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Hourglass Panic's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Artwork | #1054 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Audio | #2936 | 3.100 | 3.100 |
| Enjoyment | #3072 | 3.250 | 3.250 |
| Creativity | #4146 | 3.350 | 3.350 |
| Narrative | #5069 | 2.350 | 2.350 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
This game is a 2D gravity switching platformer. The twist is that to flip gravity, you flip an hourglass. If the hourglass reaches 0, on either side, you die.
(Optional) Please credit all assets you've used
All assets made in-house
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
EAR is fine
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Comments
A fun little platformer with great art. A bit difficult for me, I wish the hourglass flip was quicker. But great job anyway!
Thanks for playing! Indeed, the flip was something we've changed in the current build, from 700ms -> 600ms.
I love this lovely concept! Well done on the gameplay! Very simple with great level design!!! There’s a lack of feedback when you die, but otherwise it’s excellent!
Thank you! Can you elaborate on the "feedback when you die" part? Aside from the death animation, we plan to add sound effects, something we didn't have time for during the jam. Are there other things you had in mind?
Ah yes, a fellow gravity changing game :) Good work on the gravity mechanic and level design. The art was very good too :) Well done!
Thanks! You as well!
the art initially drew me in! i love the little cat guy! the gravity flipping mechanic is well implemented!
i do have a couple of critiques to give out
-checkpoints would definitely help since the level design does spike (hehe get it) up in difficulty pretty quick. would definitely easy up the frustration players get with small milestones inbetween the longer levels
-sfx would add a lot for the platforming, audio cues can help with timing and positioning.
-having a visible number countdown would really help in figuring out how much time you have left. going off vibes does cause players to be more rash in their platforming.
overall i see a lot of potential for this game to get better if you decide to polish it more! good job!
For sure, our artist killed it with this. Sfx and checkpoints have been added to the current build, but we're specifically against telling the player *exactly* how much time they have left, since we want to induce a bit of panic in them. Thanks for the playing and for the feedback!
I really love the artstyle, and the gameplay is pretty enjoyable. Though as the other already said, it's quite hard lmao. So I couldn't finish the game, but it's a good experiences.
Thanks for playing. Checkpoints are something we considered to alleviate some of the difficulty on Saturday night, but with the time pressure we decided to skip it. All the feedback we've gotten is making us wish we took the time to implement it before the deadline, and we've gone ahead and added them to the current build of the game. Thanks again for playing (and for making Epochess, I went back and played it again with someone and it's lots of fun multiplayer)
Thanks for playing! We are still tuning the gameplay to give it a better feel, and hoping that will make it a little easier.
Looks cool! Was a bit too hard for me though. A checkpoint before the bombs would be nice :)
Really fun mechanic and I love the character design! I do wish that the gravity flipping didn't have a delay and felt a little snappier, as it's a primary platforming mechanic.
Thanks for the feedback! Something I asked myself during the entire development process was whether the flip should be instant or not... We decided to go with the "drifty" feel mostly because gravity-changing platformers are nothing new, and we wanted to try making a unique mechanic, but if tuning it and iterating on it more doesn't yield good results we may just make the flip instant and focus more on the hourglass time pressure through level design.
Here's my feedback:
Anyway, congratz to the team and good luck :)
The game is really interesting, I've just finished the entire game and it has been pleasan
The only issue I've felt is the lack of control, before the gravity switching, you could easily control how high your jump is and make guesses on where you can land... In here though since the acceleration... there isn't a clear way to "stop" making me die repeatedly on multiple of the sections as I try to plan out where should start and stop. Not sure if its an issue but it becomes more trial and error. Sometimes I dont know when a bot would trigger, making the second to last level a bit tricky.
For the rest though I love the level design. The first is a really good intro to the main mechanics, and it was only missing a "press button to get hour glass". The creativity of using an hour glass + gravity to determine both time and the main mechanic of the game is so creative and well done! The rest of the levels teach you on how to flip gravity at the right time, from tight spaces to very vertical regions. The last 2 levels were interesting as with how you have to understand how the timer works while the bots make you wait and manage it correctly. And with a funny escort mission of course (It was honestly a nice break from dying). The music was fine and felt really nice with the tone of the game. Also whats the mc's name they look so cute/nice.
Overall, it was enjoyable and thank you for submitting in the game jam!
Edit: Oh also the background art was stunning.
This is my kind of game, I didn't play to the end but did enjoy the mechanic
Thanks, glad you had fun!
I really like the background art. Unfortunately I wasn't able to activate the hourglass so I wasn't really sure how to proceed.
Thanks! To activate the hourglass, hold down the spacebar for a moment. Once it flips, gravity will reverse.
hmm that doesn't work for me. Not sure why
Thanks for giving it a try! Unfortunate, that that happened, not sure how to diagnose it. Did you press F to pick up the hourglass?
I realize now that when we changed the sprite for the hourglass it shrunk the "Press F to pick up" text so small it's not even noticeable. I'll add the controls to the description.
Fun game, would have been slightly improved with more respawn spots. Nice concept and art!
Thanks