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Sword of Hearts
Sword of Hearts
By msiddeek
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 50 | 4.10 | 87 | |
| Fun | 66 | 3.98 | 87 | |
| Innovation | 88 | 3.79 | 87 | |
| Theme | 277 | 3.69 | 87 | |
| Graphics | 212 | 4.08 | 87 | |
| Audio | 477 | 3.14 | 73 | |
| Mood | 217 | 3.73 | 81 | |
Comments
Incredibly good for a gamejam. It's really rare to see a complete game with levels and an ending. I am personally not a great fan of platformer puzzles but this one was executed well enough to deserve 5 stars overall. The theme was explored thoroughly, the graphics were enjoyable to look at and even though the sound was at a bare minimum, everything else was superb! The mood was also supported by author's remarks between and throughout the levels, which is interesting. All in all, I was delighted to play the game!
rodstar
2019-04-30 07:23
LOVED IT ! O my gosh, Is it really possible to get the sword at the end ?
aret24
2019-04-30 07:25
very cool art design!!! (i found a bug when you go under a lift when lift moves down you fall through earth :])
unlink
2019-04-30 07:47
Loved the art! Although, I found movement can sometimes be annoying, but that may be on purpose idk. Anyways, GREAT GAME!!!
A very smart game concept. My only issue is the controls, they felt a little too clumsy.
valid
2019-05-01 00:00
The art is fantastic. The controls were a little 'eh' and it took a second to get a feel for the jumping. I really enjoyed this. The subtle audio was great. Nothing over the top.
phyro
2019-05-01 00:03
Great game and level design right here. The ending twist is awesome and sent shivers down my spine, to be honest. I just fest a little "unfair" [?] in some levels that the level required a certain level of reflexes from the player and the clunky movement didn't contribute to it very much. Great game overall :)
Very fun game, cool concept and good art.
Had a great time with this, well done!
jjjjason
2019-05-01 06:21
Ooh this is neat, you don't get too many "complete" games in LD. Death-as-a-mechanic is pretty popular this time around, but i still quite like this implementation of it. The puzzles aren't too hard, but they are well thought out (I really liked the one with the three platforms lowering the box), and of course the ending is quite spooky. Reminds of of that old flash platformer where you assumed you were supposed to collect all the coins, but collecting the coins actually lead to the bad end of the game.
Art's fun too. I bet if you had time for music it would have worked really well. The controls definitely are a bit sticky which hurts some of the long jumps, but that can be tuned.
Nice art, the jump is strange, therefore it was challenging, then annoying and the I get used to this and it was again challenging and satisfying :D
corbak
2019-05-01 22:14
Really nice little game you go there! Very well done on your entry, I love the minimalist graphics and the theme was nicely implemented. I got sometimes thinking about how could I advance! The movements were a bit stucky but nothing too serious! Well done !
ditam
2019-05-01 23:28
This is one of the best games I've played so far in this jam, it feels very complete and polished, congrats!
My only concern was that the elevators seemed to be a bit buggy, you can fall through them and the floor, forcing you to restart (seems to happen every time on the first level with elevators + buttons, if you push the life cube off the elevator), and sometimes they can not be triggered properly - for this, maybe the cleanest solution would be introducing a separate "interact" key, or making them automatic.
msiddeek
2019-05-01 23:38
@ditam thanks for the cool feedback! Were stuck because of that bug? I cannot seem to reproduce it. Sorry you had a bad experience :/
@rodstar yes, you can get the sword :)
I really liked this, the ending wa a bit surprise that i had to complete the game without dying(?).. also it has some LIMBO vibes...audio and art are also cool
msiddeek
2019-05-02 08:27
@5n1p3r-4r73m1s You can die as much as you want. It's about finishing every puzzle with "no hearts boxes left behind". I should probably make it clearer then!
Thanks for the input!
shunaky
2019-05-02 08:30
This was an awesome game, but 2 questions: - If through the entire game I had to die to win, why does dying in the last stage really kills me? - What are those hearths left behind that it says at the end?
The game was really well made, just one issue: - On the second level (I think) the third jump need to be very well timed, what is frustrating if it is around the early levels, it gives a weird difficulty curve that just goes up end then comes to the normal. (The problem isn't about being hard, it is about the 2 adjacent levels that are way easier because they don't need timed jump)
I recommend adjusting the x position of the second or third column
Congrats on making this game ^^
@msiddeek can you tell me the controls clearly.
Screenshot (240).png
i can't jump on that so i could drop to the other side
msiddeek
2019-05-02 09:42
@5n1p3r-4r73m1s Oh I'm so sorry! This broke when I fixed the buggy jumping physics. Just fixed the level now. Thanks for bringing it up!
Super interesting concept. Its quick to restart on death which is super important when death is so critical. The lift mechanic was very confusing until I figured you needed to be in a super exact spot.
Trying to finish each level without dying was quite interesting. Gave that extra challenge.
Very nice game.
palsina
2019-05-02 12:04
The best part of this is the level design, it feels very complete overall, that's incredible in a Jam. Congrats!
Fantastic work - great aesthetic, and no way could I possibly stop until I got to the end. Really well done.
t-bo
2019-05-02 18:13
Awesome pixel art and neat concept ! Great challenge in every level ! Incredible game ! Congratulations ! :clap:
What a well made game, especially with the smooth movement. Had a lot of fun playing this.
Very cool concept and pretty art work to! GG! Come take a look at our game I would love to get your feedbacks!
tgiant
2019-05-03 13:01
Oh my gosh, this was a super fun game. I loved the puzzles and the art style was just perfect. Outstanding good work.
jsmars
2019-05-03 13:28
Love the style, nice work!
boris
2019-05-03 15:46
I really enjoy this game
Very interesting mechanic. The ending confused me a bit, but I also skipped reading a lot of the poetry. I should probably come back to this one later and give it another go.
(I also managed to fall through an elevator and out of screen on one of the later levels. Not entirely sure if this is intentional)
I loved this but I never could figure out how to get the sword! Played several times, might try again later. Animations were good and puzzles generally seemed thought out. Nice job
ace17
2019-05-04 18:56
Very nice game, I went through the end and it was fun!
The difficulty is well balanced and the puzzles are clever.
Great job, and thanks!
Small bug: in the last room, you can get pushed through the ground by the falling crate.
miu
2019-05-05 20:05
I love the twist ending, although it might be a bit unfair but apart of that nice to have some nice rhymes here
I love this game! the mechanic is interesting!
Thank you for submitting your game to be played on my stream!
Once the stream is finished you can find the video here: https://www.twitch.tv/ursagames/videos If you want to know when it was played you can find your game in the queue here: https://tinyurl.com/y5rdokvp
sn4pi
2019-05-07 10:08
This game was so great! I absolutely love the simplistic art style and the puzzle levels. It was really cool to recognize after one run that you can do all the levels with zero deaths! And the theme fits so perfectly! This will be one of the favourites imo!
jcmoyer
2019-05-07 22:36
Very nice well-polished game.
In case anyone else was stuck trying to figure out how to beat the game without dying, look at the screenshots. They hint at another way to pass through spikes.
solifuge
2019-05-07 22:37
Really enjoyed this puzzle-platformer. I'll definitely be following your future projects here, and on itch.io!
Nice clean art with good animation, snappy movement, and tricky platforming. The rhyming text in the levels was cute, and everything was tutorialized Very Well. Really enjoyed the core mechanic... you got a lot of mileage out of a few mechanics, and simply creating a block where you die! That's a sign of good efficient puzzle design!
You made an excellent progression of challenges to introduce new game concepts too. I especially liked the twist at the end, where you backtrack to the start and realize you're intended to beat the levels without dying. I love how it opens up new ways of thinking about the existing levels, and encouraging you to investigate more! The platforming was tough on the second part, but I managed to complete it, and it felt really good.
The death sound effects were evocative, and I would've loved some simple royalty-free music or something in the background to go with them, and set the tone. Other than that, I don't have much to critique, other than the difficulty curve of some of the platforming on the second time through. Particularly this room:
Tough.png
It felt like you had to walk well off the edge before you actually had to jump, to just barely land on the upper platforms. It was very precise! The ability to quickly reset helped, though. Other than that, the second playthrough went pretty smoothly for me.
I did run into that bug, where a block could push you through the floor, but that's not a big deal: https://i.imgur.com/xdBXquW.gif
Anyway, this has been one of my favorites from the jam so far. Thanks so much for sharing it with us, and congratulations on completing this! Looking forward to whatever you make in the future!
The game is so well done!, The levels are so well designed, and the mechanics are so refreshing! Keep it up!
shess
2019-05-08 02:47
Great game with fluid and precise controls (I swear to god, almost nobody handles coyote time as well as you do!) The platformer elements are tight and fair, and I liked the animations a lot. I believe you made the music, too? Really nice melancholic ambient!
Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my livestream!
If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/421756423?t=04h05m26s
Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D
💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady
https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin
sylvie
2019-05-09 00:12
This was a pretty cool game. I really liked the twist that it's possible to finish all the puzzles without dying, though some of the jumps required to do so felt overly precise. The platforming felt a bit janky and I fell through the floor (not a shortcut floor) at one point.
Excellent entry. I almost flipped the table trying for the no deaths run, but I eventually got it. What'd you make this with?
msiddeek
2019-05-09 18:06
@jordgubben yeah, I shouldn't have relied on text that much.
@ursagames @elysiagriffin thanks for playing and linking your playthrough folks! Good to see people playtest the game live!
@solifuge your feedack is one of the most valuable feedback I received. Thank you so much for spending the time to do this. I learned so much about what I did well and not so well with my game. I don't know how to express how much I appreciate your words. Thank you!
@cheesepencil this is in Game Maker. And it's not about "not dying", it's about "not leaving heart boxes behind." Did you restart the whole game every time you died?
@msiddeek Not the whole game, just that level, using the 'R' shortcut.
Cool one! Feels really solid, nice graphics, it has lot of levels for a jam game. I like combination of classic move-box puzzles with use-your-dead-body puzzles :) Levels wasn't too challenging (which is fine in a jam game) but it was fun! Great work!
webox
2019-05-09 23:09
Awesome!! It's a beautiful game, really fun and nicely done puzzles. I went for a puzzle game too so I know how hard and time consuming is to think of cool puzzles!! Really nicely done, lvoed the ending. Great job!
tamail
2019-05-11 21:05
I love this game so much, it's one of the best games made this LD for sure! The game mechanics were really original, at least to me! I adore the graphics, pixelart and animations. You made it so interesting I was eager to finish the game. The ambient sounds were also great. I don't know everything was just brilliant. I've noticed few bugs, I listed the below as I want this game to be its best. :D Awesome job, seriously!
- In the level where elevators are introduced for the first time, I kinda glitched down on the second elevator..? My character just yeeted out of the screen. :D (After writing this I've noticed that it's when I jump on the elevator somehow.) - Second bug I've noticed is the one where is the sign "Agile, alert and stout? To honor you are en route." - sometimes second box appears out of nowhere (brown box, not the life box) if you die because of the second cog wheel. When you die, the life box kinda jumps into the ceiling, the cog disappears and there's brown box all of sudden.box.png
kyavi
2019-05-11 22:59
what a beautiful and clever game! i'm very glad to have played this! ^-^
Had a lot of fun playing the game. The idle animation of the character spitting blood was a nice touch. Puzzles were introduced well enough that I didn't feel the game was unfair (except potentially the no-death run).
The ghost-jumping (or coyote time) as a puzzle solution to some of these might have been a bit much. Obviously as a convenience feature, I did enjoy having that feature at all, but at times, I felt I needed to know how that aspect of the game was programmed so I can time my jumps properly, which isn't a good feeling. I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of the idle animation forcing the player to stop momentarily, which creates an occasionally stutter to the movement and gameplay. These nitpicks didn't ruin the whole experience, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fg6h6NSyd8
On a side-note, I just gave it another go, this time with the no-death (or, really, no heart block) run. You sly fox, you've hidden all those clues of how to get through this game without relying on the heart blocks in weirdly creative ways. Welp, I got the sword and a magenta screen, so I guess I win.
*Note to other players looking for clues, pay attention to the screenshots in the itch.io page, and notice the dotted wall patterns are almost always vertical, with a platform above.*
jjjjason
2019-05-14 21:43
OK I'm back and I got the good ending this time. I have to admit, that's pretty clever.
I really liked the idea ! Well done :)
First of all, Well done. Amazing entry. Graphics are neat and moody. The controls are a bit rough some times but I got used to them. The mechanics are very clever and nice implemented into the puzzles. The puzzles are a little bit easy. And i found an interesting spot where i couldn't press the platform button on the 13th level. Overall a great game! GJ! screen.png
2019-05-15 16:29
Got stuck on the same place :(. I was enjoying this game so much.
msiddeek
2019-05-15 17:14
@zooid @meskaline I'm sorry about that bug. Thanks for bringing it up! Fixed!
Just played your game! Thanks for submitting! Too bad you were not there :(
There is one thing I would like to tell you: The machanic of jumping by pressing "up" feels a bit wrong to me. I think using space (probably additionaly) would be a more familiar way for most players.
Further I'd suggest you to play and rate more LD games as that increases your "balance" and makes your game more visible which leads to even more ratings btw...
kypello
2019-05-18 05:50
Really cool game here.
Controls are solid and feel great. Levels are well designed. I really don't have anything negative to say about it.
alchemic
2019-05-20 02:28
This is a very good game!
I really like the core mechanics, and how different the game is on the second playthrough.
Very nice interpretation of the theme, too. One of the few games I've seen that doesn't use literal currency.
The music was a bit too quiet and hard to notice without headphones, but it's very soothing.
The main character doesn't seem to fit in with the industrial mechanical environment, but I like them both separately.
Overall, very very good entry, possibly the best I've seen so far.
shunaky
2019-05-20 04:03
OMFG I just replayed the game, and realized that you can pass all the levels without dying, and if you do, you can actually get the sword O.O
Sem título.png
Great job on the game!! Awesomelly done
Super nice. Great art, good mood (storytelling through extra character poses!), good level design. Though I'm not a big fan of last minute toe-on-the-ledge jumps being required to progress, especially in the *first* jump room...
**Spoilers ahead** That said, I totally love how you leaned into that so hard. I didn't realize how much you allowed for forgiveness/coyote/ghostledge jumping until I was trying to solve the three saw room that's early on. When I did discover it, the jumps were so much smoother and I felt like a BA working my way through the later rooms. I was curious why the good ending sword room had that particular object in it. If the heart box goes to where you die, couldn't it have been there all along? (i.e. On your first death it is teleported from the sword room.) Or perhaps it would be there as an indicator of a previous (and unsuccessful) seeker of the sword? **Spoilers end**
All-in-all, the best game I've played this jam, and better than many in others as well.
This was excellent. First run, I felt a bit on edge due to the feel from the graphics and ambient sounds. After that, I realized I should try to die less, and made a few less sacrifices. But the 3rd time... Every run I found something new and exciting. I managed to make it, and this is one of my favorite games I've played all of Ludum Dare!
I did get pushed out of the world by the crate on this level: Fall room.png
Also this: SwordHeart.png I KNEW THAT SPOT WAS SUSPICIOUS
duke
2019-05-20 09:55
Very well done! Geat entry. Aside from sluggishy controls, this game felt great to play. Lot's of content and a very good difficulty ramp. The levels were balanced very well and the progression felt natural. Also, it was a great to have that much variety in levels, even though levels themselves were never really a challenge (at least for me) but that's something, that can be fixed with a content update and a little more time.
The art looks nice and has a very polished look to it, even inspite of the very basic nature of the assets themselves.
I also really liked the little story, you tell through gameplay and the ending with the sword was also really well presented. Awesome stuff. Good job!
Well done! The progession of the levels was well balanced. I made it all the way to the end (spoilers). I wanted to ask if you can actually get the sword depending on how many times you died in the previous levels or if you never get the sword?
msiddeek
2019-05-20 15:11
@duke and @mika-la-grand, thanks for playing and for the feedback! And yes, you can get the sword :)
Wonderful game! I reached the sword and the journey was time well spent. I think it was a very clever implementation of strategically dying in certain places to produce the necessary block to solve the puzzles. I like the "old school" method of using rooms instead of a side scroller as well. The graphic was suitably nice and so was the audio. The blood cough made me cringe a bit and I felt sorry for the little character =) Also a nice variety of challenges with lifts, saw blades, jumps, spikes, and stuff. The only thing I could find to pick on is that the level progression was somewhat jumpy and I would probably have ordered the rooms a bit. Some rooms I died a few times at to get the items to become positioned correctly and the next room I would just run through. Maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing though, maybe it would become boring if every room was more difficult than the previous one. Great job on this game!
Really really really stellar job here!
I love the bait and switch that gives you a "bad ending" for playing the game normally. It really challenges you to think about the proper way to get through a level, and it helps that it hints to the player that certain things are possible.
The controls were maybe a biiiiiiiiit too rigid for what I prefer in a platformer, but that aside, this was one of my favorite entries. Awesome job!
gamefive
2019-05-21 06:07
Most of the people around me who played this game liked it. I hope the last part's done.
strega
2019-05-21 06:19
Nice job with this puzzle platformer. The art is and audio is really together. I liked the mechanic, but is it actually possible to do every level without using a heart box?
msiddeek
2019-05-21 17:05
@gamefive thanks! What do you mean "the last part's done"?
@strega yes, it is possible :)
garys
2020-10-12 22:45
Wow, dude... Since I enjoyed your LD46 entry so much, I had a look at this game too. This was incredible... not least because I had a very similar mechanic for LD44, but mine landed a little flat - this _really_ shows how it can be done. Bravo.