Overall, pretty good. However, more items could spawn between the waves.
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Pack N Slash's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Originality | #99 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
Adherence To Theme | #145 | 3.300 | 3.300 |
Style | #188 | 2.800 | 2.800 |
Game Design | #202 | 2.500 | 2.500 |
Ranked from 10 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Comments
tl;dr: Surprinsingly liked the game even though it lacks some core features, the gameplay is rough, the gamedesign needs reworking and some stuff are just plain broken. A clear case of overscoping. I think it may have some potential if the gamedesign/gamplayissues are tackled.
I managed to escape after wave 18, and, even though it is really barebone right now, it was pretty engaging,
You clearly overscopped for a jam ^^ Tower defense + platforming + hack'n'slash combat... I mean, on paper it could work, but in game, everything is rough because you didn't have tihe time to polish anything. And I'm not talking about graphic, or lack of content (to be expected in a jam), I'm talking design / balance.
There is obviously a lot of issues I think need to be addressed to make this game what I believe it could be, so here comes the wall of text :D
- The platforming is really akward and punishing. I fell off the shelves in the tower way to much time for my taste. It doesn't help that you need to need to do platforming to get materials and possessions. You should polish the player controller a bit more, and probably redesign the tower a bit. This video gives some idea on how to fix some issues (it's about 2D games, but a lot of advices are still relevant for 3D).
- Also, you can walk above turrets, but not climb the stairs with jumping. That was frustrating, given you have to enter the tower quite frequently.
- The fact the objects respawn between waves was somethign that took me a bit of time to understand. You might want to state that clearly so that players know what to expect.
- You should also probably balance a bit the way materials appear. One run I had stuff for a turret before wave 1, the other, I had to wait past wave 5 or 6 to be able to buy something.
- Regarding turrets, I think there is variations/power levels? I wasn't able to tell the difference, as there were no numbers to give me any insights of what I was buying.
- The fact that turrets seems to be randomly available in the shop with "random "prices (related to power levels, I suppose?) was also really confusing at first. Plus the shop is a bit broken? The only way I found to leave it was to press the esc button, which also paused the game.
- Giving some sort of indication of range should be mandatory for the turrets. How I am supposed to know where to place them if I don't know where they can shoot? Hopefully, all my turrets did they job, but there is nothing more frustrating in a TD game than placing a tower that can't shoot enemies.
- I'm not sure the spiked wall do anything? After trying 1 or 2, I focused solely on turrets. Either is a bug and it does nothing, or it lacks some feebacks of sort.
- I found it weird that you could only place turrets near the cart, and not all around the map. In the tower defense games I played, it was always about picking the best spot for turrets to cover the most ground, and that was possible because the enemies took long and convoluted paths around the map, and the player was able to places turrets anywhere. Here, the turrets feel like your last line of defense, until they can basically overpower the enemies for a few waves.
- Fighting is maybe too powerful? You could probably survive a lot of waves just by camping near the spawn point. Sure, it won't help you winning the game, because you'll be too far from the tower to progress in any way, but it makes you feel you don't really need the turrets. If you rework the tower defense stuff and really want to keep combat, I'd make less powerful, but more useful (like hitting an enemy make it stagger, and stay under the fire of a turret longer, or something like that)
-The idea of switching characters is interesting, but I don't really see the point here. Both character can do almost the same actions, and switching takes so little time it's more a thing you have to think a bout rather than a thing you want to play with. If they were 2 different entity, you could have the wizard stay near the tower and the skeleton managing the battlefield. You would cut the back and forth between battle and the tower, giving you more time to explore everything inside, and less down time overall. Think about how the Lego games implemented that kind of mechanic, it feels great! You could balance it by making the enemies spawn quicker for exemple!
That'll do for feedbacks ^^
Let me get one thing straight, I (unexpectedly) liked your game. Or at least the ideas behind? That's why I'm so commited to give constructive criticism about all the stuff that didn't worked for me. Because I think it could be a cool game!
My general advice now would be that: focus on the core gameplay loops: collecting stuff in the tower should be fun, tower defense stuff should be fun and fighting should be fun too. Don't add anything new until it's fun! And then, go crazy :D
I hope I was able to help you! Keep on jamming ^^
This game is so awesome men. Its enjoyable although the graphics is not polished yet but I love the game design and the originality.
So I played it. I was annoyed that it wasnt very clear as to what has to be done, but I played for a bit according to what you have said. It worked to an extent. It took a while for me to figure things out
Here are the things which I didnt like :
- The game is based on luck mostly. You can see in the video that i started a game and soon restarted. This is because the spawns weren't good enough to buy anything from the alchemist. Maybe I have missed a few spawn points, but still the game seems extremely hard especially without a tutorial level, or explanation.
For example, without a spellbook its mostly impossible to pass wave 1 itself. - Camera can be improved, for example it zooms in too much we on the ledge at times, but its forgivable
Here are the things which I liked :
- The art and animations were good and cute enough although it can be improved
- The originality of the idea is impressive I feel
- The packing and healing the carriage is nice
A tutorial level / screen and an easier gameplay level would be extremely helpful.
the camera keeps turning to the bottom left of the screen and i cant play the game ill give it a 3/10 for the main menu art
Very nice idea but lacks a bit in execution and polish. My feedback would be to have a single character do both collecting and hitting enemies. Also have the pickups around the area and enemies, so you can assess whether its better to fight the waves or to gather resources.
Loved the idea and i can see as a fully polished game.
If you'd like to try a game i made with my friend and give us some feedback. it would be great
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