Wrong Delivery

remco 2017-04-27 00:34

Guess I'll prove I'm not (just) about the ratings :grin:

The concept is quite simple, but the controls are fluid and I somehow ended up playing for quite some time, hoping to find another ability (so far I've jump, shoot and double-jump).

Some sound-effects (and music if you've got that down) would improve the overall experience quite a lot. Have you heard of [BFXR](http://www.bfxr.net/)? It can semi-randomly generate sound-fx, which you can than tweak. It's even recomended on an official LD-page somewhere.

technonugget 2017-04-28 19:38

Good stuff man, I enjoyed it a lot, here is a list of pros/cons

**pros:** tight controls, easy to use, I never had trouble jumping from one thing to another awesome sense of progression, it felt like I accomplished things much more diversity than I expected, was surprised when I saw the ceiling dudes, and I was expecting there to be only two different room styles but there was like four. item collecting - it works well, not just thrown in as a last-ditch effort, each item seemed like it was very useful and opened a whole new door of possibilities level design, took advantage of the abilities that you get

**cons:** not very polished no audio - even super simple audio would add to the experience it was annoying how the enemies took more than one hit to kill doesn't really fit the theme if you don't read the backstory it's lacking in effects, the bullets just appear and disappear, when you die you just instantaneously teleport back to your checkpoint.

also the character walk animation wasn't working for me, it only showed one frame. All in all, good job.

boltkey 2017-05-01 06:39

Quite big and flexed out game, and quite polished too (haven't encountered any bugs), but quite uninnovative. Same concept has been implemented so many times already.

mrspeaker 2017-05-01 15:37

Nice effort - the quick restart meant it didn't get annoying when trying to get back up through the level and hitting a bad guy (because I'm impatient). I personally would have liked a tinnnnny bit more float in the jumping, but it felt really nice.

impbox 2017-05-01 15:47

Enemies should definitely be one hit kill as someone else said. It didn't seem to fit the theme. I liked the concept of starting with no abilities and picking up new abilities along the way although it wasn't clear at first that you couldn't jump so I spent ages trying to figure out which button made you jump.

anthony-dunlap 2017-05-01 16:15

It's an interesting idea for a backstory. Movement is a bit buggy, my character doesn't stop moving when I release an arrow key and the jump button doesn't work all the time. Other than that, it is a decent game.

neontropics 2017-05-01 16:21

Nice little metroidvania game, the controls are very good and I dig the old school PC graphics. The tall room with a bunch of platforms was both the most fun and most frustrating one...

Probably needs more of a 'twist' to elevate the game. Just some lofi effects made with Bfxr would add a lot too, and a music theme.

ratking 2017-05-01 21:05

Fun little metroidvania, plays like butter.

Love the fact that I don't need to kill enemies again when I die!

fell-trsi 2017-05-01 21:11

Great, well done!! <3

joozey 2017-05-01 21:38

I liked it! The mechanic definitely has potential. Not obviously related to the theme though.

voxel 2017-05-03 09:26

Pretty nice. Obviously this is normal in a metroidvania but I like the progression of the abilities. Especially the dash powers. Actually the dashes were my favourite part, just zooming around out of control. Maybe get rid of everything else in the game and just have it be out of control dashing. Dash GOTY

kosmo 2017-05-04 04:38

You did an amazing job of level design here. You revisit areas multiple times and there were a few places where I was like "hmmm.... I'm definitely going to be back here once I get a new ability" -- so great going there. Additionally I never felt lost even though nothing was inherently pointing me where to go.

Unfortunately, the complete lack of audio hurts. As others have mentioned there are some great utilities out there for SFX and I think you would be surprised how quickly you can get them in your game. They really add a lot. The same goes for background music.

The theme didn't quite land for me either. Seemed like just a straight up platformer.

I think people are knocking you a bit on innovation though. Sure, most of these mechanics have been done before in other games-- but compared to most LD paltformers yours used some great mechanics to loop the player around to multiple areas.

Overall I think you should be extremely proud of your level design here. Thanks for making it! :)

g12345 2017-05-04 18:49

@Remco and @Kosmo About sound and music: I was so much busy with map designing and finishing drawing the powerups at the very final hour/minute/second that I didn't had time to do any sound/music.

I did planned to do try bxfr this time but I just ran out of time. I'd like to expand this game into something a little bit larger for a post-jam version too, but that can take some time. :smile:

mwcz 2017-05-05 19:12

I have to agree with the other comments, the level design is great! I loved how each ability had a level feature nearby that fit the ability perfectly, like the wide gap for the air dash. Very cool too how you showed the package early on but without the abilities yet to reach it.

Music and sfx would have been great additions, but I understand the time constraints all too well! I'm impressed you were able to fit in so many abilities. Every time I try to add abilities to games, they take so much time to implement and tweak that I can only fit in one or two out of ten.

The controls were very responsive as well. And of course the abilities were a lot of fun to play with. I found myself really looking forward to the next ability.

pragmascript 2017-05-06 16:20

For only one hour of level design that has quite some nice gameplay

kcreanor 2017-05-06 17:15

For such a simple game, I found myself playing this for quite some time. Just as you think you know whats going on, a new element is added and you find yourself thinking back through the previous levels as to what routes you need to go that you couldn't do previously. Reminded me of older-style games like Rick Dangerous which is a good thing!) and I was pleasantly surprised. With slightly better graphics this could be a full game that I would pay money for, keep it up! Well done, great entry :smiley:

philomory 2017-05-07 02:45

This is well done, and even without reading the description (which I didn't actually do until after I played), it _immediately_ put me in mind of Robot Wants Kitty. The controls are smooth and the map was (for the most part) well designed. It _really_ could have done with at least some basic sound effects, though, for player feedback. Hit/death animations would have also helped.

The two complaints I have in terms of the actual gameplay are: A) the enemies didn't really need to have multiple HP (especially the ceiling guys), it just makes them tedious to kill without making them difficult, and B) the room full of platforms on the way to the keycard is likewise more tedious than difficult. The rest of the map was enjoyable to play, but that room could have stood to have half as many enemies (or fewer).

One other thing, neither good nor bad, but: it's entirely possible (even easy) to get the package with only the double-jump, none of the subsequent powers are necessary (even though the dash is super fun):

package.png

sorceress 2017-05-07 17:27

Nice little game. Like @philomory, i found the parcel with only three abilities (double jumping in/out of the "mouth" of the wall art near the parcel). Having seen other tile sets (yellow and lava) I knew there must have been more, so i played again to find all the things. The jump mechanic doesn't feel quite right, but i got used to it over time. I like most of the graphics; it reminds me of Repton. A shame there were no sounds.

g12345 2017-05-08 13:30

@philomory @sorceress Well, getting the package using double jump only is (probably) not a game-breaking bug, otherwise i'd have fixed it. There will be a post-jam version with that fix but you should still judge on this version. At the moment I'd still prioritising playing some of the 3k games for now.

@philomory If I had the time I'd probably improve that part. It would be less tedious but just as challenging. I'd probably make some other parts a bit more challenging too, but there will also be an "explorer mode" with fewer enemies.

pandakipu 2017-05-08 21:24

Nice game, the level design is really great, I didn't want to stop until I found the package :) Good job !

kasarun 2017-05-09 21:00

Controls and level design are nice. I liked the part without jumping. Red monsters are cuuuute, really liked their animation !

It could be better with a minimap instead of x;y coords.

potatolain 2017-05-10 22:38

Fun little game. The levels were interesting, though I did also manage to beat it with only double-jump. (The little smiley character near the end left me curious, so I had to see what was over him. You've gotten a lot of feedback already so I'm not gonna reiterate things. There's a lot good with this game, and there's a few things that could use a little improvement. (Still a great entry!)

One thing I didn't see mentioned much was the quick restart. I'll be honest, that felt kinda jarring to me. I like getting back to the action quick, but it's a little surprising when I respawn after dying and start moving again before I've fully processed that I died. The game was still completely playable, but I did get surprised by that a bit. (Also like someone else mentioned, I looked for a jump button for a little bit before figuring out I had to unlock jumping. Not a negative though.)

reactor-scram 2017-05-10 23:38

I got 4 powerups and the key and gave up at 19:30 cause I couldn't figure out how to get the package.

That instant restart was definitely the biggest negative. I had that issue on Messenger and that's why I purposely put a huge respawn delay into Vegicide.

smiling-cat-entertainment 2017-05-11 02:12

Seeing the goal on the starting screen was delightfully deceiving. I thought "OK, simple enough", and all of a sudden, I'm in the middle of a mini-Metroidvania, all to get a package! The movement mechanics were good, with one small issue - jumping though 1-block gaps was a little hit-or-miss. Overall, this was a lot of fun to play through.

mortus 2017-05-11 08:36

You know, I have to admit I've come to expect a low overall game quality from a LD platformers with obvious programmer art (hello powerup icons :D). But this one got me entertained for sure. Funny thing is, I usually do not even enjoy metroidvanias all that much, but this time I've completed the game in a single breath and was sad that it's not longer. I guess that makes your game a very good one. :D I don't know if it was intuitive paths or frequent checkpoints or cool particle enemy death animations, but it just felt right.

Too bad about the audio and some missing animations, other than that it's a great fun game for me, good job!

puppetmaster 2017-05-11 17:07

Congrats this is a very cool metroidvania like platformer. I like the cute pixel art. Very sad it has now sound and music. It does not matter because the rest is very well done. Keep up the great work!

wheerd 2017-05-14 07:43

A nice plattformer game. I like that you start without even the jump and have to "earn" it first. This progression is really satisfying. The back story of the game is funny. The gameplay feels solid and the controls are overall good. For me, the hitboxes of the enemy projectiles seemed a bit big - it felt like I was getting hit without the projectile visually hitting. Some more animations (for example the lava) and sound effects would have been cool. The level design is very good and areas are nicely gated by the mechanics you unlock. Overall, a nice entry, well done!

coderdozer 2017-05-14 14:34

Its definitely a cool approach that you develop your abilities as you progress. Nice platformer, the difficulty does ramp up as you progress and getting the timing of the enemies shots down was quite challenging.

damien-remars 2017-05-14 17:18

I just found difficulty to make a big bump at some point, but nice game though!

laaph 2017-05-14 22:53

Very nice! Very well polished game!

ptsnoop 2017-05-16 20:01

I spent far too long time at the start of the game mashing my keyboard, trying to work out which key was Jump. :P

monty 2017-05-16 21:18

Maaaan, this game begs for music and sounds! =) Adding Adlib SFX and Music and could easily see this as being a early 90's VGA shareware hit! The challenge was on the right spot!

dollarone 2017-05-19 00:31

Nice game!

I like the progression of abilities with the power-ups. I was certainly interesting in the beginning without even being able to jump! I really liked the level design as you see where you might go later after you've found new power-ups. However, at the end it seems you don't actually need all the power-ups? I would have changed this but I assume you ran out of time?

Anyway, enjoyed playing that. Some sounds and music would have been good. But a nice metroidvania as it is!

frodewin 2017-05-21 08:34

I read your ranting about the bad rank and so i decided to play your game :-) I liked the game very much! I think I gathered the most items and abilities, except for the one at 1400,1760 is it actually possible to get that one using double jump or do I need another ability? I had laser and walk in air as well at that point.

I agree with your assessment that the final ranking for this game are a bit disappointing. I'm new to LD but I think this is an effect of most people avoiding mostly extreme ranks (so no 1 or 5 stars unless a game is exceptional great or bad) and that there is a high variability among the votes. Your game basically ended up with an average 3 in most categories, except theme and innovation. Theme I would agree, your game does not especially address the small world theme in my opinion. Innovation I would have rated higher, but only because I played your game long enough to find the power-ups. I would guess many voted just based on the first impression where the game does not look very innovative. So, I understand your frustration but on the other hand it is understandable how the ratings were made. I think that just 20 ratings for a game from a pool of thousands reviewers introduces just too much statistical variance in order to give a stable ranking.

g12345 2017-05-21 23:26

@Frodewin There are 5 abilities in game (and a key). Perhaps I should make that clearer before, but I thought it would be fun to see how people can find all the passages (none are hidden).

As for statistical variances... well, I give away lots more 4 and 5 stars, i think one of them even "won" the LD, so perhaps I am the one who should lower my scores instead... And that's why I think I'm better off not judging.

Thanks for playing even after the LD.