Haunted Heights
Team golden Games
Description Feedback Post-mortem
<p align="center"> Haunted Heights
You, Nico, got lost in the forest and stumbled opon a mysterious tower. You decide to explore it's interior. But as you enter the tower, the entrance closes behind you and leaves you in the vast unknown.
WASD - Walk and jump
Shift - Climb (on the tower)
F4 - windowed mode
R - Restart level
Gamepads supported!
When returning to a prevously visited room, spawnpositions may be wrong.
Sound panning is inverted.
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Ivar - Programming, Animation and Level design
Knutone - Level design, Art and Music
Fred03 - Art
Tätofågel - Music
llemeliell - Title screen art
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Fachewachewa Level 43 Patron
2mos ago
I like the idea and it's overall a very good game, but it's also a masterclass in small annoyances you should avoid in platformers :D
There's falling spikes from out of screen
At least one blind jump into a really small safe area, where you can fall on a spike or in a pit
Most dangers hitboxes are a pain, I know there's some room, but it really feels like you have to be perfectly on the grid to be safe, it's a little too much
Lots of very precise jumping for things that shouldn't be this hard (especially this one platform above two spikes)
The ending part feels too hard, with a series of very hard obstacles you need to learn and ending with those one tile holes. It really seemed designed to be hard for you as the designer, which becomes VERY hard for anybody else, especially because we don't even know the route at first.
And for this game specifically, I think having moving platforms on climbable walls was a mistake. There's a lot of confusion because of that and I feel like the game would be in a better state if all those platforms were on the wooden background.
Oh and it's not much, but I think there's no way to quit the game at the end if you're fullscreened?
Eric Level 4
Very fun and well made game. Having some sort of representaiton of how much time you had left to climb would have been nice. Art direction, level design and controls all felt very good, overall very nice :)
Ivar Level 23 Coder
We might add a stamina bar if we decide to continiue on this.
Kwisarts Level 47
(mixels in your team logo; not a fan ^^')
Interesting, you can climb on any wall. I like this idea.
Liked the music tracks but wasn't a fan of the first one. I felt it gave some uneasy tone to the game which I was not fond of. The others felt spot on to me though!
Controls: Would have liked the first scroll to tell me I can climb anywhere. Initially just climbed on the walls until I realized it was anywhere I wanted. (it's not important though, it's only for like 30 seconds) I feel very awkward being left with just shift for climbing the wall. Gravity might be a bit too strong, would have liked the wallgrip release to be less harsh. That way, you feel like you have much more height control, which is very important in this game.
Difficulty curve: whenever you introduce a mechanic (for example, using spikes from the ceiling to build yourself a platform over saws - i'll call them saws), make its introduction stupidly easy. Always remember a game is much harder for the player than it is for the dev. If you let a safe space for the player to test something new, he's gonna feel much more comfortable when it gets harder. (but hey, that's present in so many jam games, Above the Clouds is also guilty of this) Got stuck for a long while against the fire throwers, as as soon as they were introduced they were already sandwiching me and the next section had those salamanders and there was no checkpoint, giving me no moment to breathe. Allow the player to breathe and take things at his pace, especially when introducing something. Have I had time to get used to those, it would have made that moment more pleasant than it actually felt.
placing a moving propeller (the green things you can grab onto that move back and forth) just after platforming right before a checkpoint: no. Please no. When you arrive there, you arrive climbing. Which automatically magnetizes you to the platform, and depending on the angle it directly sends you to the saws.
spikes may fall on you without seeing them coming. makes it an unnecessary die and retry whenever there are some.
I agree with others regarding the one way platforms. They're fine, it's just that they magnetize you from so far away.
managed to finish it but many bits felt insane due to the difficulty curve
That said, I had my fun. Managing to beat this challenge at least feels satisfying as it was at least due to skills alone! Good job on this game.
Gosh, that's a lot of feedback! :D
Interesting nicknames (saws, salamanders, propellers). Though to be honest, I don't what they are meant to look like.
Thank you for critizising the logo. I've chaged the text now :D ![alt text](https://imgur.com/a61VOqA.gif "logo")
Yeah, the difficuly curve has always been our weakness. We didn't spend that much time on level design and we made a lot of levels. So they didn't get the care they needed.
I wouldn't say that Above the Clouds has any problems with its difficuly curve. That's one of its strengths.
Problematicar Level 36
Holy mother of all that is polished and good.
Saying i loved this game is an understatement.
kbjwes77 Level 10
Liked the momentum stuff with the moving blocks, was tricky at first but once I realized what I had to it clicked and the rest was a breeze! Lots of game to be played, thought it was going to be a short, linear platforming game but it was a bit more than I anticipated. A few things were clunky and needed some more work (jump-through platforms come to mind) but I enjoyed the game anyway!
Those platforms have gotten a lot of hate :(
But when I think about it, they deserve it.
baku Level 33 Patron
I thought the climbing mechanic was pretty neat. The moving blocks were a little familiar (cough Celeste) but hey, if it works it works
The only major complaints I have are:
The one-way platforms feel really unpolished. Like you tried to implement them but only half completed the implementation. Going up through them, it suddenly just snaps you on top of the platform. And when going down through them, if you don't hold down long enough, itøll just snap you back on top of the platform.
Placing checkpoints on top of or right next to the key items was a bit of a dick move.
Next century, moving blocks like in Celeste will be a platformer standard. And these aren't even that similar. They move in a rhythm, and they aren't solid. And they are green. But yeah, if you think about it; this game has a lot of similarities with Celeste.
I don't even know why no one of us noticed that the platforms were so weird. They we're one of the first things we made (Which can be seen in the level design). So we had a lot of time to fix them, but just didn't.
Thank you for leaving feedback!
Knutone Level 17 Designer
Correction on Ivar's second point. We did notice. But we had already made some level design that incorporated their snappiness and we didn't have the time to change the level design. So they stayed unfixed for the sake of time.
Gelidity Level 9
Excellent! A full, well-rounded experience. The climbing mechanic was enough to keep things interesting. You designed the levels fairly well around it (a few of the intended paths could be bypassed). It made some of the inherent challenges a platforming game has a lot easier, so nothing was all that tough until the finale, which was short but a lot of fun. My favorite aspect was the moving platform slingshots. Art and sound was very pleasant. Other than the "snapping" on some platforms and the falling spikes as some mentioned, nothing felt off about the controls/feel. I wasn't expecting the jump/air acceleration at first but I think each platformer is allowed a couple quirks and it didn't take me long at all to get used to it. I'm being really picky at this point because there really isn't much else to mention. Loved it!
I don't think that shortcuts are a bad thing, but yeah, some of them were kind of obvious.
Thank you for telling me your thoughts! I'm glad it wasn't too difficult for you :D
Tero Hannula Level 26 Patron
I liked the climb mechanic very much, consequence is, that it gave player natural way to precisly control where you will land. The level design though was maybe too hard sometimes, and had too much launches to unknown :s So in the end, I didn't manage to get all three artefacts. Though it was fun to see death animation. The graphics were nice for pixel graphics, neutral colors, good for this kind of environment. Though I would have preferred to more detailed, or non-pixel graphics ^^
Going top of platforms or spikes (going from bottom to top of them, but not quite) felt bit out of place, as you little bit teleported upwards to top of them.
The reset of green sparkles was good, as they were also your 'road signs' where to go in a level, or what path you should take. As this game was not that much about collectibles. It was good game with nice mechanic, there were many climbing games, but didn't use in this kind of way :)
In the beginning, I was a bit skeptical to the climbing mechanic. It was first meant to be like an alternative mode to platforming, toggled by pressing shift. The characters was going to have a weapon/tool that they wouldn't be able to use in that mode. We then realized that it was much more fun to have it as an addition to the platforming controls; to gain additional height, to stop momentum, and to get more control of where you land.
The difficultly would probably benefit for being a little bit easier. No one should have to miss out on content.
Sorry for all the leap of faiths. The problem is probably the camera that stays above you (Because the levels are mostly going upwards).
The Plattform-snapping is meant to save you. But I really see why you mean.
I would like to try out another art style, but I think pixelated graphics are best when drawing with your mouse.
The stars resetting was just me not bothering to make a saving system for them. But why not call it a feature.
Thank you for the long, detailed feedback. It is really valuable for me :D
kris24 Level 6
Wow! The very first time I tried it I wasn't sure what to think, but after I tried it again tonight I started to get a better sense of how to do it. Still didn't make it to the end, but that's more because I'm just bad at platformers. (Ironic, since that's what I made as well)
There's a lot of polish for a game jam game, imo. Excellent progression through the game with good instructions and challenging-but-fun level design. The first song got a little worn out by the time I got past the first stage, but again that's probably because I just took longer than expected to get past it...
It's hard to make a difficultly that suits everyone. Especially with platformers, because your skill level in one game can often be used in another. Some people think it's too, hard, some people think it's too easy. It will always be like that. Thanks for leaving feedback!
TobyMoby Level 12
Awesome entry with unsuspected depth! Mechanic felt new and fresh, with a lot of game changing elements to the classic 2D platformer. Well thought-through level design, a lot of surprises every new room you enter.
The game played very solid, I encountered no real bugs. He just sometimes "glitched" onto platforms you barely reached. Also, a counter displaying your collected stars(?) would have been nice!
The last bit was haaard, gave me celeste vibes with a lot of speed and precision needed. After some (many) attempts I finally made it to the top, which was very satisfying!
Thanks for the feedback! The last level is inspired by Celeste in the sense that it brings together all level elements from the game into one long and challenging stage.
Yay, you didn't find any bugs :D
UDI Level 1
Jumping needs better control, when you enter a room it resets all of the green sparkle things you've collected and replaces them, gravity is to highand the way the moving platforms cut into the background is distracting and not in the cutesy artstyle. LOVE the music and really everything else! Maybe make it a bit harder.
Yup, that's some small problems. Thanks for sharing your thoughts :D
alextrem Level 1
REALLY good game, looks beautiful, and is really difficult! congratulations
Great game! Some visual feedback would have been awesome to the mechanic of climbing, and some snaps when interacting to some objects (spikes, passtrough platforms and moving panels). Except for that this game is fantastic, good music, ambient, art, corresponds to the theme and the mechanichs are great!
Thanks for playing and leaving feedback!
Do you have any suggestion how we could add more visual feedback to the climbing? And what do you mean by "snaps"? You can reply by editing your comment.
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We have participated 8 times but never learn to make our games beatable.
Report Haunted Heights
GameMaker Studio 2
32nd gm(48)
Climb the Tower
Reason Select a reason Unspecified reason The game does not work The game broke my device The game uses an installer The game did not follow the theme The game was not compiled using GameMaker The game was not submitted before the deadline The game was flagged as a virus The game's content was not created in the 48 hours timespan The game's content was updated past the deadline The game's content is obscene, racist or illegal
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