Triple Take

Awesome game, super fun time and good music

I love the retro one-bit vibes and the music fits the style very well, I think it did get a little confusing that the level reset right back to level 1 after one death and the hitbox on the spikes was not very generous (like with the side death thing), but these are minor tweaks that can be sorted - I think you've got a great foundation here and with the tweaks and adjustments that some people have brought up, it can become much better, so if you do carry on working on this after the jam, there are some great starting blocks and tips in what people have said that will help you :)

The presentation here is extremely well done. The music, ui and art come together very well and fit the theme to a T, not to mention holding up in their own right. I'm a big fan of the main gameplay gimmick as well, it's very original.

However, gameplay wise, even just loading up the game (through it's very well done loading screen) for the first time, I physically let out a sigh when I saw that WASD wasn't an optional control scheme, which is understandable of course due to the time constraints but because there were 10 levels this really got uncomfortable after a while (it's something about using a laptop), but not really your fault regardless. However, in reality, and why I bring this up, is that this was a sign of control problems to come.

Around level 8, I found myself absolutely loathing the overall movement. Singleshot essentially described how I felt word for word, and there isn't too much I can add here. Not to be harsh, but in my opinion the gameplay itself felt generic in many areas, it fit a lot of platformer tropes and even though I enjoyed the main gimmick and did enjoy playing it (for the most part), the mechanic introduced doesn't really change the gameplay itself, it only prolongs a tried and true formula. Not really a big deal in itself, especially with such a high level of polish, it's only an aspect magnified due to the above(and below)-mentioned frustrations.

Level 6 and 9 in my opinion were much more difficult than the levels around them, I just feel the difficulty progression could have used some work, it seemed like the levels were either fairly easy, or frustrating, there didn't seem to be too much middle ground.

Overall, in terms of being a gamejam entry, this is a very impressive game, especially since presentation is such an important aspect of the industry. However, the gameplay itself, although able to hold itself together for a time (adding to presentation), becomes very frustrating after a while. Still, I made it through the entire thing (I had about 120 deaths), and still see this as a solid entry simply due to the level of polish alone.

Although there are issues, great job with the entry regardless! Big fan of the title screen by the way.

Okay so I have some things to say about this game, some of it is valid others is personal preference. But before that I’m gonna rattle off everything I liked.

First up, the art style while simple convaid everything really well, so I like it. And the music was pretty okay for the most part, with the real stand out piece being the level theme. It sounds like a track ripped straight out of cave story, and I mean that in the best way possible. And last the title screen being a little playground for the controls was brilliant. Lastly the idea of replaying the level with changes was a good idea.

Now onto issues I had.

• in a platformer control is everything. Unless you want the player to feel helpless you shouldn’t make them feel helpless.

You can improve the control with 3 simple changes. 1 a variable jump, the best platformers all let the player control how high they jump by how long they hold the jump button. 2 coyote frames, in the same aspect a lot of great platformers use a mechanic called coyote frames, where the play has a few frames after walking off a ledge where they can still jump. This makes tight jumps a bit less demanding and increases player enjoyment. 3 movement, for non momentum based platformers like this, moving too fast works against the tight platforming that you ask the player.

• the camera was always off somewhere when the levels started. Unless you're trying to go for an overview of the level before it starts it was kinda silly, there were times I died off screen. I shouldn’t be killed off screen because the camera is slacking at its job lol!

• okay this is just a personal thing, but I HATE WHEN SPIKES KILL ME FROM THE SIDE! That just feels silly, and I get why some people do it, but I still don’t like it.

• While the idea of playing the same level over and over again with small differences each time is neat, This game kind of messed up the execution with a fex simple mistakes. Those being the over punishing nature of the dying, and the easy means of which you can die. Only having 1 hp would not be so back if you did go back as far as 2 stages when you die. Going back to the first stage of the level would not be so bad if you didn’t die in a single hit. If you change either the stage you respawn to the one you're on, or the number of hits you can take before you die no one would have complained about it.

I don’t think the game is bad, it's more so that the few issues that plague it ruin what could have been a really great game! I really hope you learn from this game and make a really great one next time!

I really love the idea of replaying the same level multiple times with parts of it changing on each playthrough. There was many times when replaying a level felt like playing an entirely new level. They were really well designed and fun to play. The game overall was very fun as well. I really enjoy precision platformers but I do have some gripes.

• The player, or just the game in general, moves way too fast. I never felt I had precise control over my character, which in a precision platformer isn't a good thing. There were many jumps that required me to jump close to the edge of a platform but you move so fast it was so easy to over shoot and fall off the edge. There were also several jumps that required you to jump between spikes which was difficult since, again, you move so fast and the spikes were so big that it was really difficult to be precise. Even if you tapped the left and right keys to make small movements, you were still sent 3/4 of a block in that direction often leading to you hitting spikes or something. The players movement just really needs some adjusting so that you feel like you're in complete control to make these jumps.
• Having to restart at the first version of each stage after dying got rather frustrating after a while. When I noticed it on the first stage, I wasn't too keen on it but thought it would be manageable and for the most part it was. But stage 9 pushed me over the edge and having to keep replaying version 1 when I was struggling with version 2 or 3 got annoying pretty quick. It would be nice to just be able to continue on version 2 or 3 of a stage after a death rather than resetting to version 1 each time.
• The camera sometimes seems to start high up in a stage and has to scroll to reach the player. I think it generally happens after a death. It wasn't too big an issue for most of the game. A few times I accidently walked off a ledge cause I hadn't let the camera catch up when the stage began but it was really noticeable on stage 10. When you have that wall chasing you and need to get moving instantly, it becomes rather difficult when the camera is still catching up and you can't see your player or the floor below you. It's easy to lose a couple of seconds waiting for the camera to catch up and on level 10 those seconds can be vital. Just try to make it so the camera always begins on the players starting position so it doesn't have to do that scroll down towards the player.
• There should be a quit button on the title screen otherwise you have to Alt+F4 out of the game since esc restarts the game.

Other than those gripes you have a really solid platformer here. I did get frustrated at times but thats generally what happens in precision platformers. Even then it was only really level 9 that brought out that frustration and I never stopped having fun at any point. Once again, I really love the concept of the level changing multiple times and it fits well with the theme. In the end I died 90 something times (Can't remember the exact number. Was more than 90, less than 100). I really hope you continue this and if you do then I look forward to seeing what more you bring to it. Great work.

Interesting idea! It's clever that each level has to be replayed 3 times, becoming more difficult each time. It's a bit frustrating that you respawn in Take 1 if you die in Take 3, but it certainly adds to the challenge. My only nitpick is that some spikes are placed a little too close together; the robot moves so quickly, it sometimes requires luck rather than skill to land perfectly on a block surrounded by spikes. Aside from that, the level design is great. The engine is very smooth and solid, and the 8-bit art and music is really good!

Almost half a thousand deaths. I don't know why this isn't mentioned in the description, but this the ninth level is really hard. You might believe I'm bad at this, but I have in fact played a lot of platformers like celeste, spelunky hollow knight and cuphead. This is not a huge problem, though since winning feels a lot better after one hundred of deaths. And luckily, the other levels followed a nice difficulty curve. I would recommend you to be careful, though. One single punishing level can be devistating to the entire game.

The content you have works very well and is nicely polished. The controls feel really tight. There is plenty of sound effects. The art is not very impressive, but at least very consistent to the style. However, I think this is lacking originality. I have have already seen tons of retro 2D platformers with pixelated graphics where you avoid spikes and bullets. Collapsing levels is a new idea I have never seen before, but it doesn't change much from the players perspective.

Very good platforming gameplay controls very responsively and the character moves very fluidly keeping the player always in control. The levels are well designed in the way that they change between takes, sometimes only a slight increase in difficulty and sometimes completely changing how a level is played. All issues i could say i have with the game obviously come down to the low ammount of development time such as the low ammount of levels but it's hard to expect more than is in the game.

Nice job, y'all! Character animations and the design of the game as a whole were top notch - I loved the music and sound FX, and the premise of how everything fell apart to get more out of each level!

My one complaint is having each stage completely reset after you fail - I wish it would just reset you to the stages current status without having to start it all over again...

Otherwise, I had fun! Congratulations on an awesome game :)

Dang, some of those jumps were really difficult to squeeze through the spikes. Also, I didn't quite under stand that I had to beat each level three times so I got confused if the flag was killing me and I was missing something at first. Other than that, solid game with responsive controls and a catchy sound track.

Gameplay and character design top quality, the overall game design and playthrough is really intriguing and class

**verry nice