One Little Island

This game is phenomenal, the only complaints I really have is the lack of a checkpoint system and the same jumping stuff others have said. It's so satisfying to explore all of the nooks and crannies of this game. I really loved having little questions raised that got answered as you collect new abilities, like with the batteries and the void fish, and I like how it suggests a little bit of lore about the world. It scratches that non-linear design itch I love. Very epic!

Really cool game (with immortal mode). I loved the mysterious atmosphere, the music was perfect for that. The puzzles were great. The voidfish teleport was a particularly unexpected upgrade, very cute. I had to look up the quartet puzzle, but I figured the other ones out! Some buttons didn't raise the island much which felt disappointing, but otherwise it always felt so rewarding to press a button and see what new things were revealed. You nailed the feeling of exploration with just the right pacing of contemplating puzzles and being rewarded.

The jump didn't feel too good (I think the drop is too quick). The wings were a bit glitchy, sometimes when I jumped off a platform I could only jump 4 times, not 5.

Hazard signs were very useful.

I had read the description so I knew there was something more than met the island because of items and equipment, but still I was surprised. I really liked the progression of the game because you knew what areas you had to explore when you raised the island but still had to solve various puzzles with regards to riddles and use of items.

I am not a big fan of how death was implemented, would've preferred to have less health and be sent to the top whenever I died or something like that. At my first attempt I died shortly after getting the fish bombs and had to start over which was quite frustrating. I did turn on immortal mode and completed the game that way.

Other than the death, I really liked the game, it took me a while to figure out some parts but I managed to get through it in the end. Awesome work.

This game feels like the crouching tiger of the gamejam... absolutely loved the element of surprise here! (...and very glad that I didn't have it spoiled for me by looking through the reviews first) I think speaking purely on a presentational level, completely hiding the nature of the game from your thumbnail and banner for this page is already a crafty move in of itself, you set this up very well and played with pretty much everyone's expectations in a way that also was fun for the theme.

On a gameplay level too, I found the exploration fun! The act button is in an awkward position when combined with jump, but otherwise the gameplay felt very smooth, easy to learn and not too unforgiving. Lots of nice little 'aha!' moments like the noticing of the star blocks and finding hidden switches where you don't expect it, too. Great job!

This is such a great idea, and I'm frankly kicking myself that I didn't think of something similar as well. Hidden depth in an initially and deceptively limited environment really scratches that itch I have for exploration.

Design-wise, it's well-paced, with the next challenge telegraphed from certain vantage points a welcome addition. The controls are nicely responsive, and the movement well-judged. The items are nicely portioned out, because I found myself backtracking to places I couldn't interact with before.

If there's anything I can suggest to change, it would be moving the Act key a non WASD key, mainly because it's so important, and I did miss it to start with in favour of trying to make something happen on the initial island setup with the Use/Equip key. This is my mistake for not fully digesting the pause screen with the info, but adding maybe C as Act to the Z as Jump and X as Use/Equip would feel a bit more natural to me. It might be just because I'm used to directional keys being purely about movement, and interactive actions being clustered together. It's mostly about personal taste, mind you.

Insanely cool game. Solid premise, always fun and engaging, nice puzzles, overall just a very well-designed experience. It's got all the trappings of a metroidvania, but more under the wrapper of a puzzle game. God sprites and presentation as well- I'm super surprised this was done in just a 48 hour period. From the initial moment of "well what do I do here" down to learning fish language and solving the islands puzzles, it never really gets old, and it has a sizable bulk of content.

The one possible negative is the health system-- I never died, but I did get down to 1 hp. It was super stressful not knowing if or when the game had last saved-- I was worried if I got hit one more time I'd have to restart the whole thing. If there were no savepoints, consider adding them. If there were, but it just didn't tell me, consider telling the player. That being said, on the positive side of things, it did create the same overwhelming sense of existential dread that the life counters from Spy Kids 3 did. You know, how on his chest at the beginning of the movie, it's got a big '9'? And as the movie progresses it slowly whittles down every time he takes a point of damage, and when you're like seven that's seriously terrifying. Anyways, maybe that was why you had the health like that. And if so, congrats-- you calculated perfectly. I ended the game with 1 hp, creating the most tense, dramatic ending possible. But that doesn't feel like what you meant, so maybe some clarification on the health front would be nice, because I do pity the kid who ends up playing this and taking one more point of damage than me.

Aw no, it happened again. I started talking about Spy Kids 3. Anyways nice game, good contender for my favorite this jam so far!

Whoa, this is just stupidly impressive. I was amazed by how massive the island becomes over the course of the game. The level design and puzzles are brilliant, and I got legitimately stumped on a few that forced me to watch your playthrough (though I did figure out Quartet, Fish Wing, and 10 Gulls on my own, so I'm pretty proud of myself for that). The spooky/suspenseful music is a great touch. Also, thank God for Immortal mode, as I would have ragequit a long time ago without it haha. You have created a real gem here. Excellent work!

This was nice! I stopped watching snigleshot's stream when he started playing this so I could figure it out on my own and I am glad I did cause it was quite fun, although I did get the island [redacted] mechanic spoiled which was a shame.

The puzzles were all well thought out. Good mix of ones you can solve immediately, and ones you just go "how the hell do I do this" only to get the thing you need way later and realising "oh! this opens up a bunch of things now!". The island is also small enough that backtracking doesn't get tedious, and using water to warp to the top was useful in many situations. I did play on immortal mode like a baby.

Some of my favourite puzzles were gulls, quartet, and six in a line.

At one point I got stuck and started combing through the entire island very thoroughly to see what I had missed. It turned out to be a lone little switch hidden in plain sight in a small hole in a wall. Turns out that was the last switch I needed for the last battery, what a dumbass I felt like :D

So all in all I had a great time.

Sincerely, a monster.

Hey wow this is a really big entry with a lot of stuff to it. Lots of stuff to like about it too!

The title screen immediately made me go: Oh wow I can't wait to play this! The graphics were simple but because the style was cohesive, it came across as really nice quality with a classic vibe. Something that's easily enjoyable. The colour palette was also really nice. The little effects on the bunny were nice. For a game that I had to play for pretty long, it spruced it up. The way it bounced a little, and the little dust cloud...

The audio loop when I first started the game was a little grating because it took me awhile to figure out what to do. The wave loop was short and very clearly short. However, when I started the game, I didn't notice that anymore so not a big deal.

When the island first rises was sooo epic as well. The game page didn't give me any indication that there was this huge labyrinth below. Looks like it wasn't "One Little Island" after all. I was thinking the escaping would be more minecraft like with crafting and surviving on a small island. When I saw the huge rising island I thought: ooooohhh maaaaaan.

The movement felt nice and responsive. Moving was satisfying. Even though the food sound didn't seem to match at first, I actually thought there's something about it that felt pleasant and satisfying, haha. I think having faster movement would be nice. I think I normally wouldn't mind the speed you had in most games. However, because this is a puzzle game and I spent a lot of time trying random stuff and going back and forth, up and and down... A LOT... I think either add a better mode of transportation to quickly get to some rooms or have a running speed. I don't think it'd have been as big a deal for someone that knows the puzzles. But because I didn't, I was very inefficient at playing the game and sometimes just checking back at the same room again and again.

Maybe a way to look down might have been nice too. Or have the caution symbols a more dangerous colour.

Speaking of colour, I would have liked it if the movement cubes were colour coded rather than having the gear icon to it. From metroidvanias, and other puzzle games, I'm used to have "oh coloured block is affected by this coloured lever". Having a different pattern made it less obvious and I actually got stuck for quite awhile in one room because the gear icon movement didn't immediately click. I was waayy too used to associating moving blocks with the outside of the island.

I did have some trouble with navigation too. Maybe if some areas of the island were more colour coded, I'd have found my way around easier. I think for a game with this much backtracking too, a mini map might also have been helpful to better help me remember gates I need to unlock or points of interests I still haven't solved.

Dying is unforgiving. Some save points would be nice. I died a few times pretty deep into the game and it was hard to go over all the puzzles again. Ended up turning on immortal mode which I really appreciated you left in.

I did end up possibly soft locked I think on a section where the island was too deep so I couldn't go through the door and even though I had the five jump ability, I was unable to jump up on the platform. I'm not sure if it was possible to get back up again. I failed to do so anyway. That part might have been my bad.

I liked the equipment you find and the abilities they gave. They were fun. They looked very cute and it felt like discovering a new artifact rather than a flavourless "oh I get more jump ability now".

I did find the part where you have to jump around the left side of the island hard. Think I'd have preferred it if you didn't have to jump from so high because it's quite hard to piece the island together in your head at a certain point to know you can drop from there. If it was a little closer, I think I could have solved that without the walkthrough.

But these kinds of puzzles in these sorts of games are super hard. I mean Myst right.

The backtracking puzzles you have are great. Think using a metroidvania-like map could have helped out a lot with it too.

Very ambitious project for this jam. I think there's a lot to like about it. There's so much content to it and a lot of care seems to have been taken towards the level design and flavour. It could have been a very empty puzzle but the interesting things to examine, the atmosphere you have, all create a really nice cohesive experience.

Nice work!

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1091776398?t=01h23m41s

here link game, watch again if feel.

game has tiny bunny on island, not much island not much game.

Really unique take, appreicate you changing it up for us! MORE!

Very impressive game, I thought the platforming mechanics felt really good. The game itself feels very polished and has a great style.

I'm not usually one for puzzles like this as I get very confused very quickly 😅 but this is a really impressive entry, mechanically, graphically and content wise, there's a lot here that I feel like I didn't get around to and I am looking forward to the walkthrough so I can enjoy it all - this is a really fun entry, great job! :)

Nice game! Very impressive, and it was really fun to play and figure out the puzzles.

Cool twist on a classic feeling game! Pretty great and well polished experience.

Really well-made game, I would honestly pay money for this! (Though, I am a big fan of adventure games and puzzle platformers.)

Anyway, there are some really inventive puzzles in this game, some that made me feel smart and some that made me feel silly for not figuring out sooner. I had a few "ah-ha!" momenets throughout my playthough. Unfortunately that playthrough was cut short by pressing escape instinctively. A message asking the player to confirm they want to exit the game would have been nice.

I managed to get three batteries, so I feel like I saw most of what the game had to offer. Again, a really good game! Some extra polish could make it amazing.

i dont see water out of view, nice graphic.