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One Arrow

Race through short, tightly crafted levels using a single magic arrow. Shoot it, freeze it in midair, use it as a platform, then recall it back to you. Master your arrow to create new paths, outsmart enemies, and overcome all obstacles in your way.

Demo:

The demo here will be getting continuously updated over the next couple weeks! The full free demo will include all of chapter one (twenty main levels and four unlockable bonus levels), as well as four teaser levels from chapter two and four teaser levels from chapter three! The bonus levels and teaser levels will be added here as they are ready - be sure to check in every couple weeks for the new content!

Full Game FAQ:

When will the full game be released?
- I'm shooting to release the game in the fall of 2026!

How much content will be in the full game?
- The full game will (likely) include six chapters, each with 20 main levels and 4 bonus levels. That’s 144 levels! Small caveat - due to me running out of money, I might have to wrap up the game sooner and cut out some of the later content. It will largely depend on how the demo is received.

How much will the full game cost?
- The exact price isn't finalized yet, but the game will cost somewhere between $10 and $20.

How to support this game's development:

- Wishlist the game on Steam! Wishlists are the easiest way for me to track how many people care about this game - and the more people that care about it, the more time, money, and energy I'll be able to put into making this game as incredible as I possibly can!
- Tell your friends about the game!
- Leave comments! Tell me what you like and don't like. I'd rather get 100 comments critiquing the game than no comments at all. Help me make this game live up to it's potential!
- There's a donation button at the top. I'd be so thankful for any donations, and any financial support would go a long way toward enabling me to continue working on this game. But please don't donate unless you can easily afford to - It's just a video game after all! Please be financially responsible :)
- Follow me on social media! Say in the loop and have the first opportunities to give feedback and share your ideas on the new features I'm working on.

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BlueSky

More information

Status	In development
Platforms	HTML5
Rating	Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (7 total ratings)
Author	Coal Games
Genre	Platformer
Made with	Unity
Tags	Archery, Difficult, Fantasy, Fast-Paced, Female Protagonist, No AI, Pixel Art, Puzzle-Platformer, Retro, Singleplayer
Links	Steam, Steam
Content	No generative AI was used

Development log

Comments

SeuMadroga22 days ago (4 edits) (+1)

Love the demo! I can't wait for the final release!

The description for the "Arrow Assist" option in the Assist menu isn't very clear. It's hard to understand what it actually does.
The medal animation on the scoreboard is a bit too slow. Making it a little faster would feel more satisfying and better match the pace of the game, especially since the levels are short.
It's unclear why the diamond disappears when you freeze the arrow. Adding a stop sign or an "X" icon on top the diamond while the arrow is frozen would make it much clearer what the player needs to do.
Speaking of diamonds, after the first one appears, it would be nice to have a pop-up explaining what the Skin Market is. Or add the Skin Market on the main menu.
The Cosmetics menu needs a Back button.
Enemies should have a respawn effect before they reappear, so players aren't caught off guard.
In general, enemies blend into the background a bit too much, making them hard to spot at first. I understand the intention of creating surprise and stealth, but adding a subtle shadow or using slightly more vibrant colors would help them stand out and better communicate danger. (I just played through World 3, and the same issue applies to the explosive traps—they're too dark and easy to miss)
Platforms that move automatically and platforms that require the arrow to move should have distinct icons so players can easily tell them apart.
During the demo, I played through the first world three times, and I only discovered the other worlds on my third playthrough. It would help to make it clearer that there's more content available, or automatically lead players to the next world after they finish the first one.
- It would be nice to have a Level Select option available during gameplay, so players don't have to return to the main menu just to access the level selection screen.

Coal Games22 days ago(+1)

Thank you so much!! This is incredibly detailed and valuable feedback, I really appreciate it. And your timing could not have been better as I'm about to announce the official demo release date for Steam!

note 1: the itch demo is quite outdated now, so a handful of your comments have already been addressed :D

note 2: any points that I don't respond to are things that I completely agree with you on and either will be, or have been, fixed!

"It's unclear why the diamond disappears when you freeze the arrow". Totally fair. I redrew it recently to make it stand out more from the normal diamonds but I could definitely still do more to show the correlation between the arrow freeze and it breaking. I'm gonna try adding the little shockwave effect (that arrow has when it freezes) to the diamond too which might help a little. I also want to add an indicator arrow that points to offscreen collectibles, that way I can make the indicator shatter too when the arrow freezes.
"after the first (diamond) appears, it would be nice to have a pop-up explaining what the Skin Market is". I just recently implemented this! In addition when you unlock a new skin there's a pop up to let you know and you can it equip it immediately without having to go to the cosmetic screen.
"Enemies should have a respawn effect before they reappear, so players aren't caught off guard". I recently implemented a delay in-between enemies spawning and them being able to hit the player. I think the ghosts especially were causing a lot of annoyance to playtesters but this seemed to help. Making the colors being more noticeable could also help out here too!
"Platforms that move automatically and platforms that require the arrow to move should have distinct icons so players can easily tell them apart." Strongly agree. I'm actually reworking the platforms that require the arrow to move so they'll behave a little differently and they should be much more distinguishable.
The other worlds were just enabled last second before releasing this version so I can get some quick feedback from in-person testers lol. There will be a big message like "Thanks for playing, check out chapter 2 and 3 for some sneak preview levels" in the official demo.
Also there will definitely be a Level Select option available during gameplay!

Again, thank you so so much for not only playing the game but also taking the time to leave such detailed feedback. This is incredibly helpful <3

nomnom25189 days ago

Not a big fan of platformers but I enjoyed this. Played through levels 1 and 2. I have to say that the UI was well done

burblewurp204 days ago

you can go up infinitely with the arrows if you time it right.

Coal Games203 days ago

True! It's quite tough to do, so congrats for being able to do it! Most of the levels are designed in a way so that going straight up infinitely can't actually be used to skip too much. There are definitely a ton of shortcuts to explore though!

burblewurp199 days ago (2 edits)

its pretty easy with arrow assist on. you just need to recall the arrow at the same time as your jump and then shoot it back down at the apex of said jump, then freeze it as quickly as possible. it is a little bit hard the first time but as long as you get the timing down once it is very easily repeatable. the thing that's impressive, I think, is the fact that I figured it out in the web browser of a Chromebook while the game was running at a very inconsistent fps.(it fluctuated between around 20 fps and around 10)

FishyCharmer239 days ago(+1)

I played past the first boss and had a great time!

A few quick notes:

The bow’s wooden part blends into the background a bit, I actually thought it was her hand at first.
The boss fight could use its own music, and maybe an extra checkpoint or two to reduce frustration.
The trickiest part for me was shooting angled arrows and then sliding off, that felt tougher than expected.

On the positive side, all the effects around shooting and stopping arrows feel super satisfying. Really fun overall!

Coal Games239 days ago(+1)

Thank you so much for playing! Really glad you enjoyed it :)

- Good point regarding the bow, I'll tweak the color of it a bit

- I'm currently working on adding boss music! It's not quite done yet but it should be ready soon

- The angled arrows definitely take a while to get used to. There's an "Arrow Assist" difficulty option to help out with this for people want a little less of a challenge

burblewurp241 days ago

why do I sometimes just die upon retrieving my arrow for seemingly no reason?

Coal Games241 days ago (1 edit)

There's a bug right now where the arrow sometimes kills the player on it's way back. I'm working on a patch that should fix that as well as a bunch of other bugs, but this one has been kicking my butt for the past couple days. It's really hard to reproduce and I keep thinking it's fixed but it'll randomly happen again an hour later. I should have it fixed in an upcoming patch this Friday though.

Really sorry about this, I know it's super annoying.

burblewurp235 days ago(+1)

it's fine I know making a game work properly is hard. I've tried before but never really got too far before giving up.

Coal Games235 days ago (2 edits)

I actually just figured this bug out literally a few minutes ago! It's kind of hard to explain but it turns out it wasn't that the arrow was "hitting" the player in any way, but rather there are some checks in place to see if the player is "squished" (some later levels having moving platforms and things that can crush the player) and in very very rare scenarios when the arrow comes back to the player, it would overlap the player with a specific angle such that the arrow triggered the "squish" code. Just another weird bug that came from the arrow being both a platform and not a platform lol. So happy to be done with that bug xD

Also thanks for checking out the game! I hope you enjoyed it despite the bug :)

(Edit: bug is fixed in the current version)

Richard243 days ago(+1)

nice game !

Montray Studios244 days ago(+1)

Amazing. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

One Arrow Demo