itch.io

I really appreciate how spot-on the gameboy aesthetic was, but by golly does it need more checkpoints. The majority of my time with this game was spent falling down the pits in the dark room, finding out I lost the key I picked up,  and walking all the way back to grab the key I lost, just to repeat the cycle over and over again. Also I got to the end and only saw two of the three lines of dialogue. 

I've been told my submission is "quite hard" if you're up for a challenge:

https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/461970

It's crazy how a simple choice in music can totally reframe a game. I was half expecting some philosophical musings about breaking free from your one-dimensional existence (the open 2D area at the end was a nice thematic touch). To echo some other comments I'd agree that the biggest thing this game needs is the ability to see when the red squares are inactive, because a lot of my deaths could be chalked up to moving forward and all of a sudden a red square is in my path before I have time to react. Aside from that, good job.

I like the concept, and I also appreciate your philosophy of "show don't tell", but a major roadblock to making that learning experience fun is that the death screen and respawn time is far too long, especially when you're dying frequently early on because you still don't know it's who's who in the rock-paper-scissors diagram. 

On the topic of your level design, the most intuitive level was the one that had one of each bad guy in a triangle; this instantly made me realize everyone has a strength and weakness, before that level I just assumed that the axe guy kicked everyone's ass because that's all I saw until then. I would actually make that your second level (your first level's a great intro to the controls, no need to change that), since it makes the rest of the learning process flow much easier.

Finally I would change how the red squares work. It was a little confusing figuring out the archer's actual range since the red squares relative to the square you clicked don't actually show until AFTER you've already made the move and realize you're out of range.

Despite my criticisms, this game has loads of potential as a fun $5 steam game, just give it that extra pollish and more playtesting, and I'd buy it!

This is definitely one of the most stylish entries I've seen so far! That said I had a lot of trouble figuring out how the mouse controlled the light, and it didn't help having my cursor constantly go outside the game window. I also feel like this game would be its absolute strongest if it focused less on tricky isometric platforming and more on puzzles (like pushing a box maybe?). Either that or just add a drop shadow. Regardless, very impressive stuff you guys, I'd totally play more with just a little more pollish.

Good game but if we wanted to enter semantics technically  a 1-bit game would consit entirely of just two colors. But if I wasn't a nitpicky know-it-all I'd say I really like how good it feels to hold a charge and blast forward. 9/10

This is one of the most unique takes on the text based adventure I've seen in a while- well done!

My only gripe with the design is that I would occasionally just click a green word by instinct before seeing what the other options were first. I suppose it would have broken the rule of "one word", maybe a second click for confirmation? I dunno, otherwise this was super cool to read.

See the genius of this game is that it wastes so much of your time that you're reminded of your own mortality- you have Only One life in this world, so to spend it consuming high class and poetic art such as this is a blessing. You really don't reach this level of enlightenment until your 'W' key finger feels utterly numb.

Truly an arthouse masterpiece.

At first I was going to complain that it's totally unreasonable to expect players to beat all these levels in under 60 seconds, but the way this game handles records and best times is such a novel take on timers that it suddenly became a game in and of itself to decide which level I wanted to perfect to give myself an edge on the one I'm currently on. Well done.

My only gripe is that the ball is a little *too* floaty and the handle of the club makes figuring out the hitbox a bit difficult. Otherwise, you've got a good foundation here.

Thanks! Yeah the general consensus from people that have played seems to be that it's quite difficult- if I were to do it all again I'd probably make pacing my number one priority and slowly ease players into harder and harder levels.