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QuickDraw's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Ambience | #6 | 4.444 | 4.444 |
| References / Humor | #19 | 3.889 | 3.889 |
| Overall | #22 | 3.791 | 3.791 |
| Gameplay | #25 | 3.733 | 3.733 |
| Creativity | #56 | 3.689 | 3.689 |
| Theme | #75 | 3.200 | 3.200 |
Ranked from 45 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit into the theme?
A game about reaction speed. And you must chain them consecutively, even within the same round!
In terms of story, we reveal that the entire sequence of events was just a huge misunderstanding. The “gunslinger” was actually a sheriff, and Dokibird’s little prank caused this entire mess.
Showcase / Streaming Opt-In
Yes!
I give consent.
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Comments
My favorite game of the jam, I love it!
To be honest, I really enjoyed your game.
Big fan of the mechanic and the art. Well deserved. My favourite hidden gem.
As a top 1 % reactions speed holder, this game was so easyIs what I would say if I wasn't slow :P -- the only concern I think is that a game entirely about reaction speed will be statistically skewed towards specifically young people and setups that can remove latency, but otherwise it's a cool game, the art and aesthetic are amazing!Great art and story. Music and audio design is fitting as well.
Gameplay is fun until Doki's duel. The distraction is makes the fight a lot harder than it should be and Doki's reaction time is very fast.
I managed to beat the game once in Easy mode after trying a bunch of times in Normal but I had turned off the dialogues so I missed the whole ending. Then I played again with dialogues but pressed the "skip" button to go faster.
Managed to beat the game a second time but noticed a bug with the dialogues playing twice now. And when I quit to the menu, both the menu and the dialogue showed at the same time. (see screenshot)
I feel Doki's duel could've been tuned a bit more to the easier difficulty (on her reaction time), since the distraction adds a lot of difficulty to that duel. It would be interesting to record play data from multiple people (at least a dozen, from different skill levels) to see what's the average reaction time when there's a fake signal and use that for tuning.
The game is supposed to be fun for the players, but when it's tuned too hard it's just frustrating and leaves a bad taste. Remember not everyone has quick reflexes but everyone wants to enjoy a fun game! :)
Overall, it's a nice game. Good job, team!
Thank you for playing our game! Unfortunately, the jam is about to end, so we wouldn't be able to fix the dialogue bug in time...
In terms of doki's difficulty, you are right about doki still being pretty hard on easy mode. I intended easy mode to be easier, but not a free win. I wanted the player to adapt and learn how to deal with the fake signal. However, I should've made her much easier, 0.55s is still pretty fast. I forgot to make easy difficulty easier.
I think my interpretation of the playtested data was biased, as the majority of the testers I know are in their prime / early 20s. Doki's win rate on normal seems to be around 40% from my team/testers/friends, but this definitely doesn't reflect our player base if we look at the comments. If we could've tuned our difficulty appropriately for doki, maybe our game could've left a better taste for our players.
Thank you for the detailed feedback!
Dokibird’s fight is so hard. But I somehow managed to get a hit and a strike at the same time? Doki lost hp and I still got a strike somehow? This was distracting enough that Doki got me. I got to the final round against Doki on normal, but I think every “tie” is complete bs. Then I switched to easy, where it was extremely easy in comparison. Then I clicked outside the window to access options to enable the dialogue, but the dialogue got bugged and I got the dialogue for multiple different situations at the same time. After winning the final round Doki gave me her winning quote and a retry button appeared. If I hadn’t came here to post this comment I wouldn’t have seen comments talking about an ending and realized I didn’t actually get the win for whatever reason. I had to refresh the page to get it the work again. I beat the game on easy in the end.
Very pretty game, the character designs and the portraits are super nice.
I got skill issue so hard at the end with loads of bamboozled failure but I manage to get to the end! Love the art in this game, really make it feel polish and full, each has this cool factor to them. Game play is simple but challenging (especially for a slow reaction player like me lol). Overall, this is an amazing work from the team!
I absolutely adore the art, especially the backgrounds, these are wonderfully done. Makes me want to make a western game myself. And the reaction speed based combat? It's a wonderful idea. Love it
Very stylish, and every aspect of the game ties in nicely. The unexpected moral message at the end is the cherry on top!
Loved the game! The artwork for everything is absolutely gorgeous. From the pixel art, the wild west scenery, and especially the character portraits. How they have different emotions depending on the scene made it way more engaging. The story was well written too!
Gameplay wise, it was fun while not being overly difficult. Each Goon having their own gimmick gave the game less repetitiveness. I got bamboozled so many times in the last match, which made it even more rewarding to win.
Congrats on such a polished, complete game!
Thank you for playing, bunndan! Props to you for finishing the game! The last boss is quite difficult:D
A difficult but fun game. The itch page is nicely decorated and the art is very well done. Gameplay loop is simple, straightforward, and fun. Enemies are varied in a creative way. I was not able to get pass the chonky dragoon, but it was tense in an enjoyable way. The only suggestion I have would be to add some slow animations, like cloud moving in the background, or an occasional tumble weed. Good job on getting the game this polished!
Thanks for playing our game and giving your honest opinion.
We prioritised the game mechanic/gameplay over animation so that it can be playable in a simple way (8-bit style). But we will keep that in mind.
I love the art direction on this, the egg goon carrying around a pencil to draw expressions on his own face was a really nice touch!
Thanks for playing, Medi! I think I had the most fun drawing the egg. so I'm glad you liked him:D
This is probably one of my favorites so far. Great work! The dragoon designs have a lot of character and the dialogue is fun. I had to go on easy mode for the Doki level. D.A.D. really added a layer of challenge to the game. Great work all around!
Thank you for playing!
I do really like the design, the art, the sound, the story, all of that so so so much. But the final boss is downright unfair and stripped all the fun away the moment the fakeouts began. I want to beat the game but its been hours. Multiple successful passes to win is rough, and fakeouts during that is brutal. I was at 7 successive shots I think it was, on the third phase (too many) when I lost at one point. I have no idea what causes it to let a shot through or not, because I have gotten one (by accident) by accidentally hitting the button when it was on screen for less than a couple frames, and it just triggered a chain of shots instead of winning.
Everything else, the sprite work the poses the theming the shading is absolutely gorgeous! I do really like the game, but that boss needs an overhaul. Overall a wonderful job! Very nice!
Thank you for detailed and honest feedback, Neko! Shot doesn't go through sometimes because it's a draw or there is mechanic on one lvl where series of bullets are deflected this way. We wanted to make it more obvious by showing that bullets colliding in the middle, but we run out of time. Also, the last boss supposed to be that hard and some people are beating it, I have no idea how , since I still can't beat it myself (•⌢• ). But our mistake was not to make the existense of easy mod more obvious.
That what I personally did when I started feeling frustration from last boss, just lowered a difficulty. I can imagine myself in your situation trying to finish the game, but not knowing you can set an easy mode in the options. I will add info about it in a game description at least, sorry about that!
Its more an issue I think of difficulty spike. I beat every other character first try, without issue. But suddenly, this final character introduces a new mechanic that isn't fun and additionally has lofty expectations of players. That some people managed to beat it once (can they do so reliably?) does not change that the difficulty spike feels like a difficulty cliff, and is far too great. I would still say the same thing had I managed to beat her. An easy mode I was not aware of, and I will circle back and try it when I have time. Though I still advocate that if you can't beat your own game, it needs rebalanced. I do love it, and without the fakeouts I feel the difficulty would go back in line with the rest of the characters and have a natural progression. That way it doesn't go from training you to "hit it as fast as you can", to "hit it fast but also don't, but also do" so suddenly. That some people have beaten it, or the existence of an easy mode, does not warrant or justify its difficulty.
But don't get my detailed critique wrong, it is an amazing game concept and its going to go far. I do really enjoy it, and want to see it shine bright as it can. As somebody who is disabled (mute) I very very much love getting to see or play a mute character. The art is immaculate too! Sound design superb! I do believe that the boss is the only thing hurting the game right now, and deeply at that. My main suggestion is, if not remove the fakeouts, is to make the fakeouts come in a predictable pattern. Every 3 shots for example.
If you do want to make adjustments, as per jam rules "You should only make tweaks and bugfixes for problems that heavily impact your game's performance or playability" you can adjust the boss if you desire. As "heavily impacts your playability" is an understatement, and people have made adjustments for less.
(edit: Oh and I know that there is the draw mechanic, but on doki sometimes even though it is red, the sound played, and I reacted in time, the game tells me "whoops you fired early that's a strike!" and I am pretty sure that is a bug)
I don't agree that "If you can't beat your own game, it needs rebalanced". I think as long as its technically possible, its fine. I like games that challenge people. However, that does not warrant insane difficulty spikes or challenges requiring perfect input with nearly inhuman precision.
I do agree that the difficulty spike in here is insane.
Originally there was also supposed to be Dad and he'd have a bark sprite when the fakeout would happen. However this wouldn't help either. The fakeouts do add an additional challenge that the player simply isn't prepared for and on top of that the even smaller reaction window essentially makes it either:
A) RNG battle, where you hope you don't get fakeouts and can use your focus fully on reacting as fast as possible
B) Focusing on both. This requires great reflexes + self control to not automatically shoot when a fakeout happens.
It's possible. Some of us did it. But going from shooting everyone first try to spending hours on the last boss is quite bullshit.
Making the reaction window smaller would make this work. As you mentioned, predictable fakeouts would make this work. Maybe other solutions are there too.
So yeah, you're right. To make the game better and more proper, this'd either need balancing or reworking.
But game being easy until you face Doki, then you get your ass kicked for hours sounds funnier xD
My reason behind "if you can't beat your own game", is that a developer will have skill beyond that of average players. If they can't beat it, average players can't either, and they are the target audience. But if you have your heart set on the difficulty then by all means go for it. And I do hope this game goes far! It's really cool! Though, please refrain from calling a players hours of frustration funny, that is quite hurtful.
If you try the easy mode I think it's very well balanced, and the fake signal machanic there still feels challenging, but just enough to keep it fun, because it punishes hasty reaction, but leaves fair enough room to react for correct signal after.
What we should've done is to make an easy mode "normal" an set by default, and label "normal" one as hardcore. It wouldn't fix the issue with the sudden difficulty spike at the last boss, but at least player would have the right expectations and wouldn't get so surprised at the last level.
I'll talk with our programmers and mentioned about the possible bug you encountered.
Thanks again for a very detailed and informative comments! I definitely see that you are coming with good intentions and wish the best for the game!
Finally got the time to play on easy mode. I would say this is vastly more fair and in-line with the difficulty of the rest of normal mode. What I would have expected it to be like. I would make the game boot in easy (as the new normal) by default, yes. I think making normal into "hard" will absolutely temper the expectations of players that is a great idea! Right now the default difficulty feels like an EX boss. Haha!
I am happy to provide detailed feedback. I study game design and theory, and what's the point of studying if I don't share the knowledge? This game is one of the top ones in the jam I am sure of it. Not trying to critique to be mean, just want to share the understanding I have. I wish thee the greatest of luck in the jam! ( I am still pleased to play a mute character. They may talk a little in the end that I didn't see before, but appreciation is still there! )
I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and the fact you have played our game , even several times! Best of luck to you as well, Neko! And I'll definetly gonna check out your game!
Bullet colliding isn't shown properly, yeah. Also the window for bullet collision is too big imo too. I had 6 successive shots, then got shot right after. Insane. Yet to beat Doki.
But hey if you beat her on normal difficulty you get the bragging rights :)
honestly idk why but i was stuck on long dragoon as long as i was stuck at doki. DUDE the tough, badass ooking dialogue sprites are insane. also you know its hard if their own team mates cant beat the game man. That egg is especially badass tho seriously. Next game jam yall should make a dating sim/girly pop game with the same badass characters i would 1000% play it. So uhh, what was i saying again?.. oh yeah, doki being mischivous is both painful and accurate. epic.
I'm definitely glad I can lower the difficulty because without it I have a massive skill issue and wouldn't have been able to see this story through. It's well designed and with what it is, it does try something different. The feints and consecutive shots are quite interesting.
Thank you for playing!
Glad I ain’t the only one getting cooked by the dog bark lol, peak game
The dog bark exclamations are evil XD
Oh wow I love this interpretation on the chain reaction theme! It's very literal and I think that's awesome. Nice work!
i love this game! i played it for 2 hours and i really wish i could say that i beat it. i even tried cheating at the last level by waiting for all blue ones or all regular ones, but it just felt more like luck than skill at that point and i was losing sanity lol. i even managed to get the exclamation sound and gunshot to play at the same, without the symbol even appearing (by accident) and it was still a draw!!! it may be a skill issue, since others were able to beat it (my average was around 0.26, when i won). amazing though; mechanics, progression, character designs, art, writing, music; all very good!
i remember now that i could lower the difficulty...
Glad you liked it.
I wish I could say more, but I ran out of words in my mind.
Thank you for playing, notyca! I'm still trying to beat the game on normal difficulty. So, I don't think it's a skill issue, the last lvl is actually very hard! Or maybe we both just bad...(ಥ‿ಥ)
Amazing!! This was fun, the art is great. My reaction speed is absolute trash, but my bf beat it (I believe you saw him on stream beating it haha). I love this! :) What a great little game!
Thank you for playing, Choco!!
The character designs are perfect omfg, I have pretty poor reaction time so couldn't get too far, but great game!
Thank you for playing! You can lower difficulty in a options, I can't beat it on normal either:D