Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD55 → Sophia's Spirit Journey
By ryusui
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 618 | 3.52 | 36 | |
| Fun | 572 | 3.45 | 36 | |
| Innovation | 905 | 3.01 | 36 | |
| Theme | 1134 | 2.72 | 36 | |
| Graphics | 690 | 3.57 | 36 | |
| Humor | 776 | 2.68 | 34 | |
| Mood | 1083 | 2.89 | 35 |
Graphics are very nicely done and the levels pose some good challenges. The one thing I was struggling with is to aim jumps to I actually land on a platform. I found the 3D effect that is used there a bit confusing. But great job overall!
Very bright and beautiful colors, nice graphics and user-friendly gameplay. It's a pleasure to play this game!
Great graphics, clearly a lot of effort went into them. However, I got stuck on the scene right after the head comes off. I can't get past the trees. Might there be a bug in the game?
I like the level design, it was fun to prance around the levels and they weren't overly confusing. Challenging game!
i kinda like it. The graphics were also nice. It got a little too hard for me and I wasn't the biggest fan of instant switch between scenes leading to many deaths from running room-to-room just to fall into the instant lava/spike pit. But good game overall!
@marleeeeeey It's the one control I realize I didn't explain - you can jump down through thin platforms by pressing down + jump! (You'll be able to get through trees later. ;))
I was blown away to find out that this game was made by just one person! You did an incredible job. The gameplay is super engaging, the characters are incredibly creative, and the swinging mountain feels so realistic lol. Seriously, great work!
There's a certain charm to the artwork that transports you back. It's fun and challenging!
Both graphics and level design seem cool and the game plays fine. The scene switches were a bit off, there was a couple spots where I instantly died after I switched a scene. Also I Couldn't figure out what that 3/3 was for a long time so maybe explaining that to the player along with everything we can do would be nice. Great job overall!
Few Quick Thoughts. Overall, this was incredible. 1. Some sort of short stop when switching zones might have been nice, I ran into lava a lot by just sorta running from one room into another and not stopping between. 2. For stage 2 of the boss, it might be cool if you couldn't drop through those platforms, I died a lot more to just... sorta misjumping/tapping wrong then I did to the attacks in that zone.
Defeated the boss just now. It's unbelievable that you finished a metroidvania game in a game jam. Great level designs with a lot of fun. The machanics to change your head is a bit like a game called "Puppeteer" on ps3 which I like it very much. Btw I suffered a bug for a long time that you may get through the platform and fall into the lava on stage 2 of the boss.
great work, the character design made me smile. Same with the music :D
Honestly pretty impressive that you made a whole metroid vania by yourself in such a short amount of time! Gameplay was pretty good, although there were some level design decisions such as the placement of certain checkpoints and the fast-moving enemy cycles being a bit cumbersome to play around. Otherwise though, the platforming felt pretty good, and the abilities/integration of the theme was really interesting! Well done!
Loved the idea of switching between characters and taking advantages of their abilities on certain part of the level. And the 3D graphics was really well made, I'm impressed that you were being able to model all these characters and objects in such a such time frame.
The level design and overall gameplay was pretty good, but just like you mentioned, the collapsing platforms was a bit off since the character can still stand on them after they fell off. And I think the enemies were moving a little too fast which makes some areas difficult to get pass. And some transition gates were too close to a dead source like lava or spikes, I think lengthen the safe area around those gates a bit would be a thing to consider, because I died quite a number of times just because I didn't have time to react after a "sudden danger" after a zone transition.
But there're some other things I want to point out. First being the lack of some kinds of tutorial to guide the player through the controls and core mechanics of the game, as I find myself struggled on some parts of the level because I couldn't figure out the controls needed, like falling through those blue platforms at the beginning of the game.
As for the second, I think the dead animation was taking a bit too much time, like 3-4 seconds or so. At first, it was no big deal, but it might become annoying on some hard parts of the level because the player might die a lot, which costs their patience and reduces replay-ability.
Anyway, this is a very neat submission nonetheless, I genuinely appreciate the effort you put into this, great job!
@constance Be sure to give Version 1.1 a shot - I fixed the collapsing platform bug, *and* added room transitions which make it less likely you'll enter a room only to run straight into a lava pit!
Also, speaking of lava pits, I adjusted the design of two rooms: the floor in the lava hallway leading to Caloris no longer leads straight into the lava pool (there's a ledge now), and the entrance in the final climb leading to the end boss has been lowered so you can see the lava when you enter.
Impressive that you made a complete metroidvannia, difficult game but I found myself trying over and over again, the elements fit very nicely together, amazing job!
Small thing I noticed, the first time I shot a projectile with fire, the game lagged quite hard for a moment, maybe assets were loading or something?
Managed to do it.
Screenshot 2024-04-23 at 19.57.10.png
All in all pretty good. The boss was a bit of a horrible experience with no sound cue for shots and them blending so well to the background and platforms. The platforming wasn't really precise enough of what it required, the blue platforms sometimes just letting you fall trough without any rhyme or reason and the brown platforms timer starting weirdly early if you go near them.
The final stretch before boss was kinda annoyingly long too with all the possible sources of chip damage there were. Not hard but just not very fun either to run repeatedly. Pretty much the same as the early phases of the boss after knowing what to do on them.
Other than that it was pretty well balanced. The checkpoints were plenty enough (maybe the beginning section could have used one too) and the dangers were never too much to handle but posed some threat at least.
First time I died after getting the first head I thought it glitched as my head was removed. Could have hinted somewhere (in the game) about the head switching at the point when you get your first one. I tried to do a full refresh at that point to start again but the continue screen with showing me 1/x heads gave me a clue and then I checked the description for anything I was missing. Obviously would have been nicer to have it on game.
The ice head was pretty useless. It served no purpose on the boss level with lava as you needed to switch off it to use the platforms and it required way too much dexterity to pull off with the clunky controls. And just staying on the platforms and hoping that the projectiles don't hit you was the way to go. The green one also was kinda moot and those moving platforms activating were just too damn slow. Waiting around doing nothing is never fun. On the boss it being slow served a purpose but normally it was just waiting for the sake of waiting. It, just like the blue one, served pretty much just as a passive effect. Which mechanically they could have easily been. And the shooty ones could also be just upgrades on top of each other which would have pretty much made the whole head switching unnecessary. And as it was only a hinderance really I don't think that might have been a bad idea. Of course it wouldn't have made sense thematically.
Noticed you made an updated version with sounds and music (and bug fixes) which is nice. Too bad you couldn't squeeze them to the original schedule. They were missed and surely would have added a lot. The art worked but I'm not entirely sold on the purple on the walls (and everywhere else even hiding boss projectiles as I mentioned). It was a bit too attention seekingly bright and could be toned down in brightness and saturation to make it more serve its purpose as a static scenery element.
But yeah, good job! 👍 Very "full" experience already for a jam game and I bet the...
Well, my curiosity got the better of me and took a peek on the updated version. Looks like it shares the same save file and indeed the changes make it so much better. Especially the sounds help a ton. Pulled it off on the first try without any problems and found the "secret ending" too. Very dark soulsy...
Screenshot 2024-04-23 at 20.20.11.png
@antti-haavikko Yeah, in retrospect, the "current power" gauge in the corner functioning more like a scrolling list would've hinted better that you can switch (or remove) heads once you start collecting them.
Early in development, Hiberna was supposed to give you an Ice Beam-type freeze shot, but I decided making that work (or worthwhile) would introduce too much scope creep. If I revisit this game, both Hiberna and Veridia will probably have their powers reworked somewhat!
Wow, the scope of this game is incredible. Interesting level design, loads of polish, pretty amazing! The controls for switching powers were awkward on the keyboard, but overall great jam game.
Nice Game. for me the jump felt a bit to floaty. Such a game benefits a lot from snappy movement
Great game! An enjoyment to play
Really nice game, loved the metroidvania-style exploration, with new abilities unlocking new parts of the world ...
Not a fan of the jump / platforming : it seems the ability to jump up "through" platform doesn't play too well with perspective view. I'm sure there's no issue with the physics code here, however, the perspective view makes it look like there is, which is a pity (Blasphemous also has a similar issue)
I kept falling through platforms randomly. I liked it though.
Nice game, wonderful graphics, great work! Although I missed the theme a bit
This is a really impressive game, and there were a few great metroidvania moments which I loved. The horizontal vine/logs which you need the lightning for were a good tease, and the exit to that room was great to encourage me to go back (it would have been even better if there was some sort of one-way platform to trap you there). The way forward was only ever behind one branch, and there was usually only one way to go (Blocks needing the lightning head half a screen away from the branch to find it). This is fine for a jam game, and without a map a more dense, interconnected world would have just been painful, but in future it would be cool to see this expand into a more fully-fledged metroidvania. I also found the switching heads mechanic tricky to do quickly, perhaps using a different button to equip each head instead of scrolling, but I'm not too sure. Great job!
Good game, love the models