I'm very pleased to see the direction of this project after having played the previous prototype. I can tell there is a strong vision here, however there's still a lot of room for improvement. I love the design of the main character, but to me it feels like its being held back by the way the game runs? The animations are quite jittery and pressing jump lifts the character into the air while their animation is still bracing for a jump. I'm almost wondering if this may be an issue caused by having all the enemies loaded into the game even when they are far away, causing performance issues? (This is speculative of course but it may be worth investigating)
I would also highly recommend implementing a health system as right now touching a single enemy restarts the entire game.
Otherwise, I think this project is moving in a good direction I can't wait to see the game after the final sprint! Keep up the great work!
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Purging Blade's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Use of Themes - how effectively or uniquely does it engage in the jam's themes? | #18 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
Interesting Gameplay / Fun | #19 | 3.167 | 3.167 |
Aesthetic (Art, Audio) | #27 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
Overall | #28 | 2.967 | 2.967 |
Likely to Release | #37 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
Smooth, Polished & Bug Free | #38 | 2.333 | 2.333 |
Ranked from 6 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
I can see the idea of your game, and I like the designs of some of the npcs and the design of Bristle himself, but there are several issues that I think need to be looked into.
Some things I would recommend:
Npcs: The first I saw upon starting up the game was a png rocket clipping into the ground (Refer to image). There's also a realistic looking dog floating in midair. While I do like the designs of the wolf and deer, they seem to be cropped out and the wolf is also floating in midair. Are some of these placeholders? I'm asking because some of these just feel out of place and put in at the last minute.
Combat: I think the combat needs to be reworked or at least better explained. I have to agree with Me_gan that you need to list the controls somewhere, or at least have one of npcs explain how combat works. I was also confused about the controls, as the pressing left mouse just made Bristle do what looked like a block animation and then a vertical slice after clicking left mouse a few times. I could also only defeat the venus fly trap enemies, while the ants were just impossible to kill.
I would also suggest adding a reset button, as there were times I fell off the map and got stuck running in place.
I don't me to be critical, as I can see that you have quite a lot of passion for this game. I love your concept and some of the models you've made are amazing. I just know that you could do better, and there's a lot that needs to be done by the next sprint. Either way, I look forward to seeing how your game develops from here.
It's definitely clear you all are very passionate about your project and have some great ideas planned for it. I'm looking forward to what's to come.
Some things to consider:
- Adding a quit game option when playing
- Listing the controls somewhere
- It is currently possible to fall off the map when running to the left at start
- The first jump is a little difficult if too close, maybe lower it a tad?
I might have been confused on the controls (left clicked), but I was not able to attack any of the enemies and automatically died.
Regardless, I'm looking forward to seeing how your game evolves from here!
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