There Was A Caveman

This game pushes the nostalgia buttons of gamers who remember playing such games when they were kids. I will give any game that does this a thumbs up, but I will not recommend this game. It's a solid platformer, but it's just bland and boring. Someone who's fresh to the genre will not appreciate this game, because it has nothing to offer to them. Just for nostalgia sake, older more experienced gamers will pick up this game, most likely play it to the end in one sitting (~2 hours) since it's easy, predictable and short, and then forget about it. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=604744492 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=658626981 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1567119016 Unlocked all achievements!

Unnecessarily punishing in all the most un-fun ways: Insta-death spikes/pits in all zones, lost currency on deaths, lost max health on deaths, and whole game seemingly needing to be completed in one sitting, since no Continue option at the main menu, just 'Start Game' which restarts from Level 1. Should've refunded when I first got it, but I put it down years ago hoping to start fresh. Still just as frustrating as before. Suffered through more levels this time, but this will be the last time.

I'm sorry, fans. This game sucks. I get it. You like the concept. You like retro platformers like this. You like the love story between the caveman and his dead wife, and you like the challenge. But there's a good way and a bad way to do challenge, and this game does it badly. Floaty controls, unfair level design, bad hitboxes, and punishing difficulty don't make a game fun. They make it bullshit. I'm not going to cut this game any slack because it's an indie title. This is where the big boys play, and you need to do better than this. The game is not properly optimized, and that is the failing of the developers. Gamepad support is only partial, and doesn't even work properly on all systems. The entire purpose of x-input is to make gamepad support idiot-proof, and yet somehow, this game manages to screw it up. People constantly praise how much better games were in the 8- and 16-bit days when they offered actual challenge, but a lot of designers and players don't understand that there was a lot more going on in those games than you realize or remember. It's not just a matter of making a game hard and sending you back to the beginning if you're not perfect. It's a matter of designing levels in a way that makes playing through them enjoyable, even if you're not MLGproswag360noscope. And TWaC doesn't manage to do it right. Take a closer look at games like Spelunky, Binding of Isaac, VVVVVV, Super Meat Boy, and don't dare try tell me that this game is in the same league as them. These games are the end result of spending YEARS making sure that the controls and jumping physics are spot on PERFECT. These games have earned the right to offer players a challenge. Caveman has not. Fix the controls. Make There Was a Caveman 2 and do it right. I'll happily play it. There's a lot of nice ideas here. Skulls as currency. Diminishing returns as you keep dying. Fine. But the execution is straight up bad.

I was having so much fun with this game. But I came back the next day and had to start over. Not bad since i was still in the caves, hadnt made it very far. Played again, made it way farther, had hearts and other stuff, but then I paused the game for a minute to do something, unpaused and the whole thing reset my progress. Tried restarting the game and still didnt have a save file. This game does respect the player and their time at all. No working save system is a ship killer for me.

It's the very definition of average, and it's not as challenging as the description claims. Everything from controls, to enemies, to the basic animation is just [i]okay.[/i] Run-of-the-mill. Even the music is a bunch of forgettable loops. You can imagine this game being on any disappointingly short NES cartridge. It's MEHtro. But it's still not [i]bad[/i] so cheers to the dev, I guess.

This is a difficult platformer with some rough edges. The graphics are solid, and it contains a few clever ideas, but it's mostly just frustrating, and mostly because of its stiff and unforgiving controls. It contains a super bad usability problem where if you pause the game, pressing the jump button exits to the menu without prompting (losing any progress within the level). I lost my progress to flawed muscle memory a few times because of this. You can collect skulls to buy items, but the items are fairly useless because unless you have already played through the game and memorized every trap, you're certain to die before you get to benefit from the item. (This mostly goes for the secret hearts, as well.) On the plus side, the boss fights were all pretty interesting and fun. The music sounds randomly generated, and the sound effects click like there's some 30HZ sine wave starting in the middle of its duty cycle. I played through it to the end, but can't really recommend. Games to play instead: Super Meat Boy, Super Time Force Ultra

The controls are modifiable, but the jumps you have to do over and over again, just to land on a single platform is terrible, it's like the character is accelerating, but not moving upwards; let alone just that reason I'm sorry but this is not good. Keep going with the game development, but the controls are ___ ...

If you’re having trouble getting this game to work with your controller, try this as a fix - Game's properties>GENERAL>Steam Input-Per Game Setting is "Forced Off" Sadly, finally being able to use my controller didn’t help make this game any more enjoyable. The controls are unpolished, as is the gameplay; the difficulty curve in TWAC is non-existent. You’re pretty much pummeled with unfair, not fun gameplay from the instant you start the game. I’ll probably watch a play through on YouTube to see the rest of the levels, because there is no way I can waste any more of my time or sanity on this game. Between the control and gameplay flaws, I would only recommend this to the most patient gamers. Everybody else should steer far clear. I gave this game more chances than any other game I have in recent memory. Sorry dev, I really did try... 🤷‍♂️

Old school platformer, reminiscent of NES and MS-DOS era. 9 = Controls are solid and tight 8 = Sound & Music is classic Retro 7 = Difficulty maybe tricky for some, but people who grew up playing retro games will fly though this. (I would have enjoyed more levels). But the Achievements for completing each level without dying adds to the length of the game. 7 = Gameplay plays a lot like Castlevania with secondary weapons, (50% knock back), and a boss at the end of every level. But you can double jump and dash (in the air)! Thank you developer I had a blast playing this game, and enjoyed every minute of it. I hope this does well (I want a sequel) It’s better than Castlevania 2!!! (As a side note, I am glad to find another Retro game that is NOT skull crushingly difficult. The recent trend of Retro developers to make games that are so hard that they Rip out your heart and feed it to you. Grates on me… Volgarr the Viking I am looking at you…)

Yes it calls to nostalgia with its nice pixel graphics but the controls are unfortunately way too floaty and inprecise to be enjoyable...

+ pixelart style + retro feeling + gameplay - music (although its still retro) - short game is not as hard as some comments suggest. mechanics are fluid, for me there were no jump issues (played it with controller) the game itself is developed by a single person, this alone deserves all of my respect! i really hope a second part is in development. coz this has alot of potential!

This game will help feed that hunger for some nostalgia at a retro platformer. That being said this game is incredibly difficult. If you are an achievement hunter prepare to put many many many hours into this game trying to get the not dying achievements. The control can be unresponsive at times causing you to miss a jump or an attack which will ultimately kill you causing you tons of frustration.

It has a bit of a charm to it and it does do some things right but there is also a fair amount that needs improvement. I'd recommend this to you if you are prepared to deal with a bit of frustration. The game does a good job of trying to mix things up, it does all the platformy gimmicks like a level where you have to stay on a moving platform and dodge things coming from underneath, or a boss that gets a stronger attack when you've almost killed him (I'm at the final area right now and only one boss seems to have done that), and overall has a lot of elements that could make it a great game, including a level that is essentially a side-scrolling shmup like that old alien shooting game on nokia phones. Unfortunately a lot of little issues come together to make the experience less than ideal. First off, the way that jumping handles in this game is a bit jenky. The first jump works fine but the second jump throws your character in whatever direction he is facing which can sometimes cause your character to get tossed into spikes or other things when you are doing jumps in certain areas that require you to double jump and probably get hit by said spikes. Another issue is hitboxes. Your character's hitbox is a bit weird, sometimes you will get hurt by things that are clearly not touching you and when you jump you have to get much higher than it looks in order to get onto platforms. There have been platforms where the character very clearly is able to jump higher than the platform yet is unable to land on it because the hitbox is a bit off so you are required to take a different path there. This problem is at it worst during one of the earlier levels where you have to swing across vines in certain areas. You are only allowed to catch onto the vine if you hit it right at the tip which is weird in and of itself but when added with your character's slightly off hitbox it can mean a lot of dropping into an instant death when, visually, your character should have been perfectly fine, A lot of the difficulty in this game actually stems from little issues like this and not actual hard platforming. In the aforementioned section, where you do the whole moving platform across a river of acid or toxic water or whatever, you basically have to stand on the platform and dodge the balls coming from underneath. The big issue with this is that there is neither an animation prior to the balls launching up at you or a consistent timing for the balls. One or the other would have been fine but without both it means your character is at the mercy of the random intervals since you can't actually use timing or visual cues. You can help this to some degree by standing all the way at the back of the short platform and running past the ball the instant it launches then running back (provided you aren't in a bit with 2 balls launching which can seriously screw you over if one decides it's going to resurface in half the time it generally takes). But this strategy gets compromised by flying enemies going at your head that you will have to attack, this wouldn't be an issue at all but when your character attacks he mysteriously stops where he is on the screen while the plaform keeps going so you may end up falling into the acid which is an instant death because your character does something illogical only on that bit. The game attempts to make boss fights easier by letting you find golden hearts that increase your max hp (you start with 3). The issue with this is if you die you will lose the extra hearts. With the combination of most deaths being instant and there being next to no regular hearts for you to pickup (enemies don't drop them and on some levels they seem rarer than golden hearts) the odds of you making it to the boss with the extra hearts is very unlikely. Now let's say you do make it to the boss with the extra hearts, it's gonna come at you and with how easily your character dies you will likely have to fight it a couple times in order to get the patterns down. That is standard with these games but it also makes the extra hearts you might have had when you first encounter the boss virtually worthless and is furthered by certain points which are clearly designed to kill you the first time you enter them because of the surprise which makes anything you picked up (or even purchased immediately before that screen) pointless. Artstyle is pretty basic, wouldn't say it's good or bad. The music ranges from certain tracks being very good to one that is actually quite annoying given some time. The main issue pretty much all the music tracks have however is that they weren't designed to loop. There is a very obvious start to the tracks and since it loops right back to the beginning when a track ends it creates very abrupt transitions which does break the mood quite a bit. There are probably about half a dozen other issues that I won't get into yet but yeah, this game has potential but it definitely feels clunky as hell.

I give this a recommended because I can tell that the developer really cares about the product, and it seems like a tremendous amount of work and love was put into this game. However, there are quite a few blatant problems that hold the game back in some areas. I'll be going in depth on them, but honestly, if you like quirky action platformers, pick it up when it's on sale. First off, while I'm sure this is rectified with controller support, there are too many buttons to play the game smoothly with a keyboard. I hardly ever used the "dash" move, simply because it felt to unintuitive with the keyboard. I don't have a controller to play with, and it seems like this was designed with controller support in mind, so take this one with a grain of salt. The music ranges from forgettable to annoying, and it seems like that mainly has to do with the "retro" style of it. If it used synthetic instruments instead, I feel like it would be more bearable at parts. But as it stands, certain areas made me mute the game due to the soundtrack giving me a headache. Another minor nitpick, but it seems to loop at weird areas that make it super noticable. There are no lives in the game. When you die, you lose one of the extra hearts you may have earned and start back at the beginning of the current screen you're on. While this seems fine at first, there are some parts where the screen goes on for way too long, coupled with one hit kill spikes, which gets old fast. Speaking of the spikes, they appear often in levels, but only some of them actually kill you in one hit, and they don't look any different from the others. I feel if they each had a respective color, it would definitely be better in terms of design. There are quite a few areas where you swing on vines in the game. While it seems like a fun idea, the vine swings automatically, and you can only jump off of it at the apex of the swing. I've also encountered a glitch several times where the game auto locks me onto a vine for a split second, and then puts me back to where I was when I was jumping, but having lost all the momentum from the jump, leading to a frustrating death. In addition, the screen scrolls in a way where you are typically vulnerable to obstacles before you can react to them. There are also places where you are expected you make jumps into areas that you can't fully see, with the OHK spikes on the ground. I feel like a lot of deaths in this game are due to no part by the player. While I tend to be a patient gamer, I feel like this would make quite a few players not pick this game up. Most basic enemies are simple and easy to work around, which is a shame because if this game was more focused on complex enemy design instead of platforming, I feel like a lot of the problems would be solved. The action parts are truly where this game shines. The bosses, while challenging, are still very fun and interesting. Being able to throw a spear and stick it to a wall to use as a platform is done geniously. The shoot-um-up segment was great. If this game ever gets a sequel, I hope it takes a more "Metroidvania" style approach. I feel like the combat system and control feel would be greatly suited to a more action-adventure exploration focused environment, instead of a platformed with some action sprinkled in. Basically, here's what I feel could be improved on 1.) Fix the vines. For comparison, if it was more akin to the rope swinging in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, it would feel smoother. 2.) On longer screens, a checkpoint would be nice. Even if it's out of the way, and a challenge to get to itself. 3.) Make it obvious which spikes kill you in one hit and which ones just harm you. A simple palette swap for one is all it needs. 4.) The screen should scroll faster 5.) The player should be able to hold down to recenter the camera and see what it below. Instead of hitting down to jump off certain platforms, change it to down and jump. Also, I just want to give the game major props for the atmosphere. It's very subtle, but it works sooooooo well. Like I said before, this is clearly a well made game, but if I was a teacher, I would put a "Needs Improvement" on the top of this assignment in big red ink. For what it is, $7 seems like a tad too much. I haven't beaten it, but I think that if you can get it on sale for less than five, that's probably about what I'd say to spend on it. Keep in mind that this is all meant to be constructive criticism. I took the time to write this review not out of spite, but because I feel like this is a good game that could be amazing with a little fine tuning.

Good little nostalgia romp; desperately needs save support, as game is nearly impossible in one sitting. If I had know this I would not have bought.

Played through the whole game was quite fun. It offers different themed levels but it is quite a simple platformer game. You can beat the game in like 3 hours easily.

- Floaty/frustrating controls - Too little mid-air control - No D-pad mapping? - Button sticking (e.g. pressing right to exit a screen and the right direction remains pressed on the next screen, or holding a direction, pausing and unpausing it remains pressed)

This game resembles what made retro games fun and challenging, gameplay is simple and easy to master, jumping introduces some ghouls and ghost back into a prehistoric adventure. music and graphics are 8 bit and ok, the only real con on this game is I felt it was a little short. I breezed through some of the levels with the sadness that I was close to the end. I would like if there is some future dlc as this game is worth the cost. Feel free to give it a try if it's platforming you are looking for and when it's low on Steam.

Disclaimer: My "yes" recommendation only pertains to buying this game on a good sale. I picked it up for around a dollar. I wouldn't pay the full price. A short, very basic platformer. A solid enough entry for a one-man team, and one that makes me want to try my hand at making a small game myself one day. Pros: +Fun pixel art +Familiar play style, easy to pick up +Many checkpoints, small penalty for dying Cons: -No saving, but short (took me ~2 hrs. to beat) -Controls a bit floaty, unable to map movement to d-pad -Bland music

Great game! Perfect pixel graphics, smooth controls, super level design, cool abilities and interesting giant endbosses make this a mustplay. And yeah it's a bit hard but doable: train and repeat!

I came into this game expecting a fun, 2D platformer, with moderate difficulty, but i was sorefully surprised to see that this game was in my opinion pretty difficult, i played my way through the starting area, expecting a tutorial of some sort, but realized within moments that it was a steep learning curve, and some amount of skill required to be successful. I proceeded to die over and over again within the "Caves" simply to learn the area, once i got to the boss, i quickly relaized how importtant it is to build up your golden hearts and not suck at the game. I do reccomend this if this is your style of game, I can not wait to play more, and hopefully beat it!

Pros- decent concept, appealing art design for characters and levels. Cons- floaty controls, bad hitboxes on player and enemies, unfair level design. Overall I enjoyed the experience but there were many jarring issues with the mechanics of the game. There are problems with almost every aspect of how the game flows, from your maneuverability, player and enemy hitboxes and the patterns within levels. A good game provides a challenge you can overcome and learn from, but if a game is challenging because of poor design, you end up suffering for something out of your control. Beyond that it is a standard sidescrolling platformer with a distinctive motif and deficient plot, but I don't see myself returning to play.

Although this game deserved a "not recommended" because it has some really poorly done jump platforms that has nothing to do with your skill level, I am still going recommend it because overall game is a well done platformer game. Game is like every platformer very challenging. It has some very enjoyable levels like the lake level and end level bosses are very well done and enjoying. Some people said that they had issues with gamepad and the game had no save feature. I haven't had any problems with 360 controller and the game actually saves at the start of every level. Overall I recommend this game for people who like platformers.

*These are just some quick thoughts on the game. I'm only three levels in on the world map, so keep that in mind. I will have a full review posted when I get a little further in.* A lot of people are going on about the graphics, but I feel the pixel artwork is a bit flat and unimpressive overall. Effective, but not the most memorable. The controls are pretty good, though I wish like hell it worked with the directional buttons on my gamepad and not just analog stick (found myself using a mock-PlayStation controller instead of my preferred X360 one). The jumping is definitely a pain in the ass at times, especially during the start of level 2 reaching certain ledges, but it's manageable. Infinite lives kind of kills some of the tension, though. Instead you lose half the skulls you find each death. There's small shops you can buy things at once per stage, which is handy, and often still work with how few you have unless you are terrible at platformer games in general and walk in with less than three. There's also the "secret" golden heart locations, and was cool with losing one upon death as an additional penalty given the aforementioned issue, making reaching the boss without dying something to strive for. The story is fairly basic, really, but level progression can sometimes be kind of cryptic. In one stage I found what looked like a hidden away stash of throwable weapons, using all to defeat a triceratops, only to find I screwed up and needed the woode arrows to reach the ledge you have to climb in order to finish the stage. Not the most unique 2D platformer, but still worth checking out. I find myself tackling this one as more of a casual experience thanks to the level save/select option, especially given the checkpoint system being at the end of one part of a certain level on the world map. I recomend it if you enjoy classic side-scrolling platformers like the titles mentioned above.

I really enjoyed this game until the last stage. There's a nice and simple but orihinal story with gameplay that accomodates it well. If you're a fan of the genre, I recommend it for sure but be aware that the last stage is very difficult... That or I suck at this game. One complaint I have is that I completed the game and didn't realize that there were any achievements available for it until I went to write this review. I beat the game and did not get any achievements at all. I assume this is a bug and I am okay with that but it would have been cool to have gotten something.

Spent half hour trying to get my controller(PS4) to work right with no luck. Other people having same issue in the steam forums for this game. Tried thru the steam controller api and using the DS4windows program.

A wonderful but simple little platformer with basic mechanics and solid level design. It doesn't do anything new, but sometimes that's just what you want.

bad control, and a bit unfair if we died in the game. no permanent improvement of the character makes it harder throughout the levels.

There is no (any sort of) save. And the only reason is because **** you. Do you have to go out? You'll begin from the start. Even old games such as this had level codes as a primitive save form. Anyways apart from that it's a terribly bland platformer. If the controls were amazing I'd still give it another chance but now I refunded.

No D-pad control, you have to control the movement with the leftstick on the 360 controller. Sometimes the character faces the wrong direction when attacking. Not 100% working controls in a jump n run game is not good. But perhaps i am doing something wrong. I could rebind the controls to the d-pad in the game. Keyboard control is a no go for me. The Pixel art is nice. Bossfights are not too difficult. The level design is straighforward. Somewhat nice game.

There Was a Caveman has bags of charm! I knew I was in love with this game within seconds of begginning, I whoopsie smashed my dead cave-girlfriend's corpse to pieces. Awesome!

This is a neat game. More than that, this is a decently challenging game. There's no rogue-lite BS so you get a consistent experience through and through. There's a couple secrets hidden here and there, and it combines solid platforming where you commit to your jump, mixed with dino-thumping action in a prehistoric setting. I honestly don't know why this game has such a low steam rating, it's very well balanced, has a ton of variety and personality to its environments instead of just boring, repeated textures with slightly different layouts from screen to screen as you can see he put time into developing and making each biome/level stand out seperately from the last, and it actually makes use of its themes by adding gameplay/platforming mechanics based on the biomes to truly enhance the setting. You can tell that just as you're having fun with it, the developer was having fun. [h1]OVERALL SCORE[/h1] Moderately recommended [h1]REPLAY VALUE[/h1] Low

Absolute trash! Could have been good, but the gameplay is just not good enough. Also the controlls make it even worse!

Clubbing dinosaurs to get laid? Why not! Gameplay is fun (you got double jumps, a dash that can also be used in air and the game mixes things up with climbing, flying, bouncing etc.). The game play from the first min just as you expect it from the trailer, which is a good thing! The difficulty is very challenging, if you think you can rush through the game, think again! PS: Remember the high praised and announced next gen fish AI in Black Ops, which didn't work in the final game? This game here doesn't even advertise it, but it has a Butterfly AI, which makes them fly away as soon as you brutal stinking caveman come close to them, and as soon as you go away, they return to do their butterfly thingys.

Good platforming and boss fights as your fragile caveman searches for a mate. Lots of fun.

This is a very disappointing "good" game. The controls needs a huge tweak. You keep dying coz you can hardly control where your caveman lands. Felt like a cheap way to add gametime to a 30minutes game.

"Get ready to die and die a lot" indeed. If you want a platformer that doesn't hold your hand and offers an authentic level of NES-styled frustration that keeps building until you finally beat the damn thing, this game is for you. With infinite continues, you have no reason to quit other than blood pressure. Pros: -Checkpoints at the end of each screen, you will learn to appreciate these -Boss battles are challenging -Secret Golden Hearts -"Got Over Her" Achievement Cons: -Dying cuts your collected Skulls by half each time -The first moving platform river section of Afterlife, especially that birdy prick If you choose to go after the "make it thru "X" without dying" achievements, then may God have mercy on your soul, you poor bastard.

This game is a perfect example of bad game design. Everything is flawed with this game.

Good old-fashioned platformer.

NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE NIHRFGAAAAAAAAAA

Infuriating, just as all platformers should be

Recomended For true Retro Gamers

Would not recommend this to any sane person.

Rad little game. Neat level design.

Smack lizard Life good Lizard steal wife Life no good Sad Revenge

It has dinosaurs! Instant hit!

poorly developed

Fun Game :)

Yes!

Ugg!