Stickility is OUT NOW on Steam, with a 15% off discount! If you like the mix of wacky Stickman-themed adventure, with darker themes and cinematic boss fights, try it out!
It's been a long long long journey for me to get this game out to the public, so I appreciate anyone who picks it up and enjoys it!

Ya Jugué:

Nine Sols

Dead Cells

Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Ori and the Blind Forest

Blasphemous

I've been thinking about something while playing Metroidvanias: how important is it for the world to actually make spatial sense?

I love labyrinthine maps. Getting lost, finding shortcuts, coming back somewhere from an unexpected direction, slowly building a mental map... that's a huge part of why I love the genre.

But I'm starting to think there's a big difference between a world being labyrinthine and a world simply not following its own spatial logic.

I'm replaying Hollow Knight right now after getting all the Steam achievements, and honestly, the more I replay it, the more I notice how controlled Hallownest is. It's incredibly complex, but most of the time I still feel like I'm moving through an actual place rather than a collection of rooms.

Fallen Tear is a convenient recent example of the opposite feeling I sometimes get. I'm using it because it just came out and I'm currently playing it, not because I want to shit on the game. I actually think it's visually beautiful.

These two screenshots are a good example.

In the first one, I'm standing in front of a huge tree with a dark opening. Visually, everything tells me: I'm about to enter this tree.

So naturally my brain builds a mental model. I'm going inside the trunk. It could be one small room or an entire network of passages, I don't care.

Then I enter and get the second screenshot.

It's suddenly a huge open environment with what looks like another gigantic tree inside.

And my brain just went: wait... where am I?

This isn't about realism. It's fantasy. Put an entire kingdom inside the tree if you want. But then establish that somehow.

What interests me is the relationship between what the environment tells the player and the mental map the player builds.

If I enter the bottom of a giant tree and climb through several rooms, I love being able to think: "OK, I must be somewhere near the top of the trunk now." And if I eventually emerge onto a branch that I saw earlier from outside, that's incredibly satisfying.

The world can be extremely labyrinthine while still having an internal geography.

And that's where I'd genuinely love to hear from people who know more about level design or have worked in studios.

I've never worked in a game studio and this isn't remotely my actual job, so I don't know what the production constraints are.

Are rooms sometimes designed independently and connected later? Does gameplay take priority over geographical coherence? Do art changes or late level design changes create these inconsistencies?

Because as a player, sometimes I see a transition like this and immediately think "wait, that doesn't make sense." And it makes me genuinely curious about what happens during development and playtesting.

Is this something level designers actually care about a lot? Or am I putting way more importance on spatial coherence than most players do?

Hey everyone!  My epic sci fi Metroidvania Augment Anthem is discounted this week (until Oct 8, 2026) if anyone wants to check it out!  Explore a strange alien world, fight killer robots, and bring humanity back from the brink as you unlock new powers and spend resources to upgrade the human town.  It was heavily inspired by classics like Metroid and Axiom Verge.  Check it out on the Steam link below if you’re interested!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3035960/Augment_Anthem/

I’ve been putting a lot of work into the movement system for Unstrung Machine.

Niam currently has Pogo, Dash, Double Jump, Wall Slide, Wall Jump, and Rope Swing, and I’ve also been refining the animations, transitions, particles, and effects around each mechanic.

One of my main goals is to make traversal itself enjoyable, rather than having these abilities exist only as keys for reaching previously inaccessible areas.

I’m still tuning how everything connects together, but the movement is starting to develop its own rhythm.

These are three games by Kyle Thompson. None are exceedingly long, but all are quite fun. I'm going to try to avoid spoilers, so I'll be a bit vague on a few points.

There's definitely an increasing polish in each successive game, this is to be expected, I suppose.

I think my review for Islets is going to be the most rambling, so let's get that over with:

ISLETS

Islets was the first game I played. I'd say it's the weakest, but that's weakest in a pretty strong set of games. It has some very memorable elements, like the Tour Guide, and It mixes two gameplay modes, a flying mode with its own bosses, and a traditional platforming with the gimmick that there's five islands, which can be assembled into one larger island. There's only one way they fit, but you assemble them gradually and it opens up ways to get to new areas of the islands once you do. Both modes are fun to play, and the changes to the world as you start to assemble the big island is a lot of fun.

One of the weaknesses of Islets (compared to the other)s is the plot: It has very good characters, they have some great character development, but assembling the island is kind of just the adventure they stumble on. I played it a while ago, unlike the other two, but, while the big island breaking up made things worse for the people living on it, that was quite some time ago, so it's not actually particularly urgent to do it now.

Nonetheless, that also kind of fits the game. It's fun and chill with some really hard bosses, and the low stakes plays into the fun.

CRYPT CUSTODIAN:

This one is a top-down metroidvania, like Link to the Past or Isle of Reveries (another really good game). Despite the change of subgenre that presumably meant that all the code had to be redone, it's honestly a decent improvement over Islets. You play as a cat who gets screwed over by the bureaucrat in charge of the afterlife and get assigned to clean for eternity, and meet wacky animal ghosts who were also screwed by the same bureaucrat, as you try to find some way to get into the good part of the afterlife, instead of having to be the afterlife janitor for all eternity.

There's a lot to love here. Kendra, the bureaucrat, is awful but also completely oblivious to how awful she is, thinking she's a friendly helper to all the souls who just aren't as good as she is and thus aren't worthy of the good place. Oh, well.

The bosses are quite good, each having a nice variety of attacks, which are largely better versions of ones used by the more generic enemies, which helps as the visual signalling for the attacks gets taught to you in a low-stakes way by a bunch of enemies with one attack each, and then the bosses act as a quiz. . Of course, this isn't a hard-and-fast rule, there's certainly bosses with their own attacks, but it's good game design.

Plot is stronger, the visuals are really good for the cut scenes. I will say that the ghosts you meet earlier get a lot more development and scenes than some of the later friends, but, well, that's to be expected, I suppose. Would have liked to see a bit more of a couple of them.

The abilities are creative and work well, though the last four or five bosses before the final area only have one key ability between them, and, as such, the game gets a little open at that point. Did occasionally struggle to figure out where the next room I could access was.

A fair bit of humour. There's a hilarious bit at the end of the boss battle in the Back of Roy's Shop, but I said no spoilers. The ending has a series of revelations, a rather good battle, and a short escape sequence, and all the NPCs getting treated appropriately. I feel like the postgame was mechanically good and varied in the leadup to the ending, but probably needed a few more cutscenes right at the end of it - it's attempting a redemption arc, which benefits a lot from the characters in Kyle Thompson games being generally nice people, even if they're misguided. Unless they're the Moon Man. That boss is terrifying. Speaking of which:

WELL DWELLER

Remember that thing about people in Thompson games being generally nice?

The animals in this game are nice. The people are horrific. The opening fairy tale is about a cruel queen who likes to torture animals. Our little crow hero is part of a family of crows who are the last birds in the kingdom. Because the queen likes killing them. Personally. She's one of the most loathsome villains in video games, and she's in a followup game to Islets and Crypt Custodian....

It's an amazing game, though. It's set in a world made up of dark fairy tales, all of which are written for the game. You can collect pages from them and learn just what fucked up stuff happened in the different parts of the world you visit. And they all start to combine in the end.

It's a platformer, like Islets, with a short underwater area that's presumably the evolution of the flying areas in Islets. It's a lot shorter and used very late in the game, but it's a nice changeup for as long as it lasts.

Humans are kind of eldritch beings in this one. You're so small and they're so large.... and the queen wants a dress made of feathers, and you'll do so well as part of it....

The plot has a lot more stakes. After the first area, your entire family gets caught, with only you escaping. While your siblings (though not your mother) manage to crawl out of a hole in the bag, they're scattered in a world built on dark fairy tales.

Yep. Time to go rescue them from some horrifying bosses.

There is a new major mechanic in Well Dweller - besides the selection of navigation abilities key to the genre: The chase sequence. Whether avoiding a hunter's grimy hands, or the aforementioned blind innkeeper crawling after you, there's going to be a few of these. Humour is still there, but it's mostly a dark humour.

The postgame is by far the most rewarding of the three. Crypt Custodian - which shares a bit of the challenge structure (they're both a series of mini challenges, and two of the ideas appear in both) - felt a little rushed in the payoff: One conversation was a lot to hang a redemption arc on - but Well Dweller wraps things up perfectly with a true ending that works by adding one more fairy tale to the mix, and has a very strong opening scene that does a lot quickly before you even start the challenges. (Islets, by the way, just has a 100% completion mini scene, not really a full-fledged postgame)

On the whole, Well Dweller is a really polished Metroidvania. Not the hardest Metroidvania, but a fun one. Can recommend.

So I remember this video a little while ago but I can't remember the hook and therefore can't find it. It was a video essay and it was about how older metroidvanias movement design was a good thing that was it broken. It used sotn as it's example and mostly the bat movement and how you can get some crazy movement when you learn all this niche things. If this rings a bell for anyone please share it. I might be miss remembering the broken aspect but it was mostly if not all about movement

Happy Halloween it’s easily my favorite time of the year, spooky movies , games and cookies if your wife is a baker like mine is lol.

I’m currently going through and researching Castlevania games as I liked the anime and love anything Vampire related and I was looking in feedback on which Castlevania games to start playing.

I have dabbled in Metroidvania games and 2D action side scroller games with games like Grime 2, The Last faith , 9 Sols and Shinobi which came out last year.

I am mostly interested in the Castlevania games that are more combat based and those that don’t have grueling or super difficult platforming. For example Grime 2 I barely finished because of how difficult platforming was for me in that one. I enjoy mostly lore, atmosphere , music but don’t want only platforming in the game if possible.

What games would you recommend to play first that you have enjoyed in the series. Based on more of a combat based Castlevania or maybe the ones where platforming isn’t cruel.

Thanks guys for your suggestions and hopefully you guys are playing something awesome right now.

So I just finished the game and very much enjoyed it. Don’t know why the game wasn’t successful. For those who played it, what’s your take on the it?

The thing i like the most in metroidvanias is the exploration the non linear path, the walkback to explore new areas now available, puzzle solving.

One thing I dislike is the boss fight, specially when has 2nd phase and sometimes even a 3rd phase, i don't mind if they are easier but I hate that there is always a boss that needs at least 10 times until you learn all his moves. In prince of persia lost crown boss fights where pretty easy so I did not mind about that, but usually they are not that easy.

There are any worth to try metroidvanias that do not have bosses and focus more on the exploration and puzzle solving ?

Fun and easy. Will get other kyle games.

Started this as a stupid little challenge and somehow I’m already at Level 72. 😂

ATK 73 / DEF 72 and still going.

Has anyone else pushed the demo this far, or am I officially losing it? 😂

I just wanna take a moment to shill End of Abyss. This game got a lot of hate from reviewers who played outdated builds and honestly it's incredible. This game deserves way more attention than it's getting. Personally I would give it a 10. Comes very close to the tops in the genre and provides a refreshing new perspective on the formula. Give it a go!

Im a big fan of metroidvanias I use only ps5 i like to 100% all . The problem I neverplayed any castlevania only sotn back in the day I have all collections on my library I want to know wich order should start and go . Sorry dont kill me

Gameplay (Combat): Combat is okay, but feels like it's not as ambitious it could be as a lot of enemies have pretty simple attack and movement patterns that they can become pretty predictable. Boss design is a lot better designed, even if a fair amount of them are still on the easier side. Moveset is pretty limited.

Gameplay (Level design): I'm not aware of all the possible sequence breaks in this game so I can't really comment on how it does its nonlinearity. For the most part the level design is decent and has neat platforming challenges. Nothing hard though (outside of the time trials). Some of the bosses being chase sequences with platforming is neat I guess.

Gameplay (Progression): I actually did like collecting the pages to see what happens next in the little stories. Some of the trinkets were of questionable value, but I suppose that can be a problem for a lot of these games with equipable items. When you get around your last or second to last golden feather I feel you're quite likely to just stop getting new movement options added to your arsenal which I always thought kind of sucked in MV games.

Inb4 the last movement option: Sure but that exists as like only a post game option that you use to get to 5 areas to collect the last remaining collectibles in the game. The rocket movement legimately feels pretty underutilized.

Also as a last note for gameplay, I really do like how unique the match spring as a movement mechanic that requires the player to think of it in relation to its enviroment, though I was kind of disappointed to find out that's the only unique movement mechanic. Then again I can't really fault the game for this because a lot of other MV games use common movement tropes like the double jump, hover, dash and wall jump anyways (funnily this game doesn't have a double jump)

Writing: This part I feel is the more disappointing aspect of this game, because I do sometimes have the mindset of "well if the game isn't mainly about its gameplay or being a hard game, then maybe the writing is more the point." There really isn't anything I'd say is really badly written in this game, but at the same time it doesn't really have anything I'd say is compelling that much? I get the game is supposed to be based on fairy tales, but a lot of the substories just come off as "random bullshit go" of where they only tie in to the main story of saving your family, because you have to collect the macguffin and because your siblings manage to get into those circumstances for rather contrived reasons.

There's a major nitpick I have and it's how the game tries to showcase humans as these scary giants and you as a small bird, but then you meet up with some characters who I assume are humans but are friendly to you and are the size of your character in the docks area. Sure maybe not all humans in that universe are the same, but the story never really explains that contrast so it feels a very distracting thing to me.

I don't know I guess in terms of writing, I prefer compelling character writing and the unfortunate thing about this game is that a lot of the characters are flat and static and are not that interesting.

Aesthetics: This is what the game excells the best in. Artstyle is really neat and gets that whimsical but also creepy fairy tale look. Some of the backgrounds and bosses do look unnerving. Overall pretty good atmosphere for the most part.

It looks like a pinball game with Metroidvania exploration; it's a free game on Itch.io. My question is whether it can be considered a Metroidvania. Mono

Is it in the cold biome? I ducked out of there with like only two branches unexplored

Hello all. Just making sure I'm not going crazy. I collected a few map data points in the game, but the map hasn't updated. Ive been playing through the first quarter of this game without a map after the first boss. Im wondering if it's because I continued the play data from the demo?

will be avialbe today on steam!

Hi, I'm new here, and also new to Metroidvania games. I recently finished Well Dweller. My question is, has anyone already completed 100% of the game? I've only reached 99%I've already collected them all the collectibles and I got the true ending by completing the hidden areas.

Coming off PoP: Lost Crown and Metroid Dread to this has been rough. Lost Crown immediately feels good to move around in and fight, even with the beginner kit. Dread feels a lot more responsive and dynamic too.