The game is very well-done. I've played a couple of times, and before reading the comments I had the same problem when it came to choosing an upgrade. The selections' shortcuts (1,2,3) should be more clear ingame. The solution and exploit I found while playing was left clicking, then I noticed that when a new upgrade was available I could move the selection with A & D, and apply it with Enter. That meant I would either use the mouse and stop attacking, or something walk towards enemies or an undesirable path to select them. I know this will simply be fixed by telling the player on the start of the game the shortcuts, but this comes with my exploit:
I found out I didn't need the pannel to be opened in order to upgrade, neither I needed any kind of time or points requirements. We can upgrade anytime we want. Once the player clicks on the upgrade pannel, they can simply tap Enter and an upgrade will be applied. That means I can spam Enter throught out the entire game and get myself unlimited early upgrades. Of course, the game gets a little laggy and overcrowed with all that effects on top and all enemies spawning at 8+ minutes.
Following that, the game could have some graphics updates, giving some love to the UI. I really liked the concept art for the enemies, they loose some of they power when scaled for the game, but I wouldn't change the style for the game, since it was well received. The thing I would look at is visual clarity, the background could be less bussy and let the other assets stand out. The upgrade effects could be redesigned, they can be really noisy, the more you have. Specially the Cotton Aura, or passive effects that stick with the player.
Good job with the game overall, I would gladly keep an eye on the game's updates and leave more feedback ♥
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Comments
A really unique game and approach to the theme soft! I very much enjoyed the art style, it's an interesting mix of cartoonish and gritty that gives a very unique vibe to the game. Also really enjoyed the intense soundtrack, definitely gets the adrenaline going XD One suggestion I have is to make it a bit clearer that the item upgrades have a keybind. It was also a little bit difficult physically to manage the movement direction, attack direction, and item upgrades on a keyboard. One small bug I noticed is that if I was attacking when I died, the attack animation continued to play during the death screen. Overall, really polished build for a game jam!
This was so much fun to play, i had such a good time running around getting more and more POWERFUL. the only thing i wish is that the upgrades had some sort of button? dedicated to it cuz it was kinda hard to click while fending off hoards of rats but man i had fun playing this one, the music is great and put me in a great mood, the art is fun and unique, the gameplay is amazing. probably my favorite entry so far!!
Carlito's Nightmare is one of the most unique entries I've seen in the Buddy Up Jam. The cartoonish art style, mass hordes of enemies, and hilariously intense soundtrack all reminded me of old Cartoon Network games from my childhood. The thing I love most about the game however is the weapon upgrade system, which allows the player to approach the game in new ways every time they play. Plus the weapons are a creative take on the soft theme. All-in-all, it's an amazing game!
Wow I was really invested in Carlito's nightmare! Fun mechanics, great art (especially in the menu screen) and animation and music... basically everything is good! Very inspiring :)
This feels very polished for a jam game. I would probably need an easy-mode to play it more, as I'm old and slow. :D ;)
Pretty fun! Music is rad, and I like the overall theme. Couple of thoughts:
- Having some visual feedback on the character sprite when you get hit or differently colored damage indicators would help, otherwise you always have to look at the health in the corner to check where you’re at
- I found it kind of awkward to upgrade things in the middle of so many enemies, either I have to pause or stop attacking to click on them. Maybe having some pauses between enemy waves would make this more natural
- I survived for about 3 min before dying, but my score is still zero! I assume this is a bug, unless killing enemies doesn’t give you points
- I like the art and animations, but it’s a bit pixellated on my screen, would be nice for it to be scaled up a bit so we can properly appreciate them :)
- This was probably not included for time, but having item descriptions on hover would be nice instead of having to check the item list below
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