Anybody Got A Map?

Really nice concept! The retro graphics really cool! Nice job man!

I ran into what looks like a level design issue in level.. 3 or 4. Where you start surrounded by at least 6 scorpions. I managed to get into a state so that no matter where I moved, after 2 steps I was game over. An unwinnable state.
Other than that, though, I really like the aesthetics and general concept.

@mcduke On some levels you have to reset the level with 'r' because if most of the tiles are visible at the begining of the level, too many scorpions are moving for you to explore the map. It can get rather tedious at later levels.

I love the minimalist graphical style. I found the gameplay interesting but a little unfair under some aspects. For example a scorpion could kill me even before I knew it was there, and it was very easy to get stuck in positions where I had to reset. I think a better overall balance would make this game very enjoyable.

You did very good. It is a nice little game. I like it.

Hey!

The art style is very cool, I like it.
But the gameplay could use some improvement. Like, how many hits can I take from a scorpion? And in the second level, there were so many scorpions I couldn't actually get through it.

But walking around and "discovering" the map is really nice.

The game concept is very interesting, and the core mechanics work well! The timings of when to wait and when to advance were interesting initially, and the fact that you can bring yourself into a non-winnable state if you explore too carelessly was a nice touch! On that note, you should probably expand the directions above to include the fact that you can reset the level by pressing R, and that any key press with cause time to advance. In general, the manoeuvring involved in the puzzles was interesting, and I liked the duality of having to kill scorpions, without letting them get the drop on you.

Unfortunately, the later levels are more about repeating an already solved puzzle again and again and again. This, combined with the "ambush" effect of scorpions, meant that in many cases, you have to repeat the same steps again and again, only advancing a single step towards the solution each time (or accidentally make a wrong click, again having to start the sequence from scratch). And too often, collecting the extra gold in the final "run" of a level would simply take too long.

The symmetrical and repeated level design of many levels, even lets you foresee in advance, how much repetition a given level is going to have, as you know what you have to do (again and again), and even roughly how many times your are going to redo it (again) due to "ambushes" :D But you can do nothing meaningful with this information, you just have to run into the ambushes anyway, and die.

I feel that fewer and shorter levels, exploring the mechanics in different ways, would have made for shorter, but ultimately more focused game play.

I enjoyed the exploration part of the levels very much, especially in the smaller levels, where the contours of the levels themselves also have to be revealed by exploration.

The art was clear and coherent, and I especially liked the color palette. It simultaneously felt like drawing a map, and exploring an Egyptian maze.

"Easy Job", he said…
But the SCORPIONS rule here!
…Stung to death. Again.

Some more explanation of what is happening would be nice, I felt quite confused when I reached level 2 as I didn't understand what the grey things were and how did I make them disappear/did they kill me.

After reading the comments and understanding the mechanic better, I feel that it's an interesting idea for a puzzle game. The idea that one can advance time without moving is also cool. But as others pointed out the game would benefit from neater and less tedious puzzles.

The minimalistic graphics are well done.

Hey! I played the game, and it has a good concept, yet, I couldn't beat it. Honestly, I got frustrated by the fact that in the bigger levels, there where spots in which there was no way to reveal the scorpions without dying, which resulted in and endless death loop in order to reveal the scorpions so that I could clear the level, and it was bad, not because of having to respawn, but because I had to kill all the scorpions all over again, which got me tired.

However, I like the concept and the game got me engaged for a while.

Nice Job!

I liked your boulder-dashy visual design a lot! Also I liked the idea of revealing all those greyed area: it caters to my completionist nature and I'm sure many of us like to do this in game maps as some kind of minigame/achievement.

Not sure I handerstood how to handle enemies, tough, so I got stuck pretty fast.

Oh also I appreciated your light runtime/download, it's a refreshing change from unity games.