Hidden Hearts
Embark on a personal journey of self-acceptance in this emotional platformer. Navigate through challenging levels while discovering your inner strength.
In Hidden Hearts, players explore Alex's monochrome town, searching for hidden notes of encouragement in places like the city, school, and park. These notes unlock alternate versions of the town in platforming levels where players must collect lavender hearts to move on. As players progress, color and vibrancy slowly seep back into the real world, symbolizing Alex’s growing self-acceptance and the town’s gradual shift toward inclusion and understanding.
- A/D: Move left/right
- Space: Jump
- Left/Right Arrow: Skip/Go back a level
- E: Interact
- Space: Next dialogue option
Art: Pixel Spaces by Nether Zapdos
Music: Monplaisir
Video game design and development by jbug (me).
Note: For the best experience, I recommend playing on Windows. The jump pad and some audio may not work properly in the HTML version.
Download
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Development log
- v1.148 days ago
Comments
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I had fun with it. I made it to the end. Art, music, and overall aesthetic go together well.
I realize in a jam game there isn't always time to polish as much as we want, but a couple things stood out to me as needing improvement:
1. Too many pixel-perfect jumps and leaps-of-faith. One example would be the level where you have to dodge the heart in order to use it as a platform later. I thought this was a clever twist of the rules, but even once I figured it out, executing the route through the level was finnicky. I kept collecting that heart by mistake.
2. The connection between the theme and the gameplay felt a little weak. If you hadn't told me it was about self-acceptance and inclusion, I would've guessed it was a more generic overcoming obstacles, if I had picked up on a psychological interpretation at all. You were onto something with bringing color back into the world--but the idea probably needed to be fleshed out more to make the theme stronger. Was Gris an inspiration?
I really appreciate the detailed feedback! I will be updating the game soon with some minor bug fixes and quality of life improvements, however, I plan to keep developing this game post-jam by adding new levels (reworking old ones as well), diving a bit more into the theme and new platformer mechanics. Celeste/Celeste Classic was my main inspiration. I've never heard of Gris before, but since it's on sale this week I just bought it since it seems like a good game to take inspo from. Thank you for playing!
Love the game and story so much, I can tell a lot of care went into building this world.
Definitely recommend this GDC talk for tips on building a fun and juicy platforming experience -
Thanks! I will definitely watch that :)
love it
thank you!
Loved it so much!!!
thank you!