SAGE 2024 - Demo Aurascope SAGE 2024 Demo

Movement is great, level design is nice, there's very little to complain about.

One thing that bothers me is how the game does the whole "kick you out of the stage once you get a collectable" like in Super Mario 64, I feel like that wasn't necessary at all. Exploring the stages at your own pace, with all collectables being immediately accessible would be something easily feasible, and much more satistfying in practice. Either way, it's not a huge deal.

Wishlisted the game on Steam, I'm excited to see what comes next!

Congratulations, you’ve blown my mind. Honestly, the only trouble I had was some stage elements looking like I either could or couldn’t pass through them when the opposite was true. Otherwise, bloody fantastic! I couldn’t stop smiling and got over stimulated by just how great this game is. Wish listed and I’m excited for the game's eventual release!

Just beat the demo!


Was a fun experience! Loved the visuals, Great soundtrack and the movement felt great ! Looking forward to seeing more of this project!

Wow! I knew I had to try the game as soon as I saw the screenshots, but I wasn't prepared for something THAT good.

It's pretty much all I like in 3D platformers but in 2D, with an amazing pixel art and great gameplay. The exploration feels fun, the movement feels great, and I really cannot wait to play the full game. So much that I only got one core on each stage, just not to spoil the fun!

Wishlisted on Steam the very second I closed the game, huge congratulations because this is shaping up to be a fantastic game!

Fun exploration platformer.
I really liked what I played. I'll totally check out the full game. My only complaint is the dive being on a separate button. Wouldn't it be more intuitive to press jump - jump to dive? Same thing with rolling. I feel there's no need to make it a separate button.
If there was a way to map it ourselves that'd be it awesome (right now it maps both gameplay and ui actions at the same time. Separate that please!).
The physics and visual feedback are impeccable and the level design guides you to where you need to go without saying anything. It's that good.

Keep it up!

Simply gorgeous! Everything about this game brims with endless charm, cute and engaging characters, strikingly beautiful visuals, fun and clever gameplay! A whimsical experience whether you are casual or gaming! Without any hesittation FIVE STARS! Pick this game up <3

This demo is so good that I went out of my way to make an account, just so I can gush about how perfect it is. First of all, the pixel-art is impeccable. It's in that perfect spectrum, I find, between being detailed enough to be impressive without forsaking any cool design elements. Major SNES / NeoGeo level stuff here!

The story is decent, but what really steals the show is the gameplay. More specifically, the movement. Oh god, I could write a college thesis discussing just how meticulously smooth and buttery it is. It had a sense of discovery to it, all the while feeling like I was already well-equipped since the tutorial, and it felt like every single time I had a thought about "Oh, imagine they added this to the moveset, that'd be neat and fun", the game responded and I discovered that thing. Slides, rolling, dashing, stomps, you have it all! I felt like a damn acrobat playing this game!

The content on display here is not only packing in quality, but in quantity too! For the first demo (to my knowledge) of this game, four levels - each with multiple SM64-like missions - AND a multiplayer mode is more than enough to keep you entertained for a good while. I saw some people talk about some performance issues, but it works perfectly fine for me.

However, despite my introduction, nothing is perfect. Indeed, there are a few nitpicks. It may just be a skill issue on my end, but the collision is a bit unforgiving for the enemies. Especially when trying to stomp, it feels like there's very little to see. Plus, I'd prefer if the coins went behind the enemies. There were times, especially during the enemy battles, where there were too many coins to see where the enemies are which, in conjunction with the tight hitbox, usually left me damaged. And speaking of damage, the knockback could be tweaked a little. I think it goes a bit far and the "hurt" thing lasts for a little long, especially going down a slope.

These next two things aren't so much nitpicks as they are suggestions: Firstly, considering the focus on the RPG-like bigger health on enemies (which I think is cool, reminds me of Super Paper Mario!), perhaps a little healthbar could be helpful to indicate how many hits are needed. Again, this could be a skill issue from me so idk. Secondly, (albeit it could be a thing coming later for all I know), a shop would definitely be appreciated as to incentivise me to collect more of the money and "AG", especially during later missions where you're going through the same stage over again. However, all of these are relatively minor nitpicks, things that I picked out purely for the sake of fairness and I'd probably suck it up in practice.

In conclusion, OH MY GOD THIS GAME IS PERFECTION INCARNATE AND YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF TO PLAY IT IF YOU ARE A FAN OF PLATFORMER GAMES IN ANY CAPACITY. That being said, I'm going to be looking forward to developments going forward. You've earned yourself a fan!

EDIT: Oh, did I forget to mention? Yeah, they just casually include Blackjack in the game. Like, straight Blackjack. I mean, that's just amazing in and of itself. A part of me wishes that the full game adds the option to bet on it, just to add more for the money incentivisation. It would be hilarious if you could use it as a viable grinding strategy for getting upgrades or new moves or items or whatever.

If I had no way to say the word "perfection", I'd need to show someone THIS game.
This thing, this game, everything about it just feels cozy and too good for me to play-- I can see the amount of work, love and attention put even in this demo. Can't say I did like it, because I loved it.

I'm sure that this will be the best game I'll ever play in a while. Godmade controls, level design and all of its own details, a pretty unique game even though I didn't play all it has to offer.
Trust me, it'll surprise you at the moment you open it.

did I say too much?

The game is great, from graphics, controls, interactions, music, and even the design. But the problem with this game is when doing actions such as ground pound/spin drop(whatever you call it), the button combo is too complex, making players difficult to do that specific action during bosses. Try reducing it to two combos: "down key while airborne" so that it will be easy to control.

Also, there is a voice behind Aurora but not Trace is that so?

Love the graphics and animation!

You've got an amazing amount on display here. I absolutely love the work you've put into the art and music, in particular. But you definitely didn't back down from making the core movement feel good! I played around with trying to get to hard to reach areas and felt like there was often a lot of consideration into making everything feel both wild and making it constrained enough to balance everything.

That said, the game did have some significant slowdown in various places, and the enemies often blended in quite a bit. I never quite felt threatened because of how easy it was to get health in the beginning, but it was quite easy for me to miss enemies.

Still! Excellent work!