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Long Way Down, Longer Way Up!'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Devlog | #2 | n/a | n/a |
| Art Style / Visuals | #3 | 3.133 | 3.133 |
| Overall | #4 | 2.875 | 2.875 |
| Audio / Sound Design | #5 | 2.867 | 2.867 |
| Theme | #6 | 2.933 | 2.933 |
| Gameplay / Fun / Engagement | #14 | 2.567 | 2.567 |
Ranked from 30 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game interpret and use the theme?
A little owl badly wants to fly... but it does not have enough energy! It leaves home and falls down... and eventually needs to get back!
Devlog Challenge?
Devlog link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BNLzegqnIAcBDiAE7wgtztiXhUxT6Z7S/view?usp=sharing
Easter Egg Challenge?
Easter Eggs
Have a look in the clouds. They will tell you the engine I used for creating the game.
Did you use Farclip and want to be considered for the Farclip Award? (optional)
Game Engine?
Game Engine / Tools (Other)?
Aseprite, Inkscape, Audacity
Self-made & used stuff?
Have you joined a game jam before?
Roughly how much time did you spend developing? (in hours)
18 hours, within 6 days
Anything else you'd like to share about your game or development process?
Unfortunately I had to finish the game quite early (within 6 days only). Usually I wanted to include some more game mechanics.
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Comments
Adorable, and lots of fun! Short and sweet, but I like the mechanics and trying to fly up the leaderboard. The continued upward momentum after you stopped flapping was a nice way to make timing the branches trickier.
Thank you so much! :)
Hi. Tried your game. It looks stunning and I see why people are enjoying it, but like Stealthix, I had a trouble playing with a laptop and having to scroll. Especially trying to play with a touchpad, I just didn't have enough hands to scroll and keep Owlbert in the air. I don't see this as a design flaw; just an inevitable side effect of an otherwise cool mechanic.
Anyway, congrats on your submission and glad you both made the jam again this round :D
Thank you!
Glad you still liked it, this was the reason I decided to go for drawing lines to move left/right rather than shapes actually :D
I guess what some people may not try: Zooming out the page to avoid scrolling completely:DD
Thanks again!
Perfect jam game?
Two simple mechanics with some super polish. This is so well done.
The jump/fly feels great. The swipe mechanic feels really good even with a mouse.
Visually all of the animations are so clean, and the audio supports everything perfectly.
Plus the menus. The HUD. The scrolling/expanding game window.
I have no complaints. This is really solid for a 10-day jam.
Wow, thank you so much! Even more appreciate it as I had some time constraints and needed to prepare everything within 6 days only ._.
Would have loved to include some more mechanics, like obstacles or drawing symbols etc., but there was just no more time.
Thanks again!
AWW, OWLFRED IS SUCH A LITTLE LEGEND! 🦉💨🏠
This is such a charming take on The Long Way Home. A tiny owl falling all the way down and having to figure out how to get back home is simple, but the idea fits the theme beautifully. The drawing-based movement is also such a clever mechanic, and the combination of pixel art, music, sound effects, and voice lines gives the whole experience a really cozy personality. ❤️
I especially love how much character comes through despite the game being made in only around 18 hours. The window/scrolling idea is a really creative touch too, and the little cloud Easter egg is a fun detail to look out for! 🦉☁️
SUCH A CUTE AND POLISHED JAM ENTRY! 🌟🏠 GOOD LUCK! 🎮✨
Thank you so much!
Short and Sweet!
Gameplay was very creative! The movement system was a little confusing at first, but I quickly understood how to use the air mechanic. I can't comment on much here, as the game is very short, but what is here is effective!
Visually, the game was great! The pixel art was very high quality, however there is an exception with that, being the owl sprite. The sprite does stand out a lot compared to the rest of the game, and while it does make it so the player is easily identifiable, I don't think the game is visually cluttered enough where a higher quality sprite would make the player too hard to spot. The game is also very short, so I have to acknowledge there isn't too much to visually gawk at, but what is there is pleasant.
Audio was great! The voice lines were cute, and the sound effects and music were accurate and pleasant to listen too. No complaints, other than the voice lines standing out a lot, and being pretty jarring every time I heard it.
Theme use was super cool! I like the idea a lot, it was a fairly simple interpretation but the execution was great!
Overall, a short but super polished experience!
Thank you so much for this detailed feedback! :) Glad the air mechanic clicked quickly after the first moments. It's short because I only had 18 hours over 6 days, but I had planned a lot more...
You're right about Owlfred's sprite, it does stand out from the rest... this is due to the time constraint as well.
Happy you liked the music (made by Merulon btw) and SFX! Thanks for the honest note on the voice lines too. This is actually why I added the "Skip Intro" and "Skip Outro" button, so yoou would not need to here it all over again. I'm really happy the theme idea worked for you!
Amazing work there you two!
Superb combination of art, sfx and music (and even voicelines!). Simple and fun gameplay mechanic, cute little story - just very well done and polished.
Might be that I currently only have a laptop available but the only gripe i have is having to scroll up/down the screen throughout the game which felt a little flow breaking.
All in all great job!
Thansk! Glad the art, sound, music and voice lines came together so well. The scrolling is a fair point, this is why I went for a fairly simply mechanic to move left/right. But also: Flying should not be THAT easy :D I didn't have time to test it on different screens, so for some it may be even harder... but I wanted to test the idea of mimicking the itch page :DD
Interesting take on the theme, and the art is really cool. Great work!
Thank you so much, glad you liked it!
Really nice game! Visually it looks great and the sound design and music is really nice too. It's also very addicting, I played it enough to get first on the leaderboard!
So happy you liked it. And congrats on the first place on the leaderboard! Now I have to defend it... let's see ;D
The game was really simple and enjoyable, with a story that matches the concept of 'the long way home' perfectly. I really liked the voice acting and the visuals!
Glad the story fit "the long way home" for you, and that you enjoyed it!
really cute game, great entry, love the art and the story, really fun mechanic and play with the window size, really cool entry.
Really happy you liked it. And I'm glad you noticed the window size trick, that was one of my favourite parts to build and something I really wanted to do for a long time. This theme was just made for it :D
Really fun and addictive game, i tried like 5-6 times to beat the top spot but cant get lower than 29 sec :( The concept is really cool and fits the theme perfectly. The best part is the mechanic though - simple but fun and putting that leaderboard has added so much replayability! The overall art is charming and the voice acting gives it a really nice vibe, music also goes really well with it! Great job on this, would have loved to see more levels/ variations but given that you had only 6 days, this is already really impressive!
29 seconds is already a great time, keep trying :D I'm really happy the mechanic and the leaderboard added replayability, that's exactly what I hoped for. You're right, more levels and variations were planned! I was actually only able to work 18 hours across 6 days, so a lot had to be cut.... Thanks again! :)
Absolutely beautiful—visually, this game is stunning. I really love the aesthetic, and the voice acting adds a sense of calm and serenity. Maybe it takes a little while to get used to it at first—it was a bit strange because I had to move it around a bit—but after that, it wasn't a problem. An exceptional game. :D
So happy you liked it. You're right, it takes a moment to get used to... I switched the controls quite late in the jam, so there wasn't much time left to polish that first moment. Better onboarding is definitely something I still need to learn xD
This was so cute, the gameplay and the art mesh well together. Lovely game, keep up the good work!
Thank you so much!
The controls are unique and pretty intuitive - drawing a line to move left and right is fairly responsive, but needs a little more polish (still impressive considering the time restraints of the gamejam). The line kept getting stuck on the screen occasionally which was a bit messy - a minor bug.
Always good to see young-kid friendly games! The story is charming and cute - my little girl enjoyed watching the owl fly haha.
The art style was lovely.
Considering you built this is under 20 hours, I'm impressed.
Thank you so much, and greetings to your little girl! :) It makes me really happy that you enjoyed watching Owlfred fly.
You're right about the line getting stuck.... I switched from shape drawing to lines quite late in the jam, so there was almost no time left to test it properly. Glad you still liked it! If you're curious how the game came together, you can check out the devlog :)
Wow. The visuals are stunning and I cant even comprehend how you did the resolution transition, amazing. Also simple gameplay but effective and the voices are so good.
Thank you!
I played your game three times- the first time, when it had a different controls (with triangle and circle). The second time right now. The third time also now, but to claim the first place on the leaderboard :)
The game reminded me of "a bit lost" (if my memory is right it's more or less for your son's age), which is also about a baby owl that fell out of the nest. This is a cool use of the theme that gave me all kinds of warm feelings :) Also- I love the name Owlfred!
The graphics and sound are pretty much what I'd expect from this team. As usual- any game with voice acting gets points in my book!
As for the gameplay. It's a good idea, but I think it needs some balance. The early version was a bit difficult- when you are in a hurry sometimes your tringles get a bit rounded and circles get angles. This version is way easier. Drawing lines is almost as easy as controling Owlfred with a mouse. The thing is, the early version made sense in context. Flying is difficult for a baby owl, and the controls sold that feeling.
In the end- this is really impressive for a game made in 18 hours! I'd say something like "keep up the good work", but you're already doing that :)
Wow, thank you so much! So happy you love the name Owlfred (I like those kinda puns) and that the game gave you warm feelings.
You're absolutely right about the controls though. The first version with circles and triangles made more sense maybe but shape recognition was really hard to make reliable in the little time I had, so I switched to drawing lines quite late. That left almost no time to test and balance it, which is why it's a lot easier now. Finding a middle ground that is reliable but still feels like a struggle would be a great next step! But also I had in mind that players not only need to draw, but partwise also need to scroll due to the "mimicking" of the itch page and the game frame size I used... Still: Thank you for the kind words, it's really motivating :)