A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux

Gnorms are little creatures that move in a methodical way. You, a shape-shifting monster, want to see what is inside their home: the Gnest. The Gnorms do not take kindly to outsiders, so you must follow their movements precisely to avoid being noticed. Learn more about the Gnorms as you go.

  • Use wasd or arrow keys to move
  • In some levels, use spacebar to pick up/throw

There are 15 levels in total, which provides around 25 minutes of gameplay. You can skip ahead using the level select menu if you get stuck.

Tools used:

  • Made with Godot. Unfortunately Godot 4 with C# does not support building with HTML, else I would have made the game available to play in the browser too :(
  • Music created in Logic Pro
  • Sound effects created using https://sfxr.me
  • Pixel art drawn using Photoshop

Made for Acerola Jam 0

StatusReleased
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux
Rating
Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars
(38 total ratings)
Authorjess::codes
GenrePlatformer
Tags2D, Arcade, Indie, Pixel Art, Short, Singleplayer

Download

Download
A Gnormal Journey.dmg 158 MB
Download
A Gnormal Journey.zip 99 MB
Download
A Gnormal Journey Linux.zip 95 MB

Install instructions

Windows:

  • Download the zip file
  • Right click -> Extract all
  • Find the file "A Gnormal Journey.exe" in the extracted folder and double click
  • You might get a warning - if this happens click "Run Anyway". I promise the game is not a virus!

Mac:

  • Download the dmg file
  • Open the dmg file
  • Double clicking the application icon will probably result in a warning. If this happens then you can right click -> "Open" -> "Open" instead. Once again I promise it's not a virus, I just don't know how to prevent this warning from happening

Comments

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Viewing most recent comments 1 to 40 of 48 · Next page · Last page

almost the best game ever about amon- i mean, shapeshift

it wont work :(

cute ahh game

(2 edits)

what is this font? (just a question)

I can't even get passed level 5 >:(

(+1)

This is such a charming game, I actually like that it's a bit challenging. It's kind of funny that when you're holding the honeydew, it looks like you're wearing a hard hat :) I love the music as well.

(+2)

I have become gnorm, follower of paths

(+2)

You made a game in two weeks that’s better then games I have made in months, amazing job!

(+1)

This is really fun and I like the simplistic style of the game. The music and sound effects are my favorite part. You did a really good job with this game.

(3 edits) (+1)(-2)

i might make a fnf song out of this :)

(Though i'm no fnf music and vocal expert ;-;)

(And idk what they're singing poses are gonna be, it just pixels ;-;)

It was super fun!
A simple concept, but boy was it well executed!

(+1)

Man I've barely reached level 5 and my heart is already beating with crippling anxiety. Just one step out of line and the Gnorms hack me to shreds... the way I'm shaking makes me wonder if I have more anxiety/struggling to fit/rejection issues than I thought...

I honestly don't think I'll be able to play much more of this, but the fact that it does make me feel this way speaks to what a great depiction of "trying to fit in" it is. 

(-2)

You don't have to EXACTLY follow. Just stay really close to the path

(+1)

I didn't say I was having trouble exactly following the path? I said I couldn't get past level 5 because the Gnorms were constantly hacking me to shreds.

13 - 14 was so hard hardddddddddddd!

Great little game

I absolutely loved it! We need more small yet rage-inducing games.... I know that's a sort of 'game jam effect' but it's really fun!

cute!

great game, it made me forget what it is to be loved

It is so hard omg, rage quit at level 9 after a solid 15 minutes on 8. 

Still, great game, specially because it was made for a two week jam. Also, I gotta add that I'm sleep deprived and that's probably why it was so hard for me T-T

I know lv.14 was supposed to be complicated but lv.8 was still harder

(+6)

After watching the development video on Youtube, I immediately had to play this, and it is a very cute game! Short enough to beat in 30 minutes, it leaves me wanting more! I'm seriously hoping for a sequel with more and hopefully longer levels. I could easily see this expanded to 50 levels and sold on Steam for $10, and you'd definitely have a purchase from me!

Praises:
- The concept is simple to understand, yet has moments of satisfying difficulty.

- There is a wonderful charm emitting from all aspects, from the title screen, to the death messages, to the end cutscene!

- The environment and characters are adorable. I've fallen in love with the Gnorms and Enorms, and hope to see them return in an expanded sequel. 

- The music is phenomenal, it gives the perfect atmosphere for each level and the world as a whole. (sidenote I desperately wanted a music library button on the title menu where I could listen to each track looped. New ringtone? Yes Please!)

- I especially loved the feeding Enorms level, and did laugh at the slight glitchy-ness of the fellow behind me on different attempts.

- Level 14 was a particularly fun challenge, I began to wonder if the direction changes were in line with the timing of the music! I don't think that's the case, but that thought makes me want more levels where it IS! That could be a fun intuitive way to help with the timing of each turn on some levels.

Criticisms:
- Staying within the "safety circle" range is difficult once you've fallen behind. Though with the short levels this is practically a non-issue. You don't feel like you've lost much progress from a death. 

(Please forgive me if my development suggestions are obtuse as I have no experience nor knowledge of how easily these can be done, or frankly if they'd even be good ideas once implemented... with that in mind, I do want to give ideas for improvements in an expanded version / sequel. Perhaps modify movement that points towards the centre of the safety circle to 1.1x speed, so that you can catch up to the nominal position yet dont overtake your place)

- the curved / circular paths are hard to maintain with 8-direcitonal input, I felt the need for increased safety range along these paths in particular.

- the traffic levels are a great concept, but do amount to essentially a trial and error / memorization tactic for success. the whistle sound in-game is on the right track, but doesn't actually give any warning. I think it could be helpful if it were given two whistles with a short drum roll in between (first to prepare, the second whistle to stop/start moving). 

- The instant capture when straying outside the "safety circle" does limit the gameplay - there's no time or method to correct yourself once off path. Perhaps implement a two-circle system where straying out of the first "safety circle" increments a "suspicion" timer, where you are allowed maybe 0.5 or 1 second before being caught. In my head, the timer is shown by the blue question mark filling from the bottom with red, and upon reaching the top you are caught. And coming back into the safety range would lower this timer again as the Gnorms ease their suspicion, seen as the red level lowering back down the '?'. A second larger circle can act as your "straying too far gets you instantly caught" range. 


Despite my criticisms, I cannot stress enough how much I have fallen in love with this simple yet eloquently executed concept. And that it was made completely in two weeks is incredible. Thank you for documenting your process in your Youtube video, if not for that I would never have discovered this gem! Congratulations on your placement in the Acerola Jam, it is well deserved!

(+1)

I saw the video that the creator made about their game. I decided to give it a try and I really enjoyed it! Great game, especially since it was made in just two weeks.

best game ever 

(+3)

hi! love this game, it's a bit hard for me but that's alright. One thing: on the failed screen, you can't go back to the main title screen, as in the button is there but it just doesn't work for me. (Unless I clicked it wrong sorry). It's so cute tho I love it <3

Very cute game, enjoyed it a lot :)

I really enjoyed this game!

(-1)

when i open all i get is a black screen, the game runs fine i just cant see anything.. what am i doing wrong?

(+1)

i had the same thing happen, when i updated my computer it worked fine, so i would try that

(+1)

Fun game! Funnily enough, I had more trouble with level 14 than 15 but we made it into the Gnest in the end :D Ran remarkably smoothly on my Mac too, which is always a pleasant surprise for games hahaha, fantastic stuff!

(+1)(-1)

i am physically unable to play the game because its way to laggy for me, maybe add a settings menu? like removing some things like the glow effect?

Very good game! There's just a slight bug : the Font is a bit broken... For me, the first letter of some sentences is either missing or in the wrong spot.

(+2)(-1)

For some reason I failed every level at least once besides level 14. Also, I need more level 14's, it was so well made.

(+6)

sigh... fitting in in this game is just as hard as real life...

(+3)

It's a cool game! On my winning attempt on 13-th level a weird thing happened, the last guy that was right behind me fed his plant way before his turn somehow, then grabbed his honeydew before everyone else and just went with it for entire second round! I guess I wasn't the only weirdo in there that day!:D

(+2)

I got this to happen consistently if you feed the Big Gnorm at the right time. You can also throw the leaf across the stage and feed the first Big Gnorm immediately if you press space right away.

(+2)

I really liked this game! Sure it is not easy, but I feel like a few people are criticizing it unnecessarily harsh. It took me about 30-40 minutes to finish it, and sure there are some difficulty things that could be improved, or maybe different difficulty settings like for example visualizing the cirlce you have to stay it (and making "retry" selectable from the moment you mess up so you don't have to wait) - but other than that it is really polished and I feel like the difficulty made it more fun in the end :)

(+1)

this is so difficult aaaaa!!

(+2)

NOT IMPOSSIBLE! PATIENCE IS KEY YALL

Im not a gamer. This game is meant to be hard as frick! And its my first game this year! I BARELY play games and yet it took me 2-ish hours to reach level 14 with my mom's crusty dusty office laptop. Alas, it got too laggy for me to finish the 14th level (though im totally gonna finish this on another laptop cause so doable!). Once you get through level 5-8 through PATIENCE and time, you'll get to enjoy it! Level 8 was the level I died the most (like 40 times). Level 13 is second but it was my favorite level! Feeding the Enorms was cute! 
The level where you do a short loop (level 12 i think?) took me a while- but I realized I could just do a diamond path instead of a circle path for that short loop! I was very happy to find that it worked.

I didnt finish the game but small tips:
-TIMING is important. Keep getting caught? Try turning a tad bit early/late. 
-DONT BE AFRAID TO DEVIATE from the path/line just a little. Dont let those question marks scare you!

- You dont gotta follow the gnorms' path shape down to the pixel cause thats how I found out that:

-YOU CAN MAKE STRAIGHT SHARP TURNS ON SMALL CURVES or LOOPS.  

-(A small technique too is not tapping the buttons. On the "Dont be too fast level" you can hold then release instead of tapping.)

-Keep on trying!

Small things I liked:
The gnorms chatting in the bg of that one level. I also find it funny that Gnorms take cutting corners as a GRAVE offense. The Enorms' faces as they eat the crop!

This game taught me patience <3

(+1)

It's a nice game and I like the concept, but I feel like it's a little bit hard. I would move my character slightly out of line by accident and the whole group would just swarm me. It gets sort of annoying later on.

Also there was small bug in level 11 I think, where sometimes when I throw my plant at the big gnorm, another gnorm would throw a plant at the same one and pick up the sweet sap thing at the same time. It doesn't really affect the gameplay that much but it did confuse me when I was playing.

Yeah that's about it. I like how it looks though.

Nvm good game bit hard

(-4)

Windodows sint allowing me to play it is this an actual virus

(1 edit) (+1)

what you wrote makes no sense

I'm on a windows 10 and i OPEN it the right way (extract and open file) and it opens but all I see is a black screen (with music) and nothing else.

me too but instead of hearing music it instantly crashes

(+1)(-4)

So, a few things. I find the game fun, however I have a few annoyances with the gameplay. I find in some parts that you are physically unable to catch up to where you were supposed to be. This is extremely annoying, as you know where you are supposed to be, but you can't move fast enough. In the traffic section, I find that you don't have enough time to react to stop, and have to play the level over a few times to get the hang of it. have the stop whistle whistle a bit sooner. and for the final one, there is no room for error at all. At the very least, you could've put an indicator of where you are supposed to stay in. at most, you could've given a grace period of a second or so so that even if you just go diagonal at the turns, it isn't a game over. I like the game, but I find it to be annoying to play. 4/10

Viewing most recent comments 1 to 40 of 48 · Next page · Last page