Demo Shadow's Ladder

A Sonic horror game that's more than just cheap jumpscares and edgy imagery is a rad idea, and I love the way you used the Sonic series' momentum based movement to turn standard horror game progression, into sort of exploratory action design [or Metroidvania if you're a mongoloid]. This is a very interesting demo, but there's some serious flaws. The biggest is the lack of d-pad support. Having to rely on an analog stick for a 2D platformer makes for less precise controls. Another huge one is the lack of checkpoints. I got all the way to the chase sequence at the underground waterfall facility and died, and it sent me back all the way to the start of the area, about 5 minutes of progress lost. Such harsh punishment for dying could be excused if you were to ditch the ring style life mechanic and go for a standard life bar, or you could keep rings and add checkpoints after cutscenes. Not being able to aim your gun is a bit iffy, but seeing as how you only really need it for specific situations, it's not too big of a deal. Also, it definitely needs a better name- I love all the little horror references like the title and Toluca Lake, but those who don't get the reference to Jacob's Ladder will probably think it's a joke name.
Overall, I'm very intrigued to see where this goes, even if I couldn't be assed to go back through the lab facility after I died to the Death Stranding monster chase.

Dude, I can't believe how long I had this game downloaded but didn't play it, and that's a shame because it's so amazing. The atmosphere, the gameplay, the puzzles, the story so far sounds pretty cool. The only thing I found frustrating was the last Ark level, since thanks to the position of some of the flying bomb robots made them throw bombs a bit after or at the exact moment I went to the platform, making me die in such an unfair way. Also I find the Demonic Sonic design kinda silly, but that depends on someone opinion, so no big deal.
But overall I loved it, and can't wait to see the next demo :3

The download link is broken, just so you know. I'd like to play so maybe if that could be fixed...