Trials of the Gauntlet

My recommendation comes with significant caveats! You have been warned. Read on. Trials of the Gauntlet is an early effort from a student developer team. There is much to both decry and acclaim here, especially bearing in mind the relative inexperience of the team involved. The art varies between pretty and passable, with some inconsistency between the pixel art aesthetic and hand-drawn load screens and basic typography. Sound is minimal, music repetitive but mostly appropriate. The overall experience is quite short so it's a hard sell, though it is priced modestly to accommodate this. With significantly more time and effort, this could be polished into a fantastic platformer, but the play control is sufficiently frustrating as to both inflate the challenge and diminish the joy of playing, and here's where many of the game bugs can be found. I persisted and saw Trials through to completion, but tighter play mechanics (especially with the mouse-controlled grappling hook) would make for a more enjoyable, if somewhat easier, experience. (Ultimately I played with a Steam Controller as I couldn't get by with the keyboard and mouse.) Props for the cross-platform release and the Tesla love. I think it's important to support the indie community and early development efforts, so you could do worse with a couple dollars...but manage your expectations accordingly. I found myself driven to complete it despite bugs and control challenges, so I have to respect the effort.

For the asking price your not really anything and I like the concept of this but there are some glaring issues that need to be ironed out, may be a pet peeve but it seems like there is half controller support here, either have full controller support or have none, the soundtrack for the bit I played seemed bland and repetitive and the use of the chain to get onto platforms hardly functioned, good effort if this was your early game, use this as experience for the next game.