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Flannery Flames - Prelude's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| CONTROLS | #12 | 3.357 | 3.357 |
| FUN | #16 | 3.393 | 3.393 |
| SOUND/MUSIC | #18 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| BOSS DESIGN | #24 | 3.357 | 3.357 |
| Overall | #25 | 3.250 | 3.250 |
| ART/VISUALS | #31 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| USE OF THEME | #67 | 2.143 | 2.143 |
Ranked from 28 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Game's take on the theme
After each boss battle, the player is rewarded with a list of powerups to choose from. There are 6 bosses and their order are not the same for every run. Besides, they will eventually battle in teams. So the player should build the protagonist's powers as the need and convenience arises.
Does your game utilize the PlusMusic plugin?
No.
Did you use any third-party plugins other than PlusMusic?
No.
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Comments
I'm not very good at it but I like the variety of upgrades and the otter boss is cute! I like the number of bosses I saw too. I think a bit more range on your attacks and more aggressive enemies that try to close the gap on you would make the game "easier" but feel balanced in the extra ability to do damage. I felt, as it currently is, in order to get close enough to do damage I was putting myself too much at risk of them doing their own ranged attacks (the tornado/explosion damage) which had more range and did more damage to my 2-3 hearts vs the bosses' larger HP bar.
Drentsoft Games Ltd, thank you! Yes, the range of the default attack needs to be a little bigger at the start, as well the number of starting hearts for the player. Otherwise, although still doable, most people found it "extra" challenging.
Learn to properly adjust and calibrate difficulty is my next goal. It's fun!
It is a beautiful game! I couldnt even kill a single boss but this a well rounded game with a proper tutorial. Polish it and consider releasing for mobile platform.
Hey, SerenePixels! I wholeheartedly express my gratitude: thank you so much!
I'm still working on the game again in order to release a new version, improving the mechanics, motion and difficulty. Now that I look back, I feel bad about how hard this jam version turned out to be. SORRY everyone, for that! Hahaha! But, for a while, it is what it is. Hopefully, the update will provide a more kind experience to players and attract new ones!
Edit: oh, yes. I don't think I'll focus on mobile. At least, not for now because I have almost to zero experience releasing a mobile game. But who knows!
Again, thanks for playing and leaving your feedback!
Good game, great idea, too hard at least for me, i barely killed the first boss after a few deaths.
I can tell you put the work needed, maybe it needs a little bit more of an easier way to kill the bosses
Thanks for playing, JotaPe! The feedback is much appreciated it!
I can see that this game has lots of work and love put on to it, really good submission
But is WAY to hard. Couldn't beat any boss. Super Challenging, It could be super fun, but the game kicks you to the main menu after losing, and that sucks, it would be WAY better if you can reset the fight right away, having to do all the menu-ing again and again is frustrating
The theme is IMO not present, so that's a shame.
The game looks pretty good, the character feels a little too slow and weak against the unrelenting bosses.
Also, a float based HP system would be way better 2 hits are ridiculous, way too little
Good job for everything else
Thank you, byDan!
I like the artwork (reminded me mega man), couldn't get used to the controls though and I feel the player should have had more health.
I appreciate the feedback, kanadez0s!
Good work, but I found the game difficult. What would I advise to reduce the difficulty or have the player’s health be more at the beginning, but the game in general is great :0
Ghaithzezo, thank you very much for your feedback!
Impressive game! Really fun to play and pixel art is gorgeous, I love the old-school arcade feeling. However I found it quite hard, even after trying like 20 or 30 times, and I finally managed to beat one boss with an extra HP at start, I feel like 3 hp would have made the game a bit less frustrating, but that was still fun to play nonetheless. Great work and really nice entry
Draelent! I appreciate your feedback!
Maybe the shape of the game ended up reflecting a little bit about my mindset between choosing the lesser mistake. I'll give a brief example: I'd rather challenge the players than bore them. Another one: I'd rather frustrate the players than having them to ignore the game. Things like that. But, don't worry, a more friendly version is under development already! This current available version was the starting point.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and helping me shape the game!
I really liked the graphic and animation in this entry, the game starts quite difficult but I still found it enjoyable, the mechanics are nice but it took me a while to remember that WASD is not used for movements ahaha Nice Job!
Hey, Minga! Thank you, thank you! Yeah, the word hard/difficult came a lot this time around! But I'm already working on the game again, to solve this. I'll make it more friendly and "fair" to new players. During development, due to the time schedule, I had to make "harsh" decisions about a lot of things, and that includes the behavior of the bosses. It's not like I wanted to make them difficult. I just went full pragmatic in order to deliver before the deadline. That said, it's actually a very easy thing to fix, and I'll do it!
Actually, I believe you can to map the movement to WASD. I just did it here on the web version.
Cheers!
I almost enjoy this. I find this very difficult. The amount of health that it starts off with is very low.
The boss battles are nice. The art and sound effects are also nice.
It's good to know that the most skilled player of this game is the owner of the game and little number of gamers out there, but most players are not.
Thank you for the feedback, TheRulerMeasure! Specially for pointing out the pros and issues of the game. I'll definitely take all this into consideration, to develop it further!
Cheers!
Really neat game!! Loved it! I love the vibe, it's really fun to play. I had to change the controls to be confortable playing it, glad you made it possible. The pixel art is on point, the VFX are super cool! Very well done
Marine Gambier! Thank you so much! This game jam has been a very humbling experience, learning so much! I'm glad that you liked playing the game!
I really like this! I thought the default controls were difficult, so I switched to my favorite WASD, Shift to dash, Space to jump controls. It took me approximately 10 tries, but I finally got ahold of all the different mechanics and almost beat the dual bosses :D
Love the inclusion of the bouncing downwards spin attack. Really fun. Also took me a while to realize dashing made me invincible (electric boss was literally impossible without this knowledge LOL). Powerups feel good. I often forgot to use my special attack, so I think a better indicator that the special is ready would make it more useful.
TLDR: great game, great art, fun, hard, good aesthetic + music to match. Good job!
OliverDai13! Your words fills me with motivation! I have been thinking about how I'll update the game later. I'll share a little bit some ideas that I'm tinkering with:
Right now, everything about the game mechanics is really "tight", so to speak. For instance, the dash, which is essential for fast aerial evasive maneuvers. Yes, the players have their own preferences when it comes to controls. It's hard to please everybody, that's why I learned the lesson (the hard way) and kept the keybinding option.
Hopefully, with all feedback that I managed to get so far (thank you everybody for that!), I'll be able to proper address the demands and bring the game a step closer to a more fluid and enjoyable experience.
Grateful for your comment!
I really enjoyed this game, the art style and sound design are amazing and the boss design feels really well balanced. It was a bit too hard for me personally, but that might be just because I'm bad at these types of games
Thank you, Arcy! The game is a bit hard, indeed! It was my first attempt at making a roguelike boss-battle game. Still, a lot of work to do!
I appreciate your words!
Amazing game, loved the gameplay and how it controls. The controls feels weird at first but give it a few minutes and it'll feel like second nature to control the player. I love how all the player's movement flows into each other and how you don't have a useless move
You got it, TrueAngelForm! That's how the design was intended to be. The protagonist is actually overpowered, but it takes some time to build that confidence.
Cheers!
Very cool designs good job
I'm glad that you liked it, WuzzyWizard!
I couldn't beat the electric boss :(
Hey, hey Quentin Delvallet! I'll tell you a secret. The electric boss level 1 (yes, there is another stronger version of it), is very vulnerable if you destroy the electric orb. Its dash is predictable and if you are distant, it cannot harm you with the falling attack. The alternative are air maneuvers with dash. Because the electric orbs always move and reflect at 45 degrees, it's relatively easy to predict where the straight line between it and the boss will be at.
With all the above said, this boss will be redesigned.
Thank you!
This one's really polished and feels good!
Movement feels a bit floaty at times and for some of the training targets the hit area is rather smsll.
Gamepad controls work well...
I didn't manage to survive the first real battle, though.
There are really a lot of different uprades available...
Hey, heckert! Yes, the training space for the tutorial is very small. Because I wanted it to be a single room type of game, I had to make two rooms for the tutorial, It's definitely not desirable for a proper release, but was a pragmatic decision so I could focus at the aspects that will have bigger impact on the overall gameplay. That said, I have plans to improve the first steps and presentation for new players.
The protagonist is very floaty, indeed! If you try, you can actually touch the ceiling by jumping and dashing upwards!
Thanks!
I wasn't talking about the size of the rooms, but the area in which the target can be hit ;)
And since the movement is as it is, it's more difficult to get right beneath them in order to hit than it probably should be...
Floating in the air is probably fine, but on the ground the sideways movement should come to a stop more quickly...
Oh, I see. Are you referring to the collision hitboxes? That too will be revised. In relation to the character motion, I want the players to be able to fully express their intentions. I'll have to come to terms with that, as responsivity is priority.
Thanks for bringing these important aspects to my attention!
i enjoy with this game !! Excelent ! Good work !
Hello, ChillyField! I appreciate your words!
This game is really fun, and i really enjoyed it, so here is some feedback :)
Great game, i will follow you and keep an eye in your work in the future! :)
Hey, Zhuckly! Thank you so much for your very detailed feedback! Definitely, there is a lot work to be done yet!
The bosses will be redesigned at some point. The anticipation animation also needs some work. In fact, everything already there still needs a revamp and rework. The upgrade system is very basic, just to keep things functional. Actually, I don't think a boss can instant kill you unless you have just one hitpoint. But that is desired to be this way. An hp system based on bar leaves to the player guess-work about how much damage will be dealt, which can surprise. However, with the current system, you know exactly how many hits you are to take (number of colorful hearts), before dying. This decision was taken at the early beginning and for now, I have no plans to change it. But we will see!
Indeed! You do start with only two hitpoints, but you can increase it and refill it, depending on the powerups you have opt to.
Again, thank you a lot! It's a good reminder and motivation to improve the game.
In my opinion, the boss attacks are quite well telegraphed! After a few tries I learned all the cues and started anticipating their next move.
First of all, did you make this with gamemaker? If so HOW DID U GET IT TO LOOK SO GOOD ON THE HTML5 BUILD?? seriously the pixel art is amazing, good job, I use gamemaker and my html5 builds always look like dog.
The combat feels great, I'm impressed that you were able to make such a complex system in just a month. It's definitely challenging but that didn't make it any less fun. great game!
Hello, breakableBird! Thank you for the kind words! Yes, I use GMS2. I'm not an expert, but I'm very familiar with it. While I'm developing a game, I always test the desktop version THEN the html version in sequence. Constantly. Usually, some changes might break or make hmtl version with colateral effects. For example, if you test and pay attention to both versions of the game that I had uploaded, you're going to notice that the energy bar (yellow bar) in the html version is "strange" compared to the desktop version. The black outline rectangle just doesn't draw in the right place. Maybe some ignorance from my part, but I just left it that way. Because, eventually I'll turn that too into a hand made sprite (for now is been drawn by a built-in function - drawhealthbar).
In relation to the combat system, I am no stranger to messing up with combat mechanics, in a very intermediate/amateur level. I just think about things that would be cool, then I test them out with placeholders. That's it, another thing that I do. I ALWAYS use a bunch of placeholders, because I code first, make graphics later, then SFX, VFX and music. Sometimes, I mix the order, because art may inspire mechanic, music could inspire art and so on and so forth.
Finally, I'll share very briefly a mindset that speeds up my development time. I always try to portray and conceptualize the whole thing (the game, of course) from start to finish during the pre-production phase. As I gained more experience, my predictions became more adjusted to reality and each time I can foresee some kinds of challenges as well. I like to sketch, prototype and test things as earlier as possible, very fast. A lot of people may disagree, but if the prototype doesn't have a seed of fun, I, personally, just will try something else. Until it becomes fun!
Cheers!
Really solid boss rush! I like finding the different upgrades and experimenting with different builds. The pixel art is really great and the boss design is a lot of fun. Great work!
Jared Devs, ありがとうございます！No, seriously, thank you so much for commenting! I put some extra work on the factors that scaled well, such as upgrade systems, boss combinations and "kill fast or die fast" style of gameplay. The reason for making it scale well is because I plan to keep working on it, to bring this game project to fruition in the future. Or at least, learn more about how to make an interesting roguelike. It needs balancing and more variety of powerups and bosses (such as WHOLE SCREEN bosses, or bigger ones).
I appreciate it, thank you again!
Good luck with a full game! I'm excited to see where it goes.