or move away. I clicked to restart the level, but it just reloaded and moved me back to where I had been and the ropes still placed. I then chose to return to the menu and restarted from there, and it restarted me on the rope level. It gave me the message about getting the rope again, even though I had the rope when I started. After that message the screen stayed a bit darker than it had been.
With the game controls primarily using the keyboard, it would be nice if the pause menu grabbed focus, instead of needing to use the mouse. I'd also recommend changing the "Exit" button to say "Resume", as I would think of Exit as exiting the game.
I think the falling rocks on the second level progresses the difficulty a bit too fast. Maybe the rope can help with it, but I wasn't really understanding how to use the rope, and was still figuring out the best way to move around. Every time I was starting to do well a rock would hit me and I was not able to recover. I think this level increases the difficulty enough without the falling rocks.
I did finally mange to cross the first gap. The sign on the other side had the end of the message covered over by part of the UI.
It felt like sometimes the hands would start moving in towards the body on their own. It also seemed like sometimes they did not reach as far. I think it may be tied to how things were moving, but did not fully understand the mechanics.
I stopped to write the above, and when I went back to the game and closed the message, I was unable to move the hands. I got hit by a rock and after that I could move them again.
I had enough trouble with the basic controls, and this new technique of one handed pulling, using these small grips, was where I stopped. I really think you need to add in a more gradual difficulty progression and more time to practice and build up skills for the player. A bit more explanation, and possibly showing how things work, would be good. I still don't understand how the rope is supposed to be used. Pressing R with the rope did not seem to do anything.
The game concept is interesting. Controlling each hand individually is challenging, but a good mechanic. The basic level design is a good start, but needs to be refined to introduce new players to the game at a better pace. You've probably played a lot and so are good at it, and it may seem easy, but you need to step back and design for someone new who is learning. You have a good start here.
I vastly appreciate this in-depth review and I have actually been working with a lot of these issues you have mentioned. Out of all the problems you've listed, I feel as though the most urgent is the lack of proper onboarding and I have been revamping the first two levels to give more practice time for later levels. The rope is by-far the most complex and basically useless feature in the game, so i really need to set up a dedicated tutorial for it. I think I may change some of the rope's functionality to make it less confusing/janky in the future. Thank you for playing my game!:) Edit: I forgot to mention that the touch grass button and tweener errors are mostly due to the game not originally being built for browsers; the existence of the web version is so that more people will play it in this early access state, as people generally are more willing to play browser games on here. The touch grass button closes the game in the non-web version.
Web versions are definitely important for taking part in jams. Many people won't play download only. We tend not to do them either, but will for our jam. Still, we run them through anti-virus scanners and will play in a VM or sandbox. We are also on Linux, so any Windows only games go through Wine or a VM.
For the web export it is nice to add a closing screen, since the game stays up in the browser showing the last screen. We just added a basic "Thank you for playing" scene, and load that above anything else just before exiting. That gives clear feedback to the player that the game reacted and has ended.








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