The Greatest Thing

Fun and intuitive controls. The decor is cozy, nice game.

Congratulations! This game's really good.

So I got to the part where I had both orbs and the water was slowly rising and then I drowned. It killed me and it was really scary. I really enjoyed the game up until I got the orb...then it became a real chore to play unfortunately. I'm guessing that was the point, but it wasn't really fun. Lot's of mechanics that baffled me a bit from a game design standpoint. But overall I think the art was great and all the mechanics until you got the orb I enjoyed quite a bit.

I’m very sorry, this game confuses me a bit. The level design is very interesting, but at the end I don’t know what is the use of that. I really like level-breaking games. I hope you can add more interesting mechanisms to make the game more interesting. .

Great game and the controls felt good
The game gave me nostalgic vibe of the old nes game three eyed boy

@yuuuu0824 thanks for the feedback! This was definitely meant to be very open-ended, so I suspect it will not make sense to some people. Though, I will try to keep this in mind to try and make the themes work better.

@barelyevengames You are correct, that was largely the point. I understand this won't work for a lot of people. I figured that for a short jam game, I would make something more abstract.

What an experience! This game really is more than meets the eye. From the start I appreciated the simple yet elegant graphics and crisp platforming. The first time I played, as I was starting to leave with the orb, it flew off into the other room as I was transitioning rooms and I didn't understand what happened. I tried to leave but was stuck on the cosmic leash thing. I died in the water and thought that the game just ended with the player being cursed and trapped in the ruin.

I actually thought this was kind of neat to end the game this way but I replayed it and found out that there was more content. After getting the orb I found the gameplay to be a bit of a slog. I get that that's the point, and you really managed to give a lot of character to the orb through mechanics and effects. But it just didn't feel fun or fair compared to what comes before in the game. I died in the room where the water rises and I would have liked to have seen the ending. (although maybe it's cool that dying in the temple is an "ending" by itself.) I think it would have felt better if the orbs zapped off at a certain interval instead of at random. All in all though I like how you took some bold creative directions, and overall it definitely paid off.

@quite-good thanks a ton! I suspect you might have made it to the end - if you wait and see the title appear, you have seen the end. it was meant to be a touch ambiguous.

Thanks for the feedback on the room transition thing - this game is a soft-lock minefield lol.

hey, really cool game congrats! I liked the mood of it, and the graphics are simple but very elegant (in a minimalistic way). I have a love for Pico8 project, I have to say. The game was a bit confusing after you discover the orb but interesting. Good job!

nice game, i really appreciate the first part, after that i get the orb and i died drowned.
Starting all over was a bit frustrating ,may be a respawn in the last room would have been cool. Except this point it was a funny game, Great work !

I liked it. I was confused as to whether or not I'd beaten the game or just sucked at the swimming portions until I saw the title card at the end. The wall-jumping felt a little iffy at times as I'd be switching arrows after leaving one wall but I wouldn't actually get traction on the other. I don't know if it was a hitbox size thing on the player or not.

Was the orb's laser effect proximity based? That was what I thought was happening whenever I'd be in a room where I had to drop the orb and go for air.

@arguablyarugula Thanks for playing! The orb effect is indeed proximity-based, meaning you have to swim very hard if you let the orb sink. It's a bit of a ham-fisted metaphor.

@pbg I didn't think it was ham-fisted at all, I really liked it. I'm glad I understood it as well, and I think you've done a great job conveying the mechanics and themes without resorting to raw-text tutorializing.

It was fun and enjoyable until I grab the orb. Than it transformed into a rage game...which if fine, but I don't really liked that part.The drowning effect was cool, but it hurts your eyes a lot.
I loved the arcade direction you chosed. Great work!

Very nice game, well done! I did like the game overall, but I got a bit confused by the orb. I like that you couldn't get out of a certain range, but sometimes it dropped randomly and flew back a part where I just carried it up and I didn't know why it happened. I was trying to get it up the long chain, it dropped and carried on. When I received the second orb I stopped. I could see the challenges it brought, but i was getting a little frustrated when I carried it 5 blocks and flew back 3 of them with in my mind that I also had to get the second orb.
I think it is a fun gimmick, unfortunately I didn't fully understand it.

Very cool! At first I thought it was just a simple platformer, but then I found the thing, and then a second thing.
Really interesting game design wise. It feels like the things are a metaphor for unhealthy relationships or dependencies. or maybe I'm just reading too much in to it. :sweat_smile:
Great job!

I had a great gameplay experience with your game. Keep it up. The art and the controls did match, but I was only able to play up to reaching the orb. Anyway, this is a great game presented to Ludum Dare 48.

So not clear about what is the ending. I had some fun playing. I tried to carry the orb back and could not quite get all the way back. Not sure if that is what I'm supposed to be doing. So I think the goal is not clear and might want to have respawn point at the orb since I die a lot after trying to carry it back.

I appreciate the lo-fi aesthetic, and while the wall jumping was a bit fiddly, it was fun to get around. I must admit that I found it a bit frustrating once I had the orb. It kept jumping out of my hands and firing lasers at me, and I found it tough to get up small ledges when I was holding it. I didn't make it to the end, though I loved the effects as the player drowns!

really tight platforming, i also like the shaking screen effects when you take damage.

This was a fun game to play! The movement feels really solid. Getting the orb around got really frustrating, but I'm glad it's not something you have to worry about for too long. The drowning effect is really cool.

Felt I was getting the hang of the mechanics but I'm afraid I got very confused once I picked up the orb - died in the next pool and with no nearby spawn point I could only try a couple of times.
Nice to see the retro style though, and wall jumping always fun.

I liked the simple art style, and the platforming was tightand enjoyable. It played really well on a mobile browser (Android + Firefox). That's my first time seeing that gameboy interface - it actually worked very well

Like many others in the comments, I really struggled with the orb. After getting it and drowning, my motivation to continue was dead after I had to restart all over again.

Great work! It was cool to see a PICO8 game!

There's something about all pico games that i find charming and enjoyable. This was no exception. The wall jumping requires precision timing I am used to games that have simple controls - as in the wall jummping is done for you without inputing the direction. If this is a design decision sobeit.

The difficulty ramps up when you get the greatest thing ever. Afteer you hit the bottom of any lake, it is always an uphill battle.

Nice platforming, especially the walljump. The orb was super frustrating; it might have been nice if there was a bit more story so it was more obvious that that was on purpose? e.g. listening to the character anticipate and then react to the orb, and then have a game over screen saying "you were killed by greed". (I mean, probably don't do that exactly; sounds a bit heavy-handed. But something in that vein.) nice game!

I love games made on PICO8. It was an interesting and challenging game. I really liked what you did with the song. And I also think that art could be a little more neat. Overall I liked the game. Congratulations on making a game alone!