This game is quite enjoyable and has bits of polish everywhere. I love the visual grass effects, the audio ambiance, and the music. Jumping up walls after getting the second power was a very gratifying feeling, as was pushing blocks off of ledges. The level design seems well-thought out too, great job all around guys.

Unfortunately I was not able to complete it as it bugged after I got the second key and refused to respawn me after death. Very disappointing, but I'll probably pick it back up from the beginning later just so I can see the end.

Thank you! If you don't mind, which 2nd key do you mean?

Great atmosphere, smooth controls, and simple yet fun gameplay. I was expecting the first puzzle to be more generic and straightforward than it ended up being, which was resulted in a nice surprise, and the progression adds a nice flow to things. Not seeing much tie-in to the theme, but probably one of my favorite entries so far, so good job!

I also ran into the bug where you don't respawn, which I believe is caused by dying too quickly after respawning (in Stencyl you can't transition when a transition is already happening).

Wow. I suppose this is most visually polished game on this LD. Visuals and audio make some misterious athmosphere. It wasn't hard for me.
I'll hope you'll make something bigger from this prototype=)
Good job. Not excellient because of theme attched with ears.

What a gem this is! :)
I haven't completed it yet, I'll save that for another day. But so far I can say the graphics and sound set a great atmoshpere. I love the attention that was given to the details. Also the camera direction is a very nice touch.

All in all, I love it! :)

There's a lot of polish in the game, but in the end, the controls are what kill it for me. S is such a weird key to use for jumping; it's unnatural. Also, far FAR too often does a key missfire, such as missing a double-jump. I hate it when I have to actually fight the controls. The paths weren't the most intuitive; I thought I was taking the wrong route sometimes only to find out it was correct. Also, while it definitely fits the theme, it doesn't do anything innovative with it from what I could tell (got almost to the end; the jumping up the ceiling part is too buggy to finish).

The best part is the graphics/audio. The audio is non-obtrusive but fits the game decently. The graphics are definitely good for 72 hours.

It's definitely not bad for 72 hours, but those controls should have been the very first thing to solidify. And, if the controls have to be the way they are, don't make the death sequence so long.

I posted this on Newgrounds already but I'll just stick it here too. ;)

Wow, this game is so fantastic. I absolutly loved all of it from start to finish, sound, gameplay, audio, everything. The only one thing I would say is that the cliff climb was a little too difficult / felt a bit like game mechanic abuse. It seemed like I was being directed away from climbing up because it was so much harder than anything else in the game. That aside I'm totally astounded with how great a job you guys did. Amazing work!

Just excellent, I'd love to read some about the development.

This is an incredible entry, I plan on coming back and finishing it. I hope this gets a full release somewhere.

Wow, very cool game, beautiful graphics and music! Very polished too! It's very light in regards to the actual theme, but it's still very well made.

Just a couple nitpicky things: the "water" thing being white doesn't hint you too well that it's deadly if you fall in it. Also it would be cool to have the game save after you pick a power-up.

I beat it! I doubt many will, though. Those walljump challenges are unforgivable. What I thought was a cute and easy Metroidvania suddenly turned into I Wanna Be The Guy. :|

Such beautiful (look like a mix of Fez and Castle Story :)) and the music is soooo *o*. Good job :)

Awesome game. Super polished, and good challenging rooms. I thought the difficulty was fine on this. I died a handful of times but I always thought it was my fault, not the game's. I love the art, very well suited, and the music is perfect for the style. Loved the whole game from start to finish.

Although the usage of the theme is a little weak, it's great as far as exploration platformers go. I like how the power-ups weren't obvious; you couldn't necessarily look at an impasse or the scenery in general and necessarily tell that a particular power-up would help you clear it. The progression and atmosphere flowed very nicely alongside the excellent graphics and audio.

So yeah, it didn't turn the theme on its head, but beyond that it's an incredibly well-done entry and hits some great high notes. Excellent job!

Great job... really. Got 3/4 open... think I know where the last one is, but couldn't make it up the wall. Will attempt another ascent tomorrow.

What tech did you use? This is astoundingly well-done.

Feels like a mix of Knytt Stories and Fez, and it has many of the elements that makes those games enjoyable. Atmosphere's lovely, scenery's lovely, everything feels pretty polished. It was just cumbersome when there was a tricky or unclear jump long after the last available save point, and the block-pushing was rather slow. I was also irked by the climbing segments where you had to jump away from the wall and air-jump back onto it because the controls didn't always allow the character to move back toward the wall for whatever reason. (This is all judging the Jam version of the game.)

@Namuol I used Stencyl and GraphicsGale.

@Jonochrome Thanks. I haven't completely gotten rid of it in post-jam version, but it should be happen significantly less than the LD ver. (I hope).

This my kind of game ... i just fell in love with it ...
Very thoughtful level design that remind me of Nifflas games

Superb. I love it. The wall-jump/double-jump combination is really satisfying, and the visuals and audio are great.
Minor note - I did notice a collision bug; when walking just off of the side of a pushable block, I couldn't move left or right.

Addictive, adorable, lovable, and nostalgic of the platforming in Super Metroid. Basically, I love it; my favorite game so far!

Very good graphics, very fun, good mood... I haven't got better words to say to a game. Great job!

The art style reminds me of Fez, and apart from a wall jump section I got stuck on I was very impressed with the design that went into the game.

I feel like Space would be more appropriate as jump key (my pointing finger hurts after playing this :P)
Really cool, well polished game! There's some minor collision problems with the movable blocks every now and then, but I was never really stuck or anything.
I like the looks and feel of this game! And the sound design is amazing! Congrats!

WOW. I loved it. I got angry trying to jump up that one wall (you know the one) but I was not angry at the game... just angry at Microsoft for making the worst goddamn d-pad in the history of the world outside of the fucking 3DO!!! Ok, I'm still a bit angry. But yeah, I finished it. Loved the music a lot. LIKE A LOT A LOT. Great graphics, wonderful atmosphere, although the colors and some of the sprites are VERY close to Fez. Still, this is by far one of the best games I've played in any Ludum Dare. This is up there with Titan Souls for me. Great work!

A very nice game! Knytt x Cave story.
I feel like double jumb climb was unnecessary hard. I tried so hard to go up the ledge and when i finally got there i pushed the block in the wrong direction and it fell into water - such a level design fail :/
Once I glided onto button from the ledge and got stuck there surrounded by water.

Anyway great game!

i loved this game and that climb was super hard but it makes beating the game an accomplishment and this is just a really great game in general let alone the fact that it was made in 3 days great job 5/5

Really great work. A feast for the eyes and mind!

Like others, I had a hard time with the wall climb, but I made it eventually... then died on my way out and had to do it again. There were so many other well positioned save points, but not right after the most difficult part?

Still, the game is very well done. I'm glad to have played it.

Beside some punitive checkpoints (having to push blocks a second time), this is really awesome.
Great job.

Love the art and ambience. Was really enjoying it, but I don't think I can beat it. That wall jump/climb thing was so hard I assumed I was in the wrong place, but other people have commented on it... there's no way I can get up there, my fingers won't let me =/ Would love to have been able to see the whole thing. If anyone does a video playthrough of this, please let me know, I'd love to see what I'm missing.

To double check, as maybe I am missing something:
I am here: http://black-moth.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/hardjump.png
And I have the double jump and wall climb abilities. Is there something else I need that makes this easier?

@Tifu
You just gotta master that wall with what you got!

Trust me though.. It gets worse..
http://img.ctrlv.in/img/14/04/30/53610c6a19ec7.gif

Beautiful game!
I would have liked to see some more variation in the gameplay, but this felt like a full package!
Good job!
(Also after the dark scary room, I feel like I really deserved a fanfare for finishing the game haha)

Guys, this game is pure awesomness at every point EXCEPT FREAKING DOUBLE-JUMP! I died a billion times on that wall. But the game itself is perfect. Great entry.

wow! just wow! awesome game. I am looking forward to see more games from you (- : thx for making this one i had fun playing it.

F&#k yeah! Finished. This is awesome. Really.

Wow, fantastic game. Reminded me a lot of FEZ, except I didn't like FEZ, so well done - your game is better than FEZ. The art style is fantastic and your platformer controls are really tight. I managed to finish the game, even with that insane wall climb that took 10 minutes to master.

The only issue is collision with blocks. They sometimes stick to the player when falling and I managed to get stuck inside a few of them. It wasn't a problem until I had to redo the last puzzle because I couldn't get out of the block.

Other than that, amazing game. Great job guys!

Well that's weird... I downloaded Joy2Key, and tried again with a gamepad, got the wall jump first try. Strange, I had no idea it made that much difference to me... cos no way was I ever getting up there with keyboard.
Your game has made me find out a thing about myself, huzzah?!

I finished it! Yes! Great game!

Outstanding!

Wow! This game is golden. I love everything about it, the graphics, the environment, the music, the mechanics. They are all wonderfully and neatly packed into an amazing game. Fantastic job!

excellent. i would love to see a post about it's development

Sure. I'm currently writing up the post-mortem / design process I took.

Finished! What an incredible entry.

Really amazing polish. Loved the graphics and sound design. The level design was almost perfect but that last puzzle to get the 4th key was just too damn frustrating and difficult. I tried for a long while but it just wasn't fun or possible for me to scale the mega cavern wall. Too bad, I really wanted to see the end.

The amazing execution and polish on this game has me bewildered. Wall climbing and double jumping are some of my favorite mechanics from the retro era and you put them to good use. Unfortunately I got stuck on what I assume to be the third power up's room. Can wall climb my way up that overhang.

~AlucardX60

Everything about this was great; the music and sound, the graphics, the mood, the gameplay, except the wall climbing challenge before the dark place with a key. It was brutally frustrating. That kind of thing should be reserved for easter eggs.

This a great-looking metroidvania. But the gameplay needs some more polish, specially the input, I felt like I was fighting the controls.

Simply amazing. My only complaints would be the fact that the theme feels a bit "tacked on", and that the final puzzle is devilishly hard. Other than that - neat.

Yeah checkpoints! You get a bonus point for that. Not that you would need any, this game feels so complete and so polished :)

Really beautiful graphics and atmosphere!

The game has beautiful visuals. Overall very enjoyable game. Good work.

It looks and sounds good, and there's quality level design. Amazing job.

Nicely polished game, enjoyed the puzzle aspects.

Wow. This is quite good. Continue working on the game :D

Very moody, very much like fez but in a good way. Polished entry with awesome sounds and music, great art aesthetic. Sadly a few bugs (game froze while going through a door)

Fantastic game here. So polished.

Really fantastic game! Graphics, audio, theme and all. A bit too difficult (especially jumping) for my taste though

Absolutly amazing graphics, atmosphere and music but maan, the jumps on the "walls with roofs" were so hard !

The game is great. I think the point where the theme comes out the most is during the tall wall climb.

Loved the visual and music, very good mood too.

This game is visually and thematically stunning, the gameplay is well polished and it has the look and feel of an artistic indie game you would pay money for. Great job!

Thoughts while playing:
- The music is BEAUTIFUL. I want the OST, pretty please?
- The sounds are cool, but the jumping sounds more like paper ripping than jumping.
- The pixel art and the colors are perfect.
- The first box puzzle on the left where you have to use a box as a jumping platform is clever. Deceptively easy!
- Oh god, the climbing is adorable.
- Everything looks so polished. Those little dust particles! And I just realized she's blinking :D
- I'm getting such a Knytt Stories vibe from this. That's a VERY good thing!
- This vertical climbing level. I take back everything I said. I hate you guys. It also seems that the double jumping sometimes doesn't work there. (Okay, it only doesn't work when I continue holding direction keys. If I always let go of them and press them at the same time as the jumping, it works.)

...and this is where I'll stop for now. Damn, what a pity. I really could've done without the section. Maybe I'll come back later... :(

Apart from that, before that section: Magnificent game! It's been a while since I've seen such a polished and beautiful entry - you've done so much in 48 hours that it looks more like a week! I had a lot of fun playing it. Thanks! :)

PS: I know I really can't complain about difficulty after what I've done in my entry, haha.

Apart from being beautiful and sounding great, this game does a great job of building on itself as it plays. The pacing and learning curve are both well implemented, the puzzles are great. Really nice game!

This was a really awesome entry. The pixel art and audio is beautiful! Was hooked on to this for so long. Amazing work for 72 hours.

I was hitting a ton of lag spikes for some reason. It made the jumping challenges difficult, but I have a lot of patience :)
Great game overall, but I agree that the controls were a little wonky.

Extremely awesome entry! The controls feel great. There is tons of polish in the art, animation, audio, and jumping/wall grab controls. This is extremely impressive for 72 hours. Fantastic job!

This was a very aesthetically beautiful game. The gameplay was not the most original I've seen; this is a platformer, and didn't really add anything completely new. However, the music, the athmosphere, the concept, the take on the theme and all of those things were great (don't forget the beautiful art)!
This was made in three days? Well, you did use Stencyl just like me, but wow. Good job!

I played through the entire game, and I enjoyed all of it :3

This is some of the best platforming I've seen in any game, let alone a LD entry. The puzzles were pretty basic but a nice distraction and to top it all off the art was amazing. If you did a full game I'd almost certainly buy it. Well done.

Really nice game. Great graphics and audio & well-polished. Nice work.

Wow. Those wall jumps were insanely hard. But something made me want to continue to the end, and after an hour or so - I finally did it. Lovely graphics and music, unlocking abilities and progressing to previous inaccessible areas felt totally natural. Great flow. Fantastic game, can't praise it enough. This should win!

Loved it! So peaceful and beatiful, nice sound, just perfect, my favorite LD Entry so far, good job!

Minor, but that rest of it is so beautiful that I wish up/down made me look slightly up/down, just so I can see it responding to those inputs.

Awkward how I can't walk over a depressed switch.

Block pushing is a tad slow.

These are not massive problems, this is lovely so there's not a lot to nitpick.

Less minor: Should do a one-time save whenever you get a key or an ability. The wall-climbing challenges in the bottom section are too harsh/not fun.

I like this enough to want to complete it, but I'm just not enjoying this walljumping so will have to stop here with 3 keys. A real shame, I hope you'll change this in a post-competition version rather than just going "nah, it's meant to be hard".

Fan of Super Meat Boy?

Hey guys, I've uploaded a Post-Mortem / Design Look for this. Check it out here:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2014/05/03/the-valley-rule-post-mortem-design-look/

Really well polished all around with some challenging platforming.

this is one of the most polished games of the jam - great job

My favorite of the competition. It reminds me of Cave Story, but with puzzles instead of combat. Great puzzles, and flawless art and music. Spent at least 20 minutes playing through the whole game, it was well worth it :D

Also, not that it needs to be longer, but I would buy it if you guys made a full game!

Love the amount of polish you put into this game.

One of my favorite LD entries. Fantastic game. Love the graphics, music, and sound fx. Hope you continue with this.

really beautiful game. it would be better with autosaves when you get new items, and more save spots. as is i got frustrated when dying after getting something so i didn't finish :(

Brilliant!

I beat the game and I must say the level design of the last piece was total troll.

I played kitty force 10 and I recognized your art style at first glance. I loved the art on both entries.

Fun and very polished game in gameplay, graphics and music. The platforming/collecting mechanic is not original and the theme is not obvious but I see those categories weren't your target.

This was fantastic.
Might be a problem on my end, but as the rooms got larger, the framerate got far too choppy and I had a hard time completing the climb-jump combos in large rooms like the main room. But on smaller rooms, I did just fine.
Amazing level design, beautiful job all around.

This is by far the most polished and best game I've played at this point in my ratings. Wow.

That said, PLEASE (if you haven't already) add a save point to the top of that cliff jump. I managed it ONCE on keyboard and I messed up the block. I almost rage quit, but when I tried it with a controller and Joy2Key as someone wrote, it was MUCH better. My keyboard is wireless so there can be a delay - I got similarly frustrated with the web version of Meat Boy, so just know that it makes a BIG difference and a save point would really help there.

I'm also not sure I totally buy the under the surface theme for this as people have said, but it's the jam and the game is great and you are in a cave, so be it!**

Would've given you a full 5 for innovation, but I got heavy cave story/Fez vibes from this. Opening the chest to reveal a glowing shape, some of the patterns in the stones, and the character even looks like she's out of one of those. It's still utterly great, just not 100% original.

Overall: Very fun. Great Music. Great gameplay. Just an awesome entry. Thanks for sharing. :) I'm excited you guys are going to make the full thing.

** Just saw the part where you wanted to do more with it. Makes sense. :)

truly an incredible game. the concept was fairly simple yet fun and the graphics, mood and atmosphere was incredibly high. Will be a 5 for the Graphics and Mood for sure.

Great game, though a bit hard. Also, you're mentioned in my LD29 gameplay video.

Incredible game, great art and music, would definitely pay for this.

Thanks guys!

@shadow64 : The post-jam version has a save-point at the top and some slight fixes with wall-jumping. :)

Really great entry, top music, top design, extremely polish. Just the wall climbing is extremely hard. I kept playing for the feel of the music, but leave because so hard jumping was not worth it.

Amazing!! especially considering the amount of time spent...

Very fine game I concur, hard but not too much, peaceful with graphics that fit the audio.

I really like the visuals and audio I really wish the game was longer though

@Raiyumi - "Thank Dev" for that! ;)

Seriously, though. Great game.

Amazing experience

Beautiful. The character is so cute. The level design is amazing. All round top notch.

This was the best jam game I've played so far (and will probably the best one this time around). =D Really amazing polish! It's such a complete game!

I was, at first, expecting more abilities, but turns out two were more than enough. That last room was quite challenging, forcing you to wall jump.
Graphics were gorgeous! The music, and sfx, were also really good!

Really, congrats! =D

Awesome game! Really enjoyed it. Could be developed further to become a really nice game.

Love the graphics, a ton. Very impressive for 72 hours, fun too!

Loved it. Your group made an awesome platformer game :) Very good quality and polish to this.

Simply amazing.

If I had one criticism it would be the repeated use of climbing up walls with overhangs. It was just difficult and repetitive.

But otherwise, it was a great game.

For some reason I nailed the post-Jam version in a few minutes - as opposed to an hour when I last tried the older version. Is the overhang section much easier now?

You created a good Metroidvania-styled exploration game with excellent graphics and a haunting soundtrack in only 72 hours? Holy crap, port this out! I really have nothing more constructive to say because this game is already hitting all the right notes.

Undoubtedly one of the best designed and crafted games I've played this Ludum Dare. As for the climbing segment, I had a friend who was obsessed with making fiendishly hard Knytt levels full of overhangs, so I felt right at home. :)

@Lyje The overhang is the same, but I fixed some bugs with wall-jumping. If you beat the old version, then the post-jam version would be a breeze. :)

@cageinabird Nice!

Lovely pixels and lovely music. Great job!

Very lovely aesthetics.

The graphics are amazing. I included it in part 13 of my Ludum Dare compilation video series, If you’d like to check it out :) http://youtu.be/xKijfGbEYtc

Love it. Every bit of it. It looks/feels a lot like FEZ, witch is a great thing to achieve, and I like graphics in this game even more that in FEZ. Very cool climbing ability (very fresh) and I love how you learn new abilities through the game that allows you to go to new places. Best entry for me.

Absolutely delightful, i always love this type of game. The wall climb before the dark room was a bit annoying but nothing too troublesome. Impressive work!

Very beautiful graphics. A bit hard to control.

Wow, one of the best and polished games i played by now. Great pixel art and even greater sound effects.

Beautiful and well excecuted little game! Solid graphics and polish overall!

I like exploration games. Cool!

Solid platformer. Very polished art (including animations), sound and gameplay. I liked how the skill-learning mechanism opened up new areas, which were previously inaccessible leading to non-linear map traversal. Climbing and double-jump made a great combination! Nice idea with the "reverse stairs". Althlough damn, that last one was hard (actually I had to pass it a few times because of my stupidity...).
Aesthetics are quite heavily influenced by Fez: the patterns, the colors, the chests... but it looks great nonetheless. Especially the character sprite. Adorable! ^^

Nice platformer.
Audio and Graphics is great, reminds me a bit FEZ.

I loved this game. The only thing I'd like to say is that if you die after getting a key and don't save, you have to get the key again. This isn't immediately obvious; I would personally like it if you made it save when you hit a chest.

Great game. Simple, fun, challenging, great asthetics. If you extended this to a full game I'd buy it. I finished the game and I thought the difficulty curve was great.

A well polished game, with a good atmosphere and a smooth avatar control. Congratz!

Holy Hell, that climbing wall :) Really great job tho, super solid!!!

Wow, this game is perfect ! Graphics and music are absolutely moody and wonderfull and the gameplay was really cool.

The most awesome thing was the level design, I especially loved waterfalls on these (kind of) trees to understand they are platforms or the camera movement to see the button before the huuuuuuge wall (actually, I pushed the block like Kitheif : http://img.ctrlv.in/img/14/04/30/53610c6a19ec7.gif xD).

Really great job, I think it's my favorite one :D !

You've been highlighted in todays episode of Ludum Dare to Believe! Check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Xy7wSxizs

The level of polish is amazing, the graphics and audio are ideal. It doesn't really feel like a strong use of the theme however and the platforming can get extremely annoying with some hard to reach jumps. This coupled with block puzzle not saving with with checkpoint and some other minor annoyances really dented the amazing game.

Really top notch, one of the most polished games I've played. Wish it was a bit more innovative, risk taking or explored the theme more.

The best graphics, sounds and general atmosphere I have seen seen so far. Gameplay is nothing new, but the leveldesign is good and controls feel tight.
That being said, there are things that I don't like.
e.g. Pushing the blocks is just SOOOO slow, it really breaks up the flow of the game, especially punishing when you realize you pushed in the wrong direction.

CLIMBING THAT CLIFF... the controls aren't a problem, until that cliff... you have to exactly press left a split-second after jump, so that double-jumping works correctly and you can still make it. And THEN I pushed the block down the wrong direction... And after finally getting the chest up there in the strange room, I jumped down the cliff and landed exactly in that small white pond right beside the save point... and I had to climb up again... Please, also save when opening chests.

But overall, very impressive work.

That was really fantastic. The pace was perfect, as I continued to discover new abilities and explore more of the world.

The environmental animations were spot on. It's amazing what a different the water falling and the movement of the surface of the deadly white lake/pond things can do to create an emotional attachment to the world you're experiencing.

I'm keeping this entry in my "inspiration" bookmarks.

You were channeling Phil Fish here. The character even looks like Gomez. And the waterfalls, the doors, the glyphs on the wall, the angular grass... I think you captured the best parts of Fez.

Also your level design is great. There are not many metroidvania games here at LD. I think it is because they need good level design for the whole world and the individual regions. Yours parts fit very well into the whole game.

This game is super fun. the challenge was tough, but the games polish/graphics/overall feel kept me playing. Well Done!

Really really great! Absolutely loved it, controls were a little un-intuitive but hey! who cares, it was awesome :)

OUTSTANDING work! lovely visuals and some tight platforming with a simplistic metroidvania level design, highly polished (with some exceptions, like the doors stuff) and the ambient music was spot on, truly one of the best games I've played in this LD.

This is definitely the most beautiful game I've played this LD. The visuals were breathtaking, resembling the also-breathtaking Cave Story in many ways; the ambient sounds were fantastic & fit the setting perfectly; the controls & game progression were fine-tuned and felt great. Also, it's not often I see a climbing mechanic in platformers, and the one you put in this game was a lot of fun! And it wasn't overpowered either; good job on designing the levels to avoid that. Great stuff!