vfabien21 2017-12-03 23:33
Impressive game for a compo ! I really love the colors and what you've done with the sound. I am impressed by the challenge of some levels. I will definitally come back to it and try to get to the end...
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD40 → The lost strawberry
By egordorichev
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 142 | 3.72 | 294 | |
| Fun | 257 | 3.44 | 295 | |
| Innovation | 398 | 3.01 | 289 | |
| Theme | 529 | 2.96 | 284 | |
| Graphics | 121 | 3.89 | 298 | |
| Audio | 83 | 3.70 | 286 | |
| Mood | 43 | 3.80 | 290 |
Impressive game for a compo ! I really love the colors and what you've done with the sound. I am impressed by the challenge of some levels. I will definitally come back to it and try to get to the end...
Interesting mix-up on the Celeste mechanics!
- I like the idea of having the pickups obstruct your vision more, but I found that in-game this effect wasn't noticeable enough to be effective; it could have stood to be exaggerated a bit more. - I found the boss fight to be pretty frustrating. The most difficult obstacle on that level wasn't the enemies or the boss itself, but actually the platform which just carries you into spikes if you don't jump off quick enough. - the default palette is pretty low contrast; I think one of the brighter ones would probably be a better choice since there will likely be players who don't bother switching it.
The scope of this is pretty impressive for a LD entry, congrats!
btw, the source you posted errors out after a couple seconds of running, and it's also just the code itself; you should probably put up the actual p8 file so that the rest of the game (sprites, sfx, map) are included.
This is really impressive compo entry! For three colors, this is a good game. * I didn't notice that the strawberries obstruct your view overtime. It's certainly a very good concept going forward. It's subtle at first, then you find out the reason why this is the case. Good job also allowing for the player too be seen despite this mess. It's one of the good things preventing you from being fraustrated. Also I thought the strawberries are required to continue. This is not the case, oops. * The boss fight is really annoying thanks to the obstructions. The boss screwed me up too much after finishing Phase 1. * Default pallete is really low contrast and annoying to see. The background and some background assets doesn't help, either. The brick texture made me thing it's an actual block for a very good while.
Anyway, this is a really amazing game and you made me compelled to finish all of it. (That or my initiative for platformers is strong...)
The game actually really reminds me of my own game. xD (A skill based platformer with a rather large amount of content for 48 hours including a boss fight.) The game looks great, but the 3 colors thing really messes up the gameplay for me. I have a hard time telling what's a wall, what's a floor, and what's just background decoration. Maybe you should've tried using 4 colors to make it a bit easier to tell what is what. Although it's still a great game for 48 hours! ^-^
Hehe, thanks for the feedback!
@fiakaiera, not the strawberries affect your vision, but the evil. But anyway, thanks ;) @sean-s-leblanc, thanks, will fix the code here, the valid cart is also on the PICO-8 BBS.
Will change the default palette later today ;)
Awesome entry! The game was very enjoyable and was a good platforming challenge.
I liked the idea of how the essence obstructs the view as you collect more, tying into the theme very nicely. The pixel art and the entire look of the game was great and created a sense mystery, though I was having a hard time distinguishing walls from the background, though that was easily fixed by changing the palette.
Overall, this was a great game for the time spent into it and was a delightful adventure.
Wow impressive game man. The graphics are amazing ! The whole game is very well wrapped up. (Yeah don't have much to say since most of my reviews are tips for how to make the game better usually)
Impressive level of polish, content and documentation for 48 hours :thumbsup: !
If I had to nitpick I'd say that the control scheme is very awkward (I'm on a french keyboard and my fingers have to do artistic skating with my finger just to be able to jump and dash in a short time period), controller support would be awesome. Also sometimes it's hard to understand what's going on the screen or what you are supposed to do. added it to my collection to play it more seriously later on (but do try to do something about this control scheme plz ;_;).
Overall : great game congratulations !
Really not a fan of this game. The three colour limitation is interesting, but it just makes it difficult to figure out what is and isn't a platform. The brick pattern looks like you should be able to stand on it, as do to beams, but they don't.
Even with the 'yellow is solid' thing I eventually figured out, you also used that to indicate what things are deadly, which was just as confusing and led to quite a few deaths as I wasn't sure if they were platforms, traps or pick ups.
I think with a three colour pallete you need to be even more minimalist than you were.
On top of that, the constant white-noise is irritating and I had to turn off the sound in order to even try and continue playing, which is a shame because the rest of the effects were cute.
Yeah, good point, the noise is a bit too loud. I will play around with its volume ;) With minimalism... Dude, 128x128 display, 8x8px sprites, 128 sprites, 8k tokens, 32k chars :X What could be more minimal?
It's lovely, but I found the controls really fiddly. In the first screen, every time I tried to catch the second rope, I'd overshoot.
My only gripe with the game were the first 10 minutes spent on the first level before I figured out that there were vine ropes there! My jumps would coincide with the moving squares in the background and I thought I had to ride them out to the trampoline. But once you see the vines, you cannot unsee them!
The game's awesome, well done!
I like'd it, but the web version's controls are somehow a bit glitch? Either it's me or the game doesn't register my button presses as expected :(
I love this style! It took me a bit to understand what is what on level, but once it was clear game plays very smooth. Tho, separate color (like white) for things that kill you would thing way clearer.
This game gave me goosebumps :D
Haha, thanks :D
Made it to the end, phew! I thought the Celeste-like style was looking great, but quickly realized that the three tone color scheme actually hinders the gameplay as its hard to make out what's a platform and what's not, which isn't really my idea of fun. I somehow find obsfucation mechanics really annoying in platformers, be it Cuphead's foreground elements or Shovel knight's Spectre Knight stage, as it makes gameplay feel really unfair. I didn't even realize until a while, that I could do the Celeste thing of jumping as the "X" indicator was obsfucated, and eating the coins will get rid of those skulls chasing you. At least you made death reload rather fast. Controls were a little finicky especially when you suddenly get stuck on ropes that you didn't realize were there. Otherwise, great work on setting out the levels, that's a lot of meat packed on this 48 hr entry!
Really well made and polished game. The music and sound effects are nice and the animations fit the aesthetics properly. Controls are a bit unresponsive at times and maybe the player moves too fast for my taste.
The real problem comes with the graphics affecting gameplay, for me, it is really hard to see what is a platform and what is not, and for example at first I got stuck until I realized i could grab onto the vines to continue crossing the initial gap. Maybe there is way too much going on on the screen at all times that makes it hard to focus on what is important.
Anyway, it is a superb entry and very skilfully created. Good job!
I really don't know what to make of PICO-8. How much of the graphics, sounds and gameplay is actually written by yourself? The game is really fun and well crafted, but I cannot rate it properly without knowing what parts I should give credit for.
[edit] I have watched the timelapse, thank you for including this! This gives me a better impression on how making games with PICO-8 works and I've updated the ratings I have given accordingly.
Nice work, but I have problems with the controls, sometimes my jump stops in midair.
The (default) color-sheme looks very cool in a retro way, but the only way to tell 'will this platform supports me' and 'what does it do' is experimentation and memory, which is less than ideal.
Also, it took me quite a few tries to find out that you can _only_ dash when a certain sprite is present.
While there is an addictiveness to it, and resetting to current room instead of the beginning helps a lot, it's still hard to get to the point where the theme starts mattering.
That said, movement feels both very fluid and satisfiyingly 'chunky'.
Mood-text on each new screen is also nicely done, and the music is on-point :slight_smile:
Thanks a lot ;) Working on a gameplay video for those, who get stuck :D
I really like the art style. Graphics and audio match each other. :smile: On the other hand sometimes you can't really see what is going on. There are too many background effects.
This is impressive. The levels are professional level designed. Some levels have no mercy and the platform where you start vanish immediately, but it's fun, because levels are short and you always start again in the same level. It's really hard to get the idea at first. The worst part I didn't notice while playing, but once I closed the window I couldn't see clear for a while. Maybe colors are too bright, the contrast is too high, I'm not sure. The animation of the character, how it feels when you jump, the level design, the sounds, the music. This game is professional level I.M.O.
@xacur, hehe, thanks ;) You can change the palette by pressing enter and selecting "next palette" option ;)
Nice work...really do not know what to comment...maybe next LD I will have ideas on how to answer.
I can't even jump over the very first spike pit. Looks nice, but I must be missing something.
Thats the second really good game that I found was made with PICO-8 I think I will have a look at it ^^. The game is amazing the graphics are good but I don't like the standard palette. I didn't understand the implementation of the compo theme but all in all its a great entry. Go on with this good work!
@deshipu you can't jump from ropes. But you can just "move horizontally" on them.
The graphics is pretty unique,but it hurt my eyes for a little,and it's very distracting,making it hard to distinguish a platform from the background.Still,it's impressive that you were able to make such a good game in such a short amount of time.Keeps going!
It definitely suffers from a lack of readability. With only 3 colors I was having some trouble discerning what what me and what was enemy.
The movement feels super tight, I loved when I knew a level well enough I could just blaze through it.
The soundtrack was exactly what I expected a retro 8bit soundtrack to be.
Great work!
Nice game. Maybe the best pico8 game i have try. will add it to my pocket chip!
sometime its hard to see the platforms but it add difficulties. keep on the great job
@egordorichev what ropes?
@deshipu or wines:
Screenshot 2017-12-04 at 8.34.58 PM.png
Aah, I totally didn't notice them, looked like part of the background and I tried to jump over the spike pit in a million ways. Now it's much easier. Thanks.
Hehe, you welcome ;) That's more my fail :D But I did my best with 3 colors ;)
The game was pretty cool. Great job and congrats on finishing the compo! I'd like to see some tweaked controls and maybe a different default palette. Mayyybe a few more colors in the palette; As cool of an exercise as only using three colors is, it can be a little impractical for readability sometimes.
Overall I thought it was excellent for the compo and I can't wait to see more!
Thanks, @SeanW ! Will colors.. Yeah, this was a total fail :D But I just wanted to make it look spooky a bit. Everyone is talking about another default palette, but no one says, what palette he wants to see as default one :D What palette is your favorite one?
Great animations and pixel art, too bad the theme wasn't 3 colors! Lots of really neat touches you miss if you don't pay attention. The platforming was solid too, simple, but it works well. The sound effects and music also fit the game well.
I have a few minor issues. My main complaint is some rooms have cheap deaths. For example, the room where you spawn on top of a dissolving block into spikes; mixed with the screen effects, it can be hard to find out where you even spawned before you die a few times. That being said, things never got to the point of frustration, just a bit of an annoyance.
Waiting for the coins to comeback before you could dash was slightly tedious, when there's nothing to do but wait. Another issue is the palette, I just couldn't find one that worked well for me. While pretty to look at, it could be hard differentiating things with the 3 tones being so similar.
Despite the few issues, the game holds up well, great work!
@zee thanks for the feedback! I glad, you saw the lil touches :D Maybe I added a bit tooo much corruption effect :X
Absolutely LOVED the artsyle and the controls were great, loved it. i'm already following you on Twitter haha.
I too jumped in the pit a million times before realizing I could climb. That being said, I really liked this game! As some mentioned, the art hurts my eyes a little, but I choose to believe that was entirely intentional. (Granted, I didn't realize you could pallette swap)
Other than that, the only thing is that you don't really feel compelled to gather the strawberries, as there is no clear reward for doing so.
My criticism is only because this game is otherwise incredible for being made in 48 hours. Congrats!
@quaternius haha, thanks! @oivin-f yeah, I need to think about a solution with this rope problem :D Many peps have it :X
A really fun and clever shooter, I liked the colour palette chosen as well as the idea of splotches of goo on the screen obscuring details of the level. I only had trouble on the first level because all I was told was to jump but there wasn't any clear hint that there was a rope over the spike pit. Once I got past that most of it was a breeze. Great work!
Great level design and nice gameplay. Sometimes it was super hard to see what's happening, but other than that it's a really nice game!
Made it with 211 deaths in half an hour. Took me a while to figure it out (I didn't read the instructions). The game's difficulty is brutal.
I love the graphics. Very impressive what you made out of three colors in that little resolution. It felt a bit frustrating at times because death often comes suddenly because of an unseen trampoline or missing floor.
The essences served three purposes which was a bit confusing at first but I was able to figure it out. I couldn't find out what the strawberries were for though.
I'm impressed how many levels you made in that short time. You even added a boss fight. I liked it overall!
Wow! This game is awesome! It's definitively inspired by celeste, but in a good and saucy way. I can't rate it cuz I didn't submit anything, but I certainly enjoyed playing it :D
What is there more to say about his awesome piece of software? The art style in this pico-8 game is super lovely and the gameplay is solid as a... strawberry(?) (it's good). Shame that I absolutely suck at platformers as that meant I couldn't get a full appreciation of your game.
I thought this game was really well done, my only complaint was that the screen felt pretty crowded and at times it was pretty difficult to figure out if something was an aesthetic element or a platform. But I loved the game overall.
First, great job. The game is, for the most part, really well done. The sprites look good, the sound is nice, and the mood is great. I had a really hard time with the controls, though. The first jump was really finicky until I figured out that I jumped further by holding up. I had a very hard time determining what I could jump on and what I should be collecting. I don't think I made it far enough to judge the theme relevance.
Very good looking but frustrating at times. Since some levels spawn you in immediate danger I didn't have time to read the writing!
Yeah wonderful entry. The graphics are really cool, being limited to 3 colors is quite the challenge! After more than 50 deaths I think I will come back and finish playing later, but I really had fun playing, great entry.
Looks wonderful! I really am joining the simply palettes! There is a small problem with input lag though. Otherwise, great job!
Really cool game! It was a bit difficult to tell platforms from background elements at times, but otter than that it was a nice game!
Art style great. Sound great. But I cannot make heads or tales of the level, and after 25 deaths have still not moved more than a few pixels from the initial spawn point in the first level.
YESSS! Putting pico-8 on the map! Well done! I was impressed with what you pulled off with such a minimal color palette. Somewhat related, I used pico-8 for the first time this jam and absolutely loved it. I am excited to see what awesome things are possible, with your game as an example!
@oldpeculier there are ropes on the first level (look up the video :wink:)
Colors are mixed and very hard to understand what going on while playing. Anyway, prety good hardcore platforming =)
I really want to like this game 100%. I really do. It's an attempt at a hardcore full on platformer, which I usually love. And the artstyle is great and the sfx's are great; But the controls are terribly slow and the jump arc is ablysmally floaty. These two alone couldn't really ruin the game, but quite literally the gimmick makes the game worse; you can't accurately make out jumps without just dying over and over again. That being said the presentation and polish is obviously top notch; Just not my cup of tea personally I guess.
Really fun game. The ropes were really hard for me to get onto since I usually end up moving right past them after jumping towards one.
Fun little platformer. For the first few levels it was a bit hard to tell what was going on because of all the particle effects and small color palette, so that could have used some toning down to have players get used to what everything looks like. That being said, the visuals are really pleasing overall!
Nice!
I both liked the graphics of the game and didn't liked it. The dots appearing in the screen made me confused and made it very hard for me to detect the hazards of the maps. On the other hand they look so cool! I enjoyed playing this game. Thank you for making it!
I liked your game :-) I found it very difficult to get past the first stage and took me about 30 tries to get going. After that I cruised right along. If you have a second I'd love it if you could provide some feeback on my game https://asimovindustries.itch.io/slithering-secrets
Good to see another pico-8 entry. The art is gorgeous!! I'm really impressed. Nice work!
I have to admit my brain was freezed at the begining. I was totally confused by the colors. However it gives a great explosive mood. That's the kind of game I'd like to have on a pocket emulator haha. Very nice. The only reproach I could make is about the game mechanic which is kind of hard to start with.
I guess it would be awesome with controllers ;)
Wow, a lot of content for so little time, well done! I like the fact that the levels are challenging and well designed, without ever being really frustrating. I like the artstyle but I found the dirt on the screen to be more annoying than challenging, since it was never a real obstacle. I also don't like the feel of the vines, I think you should move slower on them because thhey feel very slippery otherwise and it is easy to fall off from them, like if they were a very timy platform. But besides that I really loved it.
I would critique but there's nothing wrong with it. Incredible game :D
First level is not a good way of introducing ropes, for me (and for others it seems) people were trying to jump over, the rope stopped the upward momentum and they and I died. A lot. After that hickup the game is good, the red clouds in the background makes the screen to busy but I like how fast you can move, great job :D
Great music，great artstyle，great mood，and game is interesting，but i was confused by the colors too
Nice work. The game could do with a little more hand-holding in the beginning, at least until you get used to what you're looking for. There's a lot going on so it's pretty hard to tell what you actually have to do right of the bat. It's a solid platformer though and the controls were nice. Great job.
A simple but efficient design, very well finished game with a beautiful look! I really liked the choice of color palette! I had a bit of trouble with the controls at first. Congratulations for the game.
Um design simples mas eficiente, jogo muito bem acabado e com um visual lindo! Gostei muito da escolha da paleta de cores! Tive um pouco de dificuldade com os controles no começo. Parabéns pelo jogo.
Amazing!!
gj with the graphics
Great graphics and sounds. The platforming is brutal, but it was fun to play. Good job!
I love the graphics, they have a really nice retro vibes I like a lot! Controls were so mad to me the first times but then I got into the game because the ropes were really hard for me to guess how they work. It's a hardcore and challenging platoforming game!
Good job, this is a great low-fi little platformer. A very smart angle to take on the jam, because this way you can create a complete package that's enjoyable. I personally suck at these types of platformers, so I couldn't get very far. :joy:
The only thing I would have liked was a slower ramp-up in difficulty, specifically because I am not very good at these games, but overall I think I caught on fairly quickly still.
Nice one!
Honestly, the game is to look at and it's a solid little platformer except.
I love minimalist art styles, but gameplay should come first. the screen is absolutely congested with stuff that is all the same color. . One of the important things when working with a super limited pallete is careful budgeting of colors and use of negative space. All the swirling stuff in the background and the splotches on the foreground (I know they are intended as a gameplay mechanic, but as a mechanic it simply isn't fun.)
Also I think a few other people have said this, but the controls feel weird when you first start out, which only adds to the annoyance of the screen being clogged.
I think it's a solid game, with a ton of content for a compo entry, but I feel like you put in the screen cluttering effects simply to match the theme and it detracted form the game as a whole.
Cool style. I struggled with the controls a bit - that's on me, not the game... but I didn't far as a result. The game teaches you the mechanics as you progress through the levels. I think there is good potential here. And very impressive you were able to create so many levels!
I love the pixel art and color palette. It looks great, nice little platformer! I struggled to get the hang of the rope climbing and fell in the spikes a lot.
Ah these hardcore platformers are what I wait for in Ludum Dares. Amazing work man!
Nice game. I like the art a lot. It took me a lot of time to understand what was going on and I wouldn't have noticed the strawberry effect I hadn't read the comments sections. Overall, I had a lot of fun. Good work.
This game reminds me of Celeste. I did have a hard time figuring out about the ropes. I wish it would the things that kill you and the things you can climb/stand on would be a bit more obvious. It was hit or miss for me, and it took me several tires to get past the little chasm on the first level even when I'd figured out the vines. That said, the game does have a lot of personality and the pixelated graphics do work very well aside from my issues above. The sound and music is great. This is a difficult (as I'm sure you meant it to be) but rewarding platformer that really gives you a sense of accomplishment when you make it past a particulary devious screen. Nice job.
Oh... I just realized you can change the color palette. Now I must go back and replay it again :)
Nice game, but I had a lot of troubles telling the difference between what was usable and what wasn't. I'm going to blame that mostly on the small color palette; regardless, way too hard for me, but it's a very pretty game! Great job!
Its pixel perfect!
Very polished, very nice graphics. Was a bit hard to tell sometimes which things are platforms and which are just decoration though. I found the font a bit hard to read at times and the controls a bit awkward at first. But overall very well done.
Lovely art and great design in general. I'm not really good in platformers but it was a very enjoyable experience. Well done!
A truly great game taking into account the time it was built in. I couldn't get past the second stage of the boss (one round of collecting all the essences if what I see as the first) but I enjoyed playing this a lot. The artstyle is georgeous, although quite confusing at times, but I guess that was intentional. The controls feel super crisp and responsive, I never had a moment where I though "Oh bull*****, I should have made that jump." or "I shouldn't have been hit there!". The Soundtrack is nothing outstanding but it fits the game and does it's job, enriching the atmosphere. This also has a super cool and feature-heavy pause menu, something my games always seem to miss in the end. :^)
And with all the polish that's gone into this game, it still manages to offer 25 unique levels and a boss. One playthrough of that, without eventually beating the boss, got me to 32 Minutes.
What more can I say, I love it. :)
Good job! Looks very polished and integrated, and I enjoyed the combination of graphics and sounds. While the small color palette is interesting, it makes it hard to recognize game elements, and that unfortunate. Also, I wasn't able to discover how to play the game without looking at the documentation, which is something I try to avoid in my games.
Nice game, It's a lot for such a short amount of time. It's kinda hard to tell between the background and the game itself, but other than that it's great.
Very well made pico-8 game, but I found it extremely difficult to tell what was going on half of the time and it was especially difficult to tell colours apart
Always impressed what people can accomplish with pico-8, look awesome and controls well! I don't really like the take on the theme, though. It is already hard and then to make not being able to see it makes it all the hard to the point of unsatisfying frustration. I know it was only added to match the theme, but I think this game would do better without the visibility mechanic or figure out a better way to incorporate it.
Wow, really good game, it's wonderfull in every aspect and love the feeling it gives everytime you pick up an item and start to see less of the map. Really cool and an amazing execution. Congratulations.
It's a Fun game! Sorry I raged at it on stream yesterday! I was very tired <3
Awesome game! I don't understand the third level though
Awesome game!
I think the game makes for some great screenshots, but mainly wants me to see what else you're capable of. Mechanics that actively work against the player as a core of the theme is a standard take on the theme which isn't inherently bad, but needs some fine tuning here for certain. Your production values are quite solid, so again, while I think this game is serviceable albeit lacking in strong gameplay execution, what it DOES do is make me ask "wow, I wonder what this person would make given more time!"
The music sounds pleasing. But the game is rather hard-core.
The amount of polish and content that went into this game is astounding!
Hey this is a pretty nifty game; hard, but very quick to restart a level and you don't lose too much progress which is nice. I enjoyed it to the end. I did find a few things frustrating, mostly minor, but I'd like to give the criticism to help you improve. First off the boss fight was very frustrating. I'm not sure you need to make it less difficult, but I thin it might make sense to make a few levels before it that have some more of the same traps (like platforms pulling you into spikes) to get the player used to the attack. The other thing was that there were too many levels where if you didn't immediately react at the start of the the level you would die. A Cheap death like that is a bit frustrating especially when a player is trying to get a handle on the level itself. Consider moving back the chasing enemies a littler further back or have them shine (telegraph position) for a split second so that the player knows immediately that they need to react. Finally, the colors which nice stylistically made it difficult to understand what was and was not background. Typically old 8 bit style games would use warmer colors for foreground and cooler colors for the background. In your case using blue and green might not make sense for the background but either brown or a darker purple would work in here.
Okay just realized there was a pause menu with palette options. The grayscale works better for understanding the graphics, but I think you're still better off introducing an additional color for the background elements that the player can move through.
amazing!
Very impressive. I always find myself amazed with Pico8 and the ability to fit these games there.
Looks and feels polished, a very nice game. Great job.
**Really impressive game!**
**But** this is a great example of when to _not_ use screen shaking. PICO-8 already has a low-enough resolution, so any shake is of very high magnitude, plus the low-contrast color palette, cause it to be very jarring. Had to give up on the boss fight because I got nauseated by the shake. And I'm not a very sensitive person in regards to that.
There were also some severe input lag issues (at least on the web version), which I'm not sure if they are caused by the game or just by the PICO web player.
Also, there were some collision issues in the boss room, as you can see in the screenshot below. I was able to "stand midair" in any of the tiles in a 2x2 area around that point.
2017-12-06_09-11-46.png
Don't get me wrong though, the game was still enjolable _despite_ that!
Oh wow, @kroltan, did you beat the game? GG! Never saw this bug, so thanks for spotting it! To be true, I think, it's more a PICO-8 web player lag, because inside-of PICO-8 it doesn't appear to be a thing. But anyway, thanks for the feedback!
Interesting addictive game. But i kept dying. i found it hard to know what is what. But once you get that the game is great. loved game, hated my gaming :D
Very nice! Looks awesome, but as I've already told you, it is way too busy. It is pretty much unreadable. Every time I transitioned to a new level, I had to just stare it for a good while desperately trying to figure out where I am and what is going on (and usually even dying several times while doing so). I think introducing a fourth color for those flying particles and the decorative non-functional platforms would make it easier the read the levels.
So something like this (I bet everyone on their first go try to jump to that "platform" on the bottom right): strawberries.png
The controls were a bit too fast (for me at least). Especially so when dealing with the ropes or springs. Having a different button for the essence jumps was a weird choice and completely unnecessary. By the way, what are those non-keyboard controls you were showing? My PS4 controller at least did not do anything. Can't quite remember if I've previously even tried to use a controller on PICO-8 games (haven't even played one since last LD). Getting to play with controller would have probably fixed the quick controls issue for me, I'm a lot more comfortable playing platformers with one.
I really wasn't a big fan of those invisible blocks. At least those could have appeared a bit further away than only when you were already pretty much touching them.
All in all, good job! You managed to do a good chunk of content and the difficulty curve was pretty much perfect.
WOW This is amazing. Personally I would love the color palette if it was a piece of art, but (like many others have said) it kind of distracts us from the gaming experience. The game is so much fun. I love the mechanics, they are very simple but when put together are very effective. There is still a lot of potential in this game!
Absolutely been my favourite game of the Dare so far. Super tight controls and extremely well polished, I'd definitely buy a full game of this. Keep up the phenomenal work my friend!
Also, if possible, check out my game I made with a few others, it’s a card game with a twist: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/smash-smash-destroy-the-west-jangnanmon
Probably my favorite game of Ludum Dare so far! Great graphics, chaotic, but i love it. Tons of content and a lovely boss. No idea how you managed to do this in so little time, hats of to you sir!
The game feels really nice and the controls are tight. I can see myself playing it to completion. The game felt like it was missing something but I cant put my finger on it.
Well done!
a very good game, maybe the best of the jam, the art is awesome, the gameplay is fast, intuitive and challenging. congratulations for the game!
Very good game. Although at my first time, I hardly understood the whole rules because of the art style. When I totally understood, it's really amazing.
Awesome game! Awesome graphics! Awesome gameplay! Feels really brutal with the difficulty and all that blood-like corruption on screen.
Music sounds good, but a little bit of a variety would sound nice. Also I personally didn't like the feel on the ropes. I'd rather have my character stop at it rather than speed through it, because of this I often overshot on the ropes.
In overall it's an awesome game. I hope you'll make full release with even more hardcore levels. And congratulations on being featured on itch.io!
Challenging, well made game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 40 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUur4iynK94
Maybe faster respawning coins (I was sometimes just waiting for the coin to respawn). I did change the pallet often, but I didnt feel satisfied. The problem was, in some levels (especially around the middle) I was confused which part was actually a platform, an obstacle, nothing (ya I even missed that one sometimes). So there wasnt enough contrast in the objects.
Apart from these minor things, the game was amazing. The best one I played so far thanks for making it :)
cool! Enjoyed it a lot! Although from beginning i have no clue what to do...
Very interesting gameplay, although I found it a little tricky. Then again I was never good at platformers :)
Visually and musically stunning, but I found the gameplay to be too slippery and trial-and-errory for my tastes. That first screen in particular was pretty bad, not knowing you could climb on those ropes.
Totally awesome game. WOW!
It looked really great, and it was fun when I could tell what was going on, but I found the art style too ambiguous for this sort of gameplay. The small palette doesn't really work with doing both artistic details and functional game elements. It could use another color, or less things that are just for show.
I took a very long time to figure out that I was supposed to use the ropes .. I suck so much in platforming games .. really dig the aesthetics though
Pretty fun! I kind of wish the player was a bit easier to see / keep track of. The levels are pretty crowded with stuff, but maybe that kind of fits with the theme? Anyways, good job!
What an incredible game, very fun and with wonderful graphics, the levels are fantastic and the mechanics is simply magnificent, everything perfect. Congratulations on the great work.
Wow you have a lot of comments...
Anyway this game easily has the best physics of all the games I have played so far and I like the graphical style a lot. I had quite a bit of fun with this game though there were frustrating moments as well. As I mentioned in my stream I do have several criticisms I would like to offer both so you can improve this incredibly smooth game and that you can apply to future games!
* The graphics are really confusion and it is unclear what you are and are not supposed to interact with. * With how important climbing vines are especially given it's the first thing you are expected to do in the game to proceed to any other levels it is really unfortunate that not only are the vines not clear that you can interact with them but that you can jump past them making it really difficult for the player to accidentally figure out they are intractable. * Each level starts you off with no cooldown time between deaths and some of the levels are really time sensitive to not run into enemies. * A the various objects you interact with are unclear about what they do.
While I love this game it is games like these that really makes me wish there was an "Intuitiveness" voting category. This is by no means a bad game or remotely close to one however in a jam setting it's easy to not put much thought into how the player will understand the game. I feel an "Intuitiveness" category would push clearly talented developers like you to put more thought into making their games as easy to access and get into as possible.
Fantastic job on this game and I really hope you bring more of your great work to my attention! I can't wait to play more of your work in future jams! I hope the criticism didn't come across as too harsh!
Graphics are "Interesting". Love the art....theres so much happening in the scene but still its kinda working for the game.
Super impressive, given the time constraints and the engine choice - but I guess the engine choice is part of what made it possible :) Beyond great visuals and audio, let's give some hopefully useful feedback:
- The mechanics are really opaque, I'm still not sure how the dash works, sometimes it works, sometimes not. Seems only to work if you collect something, but then... Why should you have to press a button if you can only press that button when collecting that thing? Could you store it up? I couldn't tell. - The visuals are helluva confusing. Yes, the three colours thing is a nice gimmick, but I daresay an unnecessary gimmick that didn't work in favour of the player. There's a ton of trial and error that would have been unnecessary if it weren't for the confusion. - The controls are tight, but it does feel too fast, there's a lot of super tightly timed things that need to happen. One could dismiss this as "noobs stay away" but I don't feel like that's a good thing. It limits accessibility. - Totally agree with @drazil100 on the intuitiveness thing - there are many many many games that I encounter that nail that, and many many many that ignore it and slap players with wall of texts and then blame the player for not reading. And that severely limits the game's potential in terms of DESIGN.
Thanks ;) I hope to make the game much easier and readable :) I will of course, use the full 16-colors palt :D
Cool graphics, nice mechanic and awesomely done! :grinning:
It's a very pretty and polished game, but I struggled a lot with the controls. I tried to read most of the text at the bottom but because it flashed on and off I had trouble. My biggest problem was that you can't dash when you have an arrow key pressed, and that took me a long time to figure out. It was quite difficult to see everything as well, but I managed.
The sound is awesome! and the level design is well done (but I think it was difficult to tell what the level design was because of all the stuff on the screen). Max 2 more colors would have been really cool, and made it much more readable. I made it about halfway or more through the game before I realized the evil essence killed the skulls. My biggest problem with the enemies were the tiny little circles that moved straight across the screen and killed instantly, because they were almost impossible to see.
If you can make this in 48 hours, you could make something really amazing in even longer.
@reizoukin thanks ;) I have a few big PICO-8 games in my plans, and after that... It may be a good idea to continue this game!
Wow, awesome job with the graphics, audio, and overall aesthetic here. This is some really impressive Pico-8 work. The challenges is a bit much for me, figuring out what's collidable etc., but I think that's intrinsic to your game, so I'm not sure there's anything you'd want to change.
Keep up the good work!
Too much going on the screen which made it hard to figure out what was going on. It looks nice at least.
Superb game, the animations are amazing, the sounds and the graphics are very good. The game is a little hard and too fast paced to my taste but you did an amzing job :thumbsup:
Design is amazing and gmaply feels quite good.
Too frustrating to be very fun.
I think the biggest flaw is the graphic design. An extra color would be really nice. You only have two colors, but even with just two colors there is seemingly no consistent color design. Platforms, items, enemies, hazards, foreground and background elements all use both colors in the palette. Compare to something like Downwell, where the player, level, and miscellaneous objects are completely white, enemies you can stomp on are white with red tint, and enemies and hazards that cannot be hurt by stomping on them are fully red and filled in. This lets you instantly understand what obstacles are coming your way.
The next problem is with the way the theme is implemented. I think it works well enough, but with how much your view is obscured, it makes going through levels a matter of trial-and-error. I think it's at odds with the fast-paced mechanics of the game. I'm not sure if there is a good way to fix this with this concept, this may just be a thing that will bother some people more than others.
The third thing is the design of the levels. Most of them are okay, but there are some that start you off on a disappearing platform or immediately next to an enemy which can lead to some cheap deaths when you're trying to just look at the level for a second (which is made harder by the lack of consistent color design). Not only that, but having to make blind jumps to invisible platforms is really annoying. They could at least pop up occasionally so it's not completely trial-and-error... Finally, the exit of the level is somewhat unclear. You go off usually the top end of the screen, but sometimes the sides. Either way, there are times when there are no walls despite the fact that you can't actually exit the level through that way.
The fourth thing is with the general game feel. It's nice and fast most of the time, but maybe a little *too* fast. Springs and dashes launch you instantly at a high speed, which can be difficult to track due to the low resolution and obstruction of your view. This problem also happens when climbing ropes. Your momentum is conserved when you hit a rope, whether or not you are holding up or down to climb, so there's no real indication that you even grabbed a rope, not even an audio cue. Your sprite also doesn't change on the rope unless you are not moving horizontally. It interacts weirdly with your momentum and makes the climbing feel... bad.
The fifth and final problem I had was the lack of in-game explanation. This is rather minor, as you could just read the game description on this page, but the description is pretty lengthy. This is evident right on the first level, where you are told that you can press Z to jump, but not that you can climb, or that the thing hanging from the platform is a rope that you can climb! Then, in the next level, you are told "X to dash". This one might be a language thing, or maybe trying to be too brief in your description, but most people would associate a dash with something that moves horizontally. However, this "dash" only boosts you upwards, and isn't aimable horizontally at all, so you might as well just call it a double jump. Two other things with the dash that you aren't really told is that you lose it once you land on the ground, and that collecting one will destroy the enemies.
Sorry to be so harsh on your game, it's clear you put a lot of effort in it, but it didn't work out for me.
I honestly tried to play this game. However, there was not a good enough tutorial for the game to help me get past the first obstacle. Another concept that I disliked about the game was the graphics. There was too much in the graphics and the colors were so bright that it hurt my eyes. There was so much color on the screen that I could barely see where to go in the game. I am pretty sorry that I am being harsh on your game. I could see that a lot of time and effort was put into the game. However, though there was a lot of content, I couln't access it because of a lack of good instructions about what to do in the game.
A superb entry but I also have a little bit conflicted feelings about the graphics. They're very busy and they distract from the gameplay but they're still very well made and beautiful to look at. Maybe using an color in your palettes for unimportant background stuff might have been beneficial and would have helped with making the gameplay critical features stand out more? Also toning down the particles at least a little bit :slight_smile:. But still, a really great entry nonetheless! Snappy controls and interesting (but harsh) level design make this game really stand out.
Beautiful game! But at first is a bit confusing, on the first jump, the rope is not clear and took me a few tries. Anyway, the game is amazing.
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This.. was some effort. I played on stream, and I do feel bad for my viewers for each one of those 51 minutes! haha I kid. For me it was a challenging game, but as you heard on stream - for me I didn't find the learning curve and harsh controls too fun to get used to. Also found the visual style make the game hard to play, not sure why you went for the three colours thing. Also the difficulty between "rooms" really varies, some later ones are very easy, where as others require a lot more time for a poor player like me.
The positives - I think a game like this does have a market for speed runners who enjoy such harsh controls and lack or room for error!
So much going on the screen. It took me a while to figure out some of the mechanics but it is a really nice entry.
Check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uu0JLk6vb4
this is a very well done game - my only critique would be to tone down the background effects of the game as they are distracting - this could be a pico thing tho - excellent game
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I'm here after i finished the game, the game is well polished, well done in 48 hours! But i'm frustrating along from my gameplay.
I dont think the mechanics is mixing very well, u create a circumstance that we supposed to observe and explore aren't we? But everything in a fast pace, i can only run and dead and run and dead again, in the end, i've definitely ignore the blob.
I meant, yes, it's still a good game, well done.
Really enjoyed this one and liked how much content you were able to get into this. All the different levels showed different gameplay mechanics and tricks which was great as you progressed and got into the flow of the controls. Also couldn't stop playing until I finished it and that last boss battle was a tough one to get a handle on but was fun and worth it. Great game.
3 colors is a bit too few and there are so many things going on! THis looks like an 8 bit version of "The upside down" from "Stranger things". Anyway, the game plays very well and even though it is a bit hard, there is a good game here :)
Wow. This is just amazing. I love the music, art, gameplay, everything. The only gripe I had was that sometimes you didn't have enough time to scope the level before the enemies killed you. I play for 23 minutes and died over 100 times! The Lost Strawberry by egordorichev - Mozilla Firefox.jpg Excellent job!
Very good and polished game. I don't really have much to say other than good job!
I really like it, probably my favourite I've played. I love the minimalist graphics and the mood you've created with the pixel noise in the wind and the flappy insects. The music fits perfectly. There's a good range of mechanics and they are introduced at an appropriate pace. Obviously, the game is hard to read, but I think that is rather the point, and is a novel mechanic in itself.
@randomhuman thanks a lot :)
Nice seeing a Pico-8 entry. Yes, the first ropes are easy to miss if you're not looking for them. I made it about 5 or six levels in, and then the platforming was just too tough for me, with the ghosts chasing you and the crumbling blocks. I liked how the color palette could be changed. Maybe automatically change the palette after every level.
This game has a lot of polish, but I found it too vague at the start on what to do. I wasn't aware pickups clouded your vision until I read the comments and had thought that was simply part of the atmosphere. The first level was also very confusing, since the ropes don't stand out from the background so the first few times I used them I thought it was a bug. Something I think this game really could use is more forgiveness on the jump mechanics, for example when you go over an edge it would be nice if you could still jump a split second after (a feature common in most platformers). All my gripes aside, the level of detail and work that went into the level design and atmosphere is really incredible. This game is so far the only one I've given a 5 out of 5 on mood. Very deserved. I hope you go far with this.
Issues first: it's very hard to understand what does what in the game, even without the overlay madness, so even when I'd try concentrating on a level, I couldn't figure out what I should focus on. Still managed to play through it though that very first spike pit and its vines were hard to understand. Otherwise, the graphics, sound and mood are well worked on! :)
very neat little game, the graphics are really confusing at the start but you get it pretty fast. I like the simplicity of the over all concept. Also great that you support so many platforms.
** I'm planning to release X-mass edition really soon, which will include fourth color, more simple levels, and a proper tutorial. Thanks everyone for the feedback! **
Looking forward to the update!
It's games like these that make me super excited to try PICO-8 myself :)
Okay, I get it, drinking the potions make you drunk, which makes it harder to see where you're going. Ha ha. That definitely fits with the theme, but if it makes the gameplay more frustrating and unfair instead of just "harder", is it worth it? Randomly dying without explanation was no fun. I eventually figured out there were "Dart Traps" shooting bubble-looking darts at me, but it would have felt less unfair if those dangers were shown to the player _before_ they became hidden from view. Same for skulls. Maybe reset the amount of occluders at the beginning of every level, or on the levels in which new kinds of obstacles are introduced, to give the player a chance to understand how those obstacles work?
Other unfair things which made the problem worse: * backgrounds which look like platforms * invisible platforms and auto-grip vines which block your jump and cause you to get killed by a Dart Trap
Despite all these criticism: the game was quite fun, but I enjoyed it in spite of its gimmick, not because of it.
In addition to this main criticism, I also found that the basic rules of the game were unclear. It took me longer than it should to figure out: * that even though the occlusion effect of potions lasts forever, their double-jump effect must be used before touching the floor. Maybe add a tossed-away-bottle particle when the player hits the floor? * that those random explosions are keys unlocking the locked doors. Maybe make that happen immediately when the player picks up the last key, or when the player touches the door? Having it happen when the key touches the door introduces a delay which makes it harder to link the action of picking up the key to the resulting explosion, and since there is no longer a door at that location after the explosion attracts the player's gaze to that location, it's not clear what the explosion was about. * that skulls disappear when you pick up a potion. It's not a logical consequence, and since the skulls can be far away from the player and also their position is now hidden by the occluders, the player will only later discover that the skulls are gone, without realizing which action caused that to happen. Maybe temporarily remove the occluders around them and have them flicker out of existence instead of instantly disappear? * that the potions allow me to double-jump. Despite making it through the tutorial which is supposed to teach me that, in the level after that I couldn't understand why the X button seemingly only worked during that tutorial level. I think the level in which we're trapped in a narrow pit and we need to jump-dash repeatedly in order to escape would have been a better tutorial, because it's more obvious that the sequence of bottles corresponds to the sequence of jumps, as opposed to a coin-like pickup which guides you during a tricky jump.
@gelisam thanks a lot, will use those tips in the new update!
really ago!
Mechanics are a bit quirky, and all the more charming for it. Especially neat, if a bit hard to master, is the prower-up driven double jump. Levels are varied and mostly quite hard, but rarely ever unfair. GG.
Very impressive little game! Struggled a bit with the mechanics but otherwise this is a very impressive submission :D
Love your color palette! The clouds (I think?) kind of got me distracted, but maybe I'm just saying that because I kept dying. I was also a little unclear on when I could use the Dash mechanic? Other than that, very difficult for me, but one of my favorite entries so far. Awesome job! :D