itch.io

One Room executes the feel of a movement game well. The motion is simple, fluid, and satisfying. Additionally, the swift restart upon failure keeps the player in a good flow. I would love to see additional mechanics besides wall-jumps, like a slide for low gaps or a wall-break or something, but what you've made is definitely a solid base to work from.

The game jam's 'One Room' theme felt more like a limitation than a theme for this submission. Would have liked to see something more creative done with it.

Good contrast between the avatar and the environment makes the game easy to read.

Gauntlet is a movement game similar to something like Just Get Through, Yooka-Laylee, Sonic, etc... In these types of games, the player's fulfillment comes from mastery of the movement system. So in pursuit of a fulfilling experience, the movement system should feel intuitive, fluid, and rewarding.

Where Gauntlet struggles in the intuitive department stems from the wall-jumping mechanic. Naturally a player will want to give a directional input as they jump from a wall, but more often than not this leads to a failed jump. After some experimenting, it seems that jump velocity and direction don't actually depend on directional input. Because of this, the wall-jumping mechanic feels like the player is fighting against it for control.

In terms of fluidity, the room just doesn't feel like it's designed to be moved through. Platforms that visually communicate that they need to be jumped on end up being just barely too high up, causing the player to get stuck on the sides of them and breaking the flow of movement. The spacing of obstacles seems to fully interrupt the flow of movement as well rather than having a clear path by which to navigate (such as a gunner taking up the full width of a narrow vertical chamber). The extremely slow speed of the wall sliding also seems dissociated from the idea of fluid motion.

Systems for rewarding movement might be beyond the scope of a game jam, but I would love to see rewards such as a speed boost or a higher jump or an upward wall-slide for good timing or difficult navigation to reinforce the principle of mastery over movement.

The use of the theme is clever. Iterating over the same room is a fun concept and I think you executed it well.

The gauntlet seems forced and unnecessary.

Summary: When designing movement games, mechanics and layout should aggressively cater to fluid motion, while obstacles punish mistakes in technical execution.

(Logic) Gates of Hell doesn't seem to be at all functional, so I will have to rate based on what I can see upon first opening the game

• The game doesn't seem to have any level of discoverability. In a puzzle game such as this intends to be, it needs to be made clear to users how to interact with the game. But no graphical interface or tutorial-like prompts or even guiding graphic elements are present.
• The premise is centered around the use of logic gates, but the (albeit limited) graphical representations I could see do not have any similarities or parallels to traditional logic gates.
• No clear goal is stated.

Summary: More consideration needs to be given to how a new player will experience the game. Initial guidance and familiar visuals will ease people into the experience you're trying to craft.