I've been working on a small project on and off for the past 8 months or so. Jailbreaker is a challenging puzzle-platformer that you play with only one button.

The player moves automatically and you time your jumps to avoid traps. However, you can also climb up walls, roll in the air, float in bubbles, turn into a bird, etc. The game steadily introduces unique traps and level design to keep you interested. Not too long; not too short.

All the levels for my game has now been finished. Only thing left now is a proper ending, some bug fixing, level testing and some extra polish. My goal is to upload the game by the end of this year. Once I can get a Steam page up and going, I'll make an update post with a link to it. For now, you can check out the game demo on our GameJolt page. It contains the first 10 levels. Thanks for reading. I'll see you soon!

    Hello, I played a part of the demo and I have to say I am very impressed with the quality of this project. I really can see it is going to be a hit. It has a super unique mechanic. The aesthetics, movements, and sounds are very nice.

    I recorded the session with Playcocola:

    Disclaimer: I am the creator of Playcocola, it is in beta. Looking to help indie devs with the playtesting 😉

      The CRT look is so cool!

      For the controls, were you inspired at all by Super Meatboy Forever?

      PS - I love your avatar frog with the mushroom hat!

      • Awfy replied to this.

        award I was actually inspired by a mobile game called "King of Thieves". For the mechanics, my inspiration came from games like Celeste, N++ and qomp. I never knew SMB: F was an auto-runner? I only played the classic SMB.

          d2clon Hey, thanks for playing! The playtest is very insightful. The goal is to make a difficult game, yes, but I do want to have some sort of balance between difficulty and fun. The slide mechanic does have some quirks but I've tried explaining it somewhat in the full version.

          The fact that you had to stop at level 7 kinda torn me 😅 . I might try to make the game a bit easier later, but I'll only be able to do that if I have more playtesters (which is currently a bit of a problem for me). I'd love it if you could play the full version once it is out.

          PS - btw, the line looking kinda of finicky is because Godot has a limit to how many points a Line2D can have, so I was drawing few points every few milisecond. I've bumped it down a bit so it looks a bit smoother. The line will also insert "points" which show when you jumped and rolled, etc.

              MikeCL Hey, thanks for playing! What do you think about the difficulty? I'm trying to get it right but I don't have much external input to steer me in the right direction.

                  Awfy The goal is to make a difficult game, yes, but I do want to have some sort of balance between difficulty and fun

                  I understand that balancing the difficult properly on this game may be super challenging.

                  Awfy The fact that you had to stop at level 7 kinda torn me

                  You have to understand that, even if I am a hobbyist indie dev, I don't play many games. This one in particular has a very specific target, which I am not, "precision platformer" is called?. For example, I haven't played Celeste, I haven't even tried it 🙂, because I know I'm going to suck at it 🙂

                  So please, don't get my playtest session as a meter for the difficult of the game.

                  The fact I got stuck in the 7 level is actually a good thing. It makes me go out of the keyboard with a sweet frustration sensation, and with a willingness to come back with renovated energy, to try again 🙂.

                  Awfy but I'll only be able to do that if I have more playtesters (which is currently a bit of a problem for me)

                  Let's change that, I'll approach you by DM here

                  Awfy 'd love it if you could play the full version once it is out.

                  Buff, of course

                  Awfy The line will also insert "points" which show when you jumped and rolled, etc.

                  I see you are working on improving the line/path view. I am sure you will manage to make it as appealing as the rest of the aesthetics

                  You have a good game in your hands. It is now just a matter of building nice appealing levels and properly balancing the difficulty ramp. 🙂

                            Excellent little game, great style, too difficult for me, but allright by precision platformer standards

                            I guess the full version has smoother difficulty curve, wall sliding is hard

                            Awfy I think the difficulty was good. I had several moments where I felt it was very difficult, but then also very rewarding when I managed to figure out the path and timing.

                            • Awfy replied to this.

                                MikeCL Thanks, glad you liked it. I'm actually trying to adjust the difficulty a bit more, so the final version could be a bit more balanced.

                                I was wondering if you could playtest the final version of the game and provide footage. I'd like to have as much playtesters as possible to get lots of feedback. My game is actually finished and I just need to change a few thungs here and there.

                                  I'd like to inform everyone that the game is finally finished ^^

                                  Would to have playtesters for my game so if anyone is interested, please let me know.

                                    6 days later

                                    Awfy Would to have playtesters for my game so if anyone is interested, please let me know.

                                    I'm interested 🙂

                                      I just came up on this channel, and I think your game fits perfectly on it. The streamer has this series called "X Games made in Godot to inspire you" ...

                                      a month later

                                      Jailbreaker now has a Steam Page! Consider wishlisting the game on Steam. It will release Q1 2024

                                        9 days later

                                        Jailbreaker now has a revamped, public demo on Steam! We are getting closer and closer to the release. I'm excited but also kind of nervous. Anyone have some marketing tips for me to help push the game to more people (preferably with minimal cost)?

                                        • xyz replied to this.

                                          Awfy Probably best to try to reach youtubers that review/stream games in your niche.

                                          One other thing, not marketing per se, and you possibly won't like it, but I'll say it anyway 🙂.

                                          Add some color. Obviously, monochrome-ness was your stylistic choice but adding color might work wonders for emotional impact. For your game it could be as simple as using a single additional accent color for some elements in the level (saws and collectables are an obvious choice). The colors could be from a "retro" RGBCMY palette, and perhaps wary per level or groups of levels.

                                            Awfy I gave demo a go. Went through all 10 levels twice. It's good. Quite hard but easier than expected, though from the looks of it I expected ultra hardcore.

                                            • There was a bug (or feature) I couldn't replicate. In the second part of tutorial I fell down from the right platform and the screen went white. The game become completely unresponsive but not fully frozen as crt glitch animations were running normally. Needed to restart.

                                            • Sliding up the walls mechanic is not communicated clearly enough. I completed the first playthrough totally unaware of how it works, just winging it. Perhaps it needs to be directly stated that the closer to a wall you jump the higher you slide up. Maybe best to do it in the tutorial as you need to use it there.

                                            • The tutorial rooms with sliding walls are a bit disorienting, given that these may be the first areas the player encounters. It does look cool though. Maybe have full walls drawn a bit fainter and keep those sliding highlights for effect.

                                            • Awfy replied to this.

                                                xyz

                                                There was a bug (or feature) I couldn't replicate. In the second part of tutorial I fell down from the right platform and the screen went white. The game become completely unresponsive but not fully frozen as crt glitch animations were running normally. Needed to restart.

                                                Was the screen white or grey? I don't think I've seen this bug before. Is this the room with the moving platforms and the door?

                                                The tutorial rooms with sliding walls are a bit disorienting, given that these may be the first areas the player encounters. It does look cool though. Maybe have full walls drawn a bit fainter and keep those sliding highlights for effect.

                                                Which rooms do you mean? The tutorial rooms with moving platforms?

                                                • xyz replied to this.