The Dregs of War

[TOdorus]

"Dr Skribbles is at the observatory". And where might that be? Only after I find the good doctor I get my objectives marked with a compas. Could throw a new player off.

Another thing that caught my interest so far, is the fact that a lot of puzzles are riftbased from the start. I spent a lot of time and life trying to leap across a chasm, only to find out that I should walk off the edge and the rift will save me. The irony is that only after I do that I land into the guy that tells me how the map works. I know you've placed the map under M so I can navigate it and look for possible (I don't know where the rifts are) alternate routes. Sometimes you just miss a rift and the platforming comes across insanely difficult. My advice is to have rift based platforming start after meeting dr Skribbles. Let the player get used to the map and rifts first, before you start throwing stuff like that at them (somewhere in The Big Drink you need to jump from ceiling to floor and back again, to avoid goo pits, this would be excellent to introduce it).

Since the rifts make it hard to navigate through a level, I suggest you make the first part of the game more linear. When a player can get a feel for it, you can think of these more freeform levels. Another idea would be to take the Zelda approach. There is a central hub to which all levels are connected. This hub is freeform, but you can't reach some levels, untill you unlock certain abilities. The levels are more linear, with paths that clearly intersect at only a few points.

The map is great, only if you could add a colored edge to new parts? Sometimes it's hard to make out if it's a dead end, or I haven't explored it yet.

Gonna play some more. These acrobatics are a blast.

EDIT:
On the rift part: rifts in mid-air are hard to land as you change in the middle of your jump. When I go into another hallway and there's a rift, this is more obvious to me. I'd place them in more obvious locations in general.

There were a few moments that I couldn't tell if I would land safely, even after using L to look around. There shouldn't be too much leaps of faith as this would make the game about trail and error.

(btw I do realize that to incorperate my criticism, it would probably take too much time and effort)