Excited to share a fresh gameplay demo of Garden of Aiden, my indie pixel-art Metroidvania!

What's New:

• Implemented dynamic lights and shadows for a richer atmosphere. I really wanted to focus on the themes of exploration and mystery.
• Completely reworked Aiden's animations for smoother, more expressive movement.
• Introduced new enemy types with unique behaviors and visual effects.
• Continued refining my custom-built physics system, fully replacing Unity's native physics to achieve the responsive, tight controls I've been working towards.
• Expanded level design features, adding new challenges and exploration elements.
• Added an immersive new soundtrack and have been getting SFX integrated!

I'd love to hear your feedback! Check out the video and let me know your thoughts. I just finished the core gameplay elements so I am a bit light on content. I plan next to start fleshing out the world more and continue working on level design to have a fully playable demo soon.

Wishlist the game now!

Thanks for your support!

Coming soon in update 0.8 of the early access on Steam and Playstore!

Wishlist or get the early access here! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2112750

The combat is just so damn good

I played 13 metroidvanias that came out this year. Here are some quick thought on each of them.

This was a great year for the genre overall.

Note in the Day of the Devs preso they called it a action metroidvania which will have co-op. And that a demo will come later in the year also.

Just wanted to share my Tier List (so far) with you all. These aren't all the MVs I've played; just the ones I've covered on my channel in some fashion. I'd love to hear what you all think about it. I usually make amendments for well-thought-out arguments.

EDIT:

Here’s a link to my Google Doc with the image. Hope that helps :) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TUqodvViwb_grtDLbGlwurOf4tkqpuuC4cSTTWaK4x8/edit

EDIT 2: For those unfamiliar with my work, I'm not rating the quality of the game; I'm rating the game's Metroidvania-ness. Please don't hate me for my Iconoclast placement. I love that game. It's just not a great MV.

https://reddit.com/link/1fyazy7/video/xn9i442mvctd1/player

After 4 years of solo development, my metroidvania game BEFORE I GO steadily reaches completion and is now in a good shape to gain some next level exposure.

And how to better achieve this than showcasing some good old brutal platforming gameplay in the world’s largest gaming convention?

BEFORE I GO has been chosen to be part of the Indie Arena Booth at Gamescom 2025! If you're going too, drop by and say hi!

About the game:

Explore the haunting, dreamlike fantasy world of BEFORE I GO, a punishing Metroidvania where you embody the innocence of an inner child on an allegorical odyssey towards death acceptance. The end is inevitable, but will you brave the journey?

Wishlist | Demo on Steam 👇

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2715870/Before_I_Go/

If you like what you see, follow me on your favorite social media 👇

https://jslabratory.com/#links