iii by YukonW

[raw]
made by YukonW for LD 38 (JAM)

iii is a little metroidvania about a one-eyed cat leaving his comfort zone. Explore underground caverns, gain vision of other dimensions, help the inhabitants, and expand your horizons.

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iii was a weird take on the theme "A Small World". I build the world so it would be quite small at first, but as the player progresses, they discover more and more.

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I’m stupidly proud that I managed to pull this off. iii might not be totally complete, after 8 failed Ludum Dare attempts in a row, I’m super happy I got this one out.

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It’s surprisingly one of my larger projects, which makes it even more awesome that I managed to nail it out for the jam.

Ratings

Overall 14th 4.261⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Fun 113th 3.739⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 164th 3.609⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Theme 546th 3.087⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 32th 4.609⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Humor 302th 2.818⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 18th 4.304⭐ 25🧑‍⚖️
Given 16🗳️ 24🗨️

Feedback

red-fan-games
30. Apr 2017 · 02:51 UTC
These graphics are incredible!I fell in love with this aesthetic and really ant to see more of it. Game play was solid and concise as a metroidvania should be. Reminds me of my forgotten project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04j8nxyjqxY
I would be down to collaborate with you on a project sometime.
SubWooferX3
01. May 2017 · 04:57 UTC
Graphics and style are on point, was extremely fun for how short it is and kept me interested through the entire game.
EveningWayward
01. May 2017 · 09:32 UTC
Really loved the art style and the way you combined cute characters and visual aesthetics with dark and moody themes. That's a solid 5 for mood, and I'm a fan of your work from now on.
DuzzOnDrums
01. May 2017 · 13:20 UTC
Great art style, and really nice level design for such a short time
Plumepox
01. May 2017 · 16:57 UTC
I really liked the gameplay and the art style ! This little character is so cute.
DocGeraud
01. May 2017 · 17:14 UTC
Cute game, really nice looking! And it was challenging too. :]
torcado
02. May 2017 · 03:10 UTC
yess!!!!! it's so good!!! I love it I want more. Really cool world switching ability, and awesome art and effects.

Give me a whole game please :grin:
Tommyflower
02. May 2017 · 09:54 UTC
A nice little game! controls and map perfectly calibrated, cute art and I liked the eye idea. Well done!
La mecanique du plastique
02. May 2017 · 15:03 UTC
Very beautiful game !

I loved your general graphic direction, it is simple but very expressive. What pleased me also was the way all of your image moves and vibrates with this pixel art grain, it's very elegant. I felt a litle bit clumsy with the controls though and it discouraged me at some point, but as I'm not the most experienced player in the world (to say the least) you should not take this observation too rigorously.
Your animations and gameplay concept make the whole game feel pretty complete and polished and you're right to be proud of your first jam submission. I hope you'll take it further (especially adding some music will be great)

It's rated <3
DDRKirbyISQ
03. May 2017 · 07:11 UTC
Very cool! I actually have one big gripe though -- please add some alternative keybindings! The keyboard that I tried this on first doesn't support pressing a horizontal direction, down, and space at the same time, making some sections of the game quite painful. I had to switch to another keyboard to play properly.

It was also curious how you cycled through the 3 eyes as 1->2->3->2->1 which was a bit awkward in terms of controlling -- I would have expected 1->2->3->1->2->3 or even separate keys to trigger each eye. But that was less of an issue since you didn't require much rapid switching. The slight bit of movement inertia threw me off from time to time, but it wasn't really a big deal either.

Overall I like the idea and the execution! Actually reminds me of Eversion a bit. Really nice job on the ending as well! Some music or even ambience would help set the tone a lot, but maybe that's not your cup of tea / you didn't have time for that.

The grainy shader-like effect as well as the limited light radius definitely led to a sense of caverny darkness / small unknown territory / danger, which I thought was cool, but I'm not sure if it 100% fit with the current gameplay? In it's current state, I feel like the game is more about exploration, jumping around, stomping on enemies, and meeting new people, and in that regard it feels like the limited visibility is more of a hindrance than anything. What I'm trying to say is that while I really dug the effect I think I would have enjoyed that gameplay more without it. Not really sure. I do wonder what it would be like if the light radius and graininess got worse with each new "eye".
mindtricks
04. May 2017 · 13:28 UTC
WOW. Gorgeus, really original, well made, polished, really really good work there. Love it! Expecially the art style
samlo
05. May 2017 · 22:43 UTC
Wow what a great entry! I love the style you have here. Please keep developing this! The only constructive criticism I have is the platforming could use a little tuning, especially with the jump. Amazing entry!
BrothersT
06. May 2017 · 00:11 UTC
Flawless art style! I really loved the item collect animation. I would say that the gameplay was polished but quite basic for a jam platformer. ie/ run here, collect an item which gets you double jump, run here, collect an item which gets you a new power etc etc. Maybe some more lateral thinking puzzles would have been good. The platforms that are only visible with a certain eye were the hardest obstacle to overcome and even they were very easy to master.

But overall it was a very pro looking and feeling game! And quite moody!

Cheers!
Rob
Tselmek
06. May 2017 · 13:08 UTC
The graphics are outstandingly amazing, the pixelart, the shaders and the whole graphcis ambiance is really nice. I love the dimension switching mechanic and I feel like there was more potential to squeeze more puzzles or little mechanics out of it but jam time etc...

On the other hand, I didn't to the end (if there was one) because the experience started getting really frustrating, le me explain. First the platformer physics were very sensitive, I stopped counting how many times I failed the "staircase" puzzle. Second the enemies' hitbox are really messed up, those bats and those high speed snails coupled with the checkpoint popping you way back. And third the radius of the view, because of it bat and snails were a huge nuisance, even while taking my time.

All in all this is an amazing product, and despite my growing frustration as I kept playing, I still enjoyed it very much :D
secret-tunnel
08. May 2017 · 22:07 UTC
Wow! This is awesome! I'm disappointed you're in the Jam and not the Compo, cuz I don't want to have to compete against you AND I wanna see your source code, haha.

The lack of audio is a little disappointing, because the mood would be ON POINT if you had more. And while I really dig the feel of the controls, I'm curious if slower movement would lend itself better to the kind of quiet exploration you're going for? Not sure on that one.

Seriously excellent entry though, best I've played so far.
SiegfriedCroes
10. May 2017 · 19:29 UTC
Really love the style of your game :D And always like Metroidvenias so this is definitely one of my favorite games so far :) Congrats!
Jupiter_Hadley
11. May 2017 · 15:50 UTC
Really awesome game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 38 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmUpejMpTcM
unoion
11. May 2017 · 23:25 UTC
I really enjoyed retro graphics and level design, great entry!
AVAVT
12. May 2017 · 01:13 UTC
I shall be your 20th vote!

Wonderful entry! I really love the game. I guess iii mena 3 eyes?

The entire game was beautiful and cute, and the only thing I can complain is that probably her horizontal movement speed is too high. It make it quite hard to aim to land on an enemy. So many times I ended it overshoting the landing and got killed by a returning snail, or face-slaming into a flying bat because I moved forward too fast.

Still, it is only my personal wish-I-can. The game as a whole was 5/5. Great job!
OccultOne
12. May 2017 · 02:30 UTC
I played this on Livestream Today at the request of the Developer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zCqO_O0iIo

Spent some time today with the developer, really great job. The game looks and feels cohesive, and "Sounds like how it looks". The dimension-shift ability was really great, very innovative. Really great job!
PowerSpark
13. May 2017 · 17:10 UTC
Great game! Clever title, awesome progression. The platforming was tuned very well, I also appreciate the level design. I only got frustrated after getting the present because of the few checkpoints. Other than that it's quite a gem! Well done :D
rojo
18. May 2017 · 04:03 UTC
I had a a lot of fun playing! The shifting mechanic was interesting and the visual style was great. Some music would have been a nice final touch. I thought the jumping was a little off sometimes which made precision platforming a bit harder than it needed to be at times. Other than that, great work!
ViKingGames
20. May 2017 · 16:36 UTC
The graphics and mechanics were fantastic! The sound effects were effective (I especially liked the increase in pitch with every jump), but this would be much better with some music.
Jupiter_Hadley
26. Jul 2017 · 14:41 UTC
I also included your game in an article of my favorites here: http://fireside.gamejolt.com/post/jam-favorites-ludum-dare-38-vepwgamy