A physics platformer that’s all about solving levels using momentum, portals, and precise movement. Aim, charge, and fire a black cat through interesting puzzles across city rooftops and alleyways. Can you solve them all?
\nAim: hold Space on ground, Aim with A + D release Space to launch.
\nPortals: Mouse Left = Blue, Mouse Right = Orange
\nReset current level: R
\nHold jump in the air to stick the landing!
\nSometimes an easier, less precise route can be found!
\nFeel free to tweet @ me for peer play-testing, comments and concerns: @jek92090056
\nSpecial Thanks
\nFrank Force, Keith Clark, and all my very special play-testers.
\n","source":"JakeTurner616/js13k-2025","stars":0,"dc":"https://serverboi.org/js13k-2025/","post":"https://serverboi.org/posts/Js13k-2025-Post-Mortem/","comments":[{"at":410360826,"author":"LuoPeiran","login":"halfTree-dev","gh":49297000,"url":"https://half_tree.gitee.io/","text":"First off, it’s clear that the game’s puzzles are very well-designed. For players familiar with the Portal series, the portal mechanics should be easy to grasp and quick to pick up. The gameplay involving teleportation through portals quickly engaged my thinking. Secondly, the game’s music is excellent and perfectly suited for puzzle-solving. Additionally, the visuals are also quite good—the pixel art style is entirely sufficient for a puzzle-centric game like this.
\nHowever, the game’s primary issue is the lack of guidance. No one told me that portals could only be placed on black blocks, so I wasted a significant amount of time trying to create portals with no response. Secondly, for a PC player like myself, the jumping mechanic using Space plus the left/right arrow keys is truly frustrating. During my 40 minutes of gameplay, I spent 20 minutes experimenting with various jump angles and adjustments just to find the optimal way to enter portals. I mean, this is unnecessarily cumbersome. For instance, one level requires players to achieve high vertical velocity while slightly angling left to reach the top platform—that was an absolute nightmare for me. I tried for a long time but couldn’t make the jump. If movement were controlled with WASD keys instead, players could better manage their speed, making the puzzle-solving process slightly smoother.
\nOverall, the game is good. I really enjoyed playing it, and I hope these thoughts help!
\n","games":["Rin the Cat Sorceresses"]},{"typ":1,"at":410696106,"re":410360826,"author":"Jake Turner","login":"JakeTurner616","gh":88468353,"url":"serverboi.org","twitter":"jek92090056","text":"I really appreciate the thoughtful and detailed feedback. I’m glad the puzzles and presentation connected with you, and you’re absolutely right about the lack of guidance and the control frustrations. I should’ve explained the black-block portal rule and leaned into WASD/arrow support for a more traditional platformer learning curve. I also should of made the first few levels easier. Thank you for sticking with it and for framing your critiques so constructively.
\n"},{"at":410417595,"author":"Michael M.","login":"Schnark","gh":17846729,"url":"https://schnark.github.io","text":"I’m not sure what I am doing wrong, but I can’t even jump past the first spikes. An easier first level would have been more inviting.
\n","games":["Edgar's Mission"]},{"typ":1,"at":410699537,"re":410417595,"author":"Jake Turner","login":"JakeTurner616","gh":88468353,"url":"serverboi.org","twitter":"jek92090056","text":"Thanks so much for giving it a try! The first spikes are actually meant to be cleared using a portal instead of a straight jump - but I realize I didn’t explain that clearly in-game, which made it confusing for some players rather than a fun learning moment. I really appreciate your feedback!
\n"},{"at":410484785,"author":"Anthony Cosgrave","login":"anthonycosgrave","gh":1410114,"url":"https://imtoospexy.com/","text":"This looks cool, the music is great and clearly a lot of work went into it but I found it quite difficult to control. Maybe a couple of simple introductory puzzles would help. I have an idea of what portals are from playing both the Portal games but I thought I was doing something wrong for ages when no portal appeared on the walls. Then I thought “black” shapes “black cat” theme, a-ha! maybe I’m meant to shoot at those.
\n","games":["Chickpocalypse Meow"]},{"typ":1,"at":410696853,"re":410484785,"author":"Jake Turner","login":"JakeTurner616","gh":88468353,"url":"serverboi.org","twitter":"jek92090056","text":"I really appreciate your insights! You’re absolutely right, the lack of guidance was a mistake on my part. I relied too much on players “just knowing” or figuring out the Portal mechanic, when I should have made teaching it a high priority within the game. I mistakenly leaned on the puzzle genre as an excuse to leave it unexplained. The black blocks, as you mentioned, were intended to tie into the “black cat” theme, but I can see now that was far too subtle and ended up being frustrating rather than satisfying to discover. Thank you for pointing out these issues - they’re among the first things I’d fix in a post-jam version. I also now realize the controls were too unusual and unhelpful, and that using a touchpad makes the game nearly impossible to play. Thank you so much for playing and for leaving your thoughts.
\n"},{"at":410488784,"author":"xem","login":"xem","gh":1225909,"text":"Cute and good audio but I can’t get past the beginning without dying. Congrats for implementing portals!
\n","games":["I got up on the wrong foot"]},{"typ":1,"at":410699350,"re":410488784,"author":"Jake Turner","login":"JakeTurner616","gh":88468353,"url":"serverboi.org","twitter":"jek92090056","text":"Thanks so much! Sorry the start was too punishing and misdirected. I for sure should’ve eased players in more gently with an easier to solve puzzle. Really glad you enjoyed the audio! Thank you so much for playing!
\n"},{"at":410501709,"author":"Rob Louie","login":"roblouie","gh":5448110,"url":"roblouie.com","twitter":"rob_louie","text":"The game looks cool, but is unfortunately completely unplayable due to the controls. Why can’t I just move my character around and jump and aim and shoot portals?
\nIt’s unfortunate because it looks so nice
\n","games":["Whiskers Witch Adventure"]},{"typ":1,"at":410698215,"re":410501709,"author":"Jake Turner","login":"JakeTurner616","gh":88468353,"url":"serverboi.org","twitter":"jek92090056","text":"Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts, Rob. You’re absolutely right, forcing the mouse + keys setup, along with the “slingshot-style” movement, ended up making the game much harder to enjoy, especially for touchpad users or anyone expecting more traditional left/right movement controls. To answer your question: my goal was to make movement itself a unique part of the puzzle mechanics, so that once it clicked, it would feel rewarding alongside the physics and level design challenges. You’ll need to use portals to solve the levels not movement alone! But in hindsight, that idea was overshadowed by the frustration of figuring it out without guidance. I really do appreciate you pointing this out, and I’m grateful you still took the time to give it a try even if you didn’t like it!
\n"},{"at":410512841,"author":"Rémi Vansteelandt","login":"remvst","gh":3472387,"url":"http://www.remvst.com/","text":"I was able to clear the first level, but it really took me a while to figure out what to do. I wasn’t sure what I was shooting, why I could just walk around, I didn’t know that I could only shoot portals on the black tiles…
\nIt’s a shame because the music is really good, the graphics are good, the background parallax is a nice touch, animations overall are high quality, but like others mentioned, the controls make it really hard to enjoy. If you turned this into a simpler platformer, I think you could still emphasize on momentum with portals.
\n","games":["CLAWSTRIKE"]},{"typ":1,"at":410699025,"re":410512841,"author":"Jake Turner","login":"JakeTurner616","gh":88468353,"url":"serverboi.org","twitter":"jek92090056","text":"Thank you so much for playing and for the thoughtful feedback! I’m really glad you enjoyed the visuals, music, and animations - that means a lot. You’re right though: I didn’t do a great job of teaching the mechanics. Not making it clear that portals only work on black tiles was a big contentious oversight in the design and play testing stages, and I see now from comments hat it might require a bit more thought and direction to implement than I had assumed as I inadvertently left too many players confused instead of curious.\nI also hear you on the controls - I was aiming for something unique, but I see now that it only made the game’s learning curve problematic and impossible for touchpad users. I really like your suggestion about simplifying the platforming a bit while still keeping momentum and portals at the core: That balance could have increased the fun and player retention.
\n"},{"at":410525402,"author":"Andy Sommerville","login":"aksommerville","gh":1869768,"url":"http://aksommerville.com","text":"I must be doing something wrong, I can’t even clear the first jump. Lovely graphics and music tho, so I really really wanted to keep playing :(
\n","games":["Nine Lives"]},{"typ":1,"at":410699119,"re":410525402,"author":"Jake Turner","login":"JakeTurner616","gh":88468353,"url":"serverboi.org","twitter":"jek92090056","text":"Thanks for playing and for the kind words about the graphics and music! You’re not doing anything wrong - the first jump actually needs a portal to be shot to get past it, but I didn’t do a good job of making that clear in-game. That’s my mistake. I really appreciate you giving it a shot!
\n"},{"at":410973245,"author":"smhaaker","login":"smhaaker","gh":10542292,"text":"I like the concept here. I tried to placing portals and still fell on the spikes. Maybe starting out with a simpler level to introduce the players to the mechanics? I like the ambiance of the game though. Music, drawings and background. good job.
\n","games":["CatNFish"]},{"at":411043318,"author":"Elias Ku","login":"eliasku","gh":3038174,"url":"https://eliasku.win","twitter":"eliaskuvoice","text":"Interesting idea, and the cat is really well-designed! :)\nIt’s a bit of a shame the cat can’t just walk and has to jump everywhere - the controls are pretty challenging. But the idea of him shooting oranges totally made me smile! 😄\nThanks for the game!
\n","games":["Cat Survivors"]},{"typ":2,"at":411170808,"author":"Jupiter Hadley","login":"Jupiter-hadley","gh":97069389,"url":"www.jupiterhadley.com","twitter":"Jupiter_Hadley","text":"I really like the main character’s graphic and the music! Both are fantastic. I did find the movement and actual way to play the game to be very cumbersome.
\n\n"},{"at":411193907,"author":"Johan Åhlgren","login":"skanejohan","gh":4025939,"url":"www.johanahlgren.se","text":"I really like the old-school graphics and the sound. Very difficult, yet I just want to play more. Maybe a somewhat easier first level? All in all, I really liked it, good job! Also, “Flykt”? To me, being Swedish, it means “Escape”, so I guess you have Swedish connections?
\n","games":["Tower of Terror"]},{"at":411262258,"author":"Jasper Renow-Clarke","login":"picosonic","gh":26137750,"twitter":"femtosonic","text":"Game looks great
\nThe music is pretty cool and catchy
\nThe sound effects are fun
\nI thought the graphics were very good, and I liked the tail swishing
\nUnfortunately I wasn’t able to make any jumps to leave the initial starting platform, no matter where I tried to go the jump didn’t ever go far enough. I tried multiple browsers but the results were the same
\nI saw your response about requiring a portal, but I’m afraid I couldn’t figure out how to use them, clicking either mouse button shot coloured balls along a line, I must be missing something
\n","games":["Mochi and the midnight escape"]},{"typ":2,"at":411513819,"author":"Emanuele Feronato","login":"triqui","gh":389551,"text":"ok, first of all congratulations for the simple yet effective physics engine.
\nThe portal system adds a great twist to the “artillery” gameplay, but at the beginning it’s a bit unclear how to use portals, so you should add a tutorial level to teach how to play.
\nI finally managed to use them, but I was about to quit the game.
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