-SPROUT-

-SPROUT- is a Celeste-inspired platform puzzle game originally created for the 34th GM48 gamejam themed "Small World".

GOAL

Run, jump and dash your way through 15 levels, collecting missing gems and restoring your tiny world to it's former flowery-glory.

IMPORTANT

The game tries to auto-detect a controller, so if you want to play via keyboard you will have to disconnect the controller from your PC. Major oversight there.

CONTROLS
  • KEYBOARD: Jump - Z/C, Dash - X, Move - Up/Down/Left/Right Arrows, ESC to Main Menu/Exit
  • PS4 CONTROLLER: Jump - X, Dash - Square, Move - D-Pad
  • XBOX CONTROLLER: Jump - A, Dash - X, Move - D-pad
HELPFUL HINTS
  • Wall Slide by holding left/right while in air/hugging a wall.
  • Wall Kick by pressing the Jump Button while in air/ near a wall.
  • Dash in 8 directions with the Dash Button/D-Pad.
  • Don't forget about diagonal dashing. Some levels may require it.
CREDITS
ADDITIONAL THANKS
  • Thanks to Peter 🌊 Jørgensen for putting this game jam together twitter
HIGH SCORES

If you could post a screenshot of your completion time in your feedback, I'd really appreciate it!

DISCORD CHANNEL LEADERBOARD
  1. 00:51 - Naxos
  2. 00:54 - Riuku
  3. 00:55 - Yosî
  4. 00:55 - Kwishy
  5. 01:04 - Mimpy
  6. 01:07 - Nyveon
  7. 01:08 - Ivar Ängquist
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  • Sindre Hauge Larsen
    Patron

    Beautiful little game, surely a top five, if not at the very top. Died 36 times, loved each attempt.

  • Brupibo
    Lv. 10

    Great game. Stuck on 14th level. Gave up. Too hard for me. Haha. Even so, it was satisfying to play. Very good graphics, sound effects and music. Good work!

  • Naxos
    Lv. 7

    Holy cow Zed! This is awesome! I was actually sad when I reached the end, because I wanted more!

    This has the whole package. Art, Sound, Gameplay!

    I only had one very minor complaint, which was that the spikes were not as readable as I might have liked.

    Wouldn't be surprised if this won!

    Great job!

    PS. I recorded a video of my playthrough: https://youtu.be/CU4I0UNwhXM

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for playing, and for the video! It's awesome to watch someone else play your game. I plan on the post-jam version having several more levels/areas, as long as I can keep it interesting. Making progress on it now :)

  • havik
    Patron

    Well - this was very good! The only thing I wish for in these games is... let me use space (jump) and shift (dash)! Having never really ever played platformers, z/x/c/v controls for things just make me mess up all the time haha. But I know I'm in the minority there :D

    But yes, aside from that minor personal request - very good entry, well polished, levels increased in difficulty well and they were varied enough to keep it interesting even in the limited space. Art is good too - reminds me of your last entry! Same Palette?

    Great job!

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for the feedback. I will probably add some alternate control schemes in the post-jam release, so hopefully that helps you out.

      Different palette this time: ENOS16 vs. Journey

      Though I think the similarities come from my inability to draw things that aren't grass haha.

      Thanks for taking the time out to play and for powering through the controller issues you had!

  • baku
    Patron

    Not sure what to say other than it was really good, albeit a bit unoriginal :P

  • Riuku
    Lv. 19

    Easily one of the best games of this jam, and without doubt the one that I spent the most time playing. I'm a big fan of Celeste so I expected to like this at least based on its game mechanics. I'm happy to say that my expectations were met.

    Most if not all of its game mechanics are absolutely super duper inspired by Celeste, and I know you aknowledge it, so it wouldn't be fair to call the game very innovative. But you've managed to implement it very well and condensed the experience into teeny tiny levels that are beatable in seconds by the experienced player, and mastering them is a compelling puzzle.

    The sound design is really good. There seems to be a sound effect for every single interaction and all of them are pleasant. The music fits the mood, but it's short enough that it might get a little too repetitive. With the current length of the game being what it is, it didn't bother me, but if you plan to add more content you should definitely consider adding some new music as well.

    I love the visual style - extra large pixels, no outlines and a pleasant color palette. Plenty of juicy effects as well. The only issue I have with it is that the spikes aren't visible enough. They could definitely use a bunch more contrast against the ground and background.

    The level design starts promisingly, teaching the player to jump and dash or wall jump by literally having the first level be unbeatable without one or the other. The keys, yellow floors and skull walls are also well introduced. I think the only thing that might still be worth improving is teaching the player the diagonal dash and the wall jump - I found that all levels are beatable without both, except for L05 and L11, in which you need either one but not both.

    The controls feel very smooth and responsive. I only would've hoped that the left thumbstick could be used for moving as well. One thing still puzzles me: I had played it for maybe an hour before I realized that there is no variable height jump (hold to jump higher). I thought it was a "must have" feature in order for a platformer to feel good, but I suppose I've been proven wrong!

    I think I only found two bugs in the game:

    • The UI texts don't seem to appear where they're supposed to on a 2560x1440 monitor. On a 1920x1080 monitor they look fine. You can see it in my speedrun video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNpWt29QWmY
    • Keyboard controls don't work if a gamepad is connected.

    Extra: A couple of ideas for future development especially with speedrunning in mind!

    • Being able to choose a level without playing all the way from the beginning until it appears. Being able to practice it again and again.
    • A way to see your time for each level, not just the entire game.
    • Tracking the best times per level and the entire game. A high score list, I suppose.
    • Ability to mute sound and music individually.

    Oops, that's a wall of text!

  • C0DERP1GLET
    Lv. 36

    Ok, I have spent more time than I am willing to admit on speedrunning this, and my best time is 58sec (Which I heard was the World record) I tried for some more hours, but never beat it. I have never speedrun a game before, and I feel like this was a good start.

    This feels exactly like playing celeste. My only complain is that the spikes are quite hard to see. They blend in with the grass. People might say this is a copy of celeste, but I think it's just the beginning of the genre "celeste like" :P

    Just Junk!
    Submitted

    Just Junk!

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      My intent was to make a bite-sized Celeste-like, so I'm glad it hit that mark haha. Happy you were able to spend some time enjoying it and trying to improve your time! I'm starting to add new mechanics and content, and I am excited to show off what I come up with as soon as I'm able. :)

      I'm taking the feedback I've been given to heart, changing the spike sprites and doing a few other quality of life changes that will hopefully make things more "fair" all around.

      Thanks for playing!

  • Happy Fish Gaming  Company
    Lv. 2

    Really nice game! Controls are a bit confusing, though. Loved the look of the game and the music! Good job!

    Snowball
    Submitted

    Snowball

  • Happysquared
    Lv. 15

    Finally saw the whole game through! Got stuck at level 11 with a mouse and keyboard and needed to see a buddy play through the rest with a controller.

    Love the mechanics, can definitely see the Celeste inspiration. The art was lovely and I enjoyed the sound effects too. Really nice seeing all the flowers bloom at the last level. I liked the level design and the amount of thinking to optimise my path within the small map.

    The whole game just felt very polished and well though out to me. Only thing is that the keyboard and mouse were quite difficult for me to do. But glad that was an option available anyway.

    Do you think you'll keep the small levels in later development? Or stick to the "small world"?

    Nice game!

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for playing and the feedback Heather. I appreciate the kind words. On the current build, I've increased the resolution a bit to 320x180. I think everything is looking a lot better this way.

      My plan is to fix up the issues that have been pointed out and add some varied terrain, new hazards and mechanics. Hopefully I can think of enough ways to keep things interesting through several more levels/worlds.

      Currently the plan is to keep each level contained in it's 12x12 box. And just try to be creative enough with the level design to have the constraint of the small world be the game's strength.

      I'm pretty excited to continue working on it! Thanks again!

  • 89o
    Lv. 18

    What a cute lil game, I loved it. In my opinion, jumping should be mapped to the up arrow key, because the current system was a bit too complicated and unintuitive, at least for me. The spikes were sometimes hard to see because of the grass. I would also suggest changing the font size to be consistent with all other pixel art - this is a common mistake in pixel art games. Ideally, you should have all sprites true to their actual size (not resized), and then resize the entire screen at once to have a consistent pixel size.

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for the feedback! Currently the up/down arrows keys are used to control the 8-directional dashing. I'm not sure the best way to remap, the way it currently stands. I may allow for alternate control schemes if I turn this into a full game though.

      As for the font size, I've never heard that advice before. That seems like a really smart idea, so thanks for that!

  • Serponge Geometry Dash
    Lv. 1

    I really liked this, was fun to control and move around :) Level design was really good as well!

    The Room
    Submitted

    The Room

  • James Youngman
    Lv. 1

    Fun game! The pacing feels very good, both in terms of introducing new mechanics and difficulty ramping. Great job!

  • Nick
    Lv. 4

    Love the way the flowers bloom on completing a level – so cute :) I didn't get very far, but that's because I'm terrible at this kind of game (I kept pressing jump instead of dash and my reactions are slow – my brain is filled with stupid 🤪). What I saw of the game was really impressive though, good work!

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      Hey, thanks for playing and for the positive feedback! If you have a controller (PS4 or Xbox seem to work fine), you may have an easier time. Keyboard is definitely more difficult to master.

  • Veralos
    Lv. 38

    Wow, this is a really polished feeling game! All the little details with stuff like the dust particles and screenshake make it feel like a complete experience. Basically all aspects of the presentation are super well done with nice looking pixel graphics combined with appropriate sounds and good music. The gameplay is also fun and the levels are well designed. I guess my only complaint is that it doesn't do that much new as a platformer.

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      Hey thanks for the feedback! I have plans for some more varied things to "do" in the game, but ran out of time to implement more features for the jam. I'm kinda internally treating these as the tutorial levels for now :)

      Appreciate you taking the time out to play!

  • Rob Troiano
    Lv. 1

    Wow. Gave me a total 'vania vibe in such a small space. Feels like it could be fleshed out to so much more too. Although for now I want to keep running it for a faster completion time. Great job!

  • Fachewachewa
    Patron

    Toby stole my main complaints, which were unreadable text and barely visible spikes. Apart from that, it's a really solid entry all around!

    Shrinkoban
    Submitted

    Shrinkoban

  • dev_dwarf
    Lv. 6

    Very nice level design!

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      Thanks! I'm really happy with how most of the levels turned out. I spent ~12 hours on Sunday creating, testing, and tuning them...until I just had to call it done.

      Glad you enjoyed it!

  • Mimpy
    Lv. 26

    Love me some good screenshake, and I love the way the level blooms after collecting the orb. This game is a lot more fleshed out than most in terms of sound design too, everything seems to have a unique sound effect associated with it, and that adds a lot to game feel.

    One thing that did slightly confuse me was the skull blocks you dash into, at first I assumed that skull=dangerous so I tried to figure out a way around it. Luckily the minimalist controls meant that I ran out of ideas pretty quickly and dashed into it anyways, haha.

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for the feedback, Minty. Your character is supposed to have a "skull trail" during the dash, hinting that you can break the blocks that way. I think that:

      1. The trail may be too dim to actually have the intended effect.
      2. Skulls maybe weren't the appropriate choice as you mentioned above.

      Were you able to get through all the levels?

  • Tero Hannula
    Patron

    It was good game. In my first try I managed to pass all levels in 8:54, with total of 99 deaths.

    Most of the deaths were caused too tight jump, when you are on edge, and there is tile too low up on you. Which I think is moreover level design problem. For example it may be level 13, where you neded diagonal dash, you start with tight jump, but there is tile on top of you where I hit several times. Now game feel is really important in these kind of games, and I think controlling character was bit off for my taste, bit too easily overarched movement. UI didn't scale correctly.

    It had nice pixel art and calm music, which reduces frustration. Good entry.

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      Hey, thanks for the feedback! The blocks in those levels were intentional, trying to add a bit of frustration. In retrospect, probably not my best idea...

      Also, thanks for pointing out the UI issues. Still trying to find out what I'm doing wrong, but I'll figure it out eventually.

      • Tero Hannula
        Patron

        Frustration can be acceptable feeling, but it's important why it emerges. In this case it didn't feel that it's because of my, but the game which is 'unfair' because of level design. I played with monitor wihch is 1920 * 1200 in pixel size, maybe you assemed 1920/1080 ratio?

        • ZedSquadron
          Patron
          ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

          3yrs ago

          Thanks for the reply! On the post-jam build, I've removed those two poorly-designed blocks (I think levels 11 and 14 have them), so hopefully that offers a better playing experience. I've also changed the spike sprites to make them more visible. Hopefully those changes make things feel less unfair.

          I also appreciate the monitor resolution info! I think I've fixed the UI bugs on the latest build as well, but I'll probably need to do some playtesting on other screens...

  • Nyveon
    Patron

    Very well put together game, all the components mix together perfectly. My main feedback would be not knowing the full abilities of the player character, and that leading to some tense moments in certain levels. Slight bug with the UI, but no big deal.

    Very solid feeling overall, very good job! Congratulations.

    [EDIT: I later realized that I in fact, do not know how to read instructions. All the info was there c:]

  • dosto
    Lv. 16

    I was the most impressed of the attention put to the details: flora, effects and reactions to specific actions. They are so small and suitable parts of the world that they are hard to notice at first but you definitely feel their impact in the gameplay.

    These kind of games aren't really my genre so wasn't able to make the jump/dash combination to feel natural even after lots of practice.

    Wonderful job, very polished game!

  • scottgoldsmith
    Lv. 10

    Lovely game, I love the aesthetic and controls. Decently difficult too but not too much so. Very well done, you should be proud of this one. Release a full version sometime!

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for playing! I am really inspired by the feedback so far. I hope to turn this into a full release in the future...I'm really proud of how it came together. :)

  • Maria Laranjo
    Lv. 4

    I loved this game. At first it takes a while to get used to the controls and not dash when I actually wanted to jump XD, but after a while it get easy to understand and to play with.

    the animations were cute and I'm going to be honest, I just noticed the little flowers sprouting once you pick up the gems a bit later on the game but I've replayed it and it's just lovely. Spikes are a bit hard to see, but that also adds to the game difficulty which I loved, I think it was very balanced. I have some difficulties reading some stuff, so maybe a UI a bit bigger could have helped, but is not exactly necessary.

    Music was very relaxing and capable of keeping me focused on the game. And the death count? A nice thotch to mochink my frustration, it made me wanna try to beat the game with the least time and death counts.

    Overall, really cool game, although I did noticed sometimes when we died the hearts animation would play on two different places at the same time, aside from that, perfect.

    Edit(since we cant answer back): I believe the best time was around 5 min(but my first playtrhou had almost 15 min when i raged quite to try again later XD), and the death count was at 27 last time I looked, but I did died some more on level 14 so I'm not entirely sure.

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      Hey, thanks so much for playing and for the feedback! I kinda wanted the flowers blooming to be a little "Easter egg" in the beginning and to progressively add more as the levels went on to show that your little character was making a difference in his/her world haha. Glad you enjoyed it!

      I think the death animation currently follows your character (the animation was short so i made it play twice), so if you are dashing, it shows up in two spots. Little bug on my part, but shouldn't be hard to fix.

      If you don't mind me asking, what was your best play-time and death count? I'm interesting in knowing how others do during their playtime. I got pretty good at it by the end of the jam, so it was hard to balance!

  • Hyper Freeze Games
    Lv. 17

    Simply impressive! Art is great and consistent, music is calming, the level design is just great and the difficulty curve is perfect! Felt like a charm breezing through this game and I was legitematly sad that it ended :D

    Two things to note:

    1. The UI scaled not correctly for me and I could barely read the ingame text (i had the same issue once and solved it with display_set_gui_size(room_width,room_height); in the first room, don't know if this is the case here)
    2. The spikes could be a bit more clear to notice, maybe with a different color. The first few times I didn't get what I was dying to.

    Other than that this is one of the best gm48 games I ever played and I can easily see myself playing a full version of this!

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      Wow, thanks so much! Your feedback really made my day!

      I really struggled with the GUI for some reason this time around, so thanks for the helpful tip. Creating the GUI and camera system is a weak point for me, so I have a lot to learn there!

      I also agree with the spike visibility thing too. I tested several different ways, and I never really felt confident/happy with anything I came up with there. I tried my best to stay true to the small palette I picked, and felt like I ran out of colors haha. Something to work on if I develop the game further!

      Again, thanks so much for playing!

  • ceaselessly
    Lv. 8

    Wow! Very nice graphics and music, along with an impeccable retro feel. I was particularly impressed with the level design on some screens, which was clever and challenging on such a small canvas.

    I'd love to see how you could explore non-linear levels in such a small space. As it stands right now, this game's levels are challenging, but don't take a ton of critical thinking to solve. Games like this (like Celeste!) tend to excel when they work puzzly elements into the more straightforward platforming, or even when they offer multiple routes through a world.

    Sometimes, the sound effects felt a little hot, especially the dashing, which could overwhelm the music a little bit.

    Great effort though, and definitely a wonderful first game for me to crack open as I work through rating them all. Nice work!

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate the feedback on the sound. The music/sfx definitely need some fine-tuning. If I had more time, I would have liked to tweak the individual sfx levels a lot more. Or work with someone who knows what they are doing there haha.

      I also felt like there was so much untapped potential with the level design, and there were a ton of additional mechanics I could have added to really make the levels shine. Hopefully I can turn this into a full-fledged game, and work in some more creative puzzle elements.

      Thanks so much for playing!

  • Chris
    Patron

    Nice art style and the mechanics feel good. The ending sequence was a nice touch.

  • Tydecon Games
    Patron

    This is very cute, I like the challenge of it and the charming art style, it feels very contained and fits the theme well but also presents an excellent challenge - great job!

  • Yosi
    Lv. 46

    All around a great game! I'm impressed that you managed to keep all of the levels within the same room size :)

    • ZedSquadron
      Patron
      ZedSquadron Developer of -SPROUT-

      3yrs ago

      Thanks Yosi! I'm really proud of this one. I wanted to add more levels/mechanics, but time got to be an issue at the end. Looking forward to playing yours :)

  • Nahoo
    Lv. 17

    Very charming game. The controls were a bit stiff and odd, i guess I should've used a controller, haha. But seriously, This was great.

    Paze
    Submitted

    Paze

A full-release version of -SPROUT- will be available on Steam July 30th, 2020! The release version contains 85 additional levels, 5 areas to explore, online leaderboards, achievements, and more. :)

Wishlist HERE!

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