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A jam submission

Cake WarView game page

Submitted by botstarai — 30 minutes, 21 seconds before the deadline
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Cake War's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Fun#94.1224.122
Game Design#463.8983.898
Graphics#1233.8573.857
Overall#1633.4733.473
Audio#1713.3883.388
Innovation#4242.8572.857
Theme#5652.7142.714

Ranked from 49 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does you game fit the theme?
You are not alone. All your friends from the dessert lands are here!

Did you write all the code and made all the assets from scratch?
Yes, expect the music. I own the rights to use the music, but I did not make it.

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Comments

Viewing comments 46 to 27 of 46 · Next page · Last page
Submitted (1 edit)

(I am now in a rush to test as many games as possible to help, so please do not mind the cursory reviewing style.)

Semi-on-the-fly remarks:
  1. Controls are QWERTY-only instead of layout-independent (I have an AZERTY keyboard), BUT arrow keys are enabled.
  2. Very detailed, including how those little cute cookies turn to the other side by 2D-flipping! :)
  3. At first, not easy getting what is dangerous, what is a bonus/collectible, and what is decoration. I would suggest introducing things more gradually to help readability, although I guess we can already infer by playing repeatedly.
  4. Oh, there IS a pause feature (with the P key)! :) Not obvious, since "PAUSE" is not written and the still animations are still (!) playing. I would suggest mentioning the key on the game page, for now!
  5. Weird, no doughnut upgrade suggested the second time! Does this mean the available upgrades are randomly selected?
  6. When pausing, the experience chunks apparently still finish their ways to the player character — which may be on purpose.
  7. Now having double sugar, banana, and cone: this makes it hard to differentiate between what I shoot and what the enemies shoot! I definitely think some visual change could help readability. Like, a couloured-glow, with one colour for the player (and one or none for the enemies)?
  8. Oh, as for pausing, same thing for the projectiles, including bananas! :o They can destroy enemies during the pause! I think this is unexpected.
  9. I feel like I gain experience very quickly and become superpowered!! Maybe some balancing is needed? (I noticed you said on the game page that the game gets either too hard or too easy, so you are aware of it.) Although this is great for playtesting faster and seeing all the (numerous!) abilities. And the game is still pleasing. :) And I have yet to see a boss (since the game page mentions them), so things may get harder!
  10. Sometimes, when there are many cookies, you conflate your cookie with the other cookies! X) Although I guess this is linked to the way you integrated the theme (you are not the only cookie).
  11. UI is really great, especially the upper-right pane as recap for what abilities we have, and the upgrade selection panel with descriptions. :) Very detailed and user-friendly game. Although I notice not all abilities are there (for example, speed and damage); I would have liked to see everything, but I guess you were afraid this would take too much space. Maybe replacing the dots with values/numbers would do the trick? Although this would be less cute.
  12. Apparently, one drawing per ability LEVEL!! You really went far in the level of details, this is nice! :)
  13. Ah, you can unpause the game while selecting an upgrade! :o I wonder if this is expected. I think not, because it means you are in danger while selecting. (And I think I gained an upgrade while in pause, which then UNpaused the game for the upgrade selection. TEST: no, discard that, does not happen! Now at 1 HP because of this test!! :o XD)
  14. Oh, a big cookie! Is it a boss? If it is, then spawned at 04:00 instead of 05:00!
  15. I like how the camera shifts according to the mouse. :)
  16. If you pause while colliding, you get damage regularly!! :o Definitely a problem with pause handling; I think you only stopped character’s movement (and timer), but not the rest of the logic, such as collision handling.
  17. Out of anticipation, I realize we may not be able to heal anymore once reaching 10 in HP ‘ability’; if this is the case, then this might be a long-term problem. OR make the game stay difficult, which can be a good thing!
  18. 05:00: no boss? So, definitely 4 minutes instead of 5 minutes for boss spawning? If this is the case, then the game page should be updated.
  19. Just upgraded dougnut damage, but still damages the oval-shaped ‘friends’ (enemies, really XD) (are these ice cream cones?) by 1; is this normal?
  20. Ah, now, I realize you chose to display dots (for abilities) in columns because there are various aspects (speed, damage…) for the abilities you display! And you only wanted to display those with multiple aspects. So, this dot system might be a good idea, in the end. (Discard my previous comment on showing numbers.)
  21. So many things on screen that I have trouble seeing the MOUSE and aiming!! XD Maybe show an aiming drawing to help?
  22. The game really makes me want to get all abilities to the max. XD This is more addictive than I would like to admit!
  23. Giant ice cream around 08:52, so I definitely think bosses spawn every 4 minutes instead of 5. By the way, one suggestion: in boss phase, make all enemies disappear (or wait for them to be wiped out), and then have a big fight against only a very powerful and very large boss? Not sure if this could be interesting, seeing how many powers we have.
  24. Ah, the dots are actually NOT displayed in columns according to sub-aspects! SUGGESTION: do it? :) (See above.)
  25. Seeing how the experience chunks/powder stays where we took down enemies, I wonder if they stay even when we get really far, and how you manage memory!
  26. By the way (now at level 42 — haha, not chosen on purpose! ;)), I did not follow your advice about getting an elite ability and instead chose to see a mix of everything, and I am still very powerful.
  27. Pausing: I realize my four dougnuts all have a different colour! :D I thought I had three black/brown and one white, but I do not. The amount of details in this game is somewhat crazy and great. :)
  28. Oh no, getting back to the game after a long pause, no more sound! :o I think this may be a pure navigator issue independent on the game, as this happened to me recently for another one.
  29. Even though increasing again normal damage, got back to 1?? Weird. Or do the enemies get more armour as time goes on?
  30. Bug: having paused by coincidence right when taking a hit, my character stays white after unpausing! X)
  31. So powerful that this is actually a bullet hell FOR THE ENEMIES. XD
  32. Skipped too fast, but maybe a misspelling "banans" for "bananas" about the damage upgrade; unsure.
  33. Do the bosses give you more experience? I would say yes, but not sure.
  34. Test: what causes the FPS to drop a little is apparently our numerous projectiles; things get smoother as soon as I stop clicking.
  35. For a lot of time, I have now thought that the most dangerous thing in the game is the cupcakes’ (? I mean, white with cherry things) projectiles. So, I think you could make the game more challenging by adding firing enemies.
  36. Got dougnuts of doom; stopping regular firing to increase FPS. XD
  37. Level 58: weird, the experience bar experiences jolty forward jumps before going back. There is a boss, so this might be linked to him??
  38. Definitely "banans" instead of "bananas" in the elite chocolate description.
  39. Experience bar smooth again at level 59.
  40. "BANANARANG" for elite bananas: the names are funny. XD
  41. Apparently, the upper-right panel does not show when some ability has reached elite level; I would suggest putting some indication there. For example, a change of color for the dots or/and icon.
  42. The panel suggests the elite cone upgrade, but I already have it! Maybe because I am close to having all elite abilities? Nevertheless, healing is no more suggested, as I had anticipated…
  43. Level 72: only five upgrades suggested, this time! So, I am wondering if the elite cone thing is a specific bug. By the way, what happens when you have all the upgrades? Do you get stuck on an empty upgrade panel? Or is there some limit level?
  44. I want to see all elite abilities, so this game takes me SO MUCH time… Currently at level 74; I would advise making it shorter in the context of a game jam, for fussy testers like me that go out of their ways to see as much as they can. X)
  45. Level 76: everything at elite level! I just wonder what happens if you also set your basic capacities to the maximum…

Takeaway: super funny-juicy action-packed game! Action and details are really great, although there is a difficulty imbalance in the long or even middle run, but this could be fixed by tweaking power parameters (and adding shooting enemies, see above).

Actually, the real game-jam-related criticisms would be that I feel the game is only loosely connected to the theme (this basically amounts to ‘there are other cookies/delicacies like you’) and not necessarily original. Although the game jam page does say not to necessarily target all criteria, so… not that serious in itself, I feel the game is GREAT! :)

Side note: my last-minute game does the exact opposite, focusing almost solely on the theme and originality (and still on gameplay to a possible extent). XD

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for playing and the great feedback!!! :D

Really great that you found and pointed about different bugs or features that went wrong. I have no idea what can cause some one of them such as the boss not spawning at the 5 minute mark and why the FPS drops when shooting. The shooting might be a problem with the browser version, but the timer for the boss makes no sense. I will have to do some serious debugging after the game jam.

I will go over all your points in detail after the game jam and try to make this in to my first "real" game.

I am going to play and rate your game before the jam ends!

Submitted

Glad my comment is useful, especially for the bugs! :) You are welcome.

I have no idea what can cause some one of them such as the boss not spawning at the 5 minute mark and why the FPS drops when shooting. The shooting might be a problem with the browser version, but the timer for the boss makes no sense.
  • For the time, I guess the lag can cause some decoherence between game time and real time, depending on how the game/engine deals with game time; I know through MonoGame that weird things can happen, but I am not entirely sure this is related.
  • The FPS problem seems more straightforward to me: there is so much stuff on screen (especially particle/visual effects, these are greedy!) that the processor has a hard time. X)
I will go over all your points in detail after the game jam and try to make this in to my first "real" game.

Great, good luck! :D (I also have many game jam games to take care of now, but I am caught in a succession of game jams out of creative frenzy. XD)

I am going to play and rate your game before the jam ends!

As you wish; be aware that mine is an extremely short last-minute entry! So, it should not take you much time — contrary to what yours did to me. XD By the way, do not hesitate to help out those entries with few votes (this link is at the top of the regular entries list). This time, I used the Karma ordering (watching out if the creators spammed or not), which is how I found your game. :)

Just one question that is in my (way too) long comment: does something specific happen when you get everything maxed out?

Developer(+1)

Thanks again for the feedback! :)

If you unlock everything nothing special should happen (it might do in the future :)). The game was crashing every single time when I tried to get that far and I just fixed the bug before I submitted the game and I haven't really tried to get that far with the web version.

Submitted

You know what? I am such a fussy perfectionist, I kept my run on hold in another tab, at level 76. XD All right, so trying to see for you whether the game still crashes! Nevertheless, be aware that I am at 1 HP, so any blunder on my part would reset the whole thing… :S

Submitted

Bug: Oh, I notice the timer is now only 02:15! :o So, I guess it gets reset when reaching 1 hour. X)

Two bugs: level 80: ‘Donut of Doom’ suggested again + one of the suggestions is a white square without description (I guess this is caused by my having already too many maxed out abilities).

Level 81: ah, first I am offered only 4 suggestions! (It has been 5 for a long time now.)

Level 82: offered ‘Banana Split’ again. I wonder if all elite powers get re-suggested.

Level 85: oh, the HP upgrade makes a comeback, and (bug?) there are TWO of them at the same time!

Wow, since I did not see the mouse anymore (happened before!) during a boss fight, I stopped moving, and got hit for 2 HP (or two times?)!! So lucky I healed before!! :O XD

Level 87: offered ‘Homing Utensils’ again.

Level 90: only three upgrades, for the first time.

(reaching level 92) By the way, for a lot of time now: sometimes suggested upgrades for abilities that already have all their dots.

Level 93: only 2 upgrades.

Suggestion: make the boss give more experience, if this is not the case (I was the wondering the first times, still unsure).

Level 94: 3 upgrades again! :o

Level 95: only 1 upgrade! I really wonder if I will get to getting 0 upgrades and thus get stuck. XD Oh, but there is the SKIP button… Still, trying to see if something bad happens.

By the way, said upgrade is one more doughnut, but I still have 4 after.

The FPS become so low during level 95, even though I do not actively shoot (I do not need to, except for the bosses XD), that is starts being somewhat troublesome/bothering.

Level 103: only one suggestion, which is the white square! Trying it; I can select it, but maybe without any effect?

Level 107; all right, still no crash, and I still cannot manage to get an empty upgrade list… ._. This is becoming even longer to achieve a level and laggier, so, let us call it quits.

Took me way more time that I would confess!!… :o XD (And I have so much to do! Including many comments to answer; not even yet looked at the comments for my own game!!)

Developer(+1)

Haha, well done. Did not expect anyone to even try to play as long as you did. I have started to update the game now and see if I can make it in to a real game. I have fixed most of the bugs you have mention (thank you so much for testing the game) and added some features I did not have time to implement before the deadline.


I will continue using your testing to debug and solve the problems.

Thanks again for playing the game! :)

Submitted

I think this game is a gem. I'd love to play a full version with achievements and stuff, such a great game. Good job!

One little recomendation, stray away from Unity's default set of fonts, spend a little bit finding some fonts that fit the game, it makes a difference *Looks in the instructions font general direction

Developer

Thanks for playing and for the feedback! 

I must have missed to change the font in the instructions. I used a custom font for everything else in the game. I will continue the development of the game after the game jam and look in to alternative fonts that might fit the game better! 

Submitted

The dancing cookie art was delightful. One specific suggestion would be to make the cupcake bullets into something a little more clear ... maybe a chocolate chip or strawberry or something? :D

Developer

Thanks for playing and for the feedback :)

Submitted

I played until I was level 73 so obviously I was really enjoying it! -Dustin

Developer

haha, nice work! Thanks for playing!

Submitted

A bit of a stretch on the theme, but nice execution, it's really well polished. Great work!

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Submitted

i reached level 60 before i remembered i had to rate this game

amazing fun!

Developer

Thanks for playing the game! :)

Submitted

Good game, could you please rate my game https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-8/rate/1680919 ?

Submitted

This is a fun game! Lots of fun upgrades, and it felt like a good level of difficulty; I managed to reach level 30. The screen shake is a little too strong, but otherwise the visuals and audio are solid. Great work!

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted

Great game! I love the visuals! The theme implementation was a bit off, but other then that great game! Keep up the good work!

Developer(+1)

Thank you for playing! :)

Submitted

Great game! I adore the visuals and the music really fits the theme & feel of the game.

Developer

Thanks!

Submitted

This game was great, i enjoyed it. The characters are awesome. Only thing I would add is a tutorial.

Developer

Thank you for playing the game! I will try to add some simple tutorial the first time someone plays the game.

Submitted

It was very fun to play but a bit easy.

Developer

Thank you!

Submitted

Really good progression with the powerups and different weapons made it fun for the middle levels. Later on the enemies were too few and far between. Nice little game though. I played it far longer than I should have;)

Developer

Thanks for playing!

Submitted

Loved it! Especially the art style. I used pixel art as well. The gameplay was kind of difficult at the beginning but then got gradually easier and easier. But then at the end, it was a bit too easy to absolutely wreck the baddies. Other than that, great game, good potential for future updates and well done!

If you don't mind, could you play and review my game? I need some constructive criticism lol.

https://itch.io/jam/brackeys-8/rate/1680927

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing the game! I will try out your game and give you a comment.

Submitted

Wow this game is amazing. I played for 23 minutes, I wanted to unlock everything to see if I would get that "You Win" payout. Only suggestion would be to make late-game baddies a little tougher, my uber donuts  wrecked shop as soon as   they were ranked up and only bosses could threaten me. Fantastic jam entry.

Developer

Thanks for playing the game! :) 

Yes you and many other have said the same thing. I did not have any time to properly balance the game and scale all enemies. The only thing that is different is the time it takes for each enemy to spawn. I will update the game and fix this issue. Donuts.

Submitted

All in all, the most fun I have had playing a game this jam. My daughters really loved it, too.

Submitted

Satisfying bullet hell game. Though it was difficult to make out the mobs over some of the background objects.

Developer

Thanks for playing the game! I will try to fix this issue when I update the game.

Submitted

Great game, love the cake massacre as it is both quite and intense at the same time. Also, nice upgrades.

Developer

Thanks for playing the game! :)

Submitted

Note: I played for a prety long time, reached level 30 and killed giant cookie. 

Minuses: 

- Pixel grid ruins pixel art becuase of the movement and distorts cute faces you were trying to show. 

- Too much text in tutorial. I dont think wide audithory would read that. That counts as plus as well, because most games from jack have a lack of any tutorial.

-Some upgrades are more useful than another ones. This is balancing question, i understand that you had only one week, but still. I can survive only on rate of fire and projectiles count, which appear to show each 2nd level up. 

Pluses:  

- Art and UI. Solid, nice artwork. I can see enemies and player, althought i wouldnt make enemy cookies same sprite.  

- Idea. Every game that is food related gives positive vibes, nicely done. 

- Feeling. I love the particles and collecting guts part, good ol' topdown shooter. 

Overall: Solid entry, i honestly played your game more than any other. Take care!

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing and the detailed feedback!

By the pixel grid I tried to hide my horrible art with some displacement of the pixels (simply lower resolution).

I did not expect many people to go in to the upgrade section of the game unless they really wanted to. The game is about exploring different build paths. You are still right, there is a lot of text and I could have implemented some in to the upgrade itself. 

The balancing issue was due to time constrains and that I thought the game would be too hard (after play testing and comments on other games I have submitted in other jams) so I made the game too easy for some.

Submitted

really fun game! Very "20 minutes till dawn" and very addictive.

Developer

Thanks for playing! 

Submitted

insane game, super polished and really fun to play, spent a long time playing this lmfao i just wish the player was more distinguished from the background though

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing and for the feedback! 

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