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How does your game meet GBJam's theme
The protagonist has to travel on an old train full of ghosts and ghouls while collecting her stolen gold
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The amount of polish in this is quite impressive. I'm shocked how much content you were able to pack in! Honestly I can't think of any notes the transformation mechanic is so interesting especially after I realized how the cat works!
great game with stunning graphics and sound. I found that the levels with timers and puzzle logic a bit hard… it’s one thing to run quickly through levels with enemies, but figuring out puzzles with time pressure is hard. especially, if you have to start from the beginning. what’s the checkpoint good for then?
Yeah I realized that the logic behind the flag comes off as "checkpoint" where the original intention was for a room where you can take a breather and it tracks your completion progress. For the timers, they were kind of a last second jam addition, and you can totally see that, haha! The funniest thing about this project is seeing how us developers found the levels not too challenging and having the complete opposite reaction happen upon release, so definitely a learning experience for sure. If you have any cool feedback on how to improve these systems, levels, or over all just ideas we would be so happy to hear them :D
This was a fun game, and absolutely incredible for your first full game project! Well done!! I have a lot of disparate thoughts and feedback, here they are in no particular order:
Thank you for enjoying the project and I am glad you liked it :p
Also the feedback is very much noted, a lot of the same thing was being said about the rank system and I see that the way I implemented it was not the best of ways. For clarification the rank system takes the amount of gold collected and then divides it by the amount of rooms you have been through, so that is why the S comes earlier on if you die. I would love for more feedback on how something like this can be changed so it works best with the endless runner feel. But thank you for your feedback and I hope you enjoyed it :)
> But thank you for your feedback and I hope you enjoyed it :)
I definitely did, and I might come back for another playthrough depending on how busy I am :)
> For clarification the rank system takes the amount of gold collected and then divides it by the amount of rooms you have been through, so that is why the S comes earlier on if you die. I would love for more feedback on how something like this can be changed so it works best with the endless runner feel.
Yeah, that's one of those things that makes perfect sense on paper while completely falling apart in practise. It's a perfectly understandable decision to make in the time crunch of a game jam with so many other things to worry about which is why I don't hold it against the game at all, but since you asked, here's some more feedback. And just to preface what I'm about to say, most of my experience with ranking systems comes from playing a lot platformers and racing games that used them back in the day - there are a lot of other genres that implement these (rhythm, character action, etc) which I haven't actually played many of, nor have I played many endless runners, but hopefully what I'm about to say is general enough to apply.
The point of a ranking system is to motivate repeat playthroughs and encourage skill expression by showing the player that they could do better, and also as a benchmark for progression once the player decides they want to engage with said system. Some games base your rank off of your clear time, and these are games where going fast, controlling your character at speed and knowing the level layout are the entire point of the game - which is why the ranking system encourages this. Other games are more complicated, the early 3D Sonic games come to mind where you need to be fast, precise and thorough to be able to get enough base score, ring bonus and time bonus in one run to be able to get the A rank. In those games it's easy to run through a level carelessly and drop all your rings or go super slowly and scour the level without taking risk, that's why the ranking system only shows you the big rewards for doing what's hard.
So to figure out what ranking system would work for a game, just ask yourself what sort of gameplay you want to encourage. In this case I think it's pretty clear in the genre name - it's called an 'endless' runner for a reason. Progression should be the main component in determining your rank, because the whole point of an endless game is to see far can you get before you lose. IMO, doing the ranking backwards to what you have now - the number of rooms you've been through divided by the amount of gold missed (with a little bit of forgiveness for collecting almost-but-not-all of the gold) would have been an excellent starting off point that would just need a bit of tweaking to be a really satisfying system. It would punish dying early, as well as skimming through the levels while ignoring the mechanics or having to skip gold because you were too slow, which are both natural consequences of not having enough skill for this kind of game.
Hope this helps!
It's cool how you interpreted the theme! I found the gameplay fun and thought it looked great!
love this game! it controls so well and swapping between cat and human form feels really satisfying when you get it right. lovely presentation too, the music in particular is fantastic
God this game is stylish, really really impressive. I think the humanoid controls were tighter than the cat controls (bit disorienting to walk upwards using left or right), but that wasn't a problem once you get used to it. I impressed when I found on my second run that the carts vary! very good way of making use of your levels, and I'm impressed that it doesn't feel jarring.
TLDR: Nice work!
Edit: Oh I also have to comment on the awesome character art, I really liked those character portraits.
Very cool game! The time crunch makes the wagons feel more exciting even if they might be easy at first glance, it being an endless runner also adds an immense amount of replayability despite being a fairly simple game.
Love the ambience of the game, the changing music stems in between wagons is a very nice addition. The pixel art is super duper good too, and the puzzle/gameplay part is very well executed!
Phenomenal game! just 10/10 across the board! The amount of polish you were able to do in the time limit is awe inspiring ! A great and replayable endless runner.
i really like the wild west vibe paired with the pixel-y style a lot, and the shifting animation is so cool.. the music is fantastic especially after the tutorial segment, i like how it gives off almost a sense of urgency. a bit tricky at times but really fun to play!!!!!
Woah, the similarities are crazy! Really awesome presentation and story, communicates its mechanic and controls instantly with the first three levels, great art and music. The main character is really cute as well. It's pretty difficult to get far, but it's fine because of how much I love the game over theme. It might be train bias but this is my favorite game of the jam so far. Outstanding work!
This was fun! The western + train setting is nice, I like the art, and I especially want to compliment the music. I like the scoring system; very generous to make it percentage based and have S be so achievable even before you deserve it. I thought some of the timed puzzle rooms and enemies were a lot more interesting than the others, and I wish the transformation was a little snappier / more forgiving. But overall great!
I was wondering how her being a cat girl had to do with running around on a train, and then it became a fantastic platforming mechanic! So fun. I love the aesthetic, top-tier train. I did have one level repeat a ton (maybe that was intentional?) but other than that this was really really well done. Love the sound design, too! (especially the little meows!)
Delicious
This is Incredible!
The presentation, sprite work and music is so good that I definitely would've mistaken it for an official Game Boy game (I especially love Gateau's design and the cute meows in the soundtrack).
The gameplay loop of collecting gold and escaping carriages is a simple engaging loop with tons of replay potential and kind of feels like a roguelike. I think it's a cool idea to have levels be randomly generated while still having difficulty progression (especially after level 20 which I still haven't overcome). Most of the levels are well designed around platforming and the transformation mechanic, both of which are clearly taught early on without words. It is a bit frustrating that you can't heal and dying means going back to the beginning, but I can look past that as I know this is an endless game (also skill issue for me).
I was a bit confused by the ranking system, though as I thought it was based on how much gold you collect, but I ended up getting an "S" after dying early on in the game despite not collecting that much gold. But that's my only major issue aside some level repetition.
I'm happy to say this is one of my favourites from the jam, thank you.
Excellent all around! I'm especially fond of the artwork; it really is stunning. Very punishing, but it's just so easy to jump back in and give it another go.
Very cool game.
It is a bit hard that you have to restart the whole game when you die, especially if you fall down the train.
Magnificent entry, the presentation is top notch. Very nice sprite work, great music, very true to the gameboy.
Randomly generating the train each time is a nice idea, I really appreciate the variety of ideas in your puzzles and ennemies, your time limit is super tight on most room making it very pleasant to memorize and execute them. Your tutorial is also an amazing way to introduce every mechanic wordlessly, great job on that end.
Your rating system is a bit counter-intuitive however. Since it takes the percentage of items reclaimed (rather than the total quantity) it makes it so that the easiest way to get an S is to play the tutorial and then dies, while a good run will often score way lower.
Probably my favorite entry so far (although I've only played a dozen) congratulations.
The art is great and the gameplay is crisp! My biggest struggle was just with the transformation mechanic. For some reason it just felt kid of awkward to transform/flip between forms.
very cool game