I beat the whole demo. I really looked forward to playing your game, so it was nice to finally seeing in the the DD. You character is really cute. The game looks like something I would expect to see on nintendo store, so I think you should try releasing on there when the time is right.
My scores ranged from S to D or E, but it did not feel to me like I was playing very differently. Weapons felt really powerful when I actually remembered to use them. I also kept forgetting about jumping, but that's just me not playing much.
The polish you are putting into the game really shows and is very impressive! The sounds are a perfect match for the game. This time the stages feel more similar in difficulty or at least you get enough time to train and get better for the later stages.
The safest way I found to beat a stage was to get a weapon and use it to defend myself as much as I could. Stages with few weapons like 1-7 were difficult with how I was playing, I got cornered a lot there. Also I didn't use the slow down mechanic much. I didn't know when or how to use it.
The animations are sweet as always, the only nitpick is that I found the death animation where she throws up kinda off putting. I wasn't expecting it at the very least.
This game is super pretty!! Like, the UI, the character, the animations! Superb!
The gameplay was also fun. I didn't end up paying much attention to the meter to the left, but I liked the idea. Not requiring 100% to complete the level I think is veeery smart. Also, the bonus phase is a pretty cool idea, I liked trying to think ahead before it triggered.
The levels were visually interesting and fun to traverse.
I didn't really like when enemies swarmed a place (like >3 enemies in a reduced area), because I didn't know how to really deal with them. I kind of hang around waiting or went somewhere else, which I didn't like doing. Unless I had an item of course. On the other hand, dodging enemies when there were few of them was fun (because I could dodge them and it was more manageable to walk through the tiles I wanted to).
Hitting enemies with items is really fun. Why not have a default weak item at the start of the game?
Something strange in retrospect, is that there's too much difference between having an item and not having one. Like, items are reeally strong, once you get them you're guaranteed to clear lots of tiles in the order you want without having to worry too much about the enemies. In that context, I also find it weird that item drops are random. I don't feel like a game that heavily focuses on rewarding skill (with the grading and such) should have something that randomly decreases the difficulty of the level. If I'm not mistaken, the same spawn points are used for both enemies and weapons right? That's a bit strange, I think.
My first thought is to make items less strong, and have them appear more often less randomly (somehow), but still keeping the 'use limit' and the 'random weapon type' to add some spice and variability. But idk, it's just a thought, maybe it's a bad idea.
Anyway, I recorded myself playing just in case it's useful to you.
thanks for playing and recording the footage! there's actually no randomness to enemy/item spawn order, it's fixed per stage with bonus fruit interrupting the queue when certain clear % are hit
Presentation, art, and SFX are great. A little annoying to have to restart via stage select, and the lack of music was a bit off, but I substituted with my own. Otherwise, game was quite fun, and a bit more challenging than I first thought, especially if I were to go for S ranks. Hope to see more from you.
puzzle gameplay is 10/10, style and graphics are 10/10 take your time to find a good musician for this one who can design a rich soundtrack, its worth it for a project this good
Like Evilous said, eager to see what music you implement. Would be nice to have some DnB to fit the y2k sega aesthetic you've nailed down so wonderfully.
This is my favorite game in the jam. Hats off to you brother.
I can't really say much other than the lack of music was very noticeable outside the sound effects. You need to get music. Go on Fivver for music or contact a musician directly for the style you are looking for. Nothing you can do to the gameplay other than adding a timer. Some noises for a voice for the MC would be cool as well. The only thing I can find fault with is with the lack of sound design in certain areas. Looking forward to this.
thanks, yeah i still need to look further into the audio stuff. not sure about a timer, i might look into implementing something time related somehow, but right now i don't think it's gonna be part of the main game
Maybe have a different mode where it's timed like a time attack mode where you have to beat all the stages in a set amount of time. But keep up what you are doing, this is something really fun and good. Reminds me of a lot of Dreamcast games.
Weird thing I encountered was that I needed to run the game as administrator for it run. Might just be because im on windows7 but thought I would let you know. On 1-13 you have a red portal, I thought it was an enemy for a while and tried to avoid it. Maybe don't have red portals since they look pretty similar to the regular enemies. Assuming this game is made with a gamepad in mind so the default keyboard controls were a bit weird to use. I think adding a restart button on the pause menu would be nice since I found myself replaying some levels to get S or perfect and it was a bit annoying having to go back to level select everytime. Everything else is pretty amazing, had tons of fun playing the game, feels like a professionally made game, and I love the art direction. I thought the background would be annoying looking at the screenshots but turns out it blended in pretty neatly and never bothered me at all during gameplay. Everything just runs and plays super smoothly can't wait to play the full thing.
thanks for playing, good insight about that red portal, i'll look into changing the colors and the retry option. i test the game using a keyboard most of the time, if there's anything more specific you think is weird about the keyboard controls let me know
Mainly the A,S,D keys. Might just be a bias from other game that use arrow keys to move but felt it would be more appropriate at Z,X,C or Space bar, not exactly a big deal since you can rebind the keys. I think it would be a good idea to mention the key needed to be pressed for the in level tutorial like the one on 1-1 where you tell the player they can jump but not the key needed to use to jump, since I imagine most players will just jump into playing the game rather than checking the tutorial or settings page first.
Comments
I beat the whole demo. I really looked forward to playing your game, so it was nice to finally seeing in the the DD. You character is really cute. The game looks like something I would expect to see on nintendo store, so I think you should try releasing on there when the time is right.
My scores ranged from S to D or E, but it did not feel to me like I was playing very differently. Weapons felt really powerful when I actually remembered to use them. I also kept forgetting about jumping, but that's just me not playing much.
Beat the entire demo.
The polish you are putting into the game really shows and is very impressive! The sounds are a perfect match for the game. This time the stages feel more similar in difficulty or at least you get enough time to train and get better for the later stages.
The safest way I found to beat a stage was to get a weapon and use it to defend myself as much as I could. Stages with few weapons like 1-7 were difficult with how I was playing, I got cornered a lot there. Also I didn't use the slow down mechanic much. I didn't know when or how to use it.
The animations are sweet as always, the only nitpick is that I found the death animation where she throws up kinda off putting. I wasn't expecting it at the very least.
Great progress, keep up the good work!
This game is super pretty!! Like, the UI, the character, the animations! Superb!
The gameplay was also fun. I didn't end up paying much attention to the meter to the left, but I liked the idea. Not requiring 100% to complete the level I think is veeery smart. Also, the bonus phase is a pretty cool idea, I liked trying to think ahead before it triggered.
The levels were visually interesting and fun to traverse.
I didn't really like when enemies swarmed a place (like >3 enemies in a reduced area), because I didn't know how to really deal with them. I kind of hang around waiting or went somewhere else, which I didn't like doing. Unless I had an item of course. On the other hand, dodging enemies when there were few of them was fun (because I could dodge them and it was more manageable to walk through the tiles I wanted to).
Hitting enemies with items is really fun. Why not have a default weak item at the start of the game?
Something strange in retrospect, is that there's too much difference between having an item and not having one. Like, items are reeally strong, once you get them you're guaranteed to clear lots of tiles in the order you want without having to worry too much about the enemies. In that context, I also find it weird that item drops are random. I don't feel like a game that heavily focuses on rewarding skill (with the grading and such) should have something that randomly decreases the difficulty of the level. If I'm not mistaken, the same spawn points are used for both enemies and weapons right? That's a bit strange, I think.
My first thought is to make items less strong, and have them appear more often less randomly (somehow), but still keeping the 'use limit' and the 'random weapon type' to add some spice and variability. But idk, it's just a thought, maybe it's a bad idea.
Anyway, I recorded myself playing just in case it's useful to you.
Cheers
thanks for playing and recording the footage! there's actually no randomness to enemy/item spawn order, it's fixed per stage with bonus fruit interrupting the queue when certain clear % are hit
Presentation, art, and SFX are great. A little annoying to have to restart via stage select, and the lack of music was a bit off, but I substituted with my own. Otherwise, game was quite fun, and a bit more challenging than I first thought, especially if I were to go for S ranks. Hope to see more from you.
puzzle gameplay is 10/10, style and graphics are 10/10
take your time to find a good musician for this one who can design a rich soundtrack, its worth it for a project this good
Like Evilous said, eager to see what music you implement. Would be nice to have some DnB to fit the y2k sega aesthetic you've nailed down so wonderfully.
This is my favorite game in the jam. Hats off to you brother.
I can't really say much other than the lack of music was very noticeable outside the sound effects. You need to get music. Go on Fivver for music or contact a musician directly for the style you are looking for. Nothing you can do to the gameplay other than adding a timer. Some noises for a voice for the MC would be cool as well. The only thing I can find fault with is with the lack of sound design in certain areas. Looking forward to this.
thanks, yeah i still need to look further into the audio stuff. not sure about a timer, i might look into implementing something time related somehow, but right now i don't think it's gonna be part of the main game
Maybe have a different mode where it's timed like a time attack mode where you have to beat all the stages in a set amount of time. But keep up what you are doing, this is something really fun and good. Reminds me of a lot of Dreamcast games.
Having to go back to the level select to restart the current level is rough. Other than that you nailed it. Its a real ass game.
Weird thing I encountered was that I needed to run the game as administrator for it run. Might just be because im on windows7 but thought I would let you know. On 1-13 you have a red portal, I thought it was an enemy for a while and tried to avoid it. Maybe don't have red portals since they look pretty similar to the regular enemies. Assuming this game is made with a gamepad in mind so the default keyboard controls were a bit weird to use. I think adding a restart button on the pause menu would be nice since I found myself replaying some levels to get S or perfect and it was a bit annoying having to go back to level select everytime. Everything else is pretty amazing, had tons of fun playing the game, feels like a professionally made game, and I love the art direction. I thought the background would be annoying looking at the screenshots but turns out it blended in pretty neatly and never bothered me at all during gameplay. Everything just runs and plays super smoothly can't wait to play the full thing.
thanks for playing, good insight about that red portal, i'll look into changing the colors and the retry option. i test the game using a keyboard most of the time, if there's anything more specific you think is weird about the keyboard controls let me know
Mainly the A,S,D keys. Might just be a bias from other game that use arrow keys to move but felt it would be more appropriate at Z,X,C or Space bar, not exactly a big deal since you can rebind the keys. I think it would be a good idea to mention the key needed to be pressed for the in level tutorial like the one on 1-1 where you tell the player they can jump but not the key needed to use to jump, since I imagine most players will just jump into playing the game rather than checking the tutorial or settings page first.
yeah, i see it now. i'll look into pointing out the currently set up controls to the players, thanks for bringing this to my attention