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On The Clock's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #350 | 4.059 | 4.059 |
| Artwork | #826 | 4.118 | 4.118 |
| Creativity | #1331 | 3.941 | 3.941 |
| Narrative | #2401 | 2.941 | 2.941 |
| Audio | #3994 | 2.882 | 2.882 |
Ranked from 17 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?
The game has the player managing a constant countdown to death in a speedrun style platformer.
(Optional) What would you like to be called if GMTK features your game?
Mage Leaf
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Comments
Very good platformer :D
Really love the title screen design! I think I would have liked more use of the time mechanic other than changing the speed of platforms, like maybe being able to freeze time or make it go backwards? Solid entry overall though!
While I feel like freezing time might be too overpowered, especially for a speedrun-type game, making it go backwards sounds pretty interesting... will keep that idea in mind if we keep working on it, thanks!!
Super clever use of the theme, it took me a bit to get use to the controls but I was really impressed once I got comfortable! The art was also very nice and felt very GMTK inspired. Good work!
Super clever use of the theme, it took me a bit to get use to the controls but I was really impressed once I got comfortable! The art was also very nice and felt very GMTK inspired. Good work!
The game has potential! I liked it.
Sooo good! Would love to play more of it someday!!!
Impressive!
pretty unique mechanics! Loved the artstyle and player design, couldve used more sound and a maximized window, but great game nonetheless!
Unfortunately due to how pixel art works it's pretty difficult to set up something like maximized window without distorting the entire art. The only thing I can think of is adjusting the base viewport, but that could easily mess up gameplay by showing more/less than you should see
Yeah i totally understand as someone who is learning pixel art, stuff like this has to be made accounted for in the begining otherwise you become limited by stuff like this, I still enjoyed the game nonetheless!
great feeling momentum based mechanics even with the (mostly) lack of sound effects and music (for the next time i really recommend adding some music even if its just some royalty free songs and spending just a tiny bit more of time on the sfx! it really adds to the experience, just a lil jump sound and a satisfying win sound or jingle when you reach the flag really goes a long way towards making it feel gratifying to play). surprising amount of levels and quality of those levels too! i'd love this if the audio part was more developed and the visuals were a tad bit less repetitive.
as for the theme, i honestly did not understand how it was applied until i read the page afterwards. i cant remember if at any point i died because of the timer ending, maybe i just speedran it lol. but it doesnt really feel like a core mechanic, the core would be the time manipulation, if you wanted the countdown to be an important part of the game i would have added the time left for each level to be on screen at all times, this way it just feels random. shoul'dve been communicated better imo (also as another commenter said, i dont know if it really enhances the experience but i understand its important to fit the theme)
good job!
forgot to mention, really slick main menu ui design
I am SO glad the time spent on the menu was not for nothing!! Yeah, the audio side of things was done last minute because we didn't have anyone on the team specifically for that. Also, about the speedrun side of things, you just played really well, we actually had people having trouble with the difficulty and dying to time quite often! What you might also have not noticed because of how well you played is that manipulating time actually speeds up the countdown! It's shown with a change of color of the clock hand!
Yeah, if you are a speedy player then the timer won't be too much of an issue, though in playtesting some people were having issues with it, hence the leniency. Had we had more time to create more levels then maybe towards the end some levels could've gotten a bit more demanding with the usage of time, though as to how fun that would've been is anyone's guess.
Thank you for the feedback!
Loving the speedrunning aspect. Well done
It plays nice. Not buggy. Mechanics are well communicated.
Visuals are good, I really like main menu design.
Controls were a little inconvenient for me at first: I was trying to use AD and ZXC at the same time. But then I realized that AD and IOP are way more convenient. So I don't have problem with controls after all. Just that it's not that obvious which schema is better to use.
Honestly, it took some time to understand that I'm not dying randomly, but dying from time exceeding. Mb add some message about keeping track of time on the main character.
It was frustrating that pressing ESC erases all your progress when I just wanted to pause the game.
It's a little frustrating that moving platforms crush you, they don't usually do that in platformers.
It's a little weird that you introduce jumping on the second level, but it is also required on the first one. But it's wasn't any hurdle for me.
All in all, this game has potential, but I'm not sure that time limiting level adds to enjoyment (yeah, it's theme of the jam, but I'm not sure that it's that necessary).
Fun game! Only gripe is that you can only jump using the space bar. It feels wrong jumping with space bar using arrow keys
Unfortunately, it would not let me download on Microsoft Edge so couldn't rate it, but the game looks cool from the itch page, also how were you able to get the key binds to show up on the itch page like that it's so fancy!
Thanks for checking it out regardless! The binds on the page are actually just an image that I made because it felt a little empty otherwise.
Nice mechanics! Using time to increase my momentum with moving platforms was intuitive and fun, and the visuals are clean. The controls are a little cumbersome, though. I think binding time up/down to mouse buttons left/right could perhaps be more intuitive. Good job, though! The difficulty level was just right for me.
Will keep in mind and try to include a keybinding section in the menu next time, thanks for letting me know!