The return of Bill

by rooster-and-fretillant

co-authored: @brainstorm67, @daitse, @ponoran, @saowll, @mak6

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.45

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.24

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.09

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.37

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.38

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.81

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.49

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.38

Bill the Gerbil is back ! :mouse:

After a training with NASA, the Nothing Artificial Intelligence, Bill has been dematerialized by the professor to become a better mouse. :call_me:

Stuck in several loops, you will have to learn new skills to leave the virtual universe.

Are you ready to play Bill the Gerbil and escape from the virtual universe ?

##:musical_note: Music (composed for the game during the week-end :sunglasses: :musical_keyboard: ) :
- Move On / Arthur Ewalis Music (main theme)
- Final March / Arthur Ewalis Music (victory theme)

Genres: platformer

Comments36

DreamerofDays5 Oct 2020, 19:09

Nice and funny game. The jump feels a bit to fast and not realy animal like. Took me a while to understand what i needed to do and where to press enter.

hyblis5 Oct 2020, 19:23

Nice game! I struggled to understand the wall jump at first

MoHDI5 Oct 2020, 19:26

I love the concept. It must have been fun coming up with different loop puzzles. Seems like something that'd be fun to expand on.

Rooster And Frétillantauthor6 Oct 2020, 07:37

@dreamerofdays @hyblis @mohdi Thanks for your comments, you did play the alpha version, we pushed a new version right before the end of the jam if you want to see the difference ^^

Nazorus6 Oct 2020, 11:37

Nice take on the theme, being stuck in a programming loop! It was fun to explore the different levels and unlock skills to reach new areas. Also that intro was hilarious. The only thing I would improve is to add a text box that explains how to use the wall climbing and gliding skills, it took me a while to figure out.

PS: I smiled at the "while(trou)" :grin:

Daitse6 Oct 2020, 11:52

@nazorus thanks for the feedback ! There is a (undocumented >

Vodkhard6 Oct 2020, 13:44

good looking game but don't understand the real link with the theme

vsi-6 Oct 2020, 13:45

the idea is interesting an funny

noxymu56 Oct 2020, 13:53

Overall good experience and music is really amayzing. I think the fact that you have to finish level by going through the door, can be annoying, for example, when you entered the level by mistake. Also I think controls for the equipment should be shown at the time of acquiring it, because it may be unclear for player how to use it at that moment.

Daitse6 Oct 2020, 14:01

@noxymu5 thanks for the feedback ! You're right about the controls for the equipment, we should give more feedback on its usage ! We could add an option to get out of the level I suppose... it's true the door in the second one is a bit far...

Heho6 Oct 2020, 14:02

really well executed. graphics fit the idea well and the mechanics are introduced in a meaningful manner.

Scharma6 Oct 2020, 14:06

I still don't quite understand the win condition, but had fun along the way haha. The metroidvania upgrades were nice, and the platform did the job, but the jump felt strange. My favourite was the wall climbing.

The intro was superb! I usually dont like those, but you guys made an incredible job with this one. Well done, lads :)

MerlinnSound6 Oct 2020, 14:12

Really cool idea! I had no problems with the controls at all. The intro was hilarious in the best sense, the level menu surprising. In the game screen I thought, oh it's just a platformer, but you surprised me again with the idea, that you have to find gadgets to progress. Also the music is amazing.

Daitse6 Oct 2020, 14:18

@heho @merlinnsound @scharma thanks for the feedback ! Yes, the jump is weird ... we did not manage to tweak it to make it feel right :/

InefficientChunkOfCode6 Oct 2020, 14:32

Great idea! Nice and cute! It's the very TROUth!

(I really liked that pun... xD)

Good job! I really enjoyed playing it!

bordonne6 Oct 2020, 19:55

Excellent game, I loved the water effect.

Asue6 Oct 2020, 21:42

There are a lot of good ideas in the game. First of all the little intro at the beginning is very nice. The music is also really good. I think it's a good idea to have to collect objects to advance through the levels. There are some problems with the sprites and the character's jumps are complicated to do, but otherwise it's a good game. Well done :)

Jamster7 Oct 2020, 00:33

Really liked changing outfits, and the water effect was really well done. I agree about the jumping mechanics being slightly off, but overall very fun. Also, don't put in the skip button! you probably worked hard on the cutscene, and it's worth watching.

Ponoran7 Oct 2020, 06:50

@jamster @asue thank you ! We had fun to realize this cinematic intro, so epic ! :smile_cat:

SaraFilipa7 Oct 2020, 07:13

The intro was really good. I like this game a lot, but it's a bit hard to understand in the beginning. But otherwise -- top notch game, great sound, great audio, solid entry.

DrJexter7 Oct 2020, 07:22

I enjoyed the programming humor, we thought about doing the same but went a different way.

The game controls could be a little difficult at times, it also took me a good long while to understand how to use the kite. overall I enjoyed playing the game. I did end up getting stuck in one of the levels, regardless of the door I was unable to get out. Guess I got caught in a loop lol

riroriro7 Oct 2020, 07:23

I love that the menu system was in a loop. It is a fun game, I love the metroidvania style. The music was great - what an achievement to get that created in a weekend as well!

hadesfury7 Oct 2020, 07:30

fun how it is stuck in a loop :)

Ponoran7 Oct 2020, 08:10

@riroriro Thank you very much, the music was composed on Logic Pro with some Arturia synths. It was a challenge to compose it in few hours. :timer: :smile:

Daitse7 Oct 2020, 08:28

@drjexter which level got you stuck ?

DrJexter7 Oct 2020, 09:46

@daitse Disregard lol, I was dry...

Daitse7 Oct 2020, 09:48

@drjexter alright ! We did encounter a bug where you can get stuck in another level though, we will try and fix it later.

Eugenik7 Oct 2020, 10:53

A nice take on this type of game, good job!

Yword7 Oct 2020, 14:40

Cool idea and skills! And the music is great too! ^_^

Xbdoblex7 Oct 2020, 18:05

I should say that the intro and audio are absolutely amazing! but I got stuck here and I couldn't play this videogame :cry:

Daitse7 Oct 2020, 18:16

@xbdoblex use the "S" key to cycle through the 3 levels and use "Enter" to enter a level. The first time they must be played in order, start with "explore_mountain()" and go from there :) Good Luck !

Shimali9 Oct 2020, 15:52

This was fun! The music´s great! Good job!

blobo9 Oct 2020, 18:16

Now that is some incredible synthwork on the music. My lord those arpeggios! Hot dang. Stunning work, and I love the story!

gorrgolem10 Oct 2020, 12:19

Very cool, the concept is clever and fun, with nice graphics and audio, resulting in a very nice experience.

chispaLBC25 Oct 2020, 16:18

The game has a couple comunication problems, specially the controlls. I also was a little confused because i didnt't see the "winning condition" and i didn't understand why i couldn't use the door. (i managed to win tho)

That being said, the game is really cool overall. An introduction with voice acting is unusual for a jam game (although being a team helps a lot i guess). The mechanics are fun, the music is really cool, and the mouse is cute.

so in short i really liked it and good job!

Flying Dog Fish25 Oct 2020, 16:23

Great game with beautiful graphics and music. The theme is incorporated nicely with that piece of code. The platforming was fun, only the jumping was weird as it happened too fast to control.

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