Hold Time

kurrik 2022-04-04 22:01

Took me a little while to figure out: the character's hand points to where you will jump, hold the jump button to charge up a jump, and when you get close to a clock then rotate the twin sticks to the indicated time. After figuring out those mechanics, I was able to make progress! Nice, inventive game which definitely does a good job with theme and mood. A little frustrating when missing jumps (particularly if I can't see where I'm jumping) but you mentioned wanting to get something difficult. Nice job!

peachtreeoath 2022-04-05 21:10

This is actually a pretty innovative game! I've seen quite a bit of Getting Over It style games but this is one of the more unique concepts. The clock hand in particular I haven't seen before. At first I thought it was a light gimmick, but once you started speeding things up, it really became quite the minigame.

I know that if you put in UI indicators of your controller angle that would be way too easy, so no complaints from me. But for the first stage, I did get stuck on the 2nd to last one for FORTY years! It was very tough and I had to skip it. Oddly enough, in the 2nd stage I was able to complete ones with similar speeds and directions. Now that I think of it, perhaps you simply narrowed the timing window on that one.

The arm angle for jumps is clever and diegetic, rather than having some UI pop out of nowhere to show your aiming direction like Angry Birds.

I unfortunately got stuck in stage 2 though I tried my darndest. In some ways the bricks reminded me of the gears in Double Dragon 2. Those were a nightmare for me as a kid, and having to go back a while because you missed a jump from a brick to a grass platform was just as painful :) I normally don't/can't stick with these games long but this one was enjoyable.

angrybeard 2022-04-07 18:28

a little confusing but the age mechanic is interesting!

local-minimum 2022-04-07 18:28

@kurrik thanks for the feedback! I added two images here thanks to you explaining a bit better how the mechanics of the game work. I think when I was developing the game, I had a more letter-box view and thus one could see a bit further ahead, even though there might still have been a few jumps of faith.

@peachtreeoath Wow thanks for the feedback. (I'm feel a bit guilty that my brain blanked out after playing yours, maybe it just zoned out with that happy upbeat feeling) It's a weird thing making a game in a genre that I haven't ever played and don't think I would particularly enjoy myself. :laughing: It made me smile with the "got stuck on that jump for FORTY years", I didn't think about how well the age system worked with that frustration.

choo 2022-04-08 12:41

I hate this game. Well done.

adobobo 2022-04-11 01:15

So the problem for this one is its really unclear what the goal is and why the controls work the way they do.

An improvement on the aging system would have been to let each age group have a different bonuses or drawbacks, like younger age has more time, adult can jump higher, old has less strength but can manipulate time better etc. etc.

I think for unique mechanics like this, you should always prioritize how you could convey your mechanics to the players as simple as possible. I think even how great the mechanic is, if the players don't understand your game they might just get frustrated or not play very long. One of the best way, I think, you could do this is by level design. For example, at the very start of your game you can focus on just teaching the players the jump mechanic first before introducing the time mechanic or the butterflies afterwards. This lets the players digest what the main goal is (which I assume is to reach the flag) against the minor goals/mechanics.

Also, when designing levels and objects on your game, objects should also clearly convey their purpose. Which ones are the platforms, which ones are just interactable, and which ones are dangers. A simple way I think is to have contrast in color or shape design. Art doesn't need to be super complicated, there's a charm on having an art style like this. But building off on top of just basic shapes and compositing them rather than having complicated lines and curves would be better.

Hope this was helpful, thank you for submitting. Great job!

nafos-games 2022-04-13 18:17

It was frustrating. I liked the clock hands mechanic that was cool. I couldn't hack the jumping on the bricks. But I am generally bad at games. Great work.

mar3k 2022-04-13 18:17

Fun platformer that is quite unique, it somewhat reminds me of jump king (in a good way). Was fun, good job.

2022-04-15 12:47

Neat game 😗 I liked the platforming mechanic! And very happy it wasn't a ragdoll or I would never have gotten anywhere. I thought it worked quite well on a keyboard. Pity about the lack of music but I had enough fun not to think very much about it. It was hard but not punishingly frustrating. Decent balance IMO. Well done! And of course the graphics changing with age was a nice touch, although the same body type in childhood is a bit funny 😁

lpettler 2022-04-15 14:39

Played it on a keyboard. I couldn't quite grasp **why** I wanted to break the clocks but it was a fun little minigame in within the larger platformer. It was quite difficult and (when not being able to see what was ahead) that difficulty seemed slightly unfair. Overall though it was not game-breakingly difficult just frustrating, which is what was aimed for!

Overall, this was an interesting innovation and a daring entry that appears to have worked well for the goals it set for itself. Good job!