Going Home

matita 2017-04-28 15:09

At first I thought it was too simple but I couldn't stop exploring and I needed to explore it all to the end.

Just one note: the background music that is not a proper loop is a bit annoying.

Well done!

ace17 2017-05-01 12:20

Same for me: I had the urge to explore ; however, the game lacks interactions with the world, and the upgrades don't feel very rewarding, it would be better if they unlocked stuff that the player has already seen, so she can say to herself "aha, now I can go to this place I saw before"

jones 2017-05-02 00:42

Super dope, loved parts of everything, and if things were taken up a notch or two I could see myself playing for hours. The controls could have been tighter and the music a bit longer with some rain/wind sounds thrown in, although not sure how much that makes sense in a cave, but it still really set the mood. It was cool backtracking to old places you've see and realizing that you could now reach them, but the two best moments were when you saw that the map looped around on itself and when you finally got out of the cave. There appeared to be multiple ways to get out to the surface so I'll definitely have to come back later and see if I can find them. Great game!

fireslash 2017-05-02 04:40

There are lots of long, meandering dead ends. It's a bit frustrating from a player perspective, and typically something you'd solve during level design.

Jumping is very floaty, which leads to frustration when you miss a jump slightly and have to wait to fall before you can jump again. I suspect this was an intentional choice (low gravity) but when you have ambiguous levels like this, it can be frustrating unfortunately.

The ladder ability is a nice touch, but it should probably be given initially, or made much more obvious. I tried every possible route before finding it, which almost made me quit before digging deeper.

You might want to add some tile variations to your map. A common trick here to salt large maps like this is to just create a pool of "alternative" tiles and pepper them via RNG. Create some rare tiles too that stand out to give your level that extra bit of zest!

You also may wish to consider looking at angled tiles to spice up the level geometry a bit. Flat surfaces get boring quickly.

I got stuck after the second ladder powerup. I could get out of the pit, but couldn't figure out where to go.

Overall an interesting idea. I'd love to see more life added to the world, as it's a bit bland as others have stated. I think the mechanic itself has some potential if there's just more of a carrot to keep players hooked

impiaaa 2017-05-02 04:55

Building my own platformer? I dig it. The progression is super smooth, and the ending was nice too. A+!

roberto-romao 2017-05-02 05:09

:)

This stair mechanic is pretty solid, with more mechanics and puzzles this could become a Aewsome project ! :D

Good job!

tylerraz 2017-05-02 14:20

I liked the ladder creation mechanic, but ended up getting stuck at the bottom of the level before the second power up. I decided to give it another run through after reading some of the comments, and figured out I wasn't really stuck. The game definitely opens up as the ladder gets bigger, and its a nice progression mechanic. The purple platforms have a nice alien look to them, and the music fits the exploratory atmosphere well.

versatile-box 2017-05-02 15:13

2D explorational games can be really good, it's all on the graphics and the music in my humble opinion. This game has a pretty good (albeit badly looped) music and it's not very good in graphics.

However, it made me explore the entire planet and that seemless around the world thing blew my mind. The stairs mechanic is really good, but, as someone told you before, you should probably add more.

Please keep working on this game!

2017-05-02 16:19

At first glance this game seems quite boring, but when actually playing it is actually pretty okay. The ladder creation mechanic is fun and interesting, but should be available from the beginning. Right now it's difficult to understand what the X button does before you stumble on the powerup. It's also a bit difficult at times to understand where you're supposed to go, some feedback would be nice even though it's an exploration game.

The graphics is as other people have said not great. My main issue with it is that it's too bland, some random tiles , variations and other small details in the world would improve it a lot.

I like the music! It sets a spooky mood for the world, but the long silence at the end before it repeats distracts some from that mood.

liquidbrain 2017-05-02 18:30

At first I liked the game a lot, relaxing music and simple art. Unfortunately time went by and I got a bit to relaxed. I was running back and forth and it got a bit repetitive, the music stopped from time to time and i felt lonely. Maybe you should add some obstacles in order to make things a bit more interesting?

Concerning completing the game, I felt kind of happy with myself because everything was going great but suddenly i fell into an endless void of purpleness.

Namnlös.png

Thank you for the experience, with some polishing I think this could become a great game! Have an awesome day, and I hope to see you in the next jam!

// Isak (one half of [LiquidBrain](https://ldjam.com/users/liquidbrain/))

jhandsy 2017-05-03 02:31

I really enjoyed this! Very atmospheric! I would have liked some puzzlier applications of the mechanic, though!

The soundtrack was nice! Like something out of twin peaks!

Thanks for the nice experience!

deathstorm 2017-05-03 07:00

Good job for the Jam.

I like the music in the background and the concept itself.

The permanent Backtracking is a bit anoying but in general a pretty nice game.

automatonvx 2017-05-03 23:55

It was pretty atmospheric, and I liked the stair mechanic, but felt there needed to be more reward for all the back tracking and exploration rather than more of the same though, and as said liked the music but please fix the loop. unusual, but pretty enjoyable. Also would have preferred if I could have had a full screen option without having to sign up to kongregate, maybe try one of the other services next time.

obidubi 2017-05-08 03:39

Great game! It was very atmospheric and created good mood as I played. The map was interesting and had some good climbing challenges. The double helix ladder mechanic was very cool and solid. Everything worked and worked well as far as I can tell. I had a lot of fun playing your game!

Some things that could be improved on could be the map composition. The continuous purple tile map worked okay, but having different textures for tiles throughout the map would be even better. Having varied textures could make your game much more immersive since the player wouldn't looking at the same monotonous background all the time. You already had a good start with the sparsely placed blue tile structures found throughout your game, and more of this would be great! (My compo game could have used more of this as well. I am creating a post jam version that generates different tile backgrounds and it really makes a difference).

Aside from that, you really have a good start here. Your game overall works very well with very few if any bugs. Your double helix ladder mechanic is very cool and allowing the player to extend the possible length of it by getting power ups was a very good idea. I like it so far and I am curious to see what you might do with it in the futere. Great job! :)

zener 2017-05-08 09:13

Loving the mood of this one. Graphics may be too simple but this is something easy to improve

pikopik 2017-05-11 01:45

very knytty. the beanstalk idea is pretty nice, a different powerup could let you throw the seeds instead of planting them at your feet, maybe to solve puzzles.

good work, I had a chill time.

aggrathon 2017-05-15 22:12

The music created a very relaxed mood. Some other powerup could really help the game, like some speedboost for all those backtracking sections.