Haunted Heights

I like the idea and it's overall a very good game, but it's also a masterclass in small annoyances you should avoid in platformers :D

• There's falling spikes from out of screen
• At least one blind jump into a really small safe area, where you can fall on a spike or in a pit
• Most dangers hitboxes are a pain, I know there's some room, but it really feels like you have to be perfectly on the grid to be safe, it's a little too much
• Lots of very precise jumping for things that shouldn't be this hard (especially this one platform above two spikes)
• The ending part feels too hard, with a series of very hard obstacles you need to learn and ending with those one tile holes. It really seemed designed to be hard for you as the designer, which becomes VERY hard for anybody else, especially because we don't even know the route at first.

And for this game specifically, I think having moving platforms on climbable walls was a mistake. There's a lot of confusion because of that and I feel like the game would be in a better state if all those platforms were on the wooden background.

Oh and it's not much, but I think there's no way to quit the game at the end if you're fullscreened?

Very fun and well made game. Having some sort of representaiton of how much time you had left to climb would have been nice. Art direction, level design and controls all felt very good, overall very nice :)

(mixels in your team logo; not a fan ^^')

Interesting, you can climb on any wall. I like this idea.

• Liked the music tracks but wasn't a fan of the first one. I felt it gave some uneasy tone to the game which I was not fond of. The others felt spot on to me though!

• Controls: Would have liked the first scroll to tell me I can climb anywhere. Initially just climbed on the walls until I realized it was anywhere I wanted. (it's not important though, it's only for like 30 seconds) I feel very awkward being left with just shift for climbing the wall. Gravity might be a bit too strong, would have liked the wallgrip release to be less harsh. That way, you feel like you have much more height control, which is very important in this game.

• Difficulty curve: whenever you introduce a mechanic (for example, using spikes from the ceiling to build yourself a platform over saws - i'll call them saws), make its introduction stupidly easy. Always remember a game is much harder for the player than it is for the dev. If you let a safe space for the player to test something new, he's gonna feel much more comfortable when it gets harder. (but hey, that's present in so many jam games, Above the Clouds is also guilty of this) Got stuck for a long while against the fire throwers, as as soon as they were introduced they were already sandwiching me and the next section had those salamanders and there was no checkpoint, giving me no moment to breathe. Allow the player to breathe and take things at his pace, especially when introducing something. Have I had time to get used to those, it would have made that moment more pleasant than it actually felt.

• placing a moving propeller (the green things you can grab onto that move back and forth) just after platforming right before a checkpoint: no. Please no. When you arrive there, you arrive climbing. Which automatically magnetizes you to the platform, and depending on the angle it directly sends you to the saws.

• spikes may fall on you without seeing them coming. makes it an unnecessary die and retry whenever there are some.

• I agree with others regarding the one way platforms. They're fine, it's just that they magnetize you from so far away.

• managed to finish it but many bits felt insane due to the difficulty curve

That said, I had my fun. Managing to beat this challenge at least feels satisfying as it was at least due to skills alone! Good job on this game.

Holy mother of all that is polished and good.

Saying i loved this game is an understatement.

Liked the momentum stuff with the moving blocks, was tricky at first but once I realized what I had to it clicked and the rest was a breeze! Lots of game to be played, thought it was going to be a short, linear platforming game but it was a bit more than I anticipated. A few things were clunky and needed some more work (jump-through platforms come to mind) but I enjoyed the game anyway!

I thought the climbing mechanic was pretty neat. The moving blocks were a little familiar (cough Celeste) but hey, if it works it works

The only major complaints I have are:

• The one-way platforms feel really unpolished. Like you tried to implement them but only half completed the implementation. Going up through them, it suddenly just snaps you on top of the platform. And when going down through them, if you don't hold down long enough, itøll just snap you back on top of the platform.
• Placing checkpoints on top of or right next to the key items was a bit of a dick move.

Excellent! A full, well-rounded experience. The climbing mechanic was enough to keep things interesting. You designed the levels fairly well around it (a few of the intended paths could be bypassed). It made some of the inherent challenges a platforming game has a lot easier, so nothing was all that tough until the finale, which was short but a lot of fun. My favorite aspect was the moving platform slingshots. Art and sound was very pleasant. Other than the "snapping" on some platforms and the falling spikes as some mentioned, nothing felt off about the controls/feel. I wasn't expecting the jump/air acceleration at first but I think each platformer is allowed a couple quirks and it didn't take me long at all to get used to it. I'm being really picky at this point because there really isn't much else to mention. Loved it!

I liked the climb mechanic very much, consequence is, that it gave player natural way to precisly control where you will land. The level design though was maybe too hard sometimes, and had too much launches to unknown :s So in the end, I didn't manage to get all three artefacts. Though it was fun to see death animation. The graphics were nice for pixel graphics, neutral colors, good for this kind of environment. Though I would have preferred to more detailed, or non-pixel graphics ^^
Going top of platforms or spikes (going from bottom to top of them, but not quite) felt bit out of place, as you little bit teleported upwards to top of them.
The reset of green sparkles was good, as they were also your 'road signs' where to go in a level, or what path you should take. As this game was not that much about collectibles. It was good game with nice mechanic, there were many climbing games, but didn't use in this kind of way :)

Wow! The very first time I tried it I wasn't sure what to think, but after I tried it again tonight I started to get a better sense of how to do it. Still didn't make it to the end, but that's more because I'm just bad at platformers. (Ironic, since that's what I made as well)

There's a lot of polish for a game jam game, imo. Excellent progression through the game with good instructions and challenging-but-fun level design. The first song got a little worn out by the time I got past the first stage, but again that's probably because I just took longer than expected to get past it...

Awesome entry with unsuspected depth! Mechanic felt new and fresh, with a lot of game changing elements to the classic 2D platformer. Well thought-through level design, a lot of surprises every new room you enter.

The game played very solid, I encountered no real bugs. He just sometimes "glitched" onto platforms you barely reached. Also, a counter displaying your collected stars(?) would have been nice!

The last bit was haaard, gave me celeste vibes with a lot of speed and precision needed. After some (many) attempts I finally made it to the top, which was very satisfying!

Jumping needs better control, when you enter a room it resets all of the green sparkle things you've collected and replaces them, gravity is to highand the way the moving platforms cut into the background is distracting and not in the cutesy artstyle. LOVE the music and really everything else! Maybe make it a bit harder.

REALLY good game, looks beautiful, and is really difficult! congratulations

Great game! Some visual feedback would have been awesome to the mechanic of climbing, and some snaps when interacting to some objects (spikes, passtrough platforms and moving panels). Except for that this game is fantastic, good music, ambient, art, corresponds to the theme and the mechanichs are great!