Ritual of the Meek by Antti Haavikko

In Ritual of the Meek you play as a young lad on a mission to fulfil his destiny. Puzzle through the world to help them gather all the necessary ingredients for the probably mostly harmless ritual. Move with WASD and move platforms with mouse.
đŽđšī¸ Download or play online on itch.io đšī¸đŽ

đ ī¸ Tools used
- Unity 2021.3.8 đĨļ
- JetBrains Rider 2022.3 â¤ī¸
- Logic Pro X
- Inkscape
- Procreate
- Gimp
đī¸ Gameplay video
â° Dev timelapse
đĨī¸ Screenshots

Ratings
| Overall | 97th | 3.75â | 24đ§ââī¸ |
| Fun | 89th | 3.705â | 24đ§ââī¸ |
| Innovation | 67th | 3.841â | 24đ§ââī¸ |
| Theme | 205th | 3.477â | 24đ§ââī¸ |
| Graphics | 101th | 3.841â | 24đ§ââī¸ |
| Audio | 99th | 3.5â | 24đ§ââī¸ |
| Humor | 109th | 3.286â | 23đ§ââī¸ |
| Mood | 141th | 3.455â | 24đ§ââī¸ |
| Given | 11đŗī¸ | 19đ¨ī¸ |
I somehow managed to move that smaller platform to the other side of the bigger one :sweat_smile: I spent a long while trying to figure it out, but fortunately your gameplay video had that room so I could see that something is amiss with mine. Reloading the game fixed it.
The level is huge and it takes a lot of time to collect the candles there! I'm not sure open map fits this game well. It seems that you have to go back and forth a lot, carrying platforms of needed size with you across the screen edges. Also, too often something important was off screen like a platform you're moving, the cat or even your own character (I mean I could see their leg but still...). I think I would prefer if each level was separate and zoomed out so I wouldn't have to fight screen edges.
Still, the game is very impressive and fun! Great job!
The music changing while channeling/moving platforms was a nice touch
Difficulty was well balanced and so was the pacing. It surprised me that you were able to refine it so well in the time limit!
There were situations where I almost got softlocked, but I was able to get out of them by picking up platforms and dropping them in spots that should really be invalid, such as overlapping with walls. I think if you do prevent the placing of platforms in invalid zones you might need to include a setting that resets the players position as well as all of the platforms, without removing any of the puzzle progress.
The invisible wall that didn't have a hint took me a while to find. I even tried that exact wall an earlier time without realising that you had to walk through the very top tile. That was the only time I had to do a lot of backtracking, but once you have the ability to pick up platforms navigating the map isn't all that difficult.
Wait, I didn't realise the dog/cat thing can give you hints! Hahaha oh well.
I wouldn't worry about backtracking as long as that 3rd hidden wall has a pic hint somewhere.
https://youtu.be/KFWy88gX3v8
And yeah, you can do some crazy probably game breaking stuff after getting the bag upgrade (and I'm absolutely fine with it).
That said, the graphics are simple but very cohesive, and the puzzles are very well made. I also like the audio feedback while using the platform movement ability. This feels very polished for a compo game, superb work!