Vestige

by bitpokit

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.75

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.76

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.60

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.68

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.32

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.83

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.53

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.73

Vestige

The platform is your health.

Story

When the Blight devours another world, all is nearly lost. But in the hollow shell they left behind, a living vestige of the planet's surface survives. With a surge of its mysterious power, the vestige summons from its soil a Steward to act as its protector. Together, they must overcome the Blight if they are to find a way off this dying world...

Controls

Keyboard and Mouse required

Left Click - Attack

W or Up - Aim/Look up

A or Left - Move left

D or Right - Move right

S or Down - Duck

Space - Jump/Double-jump

Escape/Backspace - Pause

Changelog

* 1.0.2 - Fixed a bug that caused the game to experience several issues after reaching the ending
* 1.0.1 - Fixed an issue that caused player to shrink when ducking
* 1.0.0 - Game launch

To submit bug reports or reach out to us directly, please email us at: [email protected]

Website: https://bitpokit.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BitPokit

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/bitpokit-games

Please leave feedback below! Your comments and suggestions will help us to improve this game! We are especially interested in knowing if you want us to develop this into a full game, so please let us know! :smiley_cat:

Tags: #2d, #beat 'em up, #bullet hell, #clicker, #difficult, #minimalist, #short

Genres: action, platformer, survival

Tools: Construct

Comments89

Lihpten21 Apr 2020, 03:59

I really love the writing! Just not good enough at the game to see more of it...

BitPokitauthor21 Apr 2020, 05:01

@lihpten Thank you so much! We are glad you enjoyed it! :) Don't feel bad, the game is actually very difficult, even for us! Testing was a pain. Lol.

RoboDoig21 Apr 2020, 19:57

Really enjoyed this, combat and animations are really juicy and satisfying, some sfx to go with it would have topped it off. Nice concept and well executed!

Vedal21 Apr 2020, 20:02

I loved the way this game felt to play. Very difficult though!

J_C - One Bit Studio21 Apr 2020, 20:06

Love that there is a small story for the game. Coupled with the simplistic but fitting art and the nice music, this game is very moody. The gameplay is simplistic but it is kinda interesting. Nice job.

Pakmanlie21 Apr 2020, 20:06

Its a good game but unfortunately i was not able to finish it, check points of any kind would make it so much better as repeating the same things over and over was not as fun as getting to the new sections of the game. This might be a personal preference but make the character less slidy, all my deaths were from speeding off of the platform XD.

wrimo21 Apr 2020, 20:07

Every now and then you find a game and go "They made that in a game jam?!" This was one of those experience for me. Almost everything about game felt so beyond the standard you see in game jam. The art is fantastic. The main mechanic is fascinating. The music is great. The overall polish is next level. There's a lot you could with it, having the ground shift beneath you, bomb enemies that try to destroy your platform. My biggest complaint would be the actual act of attacking is kind boring. I would love to see this turned into a full game.

Slurp1e21 Apr 2020, 20:09

This is probably one of the best games i have seen so far in terms of finishing. Its crisp and just a huge wow to finish in 72 hours. Really Good Job!!

studiocurtis21 Apr 2020, 20:12

I love the elegant and minimalist design and high quality implementation of sound. For me, the game was a bit too challenging, but I have limited experience with playing video games. Consider having easier mode for a first level for us slower cats. Overall, great work!

AdamV21 Apr 2020, 20:21

Cool concept and pretty fun gameplay! The minimal graphics worked well enough and I liked the music. You did a good job incorporating story into the game as well! It did feel like it got kind of laggy as the game went on, but maybe that was just for me.

BitPokitauthor21 Apr 2020, 20:34

@robodoig Thank you so much for playing! We're glad you enjoyed it! Yes, we really wanted to have sound effects and actually had prepared a few, but we didn't have time to implement them. We will definitely add some in a later update! :)

BitPokitauthor21 Apr 2020, 20:41

@j-c-one-bit-studio We are so glad you enjoyed the story! That was probably my favorite part to make. Most of the art and design wasn't made that way on purpose, they were placeholders. But near the end, we realized we actually liked the placeholders so we kept it lol.

BitPokitauthor21 Apr 2020, 20:46

@vedal We are happy you enjoyed the feel! Yes, it is very difficult. We originally had planned some features to make it easier, but unfortunately we weren't able to add those features within the time limit. We will definitely add them in a future update! :)

BitPokitauthor21 Apr 2020, 21:02

@pakmanlie Thank you for your feedback! I could not agree more with the points you made. A checkpoint system was a feature we planned from the beginning, but unfortunately we didn't have time to add it. I agree the character is too slippery. Actually if you duck while landing you slide really fast and far, which was unintended, but kinda funny lol. We will address these issues in a future update! :)

BitPokitauthor21 Apr 2020, 21:09

@wrimo Thank you so much for your feedback and your kind words! It means a lot to know you enjoyed it so much! :slight_smile: We try to put passion into all of our projects, even the little ones like this one. I agree, combat is lackluster. We intended a combo system that would unlock more moves as you progress, but that was ambitious for the time we had. We will definitely take your suggestions to heart! Enemies that destroy the platform is a terrific idea! :smile_cat:

BitPokitauthor21 Apr 2020, 21:15

@slurp1e We really appreciate your kind words and feedback! It was a very stressful and exhausting 72 hours, but we still had fun making it and comments like yours make it all worth it! :smile:

D5R21 Apr 2020, 21:21

Nice little game, quite challenging and the writing is quite good! Using the mouse for the shield felt a little awkward, felt like the shield should face the direction of the mouse cursor instead of the player. Otherwise really enjoyable with a great aesathetic!

colan21 Apr 2020, 21:23

Wow! good work .. the art is very good, movements, particles, music .. I think there was a lack of sounds from the player and enemies .. but it is great

BitPokitauthor21 Apr 2020, 21:23

@studiocurtis Thank you so much, that makes us happy! The minimalist design was mostly unintentional, but somehow it just kinda came together at the end so we kept it and now I'm glad we did lol. We will be adding some features that will make the game easier and will consider different game modes as well! :slight_smile:

BitPokitauthor21 Apr 2020, 21:26

@adamv Thank you for your feedback! We are pleased that you enjoyed it! I think I know what lag you were talking about, and it's not just you. It's actually a flaw in the way we coded the platform's movement. For some reason, it decides to skip frames sometimes when switching into different states. That was an issue we didn't have time to fix and didn't seem game-breaking enough to address post-launch, but we will definitely fix it in a future update! :slight_smile:

BitPokitauthor22 Apr 2020, 02:59

@d5r Thank you for playing and your feedback! I'm glad you liked it! I really like the idea to make him face the mouse! We will consider adding that in a future update!

BitPokitauthor22 Apr 2020, 03:00

@colan So glad you liked it! We didn't have time to add sound effects this time, but in a future update we will definitely add some! :smile:

Greon22 Apr 2020, 06:32

This game was very finished for a jam, nice job you guys did there, it's an very hard game but i managed to finish it in the first try haha. The character it's pretty slidy and almost made me fly away from the platform, but i think that works with the game, but the need to face where you want to hit while using the mouse to attack seems off. Otherwise, nice music and art, an really good work, keep it like this guys!

BitPokitauthor22 Apr 2020, 17:01

@greon Thank you so much for you feedback! We're so glad you were able to beat it! Great suggestions! We will definitely be changing the attack system to work better with the mouse! We are happy you enjoyed it! :smile:

imod22 Apr 2020, 19:58

Cool game, i like gameplay, it was challenging. Nice graphics style.

BitPokitauthor23 Apr 2020, 02:45

@imod Thank you for your feedback! We are so happy that you enjoyed it!

Valeth212423 Apr 2020, 03:42

Aesthetic writing. The way you hit those cubes somehow goes into rhythm with the music also. Well polished game overall. I had a bit trouble figuring out that you can move around the platform to defend yourself at first though :D

pixnpickstudio23 Apr 2020, 10:13

Very nice entry, simple and efficient. Mood and ambiance are excellent!

Animaster23 Apr 2020, 10:45

It's cool and challenging, but defend with mouse button makes my brain think that i can choose direction of shield with mouse too, but it depends on where you look at. It's hard to develop the habit of using keyboard for that. But good job anyway!

LaJazuve23 Apr 2020, 14:23

Great and funny concept, well done ! but it's so hard to me XD !! the slighty sliding movement of the character is cool, but i'm so dumb with it, i'm falling so many times, not because enemies ^^ . I like very much the music too !

BitPokitauthor23 Apr 2020, 15:19

@valeth2124 Thank you so much! The rhythm was actually a complete accident lol, but somehow it works! We will add an intro level that teaches game mechanics in the future! Thank you for your feedback! :smiley_cat:

BitPokitauthor23 Apr 2020, 15:21

@pixnpickstudio We are really glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for commenting! :slight_smile:

BitPokitauthor23 Apr 2020, 15:24

@lajazuve Thank you for commenting! You are too kind! We will be adding some features that makes it easier and more fun at the same time! We are glad you like the music too! :smile_cat:

BitPokitauthor23 Apr 2020, 15:27

@animaster Thank you so much for your feedback! It's not just you, a lot of people are commenting the same! We actually added the click attack last minute, so we didn't get to really test it out thoroughly. We agree and will be making changes to make the controls feel better! :smiley_cat:

gamechoy24 Apr 2020, 00:47

What a unique idea, very difficult but fun. Nice work!

Emperor Eagle24 Apr 2020, 01:59

Good game! I had great fun playing it! The idea of the platform being your health was inspired, it meant that losing health didn't just bring you closer to losing, but the likelihood of losing increased due to the lower play area. It's fun and it's music to my ears to hear you're going to develop it into a fully fledged game! I hope you continue with the great writing, add some more complex sprites (the player one is good, maybe try a transition between squashed/ducking rather than two frames) and some audio related to the gameplay (smash etc). Also, I found it confusing when you had to hit enemies twice; you thought you had hit them, they disappeared, but then reappeared right behind you, so try and make it obvious that they're still there (I got used to it eventually and it kept me on my toes so that's good). Great audio and the feedback feel when you hit enemies was good! Am excited to see it published (but take your time though, quality will take your game far)!

ctrble24 Apr 2020, 03:19

This is great! Wonderfully simple and unique idea, and the story and UI felt remarkably polished for a jam game. I played the itch.io webplayer version, and for some reason it wasn't capturing my keyboard, so when I tried hitting spacebar to attack (muscle memory, my bad) the page scrolled way down the screen. Aside from that one nitpick I was really impressed. Nice job!

Finn_Tr24 Apr 2020, 03:27

Really good game! Had a blast, I really enjoy playing. Very interesting mechanic, music was awesome, great polished. Great job!

BitPokitauthor24 Apr 2020, 16:40

@gamechoy Thank you! We're glad you enjoyed it! :slight_smile:

BitPokitauthor24 Apr 2020, 16:52

@emperor-eagle Thank you so much for your feedback! It makes us so happy to know you enjoyed it, and that you want to see it as a full game! :smile_cat: We agree; animations need to be smoother. It's funny, but when I showed the game to my brother he said the same thing about the enemies being hard to tell if they died or not. I was planning to address it with sound effects that differentiate a hit and a death, but unfortunately we ran out of time. We will definitely take your suggestions to heart as we further develop the game! :smiley_cat:

BitPokitauthor24 Apr 2020, 17:00

@ctrble Thank you for playing and for your feedback! I'm sorry you had that experience! We will look into that issue. It may have been the game wasn't in focus, so the browser controls were overriding the game controls. I hope you were able to play one of the downloadable builds without the same issue! :sweat_smile:

BitPokitauthor24 Apr 2020, 17:09

@finn-tr Thank you so much for playing and for your kind feedback! We are glad you had a blast! :smile:

Abiral24 Apr 2020, 18:11

This was a really awesome concept. I loved how the game started with a nice story and animation. The art style is cool and I Really enjoyed the game. Good Luck BitPokit Games for your future projects!

BitPokitauthor24 Apr 2020, 18:20

@abiral Thank you!!! We're thrilled that you enjoyed it! We wish you all the best as well! :slight_smile:

Maksd77724 Apr 2020, 18:30

awesome music and idea at all.

codexus24 Apr 2020, 18:54

The music is super nice, the game was rather confusing.

BitPokitauthor24 Apr 2020, 18:55

@maksd777 Thank you for playing and commenting! We are happy you enjoyed it! :slight_smile:

ZaiusPanda24 Apr 2020, 21:53

I agree with every good thing people above said! :D The game is pretty neat, but it's impossible for me to beat it. I would love to see more of it and some checkpoints would help for sure.

ProForce24 Apr 2020, 23:29

Very nice entry. Definitely one of the most polished games this year, and it also had a great story! I was a bit lost at the start, so maybe include instructions or a guide level to help people understand how to actually play.

Duck Reaction24 Apr 2020, 23:33

Nice game, I really like the feeling when you move, the jump, it's really satisfying! The music is also great and fit with the mood. The idea to use the main platform as health point is very good, and it works with the theme. My main regret is about the sounds feedback to give more impact on the attack or different actions but it works like this :) I enjoyed playing this game, well done!

Starlight Glimmer is best poney24 Apr 2020, 23:37

Right after beating a lategame(?) stage (the second one since they mentioned the exit portal), the character just slipped off the platform as it moved, without any input. It was like teleportation. Even though the game is quick and easy, I'm not redoing the whole thing after that.

Prototype graphics work better than expected; they really fit the music and paint a pleasant atmosphere. I love the overall idea because it's simple, unique and enjoyable to play. I'd prefer if there were checkpoints; redoing a thing that isn't procedurally generated is extremely tedious.

An easily fixable problem, although severely affecting the jam, is the key binding. Don't use the LMB without mouse aiming. I'm leaving a follow awaiting a post-jam because it's one of the most fun games this event.

LurkerRIP24 Apr 2020, 23:40

Crazy how much polish this game had! Loved the simple graphics and game play! Loved this entry!

legavroche24 Apr 2020, 23:51

The game was really hectic and fun, but the only suggestion I had was to have the shield point in the direction of movement. I found it a bit cumbersome to have to let go of the mouse button and reclick each time I wanted the shield to face a different direction. Other than that, great work! I found the use of the platform being the player's health very innovative, and I enjoy mechanics that punish player mistakes.

Undead Aubergine24 Apr 2020, 23:55

Great game, I like the minimalistic approach on the graphics. The controls are a bit weird, as I can dodge very well when I'm not using the mouse, but it gets too hard when I'm using it. Maybe a more intuitive approach would be using AD/left-right arrows to move, W/up to jump, and space to attack.

BoxedMeatRevolution24 Apr 2020, 23:55

The cliff hanger at the end! Wow! That was a lot of fun. The character is fun to control, and has a very juicy jump. Also, the difficulty was just about perfect for me. When I finally beat it I only had 6 blocks left. Intense!

LuckyFeathers25 Apr 2020, 00:08

Hey, that was really cool! I loved that the platform also acted as a healthbar. Controls feel great, and the screen shake as you take damage is neat. I wish there were some sound effects and that the music was a bit more... hype? Really would have fit the game. But hey, for a solo jam game this is great!

marcusnystrand25 Apr 2020, 14:23

Wow, this was super hard. But I haven't seen anything like it before! Nice animations and snappy player controller! Well done!

TheBookSnail26 Apr 2020, 01:28

Fun game and great execution! Music and graphics are fantastic. It took me a little bit to figure out that where I click with the mouse didn't matter on the direction of the attack and even when I figured that out I still kept trying to click in a direction to attack.

monkeyDvrus26 Apr 2020, 15:41

Very nice game! The graphics and music are impressive. Pleasant to play.

chaosbrick27 Apr 2020, 13:09

Those visuals are awesome. You made those simple shapes feel very alive with the various graphical effects such as the camera shaking and the destruction particles. The music was very fitting for the abstract atmosphere of the game, as was the writing.
The controls were feeling nice, although sometimes I would've liked to have a bit more time to prepare for an attack. Some of those spinners came out of nowhere!
In the end, I died as I finished the game, which caused a small bug in the end cutscene, but that's really something I can excuse in the context of a game jam :)
Good work!

BitPokitauthor27 Apr 2020, 18:16

@codexus Thank you for the feedback and for playing! If you could be a bit more specific it would help us to know exactly what caused the confusion, but otherwise we will try to adjust it in a future update!

BitPokitauthor27 Apr 2020, 18:18

@zaiuspanda Thank you so much! We will definitely be adding checkpoints and making adjustments to the difficulty in a future update! :smile_cat:

BitPokitauthor27 Apr 2020, 18:23

@proforce Thank you very much! We are happy you liked it! Yes, we wanted to add a small tutorial screen but we simply ran out of time. The next update will have a simple tutorial system to help players figure out what's going on lol. :sweat_smile:

BitPokitauthor27 Apr 2020, 18:28

@duck-reaction Thank you for your detailed and honest feedback! It makes us happy that you enjoyed it! Not having sound effects is one of our regrets too, but that is one of our top priorities to add in the post-jam version! We hope you play that version as well! :smiley_cat:

BitPokitauthor27 Apr 2020, 18:36

@alaah Thank you so much for playing and for your valuable feedback! We are sorry you had those issues. The bug you mentioned was one we encountered once during testing, but after several attempts to re-create it, it never seemed to come back again. We hoped it had fixed itself, but apparently not lol. We will look into it right away! We agree with the suggestions. LMB was added at the last minute (literally last minute) so we didn't have time to properly test it, but we agree it definitely needs to follow the mouse. Checkpoints are also a must add! We will address all of these issues in the post-jam version! Thank you for the feedback and the follow! :smile_cat:

BitPokitauthor27 Apr 2020, 18:47

@lurkerrip Thank you so much! We are glad you loved it! We hope you will play the post-jam version as well! :slight_smile:

BitPokitauthor27 Apr 2020, 18:51

@legavroche Thank you very much! So glad you liked the punishing aspect! We will make the controls a lot more intuitive in the post-jam version! :slight_smile:

BitPokitauthor27 Apr 2020, 19:00

@undead-aubergine Thank you for taking the time to play our entry and leave a comment! We agree, controls need work! We will be making them more intuitive in the next update! :smile:

BitPokitauthor27 Apr 2020, 19:08

@boxedmeatrevolution Thank you for playing and commenting! We are so glad you liked the ending and the difficulty! Not many players made it that far, so it's nice to get some feedback on the ending. We will work hard on the post-jam version to strike up a good balance of making it easier while not taking away the fun of a challenge to skilled players like yourself! :smiley_cat:

BitPokitauthor27 Apr 2020, 19:17

@luckyfeathers Thank you for your feedback, we very much appreciate it! We hear you, and we for sure have big plans for the music in the next update so please stay tuned! :wink:

BitPokitauthor27 Apr 2020, 19:22

@marcusnystrand Your feedback means a lot to us! We are glad you liked it, and we will add features to make the post-jam version not as super hard lol. :sweat_smile:

BitPokitauthor27 Apr 2020, 19:24

@thebooksnail Thank you for taking the time to play and rate our game! We are glad you enjoyed it! Yes, based on the comments and our own testing after the fact, we agree the mouse click is confusing and we will definitely be adding a change in the next update! Love your name btw! :smile:

Yeetukus27 Apr 2020, 19:26

Amazing. One thing though I would like the shield system to improve. I was very annoying when I turned around I had to shortly drop the shield to put it back up

BitPokitauthor27 Apr 2020, 19:28

@monkeydvrus Thank you so much! Your feedback is appreciated! We hope you play the post-jam version as well!

BitPokitauthor27 Apr 2020, 19:45

@chaosbrick Thank you for playing and for commenting! It makes us happy to know you enjoyed it so much! Yes it has some bugs we are aware of and will try to iron out in the next few udpates! :smile:

Justin Toyo27 Apr 2020, 21:30

Awesome game. I loved the way the movement felt. Really nailed the jump. The feel of the game every time I would hit an enemy was spot on! Really unique an awesome concept. I would love to see a fully fleshed out game built around this entry. Great work

natpat27 Apr 2020, 21:37

Simple and polished! The story went a long way to making it feel complete. The music fit well too. Having to charge in with your shield to attack is an interesting concept, and leads to some fun gamplay! I felt the controls were a bit too floaty - I fell off the platform more times than I died, and it was frustrating to start again from the beginning.

mneubrand27 Apr 2020, 23:18

Nice, complete platformer with an innovative twist. Really like the music too. Helps set the mood. Enjoyed playing it

GameOverMexico28 Apr 2020, 00:15

ok, cool and good music, simple and all the Team good work!!!

SlimBun28 Apr 2020, 07:50

Very cool game. I liked it a lot. I didn't really get how to play the game.

zillix29 Apr 2020, 05:54

Really really great. The music is phenomenal, the story and the graphics are minimal yet engaging, and the game is simply really fun. The platform-as-health mechanic is awesome.
I died on the last wave, and my heart was pounding. Loved it.

AlexFSmirnov30 Apr 2020, 15:36

The music is incredible! It sets the "space-y" mood really well. The idea is pretty original too - the platform is your health, huh! Fun gameplay too, well done :)

nahual3 May 2020, 01:33

I like your minimalistic approach. It looks simple, but created with very good sense of taste

BitPokitauthor7 May 2020, 00:50

@justin-toyo @natpat @mneubrand @gameovermexico @slimbun @zillix @alexfsmirnov Thank you all so much for playing and for your feedback, it means a lot to us! :smile: We are currently adding several changes to develop Vestige into a full-title and would love to hear your thoughts! Please follow us on Twitter if you want to get stay up-to-date or get involved! :smiley_cat: https://twitter.com/BitPokit.

weeping-rupee7 May 2020, 21:40

Hey thanks for playing/rating our game-- I played yours as well on my stream. The VOD is here if you're interested:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/614222389

BitPokitauthor8 May 2020, 16:24

@weeping-rupee Wow, thank you so much for playing and streaming! :smile_cat: It's really difficult without checkpoints, but we will be adding that in the full-release! I will be sure to share your VOD with my social channels! :smile:

Honest Dan11 May 2020, 20:10

You did a great job of making a game about a ball on a white vector based black and white world feel pretty epic and dramatic. Some great story telling and a challenging game. Wish there was a checkpoint as replying the game three times in a row to try finish it got a bit too repetitive for me personally. Great effort on the whole.

frostByte4k12 May 2020, 00:45

The story is cool and all but it's annoying I have to rewatch every time I die

Fenno Boomgaarden12 May 2020, 19:15

Very cool entry, the music and the mechanics are killer!
Simple graphics, nice animations, story and feeling