Ursa by Maksym

Follow cosmic cub Arcas on an out-of-this-world adventure to be reunited with his mother Callisto.
With Celeste style mechanics and an Undertale inspired narrative, this cozy story-based platformer will see you give up the skills you learn to support your mother as you help her through her golden years.
Make sure you listen to Callisto, she's very helpful and explains a lot.
Meet Callisto:

Meet Arcas:



Team
Programming - maksym, Jaroslav Vozár
Audio - Auraman
Art - Jens Steenmetz
Design - MaybeLaterx
Update Log: - Fixed double jump bug (4.12) - Fixed wall jump bug (4.12) - Fixed impossible levels (4.12) - Fixed button issues (4.12) - Fixed wall jump bug at second sacrifice level (player could jump on top of wall which shouldn't be possible) (9.12) - Fixed critical double jump bug (double jump worked 50% of times) (9.12)
| Windows | https://maksymdev.itch.io/ursa |
| macOS | https://www.dropbox.com/s/xy5pd2v5uxo4o6l/Ursa.tar.gz?dl=0 |
| Linux | https://maksymdev.itch.io/ursa |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/ursa |
Ratings
| Overall | 187th | 3.822⭐ | 131🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 323th | 3.504⭐ | 131🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 421th | 3.266⭐ | 130🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 439th | 3.589⭐ | 131🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 210th | 4.076⭐ | 133🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 28th | 4.154⭐ | 132🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 51th | 4.135⭐ | 132🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 63🗳️ | 59🗨️ |
This should be my whole comment, although there is few issues:
- double jump does not work from time to time and makes me go crazy! Please fix it and let me know - i'll try again. For now it's game breaking...
- Wall jump is not well executed - you do walljump off of a wall on the left (so you push left arrow key) but it jumps right - feels awakward
- cub is changing into a little cute star when walking from platform to platform (different hitboxes)
Apart from that - music is absolutely stunning, beautiful pixel art, and seems like heart-touching story - but this double jump though... Argh!
Overall i feel **frustrated** over this game - and **that's good thing**! I would **LOVE** to play it when it's fixed! For most games - if they are broken or not - i'm like
*"Oh, it didn't work - meh - whatever, NEEEXT!"*
But here? You **caught me by the balls** and i'm waiting for those bugfixes!!
**LET ME KNOW!!** :)
<3
PS. Where is the guy that created this music, i need to send him a love letter <3
PS2. Congrats for shipping this in time - tons of work here :)
You got me second time on board - and i was not dissapointed!

BTW - replay button on end screen doesn't work :)
PS. When full game will be available on steam? I demand deep heart-breaking story!
However, I found that Arcas wouldn't land properly at the start, and sometimes the first jump would act fail a double jump deliberately.
Unfortunatelly got stuck on level 3 or 4. Game is too hard, second jump doesn't register some times.
For the sacrifice part, the point is that you can restart to choose again and nothing is a final choice that will make you regret something. For me it's an important part of sacrifice ! but however we all have a different vision !
Poetic one, really nice job !
Ridiculously adorable, borderline so cutesy that i couldn't stand it, but i so could... I really liked the bear transforming upon jumping, it was nice feedback, really separated the grounded/airborn states... there is a small bug that occurs between the seams of ground colliders where the bear thinks its airborn and flashes quickly into the "star" mode and back again...
did i mention the cutesiness? i mean eeeeeek... like i said it was borderline over the top for me but it worked... I liked the color scheme, very cohesive, and it worked well with the audio.... very stellar
The dialogue box was very helpful with hints, but at times it was in the way of the play area... it just covered too much play area for me...
Well done, Beautiful game!
Really incredible job here. I love the theme and aesthetics, and it's got a ton of charm and personality. My biggest request would be to add a bit of [ledge forgiveness](http://kpulv.com/123/Platforming_Ledge_Forgiveness/). It's heartbreaking to run off a ledge and waste my double-jump because I hit jump a tenth of a second too late. Also, the hints could be better placed. I sometimes tried a level for whole minutes before I gave up in frustration, only for the hint to finally tell me about a mechanic I needed but hadn't been told about yet. You could have told me that 5 minutes ago.
But yeah, the frustrations are the exceptions that prove this game rules!
It's one of the greatest entries I've seen/played so far.
While the mechanics are simple and some of the animations are slightly glitchy (cub flickering white at edges) the little bits of dialogue add so much to it <3
So cute !
The sacrifice mechanics arrive a bit late in my opinion...
Nothing else to add.
It reminds me of Escape Goat for the mood.
Except for the music, the music was amazing. It almost sounds like it was ripped straight from a mother game.
Also, all the mechanics felt nice and smooth, except for the wall jumping. The ball to bear transition was really smooth and nice, and dashing was okay as just a forward movement, but the lack of any animations or anything for wall jumping just felt weird.
Other than those fairly small gripes though, it was a wonderful experience.
Platforming felt finicky at points - double jumping and wall jumping in particular. For every level I played/replayed, the pause screen opened? I almost hit quit a few times on the later levels where I have to select abilities to sacrifice at the beginning! (Mac build). All in all though, really nice entry! Well done team! :star2:
I really love it. :heart: The mechanics, artwork, sound effects and music are really awesome, seriously! :smiley:
Enjoyable game, I love it! Wonderful job! :smiley:
I loved this entry!
The sacrificing mechanic is very interesting, but it was frustrating to pick the wrong ones, and realise you can't beat the level in the way you wanted.
I showed my fiancee the game and her reaction was O_O SO PRETTY
Here's my play: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/345392409?t=03h13m01s
Nice job!
I also had difficulties following the narrative, since it appeared while platforming. Since my attention remains on the platforming, this makes it difficult for me to follow along with the story. In the end, I ended up not caring.
Thank you for sharing! We also made a platformer, if you'd like to give our game a go :)