For some reason, I wasn't able to move or use left click/right click.
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absorber's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Sound | #178 | 3.214 | 3.214 |
| Theme | #185 | 3.571 | 3.571 |
| Mechanics | #285 | 3.143 | 3.143 |
| Fun | #295 | 3.214 | 3.214 |
| Music | #523 | 1.929 | 1.929 |
| Aesthetics | #553 | 2.643 | 2.643 |
| Story | #645 | 1.571 | 1.571 |
Ranked from 14 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How many people worked on this game total?
1
Did you use any existing assets? If so, list them below.
I created everything with the software listed in the game page
Link to your source?
https://github.com/OverlyDevoted/GameDev.tv_GameJam2022
Comments
I like the simple and clean visuals. Core gameplay on theme for the jam.
The "tutorial" was a nice way to teach how to get new abilities.
Having that little animation before an enemy spawns is also nice, to plan ahead where to move.
I couldn't get past the attack skill though. Only once I saw a different enemy, but couldn't get close enough to get hit by it to get the new ability. I got swarmed and died to one of the first enemies.
The attack skill is quite tricky to use as it doesn't hit in a straight line and leaves a gap between the target and yourself as a safe zone, so you really need to keep the right distance to the target for it to hit.
Good game!
Submitted
Death's DriverSome comments:
- I really like the simplicity of the concept here. It fits the theme very well by having the player to actually make choices between this attempt and next attempts. I didn't realize this fully at first and after the dash enemies were introduced the first time I was just avoiding them thinking how well I was doing and then ended up being killed by a walker!! Then I realized that I actually wasn't supposed to try to get as far as possible now but to first only to get far enough to be killed by enemies with new abilities.
- The game is very easy to understand and start playing and it was super fund to play. Probably even the most fun game I have played during this jam. It has been designed really well!
- The aesthetic of the game is simple but that's why it also looks in a sense quite polished. So I would say that it was a good choice to keep it abstract and let the gameplay speak for itself. Also, the I liked how the game did not have specific "start screen" but it still managed to look welcoming with the first glance.
- Having no movement ability at the start was a great "tutorial". That way the player saw the basic mechanics of the game right at the beginning. No more explanations needed!
- One thing that I had troubles with was aiming the attacks. The trajectories of the attacks was very weird. It looked cool, that I have to admit, but it felt not very practical. I many times missed the enemy that I was targeting with the attacks even though the aim indicator was right on top of the enemy which felt unfair.
- The end screen after dying has a lot of text. As otherwise the game has almost no text at all this really stands out and in my opinion messes up the visual style of the game a bit. But to be honest I also don't know what you could remove from there to still have all the info there... Maybe this is something for you to think about if you continue working with the game later.
- One thing that comes to my mind would be to have acquiring of new ability done by clicking the new ability icon and for discarding the abilities to have UI button in some corner. This would also get away from the extra buttons Ctrl ands Shift which are not used elsewhere. Instead as mouse is anyway used for the gameplay also I would be more happy to use that also for UI.
- I like how the instructions for the controls are visible in the game itself. That's very clear way to communicate how to play.
- I noticed that there was also cooldown indicators on the ability icons but I must say that at least for me that did not help much. I had absolutely now time to be looking at the bottom corner of the screen while more and more enemies are spawning around me. Maybe you could consider implementing some kind of Diegetic Ui (= all important info is shown in the game objects themselves and not with "UI") and have the character for example change it's color based on if the dash ability is usable or not. For the attacking the cooldown was so short that the cooldown indicator might not even be necessary.
- Having indicators on the positions to which the enemies will spawn was really good decision! It took me a while to figure out why you had added that. It is the kind of thing that is hard to notice when everything is working but something that I would have definitely complained about if it was missing.
And some questions:
- How early you had the first playable prototype of the game?
- Can you spoil the last 2 abilities? I was only able to get movement, attack and dash but I would be interested to know what mechanics I missed.
- Did you intend the attack ability to be difficult to use? I could also see it as a design choice that controlling this kind of untraditional attack would be part of the learning process and mastering the attack would lead to getting further in the game. Was that what you thought or was it just that I wasn't very good with my attacks?
- How much you would say you have experience in jams / game design?
Overall: really fun game that feels really complete thanks to great scoping decisions.
If you have time later, I would be really happy if you would check out my jam submission. I would appreciate to hear your thoughts about that.
Submitted
SacrificeI'm genuinely surprised on how many of my design choices you have picked up on. Now I'm going to try to address your comments in the fashion you dissected my game:
- Introducing the mechanic of absorbing enemy abilities: Through other people’s feedback and seeing my friends play the game, it became obvious that most people get confused as to how to get more abilities. It shows that I still need a better way of introducing new players to the core gameplay loop. It was my idea that getting the movement ability should spark that "aha" moment, but I think that's too abstract and brief for players to pick up on.
- The slash attack: It always spawns in a constant distance from a player but it does not move with the player so it may create an illusion that the cursor is dictating the placement, but really it only dictates the direction of which the zenith of a swing will reach. But yeah, it's somewhat of a difficult ability to wield, but it is put as a first attack ability to train the player, but maybe the game difficulty needs to be tuned down for the start of the game, as many of the players did not reach the other attack ability.
- Death screen: UI is not my strong suit, and your suggestion is really worth trying to do as it sounds like a clean solution for the clutter.
- Ability UI: You bring a good point about the cooldowns, I did it for enemies because initially they did not have telegraphed attacks and it was too hard to predict attacks, I could've done something similar with the player. Maybe have one half for attack and defence abilities, so when u use an ability the corresponding side starts filling up in similar fashion as enemies do.
Now to answer your questions:
"How early you had the first playable prototype of the game?": First I worked on player movement, the enemies, the spawning system and then went on implementing the ability absorption mechanic. Then after implementing enemies that could shoot I would say I had the first playable prototype and it took about maybe ~10 hours overall. The game as whole I would say took ~30 hours :D
"Can you spoil the last 2 abilities?...":
1. Pistol - let's you shoot 1 pellet
2. Bonus health - gives 2 extra health
Had ideas for more, but I chose to improve the gamefeel as it made the game feel more complete.
"Did you intend the attack ability to be difficult to use?...": I understood that it is a much more difficult ability to wield, so I wanted players to have a harder time at the beginning so that they would eventually discover an easier ability which in my mind could potentially create a sense of accomplishment as it would give them the ability to go further.
"How much you would say you have experience in jams / game design?": I've participated in one other jam, but this one is the first one where I actually submitted. Apart from gaming my whole life, dissecting what gives me dopamine hits and watching yt channels like "Game Maker's Toolkit" and "Adam Millard - The Architect of Games" I don't really have much practical experience in game design. It's a second game I've done A to Z.
But for real, thank you so much for your comment, I feel like you really understood what I was going for and I really appreciate your comments. Thanks for playing the game :D
Cool game concept! The game has a challenging difficulty because the enemies are fast and occasionally there can be too many of them. Great work!
Submitted
Astral RenegadesYeah, the game can really be expanded. Had ideas for other abilities too like some AOE attacks and as a hole the core of the game can be expanded, like adding different stages, like if you survive long enough a boss appears or the map expands and more environmental things appear like exploding barrels or smth. But before any of this the codebase really needs more love, at the start I tried to do everything very clean, but then in the fashion of a game jam I started to cut a lot of corners so it's somewhat of a mess atm :D But yeah, thanks for playing and your support <3
Congrats on completing the jam! It's like Kirby but with death! I found it a bit confusing at first but figured it out after reading through the description.
Submitted
Happy ClicksGreat submission, took me a bit to figure out though. Either way, great work!
Submitted
Alliance RebornNice little game you got there! I really like the concept and the sound feedback is really nice! I think the player attack could come out a little quicker tho!
Submitted
Growth CirclesYeah balancing the timings wasn't easy, these cooldowns for skills felt not too long and kept the game challenging, but the balancing of these things really needs more playtesting and tuning. Now I think maybe it would've been better to make enemies have more health and make the attacks a little bit faster so the gameplay felt more fluid then have the player improve these skills to deal more and etc. So yeah, many ways to improve and expand, thank you for your feedback! :)
Fun Game.
I like the concept and implementation. Although the hitbox on your attack seems a little bit wonky.
Are there 3 abilities or are there more?
Submitted
Call of the DevilUnfortunately I couldn't figure out the controls. The game said WASD but only the arrow keys worked. The left and right mouse buttons didn't do anything. :(
Submitted
Happy ClicksHmm, yeah, that was also a problem in play testing. It's not that the buttons don't do anything you have to unlock the ability by dying to enemies. For example if a red octagon gets you, you gain his slash ability and then you can use your mouse in the next run. I just could not think of a way to express that better. Unfortunately at this point it does seem like a flaw in the design.
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