Null Element
Find Your Way In A War-torn Kingdom 
Controls can be customized in the game settings, you can also press ESC for the pause menu! It also has limited controller support! Check out our game trailer below!
Find out the truth behind your creation in Null Element! An EPIC action adventure through a vast post-war civilization of cute elementals and scary machines! Explore abandoned factories and mystical fire forests, beat bosses and encounter unique characters, in this classic pixel art Metroidvania experience!
Made for the MVM 27 Game-Jam by Project Null. We highly recommend you play the windows version over the web version. This game is a work in progress and is scheduled to continue development post Game-Jam!

Game Features 
Classic Metroidvania with all the modern luxuries
Carefully fine-tuned controls. Jump and Dash your way through anything the machines throw at you.
Explore 2 carefully handcrafted zones with unique bosses waiting for you to confront them.
Make your way through diverging paths and numerous secrets.
Turn into different elements like Fire and Air that alter the way you play
Evolve with powerful new skills and abilites. Blast your way through walls with a Gooey Hammer, or set enemies and vines ablaze with the Fireball.
Find tons of different upgrades that make you stronger and tougher. Will you find them all?
A cute cast of elementals to befriend and machines to beat brought to life with frame-by-frame pixel art animation
Solve numerous puzzles and navigate through platforming challenges.
Beautiful pixel landscapes with carefully made parallax giving you a sense of depth
Don’t forget to use your map, in case you get lost in this interconnected world.
An atmospheric, nostalgic score to accompany you on your journey of self discovery, echoing lost peace and the ever bright hope for the future.
Screenshots 
CREDITS 
A Project Null Game
Team Members
Colin C. (Funky Fresh Fellow) - Writing, UI Design, Sprite Work
José Ayala - Team Lead, Sound Design, Game Design
Leona Stajkovic (SavQ) - Tile Set, Asset, Background Art
Manuel Sambour - Original Music
Marvin K. - Programming Lead, Game Design
Milivoj Stankovic - Game Design and Concept, Level Design
Ray G. (Maladaptive_M) - Art Lead, Character Design, Animation, Assets
RoyalPizza - Enemy Programming
Special Thanks to
Zacchary Dempsey-Plante - Font
Antonia Dragosevic - Logo Design, Conceptual Level Design Help
Kristijan Kovacev - Trailer and Playtesting
Playtesters
Cactus Katsu
Spenser Dooley
Worcestershirey
Vidan Dugalic
Todor Stojkovic
Aleksandar Krajacevic
Updated | 1 day ago |
Published | 4 days ago |
Status | In development |
Platforms | HTML5, Windows |
Authors | Jaavwm, Maladaptive_M, Prki, MarvinKn, Funky Fresh Fellow, leonast |
Genre | Action, Platformer, Puzzle |
Made with | Unity |
Tags | 2D, Boss battle, Indie, Metroidvania, Pixel Art, Singleplayer, Unity |
Average session | About a half-hour |
Inputs | Keyboard, Mouse |
Comments
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Hi!
Finished the demo and I'd say that overall it was a good experience. I took some notes during the process but do keep in mind they're not in any "priority" order:
1 - Combat feels rather sluggish. The hitboxes seem to be bigger than they look at times, and the reach of the attacks is rather limited, so when fighting regular/smaller enemies, you very often end up tanking a hit in the process. It is much more noticeable in flying enemies. The hitbox dissonance can also be noticeable on the first boss, when it seems our character should be able to fit in the gap between two falling blocks but gets hit regardless.
2- Regarding flying enemies and thus mid-air attacks, I personally find it a bit confusing you can't continue the combo as soon as your height drops. What I mean is, maybe you jump, start your first attack and notice you missed, and you'd expect to wait until you fall a bit lower to continue your combo. However, the combo just can't be continued after we interrupt it, so I ended up avoiding fighting most flying enemies for this reason.
3 - Character design and backgrounds are endearing, and the music suits the game nicely and it feels immersive.
4 - I feel that sometimes the player character can be difficult to see depending on the background, I'm not sure if a more "zoomed-in" view could help with this or giving the player some features that an ensure it always stands out.
5 - Zones don't stand out much from each other. Although background changes and the 2nd zone has some slightly enemies, they don't feel "themed" enough. Perhaps enemies more exclusive and reflective of the ecosystem we'd expect to find on zone 1, and a different set of enemis also fitting the theme of zone 2 (plants, bees, more "wildlife-y" ) could be nice.
6 - Definitely a minor quip, but it could be nice to be able to heal back at checkpoints. Sometimes we're too hurt and have no energy and we're right at a checkpoint, so to "refuel" it's sometimes better to just let our character die just to respawn, so being able to heal at a checkpoint might help optimize it, even if at the expense of respawning the enemies.
7 - Character movement feels nice and responsive.
8 - Platforming felt a bit mixed sometimes. I'm used to platforming with platforms that don't have collision on the bottom so I might be biased. Sometimes I feel platforms are a bit narrow, or too close to the ceiling, and that combined with the fact that sometimes it can be hard to adjust the distance of our dash, can make it as if some specific sections are more complicated than they should.
8 - Minor quip, but if boss fights get more complex in the full game, an option to skip cutscenes would be welcome, in case someone has to try a boss 20 times but have to sit through a cutscene every time.
9 - The bosses themselves felt fun, although the combat sometimes felt a bit long, especially on the reaper. There's few attack patterns and they don't get mixed up, so sometimes it feels like more of a memory game than us learning the moves and adapting to whichever one the boss decides to toss at us.
10 - The usage of lava/fire feels a bit inconsistent. With fire form, we can walk on lava. Also shortly after acquiring it, we get on a platform that goes up and we go through some horizontal flame pillars without problem. However, when it comes to vertical pillars, we have to dash through them no matter what. Moreover, any mistake on that front is an insta-kill, which feels frustrating.
11- On the subject of death and insta-kills, it's good that we can respawn very quickly and the spread of the checkpoints feels reasonably fair.
12 - It is confusing why some things persist through death and some others don't: pressed buttons persist, but levers and doors don't. This also makes it so revisiting an area to explore it when we have new upgrades feels less appealing, since it feels that we have to "replay through most of it again".
13 - Minor quip, on the subject of buttons, it's a bit weird we have to press a key to press them when some of them are on walls and our main attack is very explicitly a punch. I think either allowing punches to activate them (we allow fire blasts for the levers, after all), or making the buttons a different "thing" so it has to be interacted with no matter what, would make more sense. Turning the buttons into a computer similar to the one that has the map, for example, but with different features.
14 - Shop items and upgrades found in the world don't feel too exciting (aside of the new forms we get, which are mandatory upgrades). Aside of stat boosts, it could be different stuff such as longer reach, additional hits in the combo chain, projectiles for the other forms, increasing the amount of projectiles fired, hurting enemies back if they hit us, seeing all the upgrades in the map or being able to manually mark them, etc. There were areas where I knew I saw an HP boost but didn't bother to go all the way back to that preivous area to get it (once I had double jump), but if instead it was a mysterious icon for an upgrade I can't quite guess, it might keep the player curious enough to really want to revisit that section of the map to finally find out what it was.
15 - Not sure how I feel about the map not showing the player (could also be an upgrade!). On the one hand, it can be interesting to be made to look at your surroundings and comparing with the map to figure out where you are. On the other hand, metroidvanias can end up having rather complex maps so it's nice to know where you are. Even if not the exact position, just knowing which "room" you're in can be quite helpful.
16 - Needing energy for some traversal (fire blast to hit a lever, null punch to break a wall, etc) didn't feel too good. Sometimes we went through a platform section only to find out we have the tools to traverse but we don't have the energy for it nor any enemies nearby to recharge.
Also, couple of minor bugs I found, but nothing game breaking:
1 - On zone 2, when we encounter nina the shopkeep, during the conversation the name and the portrait get mixed (at one point nina is speaking but the name has changed to "player")
2 - On the cutscene for reaper, at one point instead of showing the "portrait" for our player, our full body is shown (when saying "show some respect!")
3 - This one bothered me a bit more. In zone 2, in an area of the map above the character Char (shortly after we get the punch for the Null form), there is a boxes and buttons puzzle that eventually leads us to one of those jars with crystals, but behind a wall. Turns out I didn't have enough energy for it, so I went back to find an enemy to punch. After I had enough energy, I wanted to go back to that section but I no longer could, since one of the doors would always remain closed. I had to die to reset the puzzle back to initial state to get to that crystals cache.
Holy moly thank you for such detailed feedback and I genuinely mean it, I'll try to answer everything point by point and apologies in advance if some stuff ends up sounding repetitive!
1. Absolutely agree, which is why combat overhauling will be our main focus in the next major update so we can improve everything you mentioned!
2. This feedback has also been brought up as well and we fully agree! This would be part of the "combat overhaul" update
3. Thank you for enjoying the design and the music!
4. Yep, fully agree! If you wanna read further on why the camera ended up feeling "zoomed out" check out one of my comments on the gamejam entry page, this will be another focus to fix up with the combat!
5. This was more a time issue than anything, the final non demo version of the game will have very distinct zones in all aspects, due to gamejam time constraints we didn't have time to develop more stuff further currently! Will be changed in the future!
6. This was also a very common feedback and we hear you loud and clear, expect this to be fixed in the next major update!
7. Thank you for enjoying the character movement, we are particularly proud of it!
8. Absolutely some version of this will exist in the full game, either a skip button or the cutscene only appearing the first time you battle with the boss!
9. Thank you for your feedback on the reaper! We'll do our best to adjust it so the fight itself doesn't feel as long!
10. This was sadly an inconsistency issue with the art, the fire and lava pillars have nothing to do with horizontality or verticality but they in themselves are different things and mechanics, albeit quite similar. Think doing away with one of them is something we might entertain in the future!
11. Thank you for enjoying the respawn time and checkpoints!
12. We understand and this was mostly another time issue where we didn't have enough time to properly introduce to players how they work, doors have nothing to do with saving but moreso buttons and levers, buttons persist after death and are used as 1 time things while levers don't, both of which can control doors!
13. This is a very cool idea that we'll think about! Thank you for mentioning it!
14. Oh absolutely we are with you! Those upgrades are actually placeholders and will be replaced with a much more intricate and fun to use and obtain system later on in development once we feel we are ready to focus on another major part of our game! We don't wanna spoil too much right now but it will add a lot of uniqueness and player choice to our game! Current upgrades are a result of a gamejam time constraint which was mentioned in some previous answers, god i sound like a broken clock!
15. Map is also planned to be very intricate and user friendly with alot of cool features, another result of having limited time to develop such a large scale demo!
16. Tying a limited resource to some exploration was a tough choice, and we hear you loud and clear! This will get updated so that it feels a lot less scary to use such abilities for exploration AND combat due to a lack of energy resource, so look forward to it!
Thank you for pointing out the bugs and we will make sure to squash em' in the next update!
Milivoj Stankovic - Game and Level Desinger for Project Null
So I believe I finished what has been done so far and I think it's a good start. Here are some notes/thoughts I've had while going through it:
1. The art direction is really good! I did notice that it's hard to track the PC if you're in the starter form on the second stage. Other than that, each form is unique, varied, and nice to look at. I wish the first form's color would change to like a light green (mint perhaps?) for some visual difference.
2. From playing the game, it never felt quite right to get a double jump until the end of the game. It might feel better for each form to have it and for the air form to have potentially a triple jump and/or a second air dash to give it some unique qualities.
3. The three-hit combo feels rather sluggish and slow, and having barely any hit-stun on the three-hit combo does not feel good. Often times, I get hit when I'm attacking mobile enemies when I try to recover energy. Either the enemies keep on coming or they get knocked away before I can finish the combo.
4. Having a small amount of energy regeneration when it comes to level traversal can go a long way. I found myself nearly soft-locked when I ran around looking for enemies to get energy to open up doors with fireballs or the E ability in the first form.
5. I'm not going to go too far into the story since there isn't much to work with, but it didn't keep my attention. Lore is nice to have, but my drive to learn more about the world feels hampered. Plus I liked the little rabbit guy and would have been nice to see them staying around longer.
6. The bosses in the demo are fun, but there are bits of them I want to address: the character hitbox is too big to dodge the bricks falling down in the first fight. Often times, I would try to fit through the smaller cracks thinking I could fit if I managed to aim it right, but I'd always get hit and it didn't feel great. The second fight with the robot vulture (I think it's a vulture anyway) is better, but having the boss dive from the sides of the stage felt strange to have to dodge. Plus, the tornado attack needs to have either a form of windup or a visual tell so the player knows it's coming. It's not the end of the world, but it would feel better if the player could get a quick visual cue to react to a mechanic that's mandatory to damage the boss.
Overall, good start and I'd love to see if/where this goes in the future!
Hello, thank you very much for trying out the game and thank you for such extensive feedback! Im gonna try and answer point by point!
1. Thank you very much for liking the art direction, our artists were hard at work! Some color adjustments are definitely in store since they were originally made before backgrounds! Will be updated!
2. We are fully with you! Maybe some of the page text wasn't fully understandable, but the double jump and getting the air element isn;t the end of the game! just the current demo. So in the scheme of a finished game you'll be getting the double jump somewhat early! As for not having double jump for other elements, it's already in development, double jump will be available for every form with something special that we don't wanna spoil right now for the air element, its currently how it is due to the game jam time constraints!
3.We are fully with you on this one as well! We are aware that combat is probably one of the weaker parts of our game, so our current major undertaking post gamejam is overhauling the combat system fully so its quality falls more in line with the rest of the game!
4.This is a balancing issue! We limited the number of enemies exactly because the combat system currently felt too weak, with more enemies and some numbers balancing there will be no soft locking issues in the next major update of our game!
5. Thank you for your feedback on this, the story is currently very much barebones and not a focus right now until we polish the hell out of the game! We have a general direction and story structure that we want to go so don't worry we haven't forgotten about it either so get ready for cool twists and turns! As for the little rabbit guy sticking around longer, id love for you to expand on this, he currently served as a shock tool to the player and a story motivator to dislike the machines further, on top of being a basic tutorial for people less familiar with metroidvanias!
6. Thank you for the feedback on bosses, we will do our best to polish them and make them more fun than they already are!
If you have anything else you are more than welcome to point out, we are very thankful for all the feedback!
Milivoj Stankovic(Prki) - Game and Level Designer for Project Null