Found a interesting softlock. Just went into this side area, and when I came back out Poppin was missing. Switching showed him on top on the map somehow. I can run around and fall off, but respawning does not set Poppin back in bounds, and so I can't get Poppin to leave the cave to push the bolder.
I didn't enter the cave split up, but I did spilt up to enter into the area with the chest, as Jupa is the only one who can crouch. To note is that Poppin was exactly where I left him horizontally, he was just transposed vertically to the top somehow. I Jumped down to the area in the screenshot to get a better image. Also he was off screen when whatever sent him to the top happened.
This was a fun little demo! Love the characters, art aesthetic is nice, and the level design so far is solid. I like having the dual-characters mechanic, being able to swap them out on the fly is a great system I rarely see in other games. Definitely interested to see how future tools operate.
Having them play rock-paper-scissors when idling is adorable!
This is amazing! I can't wait for chapter 2 (unless it's paid, then i probably won't be able to play it) Either way, this game is very fun, but i wish you'd get more info earlier, specifically the abilities of each character. I never got the one chest where you needed to crawl because I didn't know Jupa could crawl. Jus a small nitpick, though.
Thank you for playing! I was working on Chapter 2 but took a break this year to focus on another project.
I've been thinking of making the first crawlspace treasure chest not having a secret sprite, to encourage you to experiment with crawling in and discovering it more naturally. Originally I kept it like that to encourage going back through it in later versions (when you have more items for finding things with backtracking), but I can see it mostly ends up being a weird tease.
Yeah! I want to pay one or more people for it, I've been figuring out the final design of the whole game so I can figure out all the assets I'll for sure need, but I'm glad the placeholders help give off the tone I'm going for. Thank you for trying it out!
Yeah! I'd like to add it there. I won't be able to put it up until I'm further along in development, but when it is I'll make an announcement so people can start putting it on their wishlist and stuff.
truely adorable and wonderful game! i love both Poppin and Jupa's so much and i really enjoy played this demo so far. will look forward to see chapter 2, keep up your great work!
One of my favorite projects to watch the progress on
The polish for this demo is incredible the Main Menu alone is already a huge attention grabber, it's just Endless Charm. It's gameplay is fun with enough creative choices to keep it standing out and feel refreshing. I really dig this game.
Finished a second play through to try the new and improved demo, and enjoyed it as much as the first time! I tried to get through to the end without too much exploring/secret puzzle solving, and ended up taking about 35 minutes and earning a B rank!
The inactive player helping out with fighting is super cool, it was always a nice surprise to have them pitch in. I love how cute Jupa is, the way she narrates the story and has a big grin. All the character interactions have so much charm : )
Even though I didn't stop for EVERY chest, the ones I came across on my way I would have fun trying to quickly reach. I appreciate being able to get just a LITTLE extra height by hitting the glove against the ground, because sometimes it lets you reach areas that are just out of reach. It's silly because these are usually areas that you can reach just a little later by pushing a turnip or some other method, but that's what makes it so fun- letting players have the chance to get it another way, whether it's quicker or not.
The only "bug" I found was if you hold down or down-right/down-left and use the glove against a wall (maybe only while jumping) the glove will ZIP all the way to the top of the wall. I think this is just a graphical thing anyways, but figured I'd mention it. I did want to ask though if there's any place else you prefer to receive bug/error reports, or if the comments here works.
I have to heap more praise on the boss fight, too- I was on the edge of death this time playing, and it was so fun seeing all the attacks it comes up with. All too often in games I'll be trying some kind of defense that makes sense to me, and it does nothing because the developers just want to make sure the boss beats the player up no matter what. I was sooooooo thankful here that when I ducked during the tongue attack, it didn't reach all the way down to the ground. Sorry for rambling, but it just feels so good to fight a boss like this that has tells and good opportunities to dodge attacks while still being tense.
I'm very excited to see more, as it would be incredible to go through an entire quest with chapters like these and store up money to buy all the different food and find every secret. But this chapter alone is so well done, thank you for making it so fun!
Thank you a lot, your comments are always really helpful and motivational, I'm glad a lot of it is working out so far! Next chapter should start having money/shops playing a bit more, as well as exploration. I hope I can get that done soon, so there's more content to play with next time. I don't know if it'll be free like this, but we'll see.
Comments anywhere are fine for feedback/bug reports, I noticed what you were talking about and tried addressing it in version 1.0.7, I think there's still some quirks with it still, but it should prevent some of the weirdness.
The
videogame industry is a special one, it's an industry were you can't
just tell a story, you have to put good, engaging gameplay to say
it's a videogame. What I love about videogames is how the gameplay
and the story can fuse together, and Poppin & Jupa: Pocket
Adventure does this perfectly.
Calling
this “Pocket Adventure” wouldn't be fair, despite the fact taht
this is a demo, this game already feels huge, but let's start with
the protagonists.
After
the first dialouge between Poppin and Jupa, all I wanted was to hear
more, Jupa introduction shows her exciting nature, and Poppin's
dialouge shows his more serious and curious nature, they're both very
well written.
Their
idle animations are beautiful, sometimes Jupa would fall asleep, and
I loved when they started playing together.
I
really liked how you can heal your friend by hugging him, but it
feels very slow, I'm not saying it should be instant, but it's very
difficult to heal your friend during a boss fight.
The
main combat mechanic is very unique, and it feels really good to
play, for some reasons I can't jump while pressing up, so it was
difficult to attack under the enemies.
The
actual combat is very fluid and fast, I really liked that you can
charge your attack, you colud add a moon walk option so that the
player can't turn around when charging.
I
also liked how Poppin and Jupa have different abilities, Poppin being
able to pull heavy stuff was very smart, but I don't see why he
couldn't crawl.
Another
problem I have is how easy the game is, after one of the protagonists
dies, you can wake him up, but there isn't a limit on how much you
wake up your partner.
After
playing through the entire demo, played trough it again and again, I
know you have been daveloping this game for a long time, and I can't
wait for the final product. Great job!!!
Thank you! These kind of reviews help a lot. The tie between story and gameplay was a major focus for me, so I hope later chapters continue to improve on that, as well as how Poppin and Jupa work together as a team.
I haven't looked into the hug for a while, but I can see what you mean. It has no business being that slow. I'll take a look at holding up and jumping too; I have noticed similar quirks when holding down.
I tried out a lot of different things with the charge, and at one point that was the case (as well as slowing down). What I found was that it felt too restricting to commit to a direction that early, since now they have to fire the glove and wait for it to retreat if they happen to face the wrong way when charging. I think missing with the glove is punishing enough.
With crawling, the main difference should be that Jupa is small enough to crawl into tinier spaces, the reason I only have her crawl is to help highlight that difference a bit more. I could try having Poppin crawl too, but probably slower compared to Jupa.
The partner revival is something that I'm still playing with, erring on the side of being forgiving for now (same thing for the rest of this demo, it's the first part). There is some punishment to it: the more you do it in a single area, the longer it takes each time. It can be time consuming while exploring, but very dangerous while a boss or a group of bad guys are after you. I did have enough people who game over'd on enemy waves and the boss, so I feel this is balancing out. Ignoring your partner and being too far away when they revive on their own will have them drop some money.
Some aspects I'm considering is reducing how many hearts they start off with on each revival. In later planned areas, some enemies/obstacles can make it harder to reach/revive your partner.
I thought of dropping money on subsequent revivals but I'd hate people to feel like they need to reload a save over losing too much cash. A "hard mode" that game overs on any KO is something I've considered too, but that'll have to be a ways away, I want to at least complete chapters 2 and 3 before fooling with that idea.
The demo has been a big help in figuring out what's working and needs tweaking, so the past few months have been addressing stuff like this. I'm hoping the next demo feels better and less glitchy. Chapter 2 has it's structure planned out, but I'm only partly through coding in the new obstacles, enemies, and finishing the Drill tool. I feel bad for being slow, but I hope when it releases that you and others will enjoy it!
I played through the demo, I liked how stuff like the springs launch the barrels at enemies. The only bug I really found was when you select an entry at the file screen (while the pen is writing) you can still freely change selections.
Thanks for playing! Yeah I hope in future areas I can play around with the springs and enemies/objects more. I'll be sure to fix the menu thing, thank you for mentioning it!
Not gonna lie, this is easily my favourite game on itch.io. Ive played a lot of itch games, but this just blew all of them out of the water! I frickin love this game, and am now following and eagerly awaiting more. This game is likely the embodiment of perfection, love the characters, love the mechanics, and I'm absolutely inspired by the boss. That boss fight was something else, easily on my list of best bosses of all time, better even than the bosses of my favourite game, Hollow Knight. All amazing.
It was pretty funny hearing a lot of sounds from other games, I heard a lot of castlevania and mario galaxy, which stood out a bit. I wasn't able to quit to the title, that button wasn't working for me. I also don't think the credits were working.
Otherwise, I have no issues to report, as said earlier I frickin love your work, keep it up! 11/10, would rate again.
Thanks! That's some high praises. I think it has a long ways to go to being perfect though, especially with how the partner follows you around. I'm glad you enjoyed the boss; I had a lot of fun designing him (though feeling bad for making him so hard initially, this past week I've been toning him down).
I checked my code and forgot to uncomment out a line that of code that lets the credits scroll. I'd been using it for making the trailer footage beforehand. As for the Quit button, that *does* work... but not if you were using the jump button, which cancels it out back a menu. I realize now that's not intuitive and can see where the confusion would come from.
Hoping to get Chapter 2 and additional content done in the future, hopefully I can keep improving it! Thank you for taking the time to play it and I'm very glad you had fun.
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This is cute, I like it! Can't wait to see where it goes from here!
Found a interesting softlock. Just went into this side area, and when I came back out Poppin was missing. Switching showed him on top on the map somehow. I can run around and fall off, but respawning does not set Poppin back in bounds, and so I can't get Poppin to leave the cave to push the bolder.
That's a new one, not sure how Poppin ended up there. Were you split up when you entered while this happened?
I didn't enter the cave split up, but I did spilt up to enter into the area with the chest, as Jupa is the only one who can crouch. To note is that Poppin was exactly where I left him horizontally, he was just transposed vertically to the top somehow. I Jumped down to the area in the screenshot to get a better image. Also he was off screen when whatever sent him to the top happened.
SUPA CUTE!
This was a fun little demo! Love the characters, art aesthetic is nice, and the level design so far is solid. I like having the dual-characters mechanic, being able to swap them out on the fly is a great system I rarely see in other games. Definitely interested to see how future tools operate.
Having them play rock-paper-scissors when idling is adorable!
This is amazing! I can't wait for chapter 2 (unless it's paid, then i probably won't be able to play it) Either way, this game is very fun, but i wish you'd get more info earlier, specifically the abilities of each character. I never got the one chest where you needed to crawl because I didn't know Jupa could crawl. Jus a small nitpick, though.
Thank you for playing! I was working on Chapter 2 but took a break this year to focus on another project.
I've been thinking of making the first crawlspace treasure chest not having a secret sprite, to encourage you to experiment with crawling in and discovering it more naturally. Originally I kept it like that to encourage going back through it in later versions (when you have more items for finding things with backtracking), but I can see it mostly ends up being a weird tease.
At some point can we get a Linux version?
Very cute! I'd say you need a sound designer and music composer, but the ripped SFX actually adds to the charm.
Yeah! I want to pay one or more people for it, I've been figuring out the final design of the whole game so I can figure out all the assets I'll for sure need, but I'm glad the placeholders help give off the tone I'm going for. Thank you for trying it out!
Is it coming to steam?
Yeah! I'd like to add it there. I won't be able to put it up until I'm further along in development, but when it is I'll make an announcement so people can start putting it on their wishlist and stuff.
truely adorable and wonderful game! i love both Poppin and Jupa's so much and i really enjoy played this demo so far. will look forward to see chapter 2, keep up your great work!
One of my favorite projects to watch the progress on
The polish for this demo is incredible the Main Menu alone is already a huge attention grabber, it's just Endless Charm. It's gameplay is fun with enough creative choices to keep it standing out and feel refreshing. I really dig this game.
This feels like a GBA game. Specifically one of those hidden gem ones you remember fondly. I mean that in the best(est) way possible!
Finished a second play through to try the new and improved demo, and enjoyed it as much as the first time! I tried to get through to the end without too much exploring/secret puzzle solving, and ended up taking about 35 minutes and earning a B rank!
The inactive player helping out with fighting is super cool, it was always a nice surprise to have them pitch in. I love how cute Jupa is, the way she narrates the story and has a big grin. All the character interactions have so much charm : )
Even though I didn't stop for EVERY chest, the ones I came across on my way I would have fun trying to quickly reach. I appreciate being able to get just a LITTLE extra height by hitting the glove against the ground, because sometimes it lets you reach areas that are just out of reach. It's silly because these are usually areas that you can reach just a little later by pushing a turnip or some other method, but that's what makes it so fun- letting players have the chance to get it another way, whether it's quicker or not.
The only "bug" I found was if you hold down or down-right/down-left and use the glove against a wall (maybe only while jumping) the glove will ZIP all the way to the top of the wall. I think this is just a graphical thing anyways, but figured I'd mention it. I did want to ask though if there's any place else you prefer to receive bug/error reports, or if the comments here works.
I have to heap more praise on the boss fight, too- I was on the edge of death this time playing, and it was so fun seeing all the attacks it comes up with. All too often in games I'll be trying some kind of defense that makes sense to me, and it does nothing because the developers just want to make sure the boss beats the player up no matter what. I was sooooooo thankful here that when I ducked during the tongue attack, it didn't reach all the way down to the ground. Sorry for rambling, but it just feels so good to fight a boss like this that has tells and good opportunities to dodge attacks while still being tense.
I'm very excited to see more, as it would be incredible to go through an entire quest with chapters like these and store up money to buy all the different food and find every secret. But this chapter alone is so well done, thank you for making it so fun!
Thank you a lot, your comments are always really helpful and motivational, I'm glad a lot of it is working out so far! Next chapter should start having money/shops playing a bit more, as well as exploration. I hope I can get that done soon, so there's more content to play with next time. I don't know if it'll be free like this, but we'll see.
Comments anywhere are fine for feedback/bug reports, I noticed what you were talking about and tried addressing it in version 1.0.7, I think there's still some quirks with it still, but it should prevent some of the weirdness.
The videogame industry is a special one, it's an industry were you can't just tell a story, you have to put good, engaging gameplay to say it's a videogame. What I love about videogames is how the gameplay and the story can fuse together, and Poppin & Jupa: Pocket Adventure does this perfectly.
Calling this “Pocket Adventure” wouldn't be fair, despite the fact taht this is a demo, this game already feels huge, but let's start with the protagonists.
After the first dialouge between Poppin and Jupa, all I wanted was to hear more, Jupa introduction shows her exciting nature, and Poppin's dialouge shows his more serious and curious nature, they're both very well written.
Their idle animations are beautiful, sometimes Jupa would fall asleep, and I loved when they started playing together.
I really liked how you can heal your friend by hugging him, but it feels very slow, I'm not saying it should be instant, but it's very difficult to heal your friend during a boss fight.
The main combat mechanic is very unique, and it feels really good to play, for some reasons I can't jump while pressing up, so it was difficult to attack under the enemies.
The actual combat is very fluid and fast, I really liked that you can charge your attack, you colud add a moon walk option so that the player can't turn around when charging.
I also liked how Poppin and Jupa have different abilities, Poppin being able to pull heavy stuff was very smart, but I don't see why he couldn't crawl.
Another problem I have is how easy the game is, after one of the protagonists dies, you can wake him up, but there isn't a limit on how much you wake up your partner.
After playing through the entire demo, played trough it again and again, I know you have been daveloping this game for a long time, and I can't wait for the final product. Great job!!!
Thank you! These kind of reviews help a lot. The tie between story and gameplay was a major focus for me, so I hope later chapters continue to improve on that, as well as how Poppin and Jupa work together as a team.
I haven't looked into the hug for a while, but I can see what you mean. It has no business being that slow. I'll take a look at holding up and jumping too; I have noticed similar quirks when holding down.
I tried out a lot of different things with the charge, and at one point that was the case (as well as slowing down). What I found was that it felt too restricting to commit to a direction that early, since now they have to fire the glove and wait for it to retreat if they happen to face the wrong way when charging. I think missing with the glove is punishing enough.
With crawling, the main difference should be that Jupa is small enough to crawl into tinier spaces, the reason I only have her crawl is to help highlight that difference a bit more. I could try having Poppin crawl too, but probably slower compared to Jupa.
The partner revival is something that I'm still playing with, erring on the side of being forgiving for now (same thing for the rest of this demo, it's the first part). There is some punishment to it: the more you do it in a single area, the longer it takes each time. It can be time consuming while exploring, but very dangerous while a boss or a group of bad guys are after you. I did have enough people who game over'd on enemy waves and the boss, so I feel this is balancing out. Ignoring your partner and being too far away when they revive on their own will have them drop some money.
Some aspects I'm considering is reducing how many hearts they start off with on each revival. In later planned areas, some enemies/obstacles can make it harder to reach/revive your partner.
I thought of dropping money on subsequent revivals but I'd hate people to feel like they need to reload a save over losing too much cash. A "hard mode" that game overs on any KO is something I've considered too, but that'll have to be a ways away, I want to at least complete chapters 2 and 3 before fooling with that idea.
The demo has been a big help in figuring out what's working and needs tweaking, so the past few months have been addressing stuff like this. I'm hoping the next demo feels better and less glitchy. Chapter 2 has it's structure planned out, but I'm only partly through coding in the new obstacles, enemies, and finishing the Drill tool. I feel bad for being slow, but I hope when it releases that you and others will enjoy it!
I played through the demo, I liked how stuff like the springs launch the barrels at enemies. The only bug I really found was when you select an entry at the file screen (while the pen is writing) you can still freely change selections.
Thanks for playing! Yeah I hope in future areas I can play around with the springs and enemies/objects more. I'll be sure to fix the menu thing, thank you for mentioning it!
Made a video
Not gonna lie, this is easily my favourite game on itch.io. Ive played a lot of itch games, but this just blew all of them out of the water! I frickin love this game, and am now following and eagerly awaiting more. This game is likely the embodiment of perfection, love the characters, love the mechanics, and I'm absolutely inspired by the boss. That boss fight was something else, easily on my list of best bosses of all time, better even than the bosses of my favourite game, Hollow Knight. All amazing.
It was pretty funny hearing a lot of sounds from other games, I heard a lot of castlevania and mario galaxy, which stood out a bit. I wasn't able to quit to the title, that button wasn't working for me. I also don't think the credits were working.
Otherwise, I have no issues to report, as said earlier I frickin love your work, keep it up! 11/10, would rate again.
Thanks! That's some high praises. I think it has a long ways to go to being perfect though, especially with how the partner follows you around. I'm glad you enjoyed the boss; I had a lot of fun designing him (though feeling bad for making him so hard initially, this past week I've been toning him down).
I checked my code and forgot to uncomment out a line that of code that lets the credits scroll. I'd been using it for making the trailer footage beforehand. As for the Quit button, that *does* work... but not if you were using the jump button, which cancels it out back a menu. I realize now that's not intuitive and can see where the confusion would come from.
Hoping to get Chapter 2 and additional content done in the future, hopefully I can keep improving it! Thank you for taking the time to play it and I'm very glad you had fun.