itch.io

I'm super grateful for you taking the time to give such a detailed answer. Stories are often up for interpretation, but I can provide what my intention was at least to the story. 

The three divisions are all working on seperate projects. Newminds are making the AI powering the robots (and are responsible for most of the obstacle course like rooms) Interface is developing brain-computer interfaces, and Everlight is trying to create an immortality device.

Everlight already have a device that can freeze all living matter in place, and they believe that they will be able to localise the stasis to individual cells, allowing people to still get about without aging. As they spend longer and longer without being able to crack cell localisation and David gets sicker and sicker, he eventually starts fudging numbers in desperation, and takes the device to a remote area hoping he'll be able to hold just himself in stasis until a cure is found. Unfortunately, the field is much bigger than he expects and the entire facility is affected. (the room btw is the robot storage room, I like to think every time you die it sucks one of those robots up the tube to place at the checkpoint doors)

The voice that you hear throughout the game is Brian, the scientist who just happened to be testing the Interface device when the stasis field started. (He's in the bottom left of the map)

Like I said, this was something I'm experimenting with, with a view to tell a story similarly in the current non jam game I'm working on, so I really appreciate your feedback.

A lot of your criticisms are things that I pretty much just have to say yeah, I agree, these are just things that got put on the will not fix pile when prioritising what to do with the limited jam time I had.

I am very interested in your thoughts about the story though. Like I said, this is a jam game, and one of the things that I was experimenting with was this less explicit, told through snippets type of story. I didn't want it to be too obvious, but didn't want it to be completely inscrutable either. It's not a tightrope I have much experience walking. I would be keen to hear what your guesses would be to the questions you raised regarding the ending.

(here's fine, or if you're on discord I'm Francis#8112)

Are you able to use the fullscreen button or zoom the browser window?

Really fun. Lots of nice little touches.
I did find it a little hard to judge jump timing with the speed change, but overall really nice.

This is a cool concept.

I could see it working really well expanded into a puzzle platformer with authored levels, and maybe the future gems displaying as numbered outlines or something.

hmmm, i'm still not entirely sure what issue you're encountering with that grapple point

this one?
how did you get softlocked there?

I'm currently working on another game that has a similar mechanic. I completely rewrote the physics code for it, and when I have time I'm keen to revisit this project and see if the new physics code works on mobile 

I spent a little time after the jam trying to make a mobile version, but for some reason the physics just didn't work on mobile and I couldn't work it out. I still think about this game from time to time, and I haven't ruled out coming back to maybe start from scratch with mobile as the target.

I loved the art in this. Really good use of the limited pixels.

The game was constantly eating my inputs.
My first thought would be that maybe you were checking a button down event in fixed update?

That being said the art was really nice and it seemed like it could have been quite fun otherwise.

Brave to make a local multiplayer game for a jam.

Very stylish. Nice work.

I really liked this concept. When it was flowing, it felt really good to play.

The catching bug is probably being caused box collider edges getting caught on each other. An easy fix is to increase the edge radius of the player collider, that'll give it rounded edges and that'll stop catching.

This was fun. The art was real nice too.

This was pretty creative. I can't say I entirely get the connection to the theme, but I did enjoy my time playing it.

Thanks for the feedback :)

I am starting to see that I didn't quite communicate it well enough, but I had meant for the doors to be a risk-reward decision. Do you take a temporary setback to open the permanent shortcut, or do you continue on without a safety net? Like a reverse of Shovel Knight's breakable checkpoints. So the way you played was one of the intended options.

In hindsight though, I think there are a number of reasons they don't quite work, so they'll likely just be regular unlockable doors in the post jam version, lol

REJECT HUMANTY
ADVANCE MON-K3Y

i had a good time with this, very clever use of the theme
though i do have to admit that last level stumped me, i always had one too few lives at the top

with enough no sleep and repurposing of existing tools and systems, anything is possible
but for real i'm glad you enjoyed it

Thanks for the feedback :)
I currently have plans for (hopefully) about 2 weeks worth of post jam polish and additions for a full release version.

I completely agree with all of your critiques and suggestions.
After the frenzy dust of the jam settled I looked back and now I kinda think I made some design sacrifices for the sake of aligning with the theme that I probably shouldn't have.
The post jam version is very unlikely to have locked door deaths (for the reasons you laid out and also because i think the hurts the exploration to not walk through the door you just unlocked and see where it leads for yourself) and I was also talking about the design with a dev friend of mine yesterday and we came to a very similar conclusion about the placement of the hearts.
I really appreciate the time and thought you put into this, and am super glad you enjoyed your time with it :)

oh, clever

very nice implementation of the theme

Dead grandpas asserting dominance.

There's some cool stuff in there. Lots of potential.
The art wasn't bad, but I'm generally not a fan of mixed pixelart scales.

Really cute art. Interesting take on the theme.
Felt like the enemies could really start snowballing if you let them get away from you.
Lot of fun though.

Even though it's a little janky, it was probably one of the more fun one i've played.
What was the intended solution to the last level? I ended up getting it without any trails, but I think i might have cheesed it.

Some very clever levels in there.
And super cute art.

Really nice and polished.
Probably my favourite art so far.

The physics was pretty buggy, but i thoroughly enjoyed the voice over. Great stuff.

Super charming visuals.
Wish it was a little quicker though.

Way more polished than voice acting in jam games usually is. Nice work.

Very good game. Lots of fun to play.
Would have been even better if it was easier to see more of the level. I got hit a fair bit in situations that felt a little unfair cause i couldn't see the enemies until the last moment.

One of the more creative takes on the theme I've played.
Some of the rooms had me scratching my head for a little while before finally getting it.

Nice game, not a particularly original concept among the entries, but well executed.

Haha yeah, sometimes you just gotta do whatever it takes to make it work before the deadline

A nice simple concept. The art was great and it controlled really well.

Short and sweet. And i really dig the limited palette art style.

Cool game. Interesting take on the topic.

Would have been nice if there was a way to view the level before things started moving, felt a little sudden at times, lol