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A jam submission

Blend or FadeView game page

Defend the Crystal by strategically blending colors at a fast pace.
Submitted by Kaito Akiyama — 18 hours, 4 minutes before the deadline
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Blend or Fade's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Innovation#564.0004.000
Audio#873.8143.814
Overall#1733.6593.659
Gameplay#1793.6513.651
Visuals#3113.8843.884
Enjoyment#3753.5813.581
Theme#7693.0233.023

Ranked from 43 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does the game fit the theme?
Mismatching colors leads to starting over again. Players must constantly switch between units and coordinate attacks. The fast-paced gameplay makes it feel like things are always about to go wrong.

What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
Everything in this game was made from scratch by Kaito Akiyama (me).

How many people worked on the game?
1

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Comments

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 27 · Previous page · First page
Submitted(+1)

really nice game! love the idea :)

Submitted(+1)

Really interesting concept of gameplay, quite addictive too. The graphics and sound design are great, well done !

Submitted(+1)

Such a cool concept! The enemies hit particle system is really cool, adds a lot to the player experience. Remembering which color is what button is pretty hard as game progresses and there's tension, but overall the uniqueness of the game really carries it, along with the visuals. Good job!

Developer

Thanks!

 How far were you able to get to?

Submitted(+1)

Didn't fight off a boss (if there's any), but had a few purple and white enemies on screen at the same time.

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

Hey there, you requested feedback so I gave your game a try. I usually leave detailed feedback on games I play so here's my thoughts!

  1. I think the "Q" "W" "E" keys should be displayed at the center of the orbs, possibly even integrated into its design stylistically. Even if you want to keep the UI clean, they should appear at least for the first few rounds after starting the game. Or have a toggle to toggle the shortcut key texts.
  2. A lot of times, I lose not because of my decisions, but because I couldn't correspond the right key to control the orb I wanted. Our human brain also intuitively maps things left to right (Q,W,E) so when we move the orbs around the map, it becomes disorienting to remember which key is for which orb. Often times I select the wrong orb.
  3. I initially thought the orbs just had to be close to attack, so I fumbled a bit wondering why their attack range was so short, but eventually the game got more fun when I realise they can auto-attack after you select them and it's more like a tower defense, a genre I love, and thus I started to get into the groove. However, I think the orbs should still be able to move while attacking.
  4. The game is a bit unforgiving. And since the orbs stop when they attack, it makes controlling them even less forgiving as you have to be exact with timing and be really reactive when you want them to move to attack a new enemy in a short timespan - furthermore, since you can only select one orb at a time, the window of "opportunity" is really tiny. 
  5. To the above point, this is especially clear with the white enemy which has a lot of HP. You kinda need to start attacking it and control all the orbs to attack it almost immediately or you'll lose. What might help is a "prediction" indicator, where a coloured arrow appears at the borders of the screen to indicate which enemy is about to spawn, and from which direction. That gives you a bit of predictability and intent, so it's less frustrating and more of "I should've seen that coming!"
  6. I played for a good while and truly gave it my best shot, but I still could not win despite sinking quite a lot more time into it than some other games.
  7. Also I didn't understand if there was a trick to the flashing enemies. I think I get that I'm only supposed to hit them when they flash the colour, but the flashing interval is just way too fast. Given that the turrets automatically attack, and the bullets take time to travel, even if you click at the right moment, you can lose. This becomes more frustrating than fun to coordinate to attack, especially when multiple of them appear on screen, and you can only control one at a time.
  8. "You was 10% right" - there's an English typo here, which should be "You were". I don't want to be that guy but since this message is repeated very often when losing, the typo becomes quite in your face.
  9. Lastly, I'm not really sure how it plays on the theme, other than the text on the lose screen saying that "something went wrong". I get that it's designed to be difficult but the theme isn't merely about just making things as difficult as possible, it's that things can go "wrong", not "difficult". I've played a couple other games here that show off the theme, but aren't difficult, or even just chillax. Currently it can be a bit more frustrating than fun. But I think with some tweaks, this game is actually really creative, which is one of my favourite parts of the game - the colours that require you to coordinate the turrets.

Nonetheless:

  • I like the visuals. The colours and simplicity were nice, and I liked that they leave a glow on the ground.
  • I also liked that the enemies have a hit VFX which sprays in the direction they were killed.
  • I liked the custom cursor and its trail.

Overall, the mechanic itself is creative and one that has potential to be really cool if well executed.

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thanks a lot for the feedback. 

I agree that it could be very useful to add some kind of letters to the orbs, but I didn't have time to make it looking good and not annoying. The theme "Nothing can go wrong" isn't about difficulty, but about the fact you are not allowed to use color that's not in the enemy, therefore you have no room for wrong choice. I have around 5k hours in RTS so it may be intuitive for me the way units move (for example, in Dota 2), so can't say much about this. As for difficulty, it was 2 times harder before final version, so I thought it's already very simplified ;) Thanks for pointing out the typo I overlooked.

Submitted(+2)

Hey there, sure of course, understandable with regards to time. I only shared the part on difficulty as I saw the reply to another comment who commented similarly about difficulty, but of course, feel free to disregard or ignore any of my comments if you don't deem it fitting! It's your game after all, and you get to make it the difficulty you want :)

Submitted(+1)

Really really cool! I liked that I need to combine colors, really suprised me. Very fun.

Developer(+1)

Thanks!

Submitted(+1)

Its kinda challanging love the art style tho!

Developer

Thanks!

Submitted(+2)

Wow, this game is challenging! So simple concept, but my brain was confused.

Submitted(+2)

Lovely game kinda challenging! I loved the visuals and the sound effects!

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

Liked the visuals, and the sfx are satisfying, but its pretty difficult

Developer(+1)

Thanks for the feedback. How far were you able to get to?

Submitted(+1)

7

Submitted(+1)

Very good mechanics and i like the minimalist atmosphere of the game. Well done!

Developer

Thanks!

Submitted

Played and rated :)

Really cool concept, took me a minute to figure out what was going on at first but once i got it i had fun! Enemies were maybe a little too fast, didn't leave much margin for error, but i guess thats the theme right?

Developer

Thank you!
Initially it was way harder, but my friends were having troubles completing the game, so I decreased difficulty a lot. At the moment I don't think it's reasonable to make it even easier since the theme will be lost.

Submitted(+2)

Awesome looking game! Visually amazing!

Submitted(+2)

This game might not be the best experience for others with color blindness. However the Music, Art, and Gameplay it's complement each other well (from my perspective).

Developer

Thank you!
Unfortunately,  I didn't think of color blind people.

Developer

By the way, are you color blind?

Submitted(+1)

No, but i have friends who are color blind which i can relate to when he plays your game.

Submitted

Fun game and very stressful at times haha music fit well and i liked the vibe of the game

Developer

Thanks ;)

Submitted

The sound design was great but I didn’t understand what to do about the ones with different color.

Developer (1 edit)

Everything here is based on RGB, where, for example, yellow is a mix of red and green.

Submitted

Very Beautiful!! reminds me of Inside out!!

Developer(+1)

From this perspective, this game is about defending your mind from negative thoughts ;)

Submitted(+1)

19 % right was my cap haha, I am dumb or I can't figure out how to get good. I like the music and glow particles!

Submitted(+2)

Good game, a little hard to understand at first but when it's done it's very enjoyable. And the art is really good.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for feedback ;)

Submitted(+1)

so pretty!

and a genuinely engaging experience. mixing the colors is a interesting mechanic that is immediately understandable

Developer(+1)

Thank you!

Submitted(+1)

Good game, enjoyed it.

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thank you ;)

Viewing comments 20 to 1 of 27 · Previous page · First page