itch.io

Oh my god I love this. If I were actually able to use 10 finger stytem I would probably grind this.

The gamefeel of this is fantastic and makes me genuinely wanna play this even if it is just typing. I got a score of 33500 points. I love how that score feels high enough to still feel fun even if I am not particularly good.

I also love some of the absurd words put into this project. How does one even find words like Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia… That sounds nearly as long as some of the German words I can come up with like: Luftschlossautohausbauarbeiterleitergeschäfft.

An important part in development is finding your own process in developing a game. There’s many many different possible approaches to making a game and using the tools at your disposal.

There’s also the issue with Tutorials that they often are made by people who are still learning themselves. I’ve seen some tutorials try teaching some fundamentals without actually understanding them. So whenever you watch a tutorial always question the quality of the tutorial itself and try coming up with other solutions.

The only Godot tutorial I can truly reccommend is Wye’s remake of super mario world. He’s new to godot but already experienced in making Games through ROMhacking. He’s also very carefull when implementing things, always trying to find a good solution. Though the tutorial series focuses more on the structure of solutions that actual direct coding. And as he isn’t finished with the project yet, he hasn’t released the source code for it yet.

Also if you’ve got any direct questions, I wouldn’t mind if you asked me. I’ve already gotten a good bunch of Godot experience by now and feel fairly competent in my personal developing style with the engine.

Oh, I can kinda get how that happens.

I usually donate some money to my top 10 free games on itch each year. But I don’t really bother giving stars. There’s a few reasons why that happens:

First off, I don’t like 1-5 star ratings. I have my own rating system ranging from 0-10 in my notes. And in there, there is no judgement over a game being bad when it has 2 points. I may enjoy a game but still only give it 2 points because there’s just better things.

Then there’s how ratings and their comments aren’t public. you can write a special comment alongside your rating but as far as I know that isn’t publically put into the comments. So when you wanna say some words about the game to the world, you’d rather use the comments than the rating. If these two were properly connected I would probably use ratings a lot more often.

And finally it’s just that… Why would I care about giving a rating when it doesn’t really make much of a difference. From my experience playing and developing games, people usually are a lot more interested in real tangible support. Wether that be money or a players actual thoughts. Those things have an actual value, meanwhile a 1-5 rating doesn’t have any value neither virtual nor real. The best thing about seeing those ratings is just knowing someone played my game, which is always a great feeling.

However I am thinking about using ratings a bit more often on here.

This is a nice project. I think my favourite part is actually those absurd structures. I don’t know how to explain it, but I just love massive abstract structures. And this game has some absolutely amazing ones.

The gameplay sadly lacks some polish. Though I can understand that, making the scene switching smooth is really hard due to how game engines handle that sort of thing. And grappling hook controls are also hard to do, though honestly I enjoyed how absurdly overpowered the spacebar is on the grappling hook.

At last I kinda wanna mention that “The Heroes Journey” isn’t actually that widespread. It is a somewhat common trope in folkmyths. But by far not common enough to say it is at the core of any myth.

Overall that was really fun to play and had some amazing visuals.

No problem, Lone Ruin is looking really neat. I might check it out if I find the time for it (but my game-list is already quite filled up).

First off, that artstyle is absolutely fantastic. I love the way every enemy has a face. The music too is fantastic and fits so well. I love the presentation of this game.

Gameplay wise I wasn’t too big a fan of the level design, there were a few random sections which felt way harder than the base difficulty (sudden spikes when switching rooms, those bullet ball stairs or those swimming sections with a height of 2 blocks).

But what I reeally loved where the enemies and obstacle designs. They feel really varied. Especially the crystal spikes and floor.

Really makes me wanna work on more Jump n’ Run things. Will probably try take some inspiration from the spritework and enemies.

Thanks a ton for playing and giving some feedback. The visual spectacle of patterns made up of many many bullets is one of the main reasons I like Bullet Hells, and why I usually call them Danmaku.

Oh and I finally know itchio has a spoiler markdown, that’s fantastic to know. I’ll respong to your gripes in spoiler markdown too.

To finish this, thanks for playing my game and of course congrats on beating it. I am really happy to hear that you enjoyed it and reading the feedback was very fun.

Good to hear, I hope it wasn't too difficult to set up.

I just donated a few bucks. Would've done so yesterday but was busy pulling off an all nighter to finish up a game.

Don't worry yourself with getting donations running "soon". It can be a bit of a hassle because of legal issues. I have only done it myself recently when I've had lots of free time on my hands. Though itchio itself wasn't a big hurdle, only the bureaucracy that comes with making money from something.

I also just checked back on the music as that glitched out on my playthrough. It is really good, I like such atmospheric spacey synth tracks. From the very little I know they can be hard to make due to how much possibilities there are with synths. To use that for an atmospheric track needs atleast a basic understanding of sound engineering/sound designing or whatever it is called.

But I shouldn't really try to analyze beyond my own knowledge. What I can say for certain is that you managed to pull off a really good atmosphere with the music on this game.

Eyy thanks a ton for playing!

I spend a lot of effort making the artstyle feel familliar to SMW (so much some people thought I straight up just took assets from there).

I don't feel like this is much of a puzzle platformer. There's a few puzzle-esque things at the first half due to the unique jumping mechanic, but later on it derails into Kaizo.

I might do something more in the puzzle direction though. But first I wanna make a proper level editor so I can more easily make and playtest levels.

But when I finished that I could do some more interesting large-scale levels.

Making small games as hobby is fun, I also don't expect to get anything out of my games too. But I like giving something in return for things I enjoyed.

So I send a few bucks your way, I hope it wasn't too much setup for that little bit.

Heyope, this game ended up my favourite Itch game of 2024 (tied on the top spot).

I already ranted on why I love this right below this comment. So happily I can keep this short (though I am itching to another wall of text here).

Gave it a tiny shoutout on my yearly blogpost (hyperlink), and would absolutely donate 10 bucks if you had them open.

Heyope, this ended up being my favourite game I played on Itch in 2024 (tied on place 1).

I love everything about this little project. It got me so drawn into it I did multiple runs throughout a multitude of days.
This game is insanely satisfying to play, I love the insane comboes you start doing after figuring out how to properly play it.

I feel I should really spend yet another hour with this.

Anyways I did a tiny shoutout for this game on yearly Blogpost. And would donate 10 bucks if the donations were open.

Heyope... I really feel like I am cluttering the comments here (especially that accursed masterpiece right below me).
But hey, this ended up being my secondish favourite itch game of last year.

With my walls of text below I don't think I have to justify myself any more than: 2D PIKMIN LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Anyways, I did a small tiny mini shoutout for the game on my yearly blogpost (hyperlink) and WOULD donate 10 bucks if you had them open.

Am excited to get around to checking out future updates.

Heyope, I remember really loving this, and it ended up being my ~3rd favourite Itch game I played in 2024.

I already explained what I liked in my original comment a little below this, so I'm just here to say I did a short shoutout in my tiny yearly Blogpost and am donating 9 bucks... If PayPal didn't glitch out. If you know anything of why that could've happened do inform me. Would really like to throw a few bucks your way.

Also I saw you recently uploaded another project for GGJ. Even if it's just a Jam Project I am really excited to get around to playing it in the next few days.

Heyope, this ended up being in my favourite games of 2024 (place 4).

I really like the level design of this. The gimmick isn't something I'd expect to work that well for so long, but you really managed to make it work for quite a few levels.

On top of that I also just have to place this in my favourites because from what I know ya'll also make Mario Maker Troll levels. Which I've absolutely fallen in love with after watching way too many (I really gotta get around to playing them myself). And I have the deepest respect for the amount of experience it takes to make Levels of that quality.

Anyways, I gave a tiny shoutout on my Blogpost and am donating 9 Bucks.

I see Hifuu Club I like...

Oh yeah, this ended up being in my favourite itch games of 2024 (place 5). It's very cute.

I gave it a little shoutout via my Blogpost and would give 8€ if you had donations on.

Nothing else to say really, I gotta play more of your other titles too, they are also fantastic (especially touhou flight simulator)

Heyope, this ended up being in my favourite itch games of 2024 (place 6).

I really like boss battles and this game has some fun ones. Especially the last boss seemed insanely interesting. Though sadly I didn't beat it because of how long replays took.

Maybe I'll get around to it now.

Anyways I gave the game a little shoutout on my yearly Blogpost. And I would absolutely donate 8 Bucks if you had them open.

Anyways, sorry for the second comment just to advertise my Blogpost, your other games are looking real good too I'm really excited to find the time to play them.

Heyope, just wanted to notify you that this ended up being in my favourite free itch games of 2024 (place 7).

I don't think I gotta mention my thoughts on the game anymore.

I gave it a little shoutout in my Blogpost and would be willing to donate 7 bucks if possible.

Heyope, this ended up being in my top free games of 2024 (place 8).

Despite the insanely bleak setting, I don't particularly remember my time with it being bleak. It was somewhat fun flying thought that dystopian future.

And I really gotta say looking at your other stuff I am getting excited to play more from you. Especially LiDAR Exploration Program is looking absolutely gorgeous. Even if horror isn't my vibe I love too much when people do such cool things.

Anyways, I have a short shoutout to this project on my yearly Blogpost (hyperlink) and donated 7 bucks.

Heyope, just wanted to say I enjoyed this game enough it landed in my favourite itch games of last year (place 9).

I think the comment I made earlier reflects well enough why I love this game lots, so I won't reiterate.

I gave it a little shoutout on my yearly Blogpost, and would be happy to send a few bucks your way if you had donations on.

Heyope, this landed in my list of favourite free itch games I played 2024 (place 10).

Just wanted to say I've shouted it out in my blogpost and would give 6 bucks if you had donations on.

I think my score showcase right below this should be explanation enough of why this ended up on my list.

Heyope. Ah, yes the classic "battle against some cubes", because there wasn't enough need for proper enemy design... I like myself some fancy looking cubes. I just spend 59 minutes grinding this. Sadly only got to 140 seconds (goal was 200). Without using cheese of course, I got some good RNG where I could've just hidden away between some blocks, but that wasn't any fun.

Anyways the real reason I am here and posting is because of Robes. It ended up being one of my favourite games I played on itch last year (place 11).

I really like the styling you did on that game. Same goes for this project. Really makes me try some simmilar styling with that harsh contrast in the shadow and the neon 3D-Sprites.

So I gave it some shoutout on my yearly Blogpost (which this game delayed further by one hour, and donated 5 Bucks to Robes.

Heyope, this ended up being one of my favourite Itch games I ended up playing in 2024 (place 12).

I really like the atmosphere of this thing. I think the Ice area is my favourite one. It has a great sunset and I remember the nightsky being rather good. Though the godrays in the high grass are also fantastic. (I really gotta replay this sometime, this is mostly base don my notes from a year back)

As little thanks I gave this a small shoutout in my yearly Blogpost (hyperlink) and spend some bucks for 0n0w.

This was cool.

Am really impressed with how varied the levens get. I really like the use of fake blocks as clouds and obstrucing... uhh.. somethings.

The Trampoline also got some fun usage especially in W3 L3. Having to jump between the spikes in the upper layers of the cloouds was fun.

Sadly I couldn't find the exit in that level, so that was my endpoint. I had a simmilar issue with W2 L3. A labyrinth kind of level which had some ok ieda but felt a bit too over the place, especially as I never had any idea where to go (Did find a cool hidden cross-thingy though... But I think I was soft-locked in that area... still cool secret).

Some of the levels are lagging for me (playing on Firefox). Especially W2 L3.

Had a fun time with this even if it was a bit rough around the edges. 

I got 221... So I can verify that yes: You are cool!

Very fun and cute. The gameplay is really well implemented and quite intuitive.

I'd say the biggest issue is how many enemies appear in later stages. Especially due to them stacking up it becomes hard to play the game the "proper way". The most effective gameplay-style starts becoming a "circle the Aunns around". Which is REALLY fun, but also feels a little bit like playing the game wrong (though it is fun so this isn't a big issue).

Also really happy about the amount of enemy variety this little project has. It gives it a neat amount of extra spice, especially the snails.

Just spend around 2 hours making and validating a level called "TheRainbowCave". I didn't know there was a time limit when building so I had to speedrun it extremely tight.
Game crashed while uploading... really hoping it finished that.
Should've screenshotted the level atleast.

Well was still fun. I really like the deflecting mechanic. Lead to some interesting passages in my level. Didn't play any online maps.

EDIT: IT GOT UPLOADED YAY
will check out the amazing levels by other peeps later

Yup... that was fantastic. One of the most fun games I've played this year (not saying much yet but I think it'll manage to keep that impression till the end of the year)

I absolurely adore how unique the Karts are. I can't even decide which one is my favourite.

Got a good score. Was quite fun.

I the ship is quite fun to control, though you have to be extremely carefull when going for a high score. Using the full speed is way too high for this camera-zoom and this density.

By the way there's a bug where you can extend your i-frames by just getting hit again. I really like this bug, very fun. Would be hilarious to see a TAS abusing this bug.

YAAAAY (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ I finally got around to playing the updated variant. Took a bit because I've had my hands full with getting my current project into the final stage. (I've also taken myself WAAAYYY to little time last year to play games)

But I am really happy to have gotten around to it now.
I am really happy to see how well the project already works at this stage. It was sometimes a bit hard to notice how an enemy would attack but overall the combat translates surprisingly well into 2D.

The Moonie death animation will haunt me for the rest of my life just as much as the Pikmin one.

I am insanely happy with how you've made the sunset effect. When I first saw the palette change I was scared it wouldn't have a very goof feel to it, but I was proved very wrong. It isn't the absurd beauty which Pikmin 4 presents you with, but instead absolute terror after the palette changes to a dark blue and the music stops playing being replaced with some really well fitting ominous atmosphere.
I think a reason why it works so well is also because of the strong dark-blue tint making things a little more hard to notice.

Anyways, had lots of fun returning back here. Pretty sure this will come in my favourite free games I played in 2025 (though sadly that list won't be too large because I didn't play many games).

A little late, but I'll give some hints in base 64:

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--- VGhlIGZpcnN0IGlzOiBZb3UgbmVlZCBhbiBvZGQgbnVtYmVyIG9mIGNvbnNvbmFudHM=
--- VGhlIHNlY29uZCBuZWVkcyBhbiBu
--- Rm9yIHRoZSB0aGlyZCB5b3UgaGF2ZSB0byB1c2UgYSByZWFsIHdvcmQ=
--- VGhlIHllbGxvdyB3YW50cyAyIGNoYXJhY3RlcnMgdGhhdCBhcmUgYmVoaW5kIGVhY2ggb3RoZXIgaW4gdGhlIGFscGhhYmV0
--- VGhlIFBlbnVsdGltYXRlIG5lZWRzIGJldHdlZW4gNSBhbmQgNiBjaGFyYWN0ZXJz
--- VGhlIEZpbmFsIG5lZWRzIDIgdm9jYWxzIGluIGEgcm93Lg==

--- QSBwb3NzaWJsZSBzb2x1dGlvbiB3b3VsZCBiZSBBTU5FU0lB

Spoilery Base64 comment (do give it a try yourself, is a fun puzzle):

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

I felt for quite a while like I had to check back up on your games because of Kaizemo being stuck in my head.
And ohhh damn, it was a good idea to finally do so.

I absolutely love this mechanic. It's probably one of the coolest ideas I've seen in quite a while. Might even be one of the coolest mechanics I've seen this year...

Okay I just checked up and the only games with possibly cooler mechanics are (no particular order):
Tiny Companions,I have put the creature into my Gun, PicoHOT (I know it's just ultrahot but still gotta go on that list), Ore from the age of Gods, Miss Paint, Context Catacombs A game Greenpixels in currently developing but the page isn't open for everyone and I dunno if I can just show it around
(Special shoutouts to: Environmental Station Alphas latter half, and Yuuma Toutetsu in Touhou 19)
Pretty sure this is the most unique mechanic I've seen this year (if we don't count ESAs second half as a mechanic because holy moly). So congrats, lol.
Just checked up on a few other ones. And I totally forgot The Sapphire which I am still playing through. So I sadly gotta undo your congratulation priviliges, as much as it hurts to do.

Still, absolutely fantastic mechanic. I may steal this in some manner when I inevitably finish my current project and finally make another platformer.

Will now also finally look at some of your other projects!

Hatte es gerade ausgefüllt und das hier als Referenz benutzt damit ich alles richtig mach. Hat geholfen, also vielen vielen dank.

Hier ein screenshot von der Bestätigungsseite die Gefehlt hat.

Nah nah, it's not a negative term to most people. There's definitions ranging from booth "judgement about booth negative and positive qualities" and "the act of judgement usually negative". The first one feels like the more common usage currently, and also what you used.

Me disliking the term is mostly because the word has been used for "insanely long opinion pieces that are surprisingly negative". Imagine a book called "Critique of Pikmin 4's Artstyle" spending 500 whole pages explaining why the Author dislikes the Artstyle, with a mere 10 Sentences saying very small positives, and 30 pages saying it is objectively bad.
I've kinda seen too much of that recently to like that word... But that's just me personally and I understand that. So you did not upset me in the slightest.

I also think praising positive things without giving any improvements wanted is one of the most helpful kinds of feedback.
Of course there's always endless lists of improvements people can give you. But those lists will differ from person to person. You will then have to decide which part of the "list of improvements" actually fits what you're wanting to do.
Recently I showed off a Boss-Battle-Project on a local Convention. And I did have such a situation.
Many people had an issue with their depth perception on a specific attack. But one of the people, which was more in my target audience, did not. And they also said that was kinda the point of the attack (which is 100% true). My reaction to that was slightly cleaning up the attacks visuals. It wasn't to take one extreme side, but to just see what fits the type of game I wanna make. Which is a Boss fight that has some pretty patterns where you gotta look closely what is happening, while not being "figure out which of these 20000 bullets is going to hit you in .5 seconds - THE GAME".

In contrast those "lists of things that are great" are things people already liked. You don't need to do any complex weighting of your options, different opinions people had and the goal of your project. You just got the thing that people liked, which you (probably) already know how to do, and now you can do more stuff like that. And if you didn't notice that aspect and don't know how exactly it got in: GREAT! YOU JUST FOUND A NEW WAY TO ENJOY YOUR OWN THING!!!

This also reminded me to ask more directly what people liked about my projects. I kinda didn't do that on the convention because I wanted to focus on ironing out mistakes and stuff. But I do wanna have a focus on what people liked when I am reviewing gameplay and opinions.
So writing this overly lengthy comment helped me get those thoughts sorted out. So thanks for that, hopefully it can help ya too and didn't take too long to read.

No problem, take your time, there's no need to rush.

Happy to hear that the "criticisms" are helping.
I'm not really fond of the term "criticism" in general. To me it has become kind of a symbol of someone being negative, just to make themselves sound smarter than the other people who they think are just blindly liking things.
Under no circumstances I wanna pride myself in saying negative things about a game. The exact opposite is true, I absolutely love video games. I wanna pride myself in being able to say good things about the worst games I played.
So whenever I say negative things about a game I feel I gotta be as respectful with it as possible. And I might do that a little too intensensively.

Anyways I'm excited for the next update! Am happy to know the project is able to move forward!

Heyope, welcome to itch. There's all kinds of games here.

My first recommendation would be to try check out anyone you see. Be it the comments on this post, the comments on other posts or the comments on games. Many people on here are developers so it is easy to find games by just clicking on someones profile.
And of course you can search via Tags on itchio. If you use RSS feeds you can even subscribe to them and get all the games of a specific genre.

Some stuff I can recommend specifically based on your current interests (they are either atmospheric, Puzzle games, or have some unique/experimental mechanics):
Context Catacombs - A really fantastic Puzzle game. It got a fantastic atmosphere and really unique mechanic. The Puzzles are also some great stuff.
Miss Paint - A simple Puzzle Platformer with a very unique mechanic
Drone delivery Despair - A dreadfully dark atmospheric game... Though it kinda made me wanna speedrun it
Yuuma Game - Really Unique Bullet Hell game
HEDGEWIZARDS - Unique jumping Mechanic
Birdsong - Very Unique short Metroidvania
A time Travellers Guide to past Delicacies - WEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIRRRRD (seriously I have no clue what this is meant to be about)
Dire Decks - Classic Unique Itchio
We Become What we Behold - Thoughtprovoking small game about news
let there be Knight - Puzzle Game
Fragments of Euclid - really atmospheric Puzzle Game
(Do check out all their Developer pages too)

And for any further recommendations I am sadly too lazy.
I do have a list of all the games I played last year. It is in my 2023 Lookback. There's quite a bunch of games there which are really cool.

If you're interested in my games, I usually try to make smallish games with maybe a little interesting thing, but nothing too special. Currently I don't have many projects on here because I've been polishing a single project for A LONG time now. Though that'll be finished soon