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Hello everyone, the Global Game Jam of 2012 is over and this was our team's entry.

(http://catavento.art.br/img/title.jpg)

Viktor the Nth is a 2d platform in which a family's generations work together to fulfill their duty, facing deadly traps, ferocious beasts, a treacherous path and a race against time. The objetive is just to reach the end of the stage.

Platform/System:  Windows / Mac OS X+ / Web standard (Html5, Java, JavaScript, Flash)
Requires Adobe Flash Player 10 or better.

Go play it online here: http://globalgamejam.org/2012/viktor-nth/play (http://globalgamejam.org/2012/viktor-nth/play)
Or download the game here: http://catavento.art.br/Viktor_the_Nth.zip (http://catavento.art.br/Viktor_the_Nth.zip)

Any sort of feedback you can give are greatly appreciated.
We'd also like to know how many generations it took you to reach the end of the game! :P

I really like the idea, and I like the game too for the most part, but the spikes are BULLSHIT. They ruined the game for me. I was really enjoying myself until I got to a part that was just flat with hidden spikes and decided it wasn't worth my time to keep on dying and walking all the way back there just to know roughly where to jump.

Edit: I see now that there are little spikes on the tile, but it's really not all that clear and I found it frustrating. I was also disappointed that the path that lead me to the end was mostly just an exercise in endurance... it seems like most of the cool stuff like opening shortcuts for future generations was just there to mislead you. Unless there are multiple ways to finish, in which case that's pretty cool.

I finished on XII.

Sigh, I wish I had read TheAdam's comment before playing. I too hated the spikes, but got fed up with them and went the other way so I didn't spend forever on that death trap.

I played through to the ending, though it seemed there was content I hadn't explored.

Feedback:

The opening text - You shouldn't have it disappear after a timer goes off. Also, the phrase:
"I really don't recall the details" is immersion breaking. You should drop it. The phrase "I'll be frank with you" also implies that the narrator often decided against being frank and might be untrustworthy... idk if you want that implication?

Level design - I was having fun with it at the beginning. Opening the path to help future versions move quicker was clever. Also having stuff like the statues lying around made me think that I would learn how to use them later and they would be important. As I got further the game became a race against time to get to the end without the timer going off and I didn't spend any time dealing with the generational mechanic like TheAdam says.

Combat - I found hammering the wolves awkward.

Jumping - I also had trouble jumping in the caves on the corners to go up to the next level.

Also you should look at this game.
http://www.nekogames.jp/mt/2008/01/cursor10.html (http://www.nekogames.jp/mt/2008/01/cursor10.html)

This was a neat game jam game. I think it took around 10 to make it? It won't tell me after I beat it.

I think this game is awesome! :) Great idea and execution.

Of course there are some points of the game design that could be improved, like the spikes, it's a 48 hour game after all. I think that my biggest concern would be the lack of some kind of guidance, some way of discovering the right path without having to necessarily die.

Congratulations :) I really enjoyed playing it  ;D

Thanks for help guys!

Your comments were pretty insightful.

Yeah, we did notice the spikes trap felt a lot more unpredictable (as in frustatingly so) than we wanted.

Some people also complained that the spikes per se are quite hard to see, making the death look sudden and arbitrary. Did you guys thought the same?

I guess we shouldn't rely solely on surprise attacks, some tiles where the spikes are in plain sight are also an alternative to some parts of the map.

Personally I think it's because the animation feels kinda sluggish.
Definitely not as fluid and instantaneous as a punch or a sword stab would be, maybe we should tweak it with that direction in mind.

Uh...Never really thought about it that way. :concerned:
I'll revise the text right away!

The game does have more more than one way to reach the finish line, but a couple of then should just LOOK like they are endurance tests (but they were actually impossible). Needs more play-testing and more fine-tuning (especially the time limit).

Again, thanks everyone! This means a lot for us.