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[mcc]

I liked this a lot! Great concept and makes the whole "speed run" feeling accessible to non-speedrunners. Got a B and found the "secret ending" (I think).

Comments:

- The graphics are great and fit the game well but the ending/game over screens come across like placeholders.
- I'm not sure whether or not you actually need music (except on the end screens) but it does seem like there are problems with the sound effects. The balances seem off, at least, it seems like the punch and "underwater" noises are several times louder than any of the other sound effects. My first playthrough I spent about 40 of my 60 seconds repeatedly adjusting the computer volume and punching.
- Because it's all about perfecting movement, this really seems like the kind of game that needs gamepad support.
- The controls are appropriate and intuitive and keep the game simple but are just slightly awkward enough that they discourage me from trying to go for an A (at least in the absence of gamepad support). Like for example punching is just a bit awkward. On the first bunch of playthroughs this enhanced the experience because it meant that I used punch only judiciously, because I knew it would mess up my movement and slow me down. When I started thinking about going for an A though it was like oh geez this is going to be all punching barrels isn't it.

What I'd be curious to see is a game like this with some more complex play controls. It seems like the simple, blocky controls kind of force the game to be simple. That's appropriate to what this game is trying to be! But it also seems like a game that attempts this concept with a more sophisticated set of controls could have a larger map while still fitting in the 60 second scope, could open up the possibility of sequence-breaking, etc.

Now the question is, who wins in a grudgematch... "In 60 Seconds" or "Seven Minutes"?

[Krystman]

I saw this one on Bytejacker. I love the idea and the graphics but there are two things you should consider changing:

One major thing many game developers get wrong is not considering that there are different keyboard layouts. You are using the ZXC keys which are not always placed together depending on the keyboard layout in the country you live in. I assume you live in a country where the QWERTY layout is prevalent. I live in Germany, where the QWERTZ layout is used (among quite a few other central European Countries). Compared to QWERTY, in the QWERTZ layout the Z and Y keys are swapped which is makes the game basically un-playable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTZ

But it gets even worse. In France and Belgium, they have AZERTY which even screws up WASD.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AZERTY

The bottom line is - make customizable layouts, make presets for different countries or figure out how to respond to the key's location rather than to the letter (supposedly, there are some workarounds. I've seen that happen). Right now, people in most of Europe can't play it.

Another thing that I don't quite get: why can't I quit the game with ALT-F4 or the X in the right corner... you know... like EVERY OTHER APPLICATION? 

[Notch]

I liked it! The graphics are really nice, and the physics feel just right.
The puzzles aren't too tricky, and it only takes a few tries to beat the game. The difficulty is just right, I'd say.
The progression of various powerups is rewarding and hilariously fast.

As for "constructive" criticism;
I felt there were too many buttons to press. Instead of having one button for punch and one for that fireball thing, I'd rather have something like a charged punch (keep the button pressed for 200 ms) resulting in a fireball or something like that.
The time limit led to me using the wrong attack several times just because I hadn't memorized what key to press.

The time limit. It feels a bit artificial. If the level was slowly filling with lava so you only had 60 seconds to escape, I could understand it more. Or perhaps if a huge meteor was approaching in the background graphics. Right now, I have to look and parse a small text in the corner of the game to know how much time I have left, and when it runs out I die for no good reason.

But these are minor nitpicks, really. I loved it. =)

[battlerager]

Hey dude, congrats on the bytejacker nomination! 

I live in Germany, where the QWERTZ layout is used (among quite a few other central European Countries). Compared to QWERTY, in the QWERTZ layout the Z and Y keys are swapped which is makes the game basically un-playable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTZ

Normalerweise solltest du mit Alt + (links) Shift zwischen Deutschem und Englischem Tastaturlayout wechseln können... Glaube ich.


Try pressing Alt + Shift guys, should you suffer from a non-qwerty keyboard layout. Maybe it helps 

[QuaziGNRLnose]

the game's alright, but as mentioned before it gets easier as you progress.

i also think that it should have more levels or something, which respect the "beat in 60 seconds" rule, because i beat the entire game in 3 minutes.

[Krystman]

Try pressing Alt + Shift guys, should you suffer from a non-qwerty keyboard layout. Maybe it helps 
[/quote]

It doesn't work for me. I specifically disabled alternative keyboard layouts because I would trigger them accidentally. I think it's just common sense for a game to take care of such details for the user.

[Cymon]

Good game, bad name. You can't google your game by title, it's too common. Come up with something a little more googl-able.

i also think that it should have more levels or something, which respect the "beat in 60 seconds" rule, because i beat the entire game in 3 minutes.

I beat the game by skipping some power ups, but it made me wonder what the effect would be to beat it with more or less.

Which makes me wonder if multiple endings wouldn't be possible, in addition to multiple maps. One where you beat the boss, but get caught in some lava flow. One where you escape with your life, but the boss escapes too. One where you escape but trap the boss, who is contained but lives on. One where you defeat the boss and escape with your life.

Good game. Gets the creative juices flowing.

[Ghegs]

Congratulations on winning the Free Indie of the Week -award.

[William Broom]

Thanks!

Uh... do you have a link to that? I think you're talking about Bytejacker but I can't actually find any confirmation of it on their site...

[battlerager]

They say it in the episode (35). 
[at roughly 6 minutes into the video]


Congrats, man! You just punched out Cthulu Pandaland!

[pyabo]

Very nice little game.  Took me at least a dozen tries though.

I'll just watch the YouTube video for the A finish.  :|

[William Broom]

Updated with music by Marc Kamradt. Thanks Marc!

Also, a guy from a French publishing company contacted me, asking permission to put this the coverdisc of his magazine/s. Dunno if it will actually end up there, but it was still pretty cool.

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

I like it, but it crashes my machine really horribly after a couple of plays. D:

[William Broom]

Wow, uh... It being Game Maker and all, I have no idea why that would happen. It must be something that I'm doing, though. Can you explain how the crash happens in more detail?

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

I think after I play it a couple of times, and then press Z, the game music continues but the screen locks up. First the game doesn't respond and then my mouse and keys. I literally have to kill the power on my machine to restore it.  This happened twice with the game. I was on a laptop with Intel GMA950 graphics, and I've played plenty of Gamemaker games before with this happening.

[Cymon]

I know it's been a while, but any chance of revisiting this and making new maps?

[Gryphon]

Yeah, it would be an awesome idea to expand the game into a series of 60-second levels. 

[Titch]

I like it, but the one thing that bugged me was the way the final rank appeared to be connected to the time. So I spent several playthroughs trying to slice time off my total rather than collecting everything only to keep getting C's. It was very frustrating. I think I completed it on my fourth or fifth run though.

This sort of setup would be quite good for player created content, since the levels are relatively small.

[rogerlevy]

Is there some hidden ending?  The image I got after some practice was of the hero being sucked into some vortex, or "walking towards the light". I tried to beat the game in as close to 60 seconds as I could but the game kills you at 1 second left instead of letting you kill the boss at the very last moment. It would be cool to see a proper ending then, because right now I feel vaguely cheated. You could also reward the player for never getting hurt.  But all in all it was fun, and good music.

One nitpick --- collision detection on things overhead the little guy was not good, you need to make the collision boxes flatter or something.

[johnnoz]

fantastic, love the idea and great execution

only real nitpick is that the collision on some platforms is a full 'block' size when the platform itself is thinner, causing you to collide with what looks like air from underneath