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SAGE 2024 - Demo Biophage

Overview

NOTE: After the September 14th update the views on the original file were lost! It previously had 272 before the update.

You are a single-celled organism.

Climb walls and ceilings, and find new ways to build up and maintain speed!

Punt your enemies into the air and finish them off with a grab and slam!

Explore the strange ecosystems laid out in your path, and feel the essence of nature!

This game is naturally compatible with a controller, which is highly recommended!

This is an in-development original 2D platformer with hand-drawn graphics and a (hopefully) high skill ceiling. This demo contains only the first area with 2 acts, but feedback would be greatly appreciated!

The main character's name is unknown, if they even have one, but most people call them Greeble. I don't think they'd mind if you called them that.

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Updates

August 15th
  • One area in each level has been tweaked to make them more streamlined.
  • Added stopwatch and final time at the end of the game.
  • A few tiling mistakes have been corrected.

August 16th
  • Fixed a bug that caused enemies to be repeatedly hit by iron ore after death
  • Fixed an area near the start of the first act which generally forced a level restart if done incorrectly

August 17th
  • Spikes can now hurt both the player and enemies
  • When choosing to restart in the pause menu, the player can now choose to restart from the start of the level or the very start of the game. Restarting the game also resets the in-game timer, allowing for faster and more convenient resets in case of speedruns.
  • Being hit by two overlapping hitboxes on the same frame will no longer cause the player to take damage from both.
  • An issue where springshrooms would not spring up the player while in their springing animation has been fixed.
August 18th
  • Fixed an issue where the player's arm would not get hurt when touching spikes
  • Adjusted the background of the final area
September 14th
  • Added a minor speed increase while going downhill
  • Horizontal momentum is now conserved between room transitions
  • Fixed an issue where the player would have a hitbox stuck to them outside of attacking animations
  • Fixed an issue where the player would not stick to the ground while landing on a slope while tethering or attacking
  • Fixed an issue where cavemites would not play their hissing sound
  • Removed some spike traps that were near impossible to react to on first playthrough

Latest reviews

After playing the game more, I must say... The mechanics are perfect. Please don't change a thing. My favorite thing about it is the potential for creative movement and a high skill ceiling. For example, this clip here. The physics, the arm mechanic, the combat system, the way we can use enemies and objects for mobility and flinging ourselves... Incredible work. Honestly, all I can say is that I hope you continue adding levels and I will buy the game on day one if you put it on Steam.

Even if you do decide to change mechanics up due to feedback, I hope you have a setting to make them exactly as they are right now.

Also the level design is incredible and I hope you continue it the way you are now.

Biojuggle gif.gif
Really fun concept.

I'd say the controls are perfect. I just wish there were options to bind your own keys, the default key binding is pretty wack.

Other than that, I just think it's a matter of making the level design better. Sometimes spikes and obstacles are hard to avoid in time because of your movement speed, and the enemies can easily be ignored. I think hitting enemies in this game is very satisfying though, so here's a suggestion:

Try to use enemy placement as a way to allow the player to skip and zoom through platforming challenges. You can already juggle and grapple enemies in mid-air, so it would be interesting if the level design recognized that and dared you to find skips with this mechanic.

The game looks very promising!
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PsychoPlasm
Thanks for the review! There are actually key remappings in the options. They're not exactly permanent since I think resetting the game reverts them back to the original as of now.
As for the level design, I do plan on reworking it. It's a common gripe most people have brought up, and like you said enemies will also need a bit of reworking either in how they obstruct paths and/or how they could be used to launch yourself into new areas.
The game ran really slow on my computer
that being said, the combat is so INCREDIBLE i wouldn't care if the game ran a frame a second! never in all my life have I ever felt more satisfaction in gaming then to slam enemies into walls, floors, and ceilings in this game! and it's combo-able too??? coupled with the great art style and interesting protagonist design makes this an incredible gaming experience no matter the game speed!
(Useless proposal, it would be awesome if you could still slam and hit enemies after their health's already depleted, like in Kirby!)
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Comments

I really enjoyed playing as the goo dude, very fun moveset, although a lot of routes were a bit confusing to me. Sometimes it didn't exactly feel like I was advancing despite doing that, and the telegraphing for when you want to grab something or smack the rock felt odd (most/all the time you wanted to just hit it).

I did want more reasons to hit things, it felt good to do it but it wasn't encouraged.
 
This is so good I made an account to talk about how good it is. Even made a video praising it. You could do some insane dynamic chase sequences with the moves we have, and I really hope you do. The game feels so free. The fun is from using the environment and moves to create a flow, so I hope you don't change the base moveset. The grab reach is perfect too. I think the combat could be slightly more fleshed out, but only slightly. Upward and downward attacks, and that's about it. I like how enemies can be grabbed and carried, and I wish we could do it on walls and ceilings. Level design is great too, allowing for creative use of the abilities and shortcuts. Keep up this direction! Also bosses and multiplayer could be insane in this game. I love it. Is there anywhere I can follow the development?
 
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