Inner Joe

kroltan 2021-04-27 01:28

First of all, I think this is the best soundtrack of any LD game I've ever played.

I really liked the concept and the delivery of the message was very impactful.

It seems some of the messages haven't been translated from Portuguese though, so it's a bit tricky for our international jammer friends.

I would have liked if I could see a little bit further down, but I guess the current setup fits thematically. Reason being I had the instinct of never let my character trail offscreen above, so I would often jump before I could see where I would land, then have to wait for the camera to catch up.

A suggestion for the artist is to watch out for scale when making pixel art. In-game, the background and walls are much higher resolution than the wooden beams. There also seems to be a different scale for the player and lantern's pixels. If you keep all sprites with the same pixel size, the art can become much more cohesive.

chipperswitch 2021-04-27 02:37

Great mood and interesting take on the theme. The music is a perfect fit.

The whole game could be zoomed out a lot more so you can see more of the lantern powerups before you make your next plunge into darkness.

cryptomnesic 2021-04-27 02:37

Unable to get Joe to move using arrows or A/D

ulisses 2021-04-27 11:25

@cryptomnesic we're sorry for that. Which browser are you using to run the game? What is the type of your keyboard? Is it wireless?

ulisses 2021-04-27 11:28

@chipperswitch thanks, we hope you enjoyed the game. Our intention with the camera was to increase the feeling of pressure on the player, but we may have left it too close. Probably with more tests we could achieve a better result. Thank you so much for playing.

ulisses 2021-04-27 11:32

@kroltan kkk obrigado, as frases em português eram para ser easter eggs, mas pra funcionar direito precisaríamos de mais mensagens, assim elas não ocorreriam tanto. No final também sentimos que a câmera poderia olhar um pouco mais pra baixo, ou ter menos zoom. Vamos tentar ter um melhor balanceamento na próxima. Foi a primeira vez do Hiago fazendo esse estilo de arte, e acho que eu poderia ter ajustado melhor os tiles. Enfim, aprendizado. Esperamos que você tanha gostado, obrigado por jogar :smile:

mrscythe 2021-04-27 11:54

I love the mood in this game! Not only do you have to go deeper, but the emotions you get from this are pretty deep aswell. I always love games that uses emotions. Concept was also pretty fun. I always get that feeling where it looks like I fell down too much, but just barely made it on a platform, and slowly seeing the light again.

vectrex28 2021-04-27 12:05

I love LD entries with a positive message, and it got surprisingly emotional at the end, owing a lot to the music. Gameplay part needs a few bugs fixed (sometimes I can fall for a very long time and not die), and some of the messages are in Portuguese, which I do not understand (and understanding the messages is paramount in a game with, well, *a message*.

Good job!

morricore 2021-04-28 13:46

I like the mood, but it's more luck than actual tactics to move forward, due to how late you see new platforms. chrome_CHVkLQEbtX.png And this bug, that locks you.

zorfmorf 2021-04-28 13:50

Sometimes I fell for a very long time and still survived, a few times I got stock in the platforms and couldn't move left or right, but other than that it played fine. Especially the delayed stop worked well as a platform mechanic.

The really good music and sound effects give this game a very strong mood, especially combined with falling far and then anxiously waiting to see if it turns into a game over or if the light is slowly crawling back up again.

I couldn't really focus on the messages once I got further down because I was focusing on not dying (again) and the text boxes felt frustrating because they are in the way of me seeing the next platforms. Not sure if that is on purpose.

janos-paradi 2021-04-28 14:39

I really like how you want to motivate people with this game

videt 2021-04-29 14:31

Gameplay is pretty simple and depends on your luck, but the game has really nice music and sounds! The visuals are also good

wouter52 2021-04-29 15:50

I like your game, it took me a while to figure out when I could actually move. But when I did, I had fun playing your game. Some feedbackpoints for you:

- the music is just great, it really adds to the message you want to bring across - the graphics are nice, but could use some simple tweaks. I would, for instance, change the background in a way that it fits with the rest of the style. There is some kind of unspoken rule that all the pixels in a game need to be the same size (which is not always true, but I would highly consider it for this game) - it is not always clear where the next platforms will appear, making the jump a wild guess. Which makes the game feel a bit random and unfair at points. But maybe that is a good thing in this case, as your message fits well with that - It is simple to play, and I like that a lot :smile:

Well done sir!

flogames 2021-04-29 20:24

Neat idea and good graphics + sound, creating a moody atmosphere! After a couple of tries I actually made it to the end, uplifting messages like this are always welcome! I didn't notice at first that your light's radius actually increases when collecting the lanterns. What irritated me the most is that you can fall down into the dark for quite a bit without dying (as others have mentioned).

ulisses 2021-04-29 23:05

@mrscythe glad you liked the game, sometimes when we feel low, the important thing is to do the same in the game, to keep going! Thank you so much for playing our game!

ulisses 2021-04-29 23:07

@vectrex28 glad you liked our game. The game really could have gotten better, but some tests were missing. The phrases in Portuguese are easter eggs that we included at the last minute, and the idea is that they were not so frequent. We were very happy to have played, thank you!

ulisses 2021-04-29 23:10

@morricore thanks for playing. Our level design was focused on being able to see just a little bit of the platform, to show that sometimes we need to move on and trust what we are doing. However, more tests were lacking to refine this concept. Haha, this bug was funny: D, thanks for playing, and we hope that these details did not hinder your experience.

ulisses 2021-04-29 23:12

@wouter52 thank you for playing and we hope these details have not hindered your experience. Our level design was focused on being able to see just a little bit of the platform, and the messages were there because they were the player's point of interest. With more tests and a better adjusted speed this would probably be resolved. We hope you had fun in spite of everything.

ulisses 2021-04-29 23:14

@flogames we’re sorry for this crash bug, and we hope it didn’t ruin your experience. Although the game is simple we decided to focus a lot on the atmosphere, trying to deliver the best we could. We hope you enjoyed it. Thanks.

ulisses 2021-04-29 23:19

Hello @janos-paradi , our idea with the game was to show people that sometimes what they say can have a negative effect on other people, and also try to convey the message that people should not care about meaningless criticism, because they are stronger than that and should persist and carry on. We try to do the best we can with the game, and we hope it hits someone in a positive way. Thanks for playing!

todward 2021-04-30 13:48

Liked the graphics style and escpecially the music. Needed quite some attempts to get to the end. Wasn't quite sure how deep i can fall without a game over. Also needed to start twice because at first i didn't understood the game was starting. But after all a well made game.

vitor-figueredo 2021-04-30 15:47

Great game and the music is fantastic. Great read on the theme and the gameplay is simple yet well done.

Sometimes I would fall between platforms and not die, I'd completely disappear, including my light, and continue to live, sometimes I would just die. I think a quick tutorial would help me understand better why this happens.

Also, I double what kroltan said about the pixels, however, let me add that the pixel art is great. Great shading, well done.

Overall a great experience.

mighty-mufflon-games 2021-04-30 18:17

This was inspried. I really liked how you thematised the deeper and deeper theme and that wholesome ending. The music is just wonderful.

ulisses 2021-05-13 20:20

@todward hi, thanks for playing our game. It really is sometimes difficult to know how much the character can fall without dying. With a little more testing, we can better validate that. Thanks for playing!

ulisses 2021-05-13 20:22

@mighty-mufflon-games Thanks, we tried to do something that made sense within the theme, and we tried to bring the best possible atmosphere within the time available, and for that we knew that the audio selection would be important. We hope you enjoyed it. Thanks!

ulisses 2021-05-13 20:22

@vitor-figueredo Thanks for playing, I'm still waiting for your update kkk ...