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Dragon Dash's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Visuals | #7 | 3.875 | 3.875 |
| Pacifist Theme | #9 | 4.750 | 4.750 |
| Fun | #11 | 3.375 | 3.375 |
| Audio | #13 | 2.875 | 2.875 |
| Overall | #14 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Originality | #22 | 2.625 | 2.625 |
Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Briefly explain your games interpretation of the Pacifist theme?
The game is a variation of Flappy Bird, an inherently pacifist type of game. The objective is the same, go as far as possible to get the highest score, but adds a dash ability and collectibles that will increase your score.
Please tick any optional modifiers you incorporated into your game
How much CODE (text or visual) did you make?
You created all of the code from scratch (excluding game engine)
How much of the game's ART did you make?
You didn't create any art assets - you used existing assets for your game
How much of the game's SOUND effects did you make?
You didn't create any sound effects - you used existing audio for your game
How much of the game's MUSIC effects did you make?
You created all of the music heard in game (not with AI)
Other comments (Code / Art / Sound / Audio)
The game was supposed to feature sound effects and a longer track featuring the narration you can see on the game's page, but me and my daughter ran out of time, so no Karaoke modifier.
The theme is also that of a dying dragon (hence the particle effects when dashing and flapping) but we didn't get to expand on it. The collectible flames were meant to restore a health pool that was slowly draining but again, ran out of time and that feature got on the cutting floor.
Did you enjoy the jam? Is there anything you'd change if you could start over?
Yes, I loved the idea. I wish I had found out about it much earlier. I only saw it on Friday and with life getting in the way only managed to work for less than 8 hours on the game.
Aren't you awesome for being creative and taking part?
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Comments
Had a good time with this one! I really loved the idea you worked on this with your daughter :) the game actually felt like it was more skill based than I expected. The addition of a dash really made a difference, combining with what seemed like an increasing speed over time? The lore was nice too, shame not enough to flesh it out but it sounded solid :)
Thank you so much for the feedback. I'm glad you liked it, and thank you for organizing the jam.
Indeed the speed increases with time making the dash a riskier move later on.
This is a fun take on Flappy Bird. It does seem really hard, like the jump for the dragon is only slightly smaller than the gap you need to fit through. Which I understand is kind of the point, but with the dragon's long hitbox makes it feel more difficult than flappy bird. To be fair I always sucked at flappy bird lol. I'm impressed with what you did in 8 hours! I especially like the slight parallax effect for the background, very cool. Overall, good job on the game and keep it up!
Thank you for the feedback. The collision box for the dragon is quite a bit smaller than the sprite. The pillars also have a smaller collider. I think the problem is I switch to the end screen instead of showing something like a death animation, as that would more clearly show how forgiving the colliders are.
The trick is to mix up dashes with flaps. If you notice that a flap will cause you to hit the upper pillar, you can quickly dash, and that acts as a flap cancel.
But I do agree the game can be very difficult. And unfortunately the way inputs work are one of the reason. One thing on my list was to do input buffering, similar to how quality platformers like Hollow Knight and Ori do it. If you press a flap while you're dashing, it won't register. I also think flaps could act as dash cancels, giving you even more control over the dragon.
Very hard game, but the dash is a nice addition for a flappy genre that made it much more interesting imo. The different controls was also a nice touch. I had a hard time knowing how close I could get to the pillars without failing. I assume any touching fails but often seems very sudden. Would be nice to either have a little extra room or have some sort of visual feedback of how close you are? Not sure, that might just be part of a flappy game.
Thank you so much for your feedback.
The collision boxes for both the dragon and the pillars are quite a bit smaller than their sprites, precisely to make it a bit more forgiving. So much so that my son, who has a pretty old and slow laptop and the game runs below 30 fps, discovered he can dash through the pillars if he times it right :)
But I'll think of ways to improve feedback when nearing the pillars.
Nice! It does feel really good when you do a bunch of dashes in a row.