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SYSTEM OVERLOAD's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Graphics | #16 | 3.800 | 3.800 |
| Audio | #18 | 3.400 | 3.400 |
| Fun | #19 | 3.400 | 3.400 |
| Gameplay/Design | #24 | 3.200 | 3.200 |
Ranked from 5 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What would you like feedback on?
Core gameplay loop, difficulty, general premise
What did you update?
Balance, UI, spawning and attacking systems, loot
Name of updated upload (if downloadable)
BB_PostJam
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Comments
I played this game on a pc hooked up to a TV with a mouse and keyboard controls; I like it; it reminds me of Tetris Effect, which I think has an excellent soundtrack and visuals.
I like that you cannot die - if you plan on making it so the player can die - I hope you keep a mode that you can just play and not worry about health.
I like the colour scheme and how you used pink/purple/yellow for enemies and reserved blue for the player.
I wish there were soundfx to hit enemies and signal when a new effect happens. A sound that enhances the music would be cool, rather than the typical "pew pew" or "zap zap."
My favourite thing about it was the triangle companions.
The music reminds me of focus music that you might hear from the focus@will website - it's really good for getting into a flow state.
Keep up the great work! Would love to see the updated version available for mac or web.
It's interesting having a shotgun weapon so you need to get close to enemies. The game starts easy and scales up well. I don't think it's possible to die? The dash is pretty cool, but sometimes it put me in a tight spot among a lot of enemies. Wasn't sure how it worked, if it on a cooldown, or something else.
I liked the effects in the game. They look great without being overwhelming, especially the neon bloom. I'd love to see even more chaos and explosions.
looks amazing, the spinny glowy bouncy shapes are super eye catching
could use an autofire when mouse1 is held down
could constrain cursor to the window otherwise the aim can get a bit screwy
could definitely use some sound effects when stuff is shot / smacked
I didn't really notice anything happening when the powerup text appears in the upper left
I think I got into a stuck state where there are no more spawns and the only things are a bunch of those unkillable stationary pinwheel emitters
overall a very clean and fluid game to play
Your menus seem a bit bugged - "Play" works when I press enter, but none of the other buttons do anything.
Gameplay wise, it needs juice! The dash to kill mechanic is really cool to play with - some better effects and a clearer explanation of how it works in game would make it awesome.
For the moving enemies that stop every so often, I'd recommend a way to tell the direction they will move in. Whether that's a telegraph, an icon on their "front", or an animation / ease in before movement would help a lot.
cheers! They aren't bugged, they just don't do anything ๐ forgot to disable all the other options...
I try to do things with as little text explanation as possible, because nobody actually reads text ๐ what do you think needs to be clearer?
More juice is definitely needed, yeah. I just didn't have anywhere near as much time to work on it as I wanted!
Tells for the moving enemies is a good idea, thanks for that - I'll put it in when I've got a few minutes spare.
Thanks for the feedback ๐
Ah, that explains it haha
It's definitely not unintuitive with the current setup, I'm not sure what the "right" solution would be honestly. Currently you only have an x that appears over the enemy when the mouse is near them and they are "dead", but that effect is subtle and seems easy to miss, and if you don't move the mouse near one before clicking you may not even notice it. I definitely triggered the dash on accident more times than I did purposefully just because of how sensitive it is. This feels fine, I'm more thinking that from a player feedback perspective it can be confusing what caused the dash to happen. Maybe if the enemies flashed or something to try and draw you to shoot at them more once they are in a dashable state, or if the mouse cursor itself was a crosshair of some kind that changed when in range to dash (maybe with a line showing where the dash will take you?)
Like I said, it feels good to play, it's really more about informing the player about how things are happening.
I think I liked the difficulty progression, though it could be slightly harder at the beginning. I can't say for sure because there was never a moment in which I died so it was hard to gauge.
I like the movement of the player and the overall look of the game, though I didn't understand when did I get loot. It seemed rather random by killing enemies with the dash. The dash you do to kill enemies is really cool, but maybe it could be a bit more exaggerated to add in the chaos, something like blur and some screen shake.
I also didn't understand a few things:
Overall it feels good to play, although sound effects could add more juice, although I suppose you didn't add on purpose. Particle effects when you/enemies are hit could also add more impact to the gameplay. I'd like to do the dash on the enemy only if I am aiming at it, sometimes I'd dash unwillingly and it felt like it hindered my gameplan. A score or some other sort of sense of progression would be nice.
thanks for the feedback! Yeah I totally focused the wrong things and didn't have time to add a "game over" screen, so nothing actually happens when you die ๐
Loot is just 100% random when you kill an enemy at the minute, I think there's a roughly 1% chance it drops. I'm going to change that to be just on special powerful enemies, and I'm going to make it give you a choice between something defensive and something offensive! That should make it a little more tied into the game.
Extra juice on the dash is definitely needed, yeah!
There's no stun effect, I think you've found a major bug with the fancy aim assist feature ๐ I'll look into it!
As for the circle it's one of the powerups and just... Doesn't do anything. It was supposed to be a powerup that causes an explosion that damages nearby enemies when your shields go down, but apparently my teammate thought spawning the circle was enough? I've had a look and it really does just plop a mesh with a circle sprite down ยฏ\_(ใ)_/ยฏ
Sound effects didn't happen because they weren't made in time for the jam! The dash should only happen when you're aiming at it and are within a small distance, so I think you've found another bug lol.
That's all really great feedback, thank you ๐
Cool music and art. I also thought the game was pretty fun.
My feedback would be that the UI is too big and the game is too easy. I suggest you making it harder to heal because I found I could survive perfectly fine just sitting in one spot and killing all of the enemies near me. Also putting a boundary in the game, so the player can't just run away when in a tight spot.
Another suggestion is that along with the different random powerups, you could add something that would change the rhythm you need to click to get the crit so that you aren't clicking repetitively. Something like changing it to the off-beat or having the player need to do triplets or something.
Also sometimes the turret enemies would stop shooting for a bit. I don't know if this is intended or a bug.
hey! Thanks for the feedback ๐ this wasn't actually the post-jam version, but the feedback is still entirely valid. I wanted to make it really difficult but didn't quite have the time! That's a great idea about a boundary, I'll get on that shortly.
I've actually removed the rhythm aspect in favour of something that's just more fun in every way ๐
Turret bug should be fixed now too!