I remember playing this two years ago when it came out on Kongregate, and it's possibly my favorite platformer web game of all time. There are relatively few mechanics, but they're all used very well and thoroughly, and the style is simple but appealing. I'm glad that you finally released it on Newgrounds. Anyway, for anyone who wants the true ending, you need to find the three secret racecourses: northeast of the blue building, you need to get momentum from the upwards air; west of the red building, there are nozzles on the surface of the water; and east of the yellow building, fly up from the second-lowest cloud to the upwards air on the right.
Reviews for "Amidst the Sky"
Ferociter responds:
Yeah, I finally listened to your advice and started putting my games on here, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Better late than never.
I am going to hold off on judgement until the game is fixed. After careful consideration my hidden score is passing, but not my real score for the game.
The checkpoints do not seem to function, either in the temple or outside. If you do it outside (even after completing the temple) you will always return to the boat and entering the temple you will always find the device turned off. If you use the checkpoint inside of the temple get ready to restart the game because you get stuck in some kind of a loop (presumably behind everything else) where it shows the level returning to the same spot (absent the PC) then falling to the bottom and repeating ad infinitum.
I assume the device in the temple starts some kind of a cloud making device allowing you to continue through the game. Not sure if anything else in the game is broken because progress is very limited right now. One suggestion I would have is to give an option to just mute music, but keep the sound effects. I think that this could be fun, but it really needs to function first. I look forward to some kind of an update because I really want to play this game.
Edit: You were absolutely correct, I thought I had everything newgrounds related given a free pass, but I apparently did not.
So, real review of the game. I will preface this by saying I have not yet beaten the game, but I am taking a break from it before I rage quit. I am currently going up the center tower after doing the three side towers. I get the feeling there may be some side content associated with the warp doors, but as I said, trying not to rage quit right now.
As the tags say and the start of this eludes to the game is very challenging, and you will likely repeat things over and over again unless your fingers are very fast and you adapt well on the fly. Even then you will still 'die' just from chance. That being said, although it is steep, the game does have a learning curve that goes from very simple to rage. And despite steepness it does feel like a pretty smooth curve and it makes sense. As of where I am at in the game there are no enemies or anything like that, just you versus the environment.
Speaking of the environment although I don't know how expansive it actually is it gives the feeling of being a very expansive game/map. There is quite a bit of exploring to do and although the environment is very basic (by necessity) what there is of it is pretty good looking. Gameplay was smooth and responsive. Sounds were acceptable, but had little variation and play only a minor roll in the experience. The music is atmospheric and suited to the game.
Overall I think this is actually a pretty great game. I will most definitely return to it and rage until I finish the section I am on (which I am hoping is the end).
Take the good, you take the bad. I didn't give 4.5 stars for no reason, but the problems are kind of minor. The movement through the clouds feels a bit inconsistent and slippery, especially when in the moving clouds. This is probably intentional and understandably so but as a player I found myself extremely annoyed when a checkpoint was in sight and I would suddenly go flying off to the side. This is compounded by the wind hazards you add to the course which are also quite obviously intentional. The player, is also sticky when in a moving cloud. If you touch something while moving in a cloud you stick to it and can't move tangential to the object (i.e. if your head is on a ceiling you can't move side to side, if you touch a wall you can't move up and down). Although you can reverse away from it in many places that is exactly what you don't want to do (because the cloud is moving). I don't feel this one was intentional it doesn't seem to serve any real purpose in the game. I don't know if this 'always' happens because I very quickly avoided touching things, but when I did it usually killed me. Finally, the boundaries of the wind gusts can be difficult to see depending on the background. Again this doesn't feel like an intentional thing, more just a circumstantial annoyance, but it may be worth looking at the contrast in some of the backgrounds.
Overall, again, excellent game! 4.5/5 would recommend to anyone who likes platformers and doesn't instantly rage quit!
Ferociter responds:
Your browser isn't saving the game's data locally. Don't play it in incognito, or if you weren't, make sure your browser doesn't prevent cookies from being saved if that's the case for some reason.
Great platforming puzzler! I need this for console or at least downloadable to PC. I checked your itch.io page and saw it is web only. Would love to get a non-web version.
Really nice pixel art style and a great atmosphere. It does an excellent job teaching the player what to do without out right displaying text instructions on the screen. Some of the inside colors are a bit too grey for my taste.
Definitely coming back to this one to finish it. Nice work!
Ferociter responds:
A (very big and less grey) sequel of this is in the making and will release on Steam, although it'll be on hold for quite a while. My plan is to release Amidst the Sky for free as well on there whenever the sequel is close to done, as a sort of promotion. That plan is subject to change.
cute little platforming game, you should add medals for completing levels
Puzzle platformers aren't my thing but boy you nailed the atmosphere. Do I see perhaps some Mandagon and Titan Souls influence? 👀