Hello everyone!

I want to begin by expressing my strongest gratitude to the participants in the PJP Game Jam (2023-1) who have left ratings and especially comments on my project, the feedback has been wonderful and informative. You all have done a fantastic job at making my first game jam feel like a special one :)

Initially, I did not plan to proceed with this project but the feedback has been so wonderful that it has made me interested in where I can take this, as such I'm happy to state that I will be updating, refining, and expanding upon my work here.

Looking at the feedback it's clear that I've got tons of places to improve and I'm beyond excited to get to work on it all. 

Here's what you can expect to see in the next update:

More mechanics and levels

The top priority of this update is to extend the game with more puzzles, features, and a full story. Expect some more mechanics and puzzles to be featured in the next update. I would discuss them here, but I'll leave them as a surprise!

Improved jumping

By far one of the most common trends in reviews was that the jumping is incredibly flawed and I absolutely agree, seeing as it was such a central mechanic I do regret not putting more time into it. However I have been offered many suggestions to improve it and have some of my own ideas to try, expect it to be much cleaner in its implementation than it is now.

Visual overhaul

Since this was my first time in a long time making pixel art, I didn't get to make anything near the visuals that I wanted to. Now that I'm getting back into the swing of it, you can expect some vast visual improvements relating to the following matters.

• Visuals for clarity - A common trend in reviews is that the bridge system is not good, this is mostly due to the lack of any sort of visual indication that the bridges change over time. Expect a lot of visual improvements that help to express gameplay features.
• Environment - I'm sure you're sick of looking at the same grass square everywhere because I know I sure am. I plan to make the environments look stunning compared to what they are now. Who knows, I may dare to venture into the land of slopes so we're not looking at squares all the time.
• Title/U.I. - the entire title screen and itch.io page was made in under an hour at the very end of the jam. Expect a major visual overhaul on the title, itch.io page, and general user interface.

Narration/subtitle presentation

The code for the narration of this game is held together with gum and glue, not only that but it's also rather dull in its presentation. Expect some technical and visual refinements to the narrative text.

Camera behavior

The camera currently lags behind the player, this was brought to my attention and I agree I don't like it, especially when platforming. Expect revisions.

Small touchups

• 16:9 resolution fix
  • I have yet to have anyone mention this in the feedback but the game is currently at a 683/384 aspect ratio, why? I don't know honestly, expect a 16:9 aspect ratio.
• File management
  • Downloading games from this jam has shown me how obnoxious it is to not put the contents of my game in their own folder. This will be fixed.
• Pause Menu
  • I wanted to include this in the game jam build but ran out of time, expect it to be added.
• Settings/control mapping
  • A game without settings is just asking to cause issues for its playerbase. Expect general settings for display, audio, and control mapping.
• Controller support
  • With the settings menu, I'll also be bringing in controller support to help the user play the game in a way they find the most comfortable.
• Browser version, Possible Linux support
  • Another planned feature that didn't make the cut, expect all of these with the next build.
• Back-end refinements
  • This part won't be relevant to most players, but just know there will be a lot of work behind the scenes because right now my code is the mad scrawling of three days of work. I'll be making my code look much neater and improving the game's performance on low-end devices.

How you can help me

If you're reading this and haven't left any feedback on the game, I would be incredibly grateful if you could. Know that your voice will be heard and I will assuredly take any and all criticisms I receive to heart and consider the player's opinion going forward, if this product interests you then make sure to get your opinions out there so I can help make it more enjoyable to each and every player. Thanks for reading and I hope to provide you all with some great content soon enough!

Also feel free to review my devlogs and game page as well, I'm completely new to all this so I'll take feedback on anything!

The update was delayed. However you can expect it soon