One of my favorite entries of the jam. Simple controls, simple movement, a clear objective, I like the speed and physics at which the octopus moves around and there is sort of a janky feeling which makes it fun, uncontrollably bouncing around due to meteor-like objects hitting your character, either giving you a good boost upwards or sending you straight to the death pit!
But most importantly, FUN. It's very creative and I can see the general design of the game was gameplay oriented, or GAMEPLAY FIRST.
My number one concern is the level design, and I'm gonna let this out of my chest: I really, really hated the stars. But I learned to 'get good' and managed to get some rather decent scores, from 35 to 50. I think the game could be improved really easily by two main things: First, the stars of course. You could completely remove them as an enemy, giving them another purpose, of course, for example, pushing you away with tremendous amounts of force, etc (it would be a waste of assets to simply remove them from the game). Because of the nature of the game, anything falling from the sky could send you to the game over screen at any moment with the right amount of luck, and this leads to the second suggestion: Making the game a descending platformer, you are, well, a diver! Having our friend Octy descend further and further into the ocean instead of awkwardly climbing upwards to get more food/points fighting against falling objects would improve this game drastically and make the name fit even better, I would simply make the level/s lead the player into the deepest depths of the sea, increasing the difficulty as you go deeper with... hey, you know what? Maybe the grumpy stars could be waiting for you in your journey to the bottom of the sea. Another thing, make sure the player can see those pesky stars after descending from a platform or something. You would never want to fall into unreactable, off-screen, instakilling spikes... would you? I wouldn't want that in anyplatformer game I play. Another little suggestion would be having the seacucumbers impact the gameplay a little bit, maybe reducing the score upon collision, maybe extra bounciness upon collision, whatever you want. But hey, after all it's your game and I can't force you to change anything.
Another thing, I like the idea of "submit your score or die" but I would rework this, only because of the design you went for, which I would say it's a mix between 'casual' and 'platformer'. And I'm not saying this as if it was bad, 'casual' just means easy-to-learn, simple controls and a really friendly presentation, these are all points in favor, for any game. This decision you took led me to play it with my right hand with my finger ready to click the submit button right before I fell to the bottom or saw that I was headed right into a grumpy star, I don't know if this was intended or not. Maybe let the players submit the score even if they die?
Excellent art and sound, not a single complaint, art style is really unique, hand-drawn, music, sound effects and even the font fit perfectly, objects are distinguishable, very, very rarely you have objects blending in with the background and the game tries to be cute and it doesn't miss.
Conclusion: Great all-around for a 48-hour game jam, a 9/10 from me and the biggest player-filter-award goes to the grumpy star right at the left of the level, what a son of a...
Wow Gapet thanks for this beautiful review, we are very happy you liked it. We made the game trying to hit the two or three factors you name in the first section of your review: gameplay first, fun with some kind of learning curve too. I can say that the first star is very hard to jump for the new players(and we noticed it), but once you find how to use the mechanics you find it easy to cross. Some of your concerns where there on purpose, to make the game harder and push players to become better and find new and creative ways of facing the problems they met. So for now dont expect stars to change too much, they are badass stars that will make you loose any score you have when they find the opportunity. About the falling idea: i was planning to add a level in wich you go down (you read my mind), it may be fun and challenging too but im not sure if is the path i should follow (i dont want to make the game easy or too casual). I want to thank you again for sharing your experience and i would love if others take this initiative and do the same !
The way movement was handled was like a bouncing ball, and with the different platforms and random urchin attacks, it made for a fun game! I played it longer that I thought it would. Sadly I couldnt submit my best of ~50 cus I dont have itch player :(
Hey thanks! Listen, if you download the Desktop version (its free) you can submit your score to the global Top-10 Leaderboard! You dont need anything more <3
We are working on the next patch! Thinking of the possibility to make IOS & Android Version We may expand the first level or maybe make a second one We will add volume control slider / toggle And more! If you are willing to contribute or join the team send us a message!
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One of my favorite entries of the jam. Simple controls, simple movement, a clear objective, I like the speed and physics at which the octopus moves around and there is sort of a janky feeling which makes it fun, uncontrollably bouncing around due to meteor-like objects hitting your character, either giving you a good boost upwards or sending you straight to the death pit!
But most importantly, FUN. It's very creative and I can see the general design of the game was gameplay oriented, or GAMEPLAY FIRST.
My number one concern is the level design, and I'm gonna let this out of my chest: I really, really hated the stars. But I learned to 'get good' and managed to get some rather decent scores, from 35 to 50. I think the game could be improved really easily by two main things: First, the stars of course. You could completely remove them as an enemy, giving them another purpose, of course, for example, pushing you away with tremendous amounts of force, etc (it would be a waste of assets to simply remove them from the game). Because of the nature of the game, anything falling from the sky could send you to the game over screen at any moment with the right amount of luck, and this leads to the second suggestion: Making the game a descending platformer, you are, well, a diver! Having our friend Octy descend further and further into the ocean instead of awkwardly climbing upwards to get more food/points fighting against falling objects would improve this game drastically and make the name fit even better, I would simply make the level/s lead the player into the deepest depths of the sea, increasing the difficulty as you go deeper with... hey, you know what? Maybe the grumpy stars could be waiting for you in your journey to the bottom of the sea. Another thing, make sure the player can see those pesky stars after descending from a platform or something. You would never want to fall into unreactable, off-screen, instakilling spikes... would you? I wouldn't want that in any
platformergame I play. Another little suggestion would be having the sea cucumbers impact the gameplay a little bit, maybe reducing the score upon collision, maybe extra bounciness upon collision, whatever you want. But hey, after all it's your game and I can't force you to change anything.Another thing, I like the idea of "submit your score or die" but I would rework this, only because of the design you went for, which I would say it's a mix between 'casual' and 'platformer'. And I'm not saying this as if it was bad, 'casual' just means easy-to-learn, simple controls and a really friendly presentation, these are all points in favor, for any game. This decision you took led me to play it with my right hand with my finger ready to click the submit button right before I fell to the bottom or saw that I was headed right into a grumpy star, I don't know if this was intended or not. Maybe let the players submit the score even if they die?
Excellent art and sound, not a single complaint, art style is really unique, hand-drawn, music, sound effects and even the font fit perfectly, objects are distinguishable, very, very rarely you have objects blending in with the background and the game tries to be cute and it doesn't miss.
Conclusion: Great all-around for a 48-hour game jam, a 9/10 from me and the biggest player-filter-award goes to the grumpy star right at the left of the level, what a son of a...
Wow Gapet thanks for this beautiful review, we are very happy you liked it. We made the game trying to hit the two or three factors you name in the first section of your review: gameplay first, fun with some kind of learning curve too. I can say that the first star is very hard to jump for the new players(and we noticed it), but once you find how to use the mechanics you find it easy to cross. Some of your concerns where there on purpose, to make the game harder and push players to become better and find new and creative ways of facing the problems they met. So for now dont expect stars to change too much, they are badass stars that will make you loose any score you have when they find the opportunity. About the falling idea: i was planning to add a level in wich you go down (you read my mind), it may be fun and challenging too but im not sure if is the path i should follow (i dont want to make the game easy or too casual). I want to thank you again for sharing your experience and i would love if others take this initiative and do the same !
The way movement was handled was like a bouncing ball, and with the different platforms and random urchin attacks, it made for a fun game! I played it longer that I thought it would. Sadly I couldnt submit my best of ~50 cus I dont have itch player :(
Hey thanks! Listen, if you download the Desktop version (its free) you can submit your score to the global Top-10 Leaderboard! You dont need anything more <3
We are working on the next patch!
Thinking of the possibility to make IOS & Android Version
We may expand the first level or maybe make a second one
We will add volume control slider / toggle
And more!
If you are willing to contribute or join the team send us a message!
Very fun mechanic and cute visual, congratulations for the great work ^^
Thanks Hto, you Rock! your pixelart Fanart is amazing. Everyone check it on the Screenshots section ---->