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Advice welcome

A topic by zenbit created Mar 19, 2025 Views: 288 Replies: 10
Viewing posts 1 to 6
Submitted(+2)

I’m looking for feedback on my game.

First of all I had a blast creating my game Broken Game.

After the ratings were revealed yesterday I was a little surprised that the average was three stars.

The only feedback I fairly received is that it was short, but I’d like to learn more!

Submitted

I didn't see it before now and played it for the first time. It works and runs well, I like the music and the concept is fitting. It ends so abruptly out of nowhere and leaves me with a "huh" kind of feeling. Maybe fiddling with the last screen could have broken the entire canvas and reveal the start of the game again or something. Like a nice round ending :D

Submitted

Thanks for the fast reply, it does end abruptly on the credit scene, but I didn’t want to infinitely loop it.

Submitted(+1)

For your first game you two should be proud, making a game isn't easy and you executed an interesting idea in two days. The rating number isn't important and ultimately pretty questionable, especially this single metric of "Overall". Most other jams have category based voting for like audio/art/gameplay/theme etc. But even then, I'd urge you to focus on having fun and aiming to learn something whenever you do a game jam rather than placing too much value in how your game is rated. You're off to a good start, so keep jamming and you'll keep improving. Maybe do your own little post-mortem together and think about what you think could be improved, what you could have done better, what you'd like to try next time.

That said, you asked for advice, so here are my thoughts about your game.

What i like:

I think you scoped well for a 2 day game jam, and your first ever game. You didn't bite off too much so as not to be able to finish the game in time. The player can play all the way through, there's a lose condition (more or less) and a win condition. Seems bug free too which is good.

The idea is funny and subversive, I had a good "hah" moment as soon as the menu fell, and I immediately understood what you were going for and what the game was going for. I especially liked when you flipped this on its head in the small platforming part. It felt like you were playing around with ideas. 

The game is clear in what needs to be done and how to do it, which is imo, one of the hardest and most important things to get across. Many games struggle with being easy to understand so you've done well in this regard.

Nice touch having the buttons being pressed in while the squirrel is on top.

The UI elements are nice and all fit together well and the SFXs included fit perfectly.

While I agree there could be some more levels I think shortness is something that can be embraced. Don't have your game drag on too long, especially game jam games where people are trying to play as many as they can. Leave them wanting more or satiated, which you did!

What I think could be improved:

Visually, I think it could have had a bit more cohesion. In particular the green background looks cool but ultimately kind of random. It could potentially be improved by having a more normal-looking UI so that it felt like you were placing the buttons / starts etc into an actual UI and not just into some slots in the void. This lack of cohesion is accentuated on the platforming level, where now there's some random squirrel on screen. The squirrel could have had a little animation and flip its sprite direction when moving left/right.

I don't find level 3 very interesting. I'm just clicking around at random until I get lucky and find the right button. I don't really need to think, it's just busy work.

I'm kinda torn on Level 4, I like that its subversive and you really want to click on the button but can't, but the gameplay is "do nothing", which imo, is not very interesting. Maybe could have had the cursor trying to move towards it and you have to swat it away or something.

The music grinds my gears, though I've been sitting listening to it on loop while writing this so I've probably heard it now more than everyone who played it during the voting period lol. Oh, small bug. If you lose on the DONT CLICK button the music doubles up.

I like the SFXs that are in the game but some feel missing. Namely placing the UI elements back in their slots as well as the squirrel jumping and collecting the acorn. Could have had some kind of fanfare for finishing the game.

There's a slight jank when pressing Start on level 1 and Next on level 2. Seems that the scene is transitioning or your removing the actual UI and placing new objects on screen with physic bodies, these new objects are not in the same place as the UI was that is clicked on. Small thing, but could be improved.

The QR code should have been a rick roll ;D

Final thoughts:

To me there's really nothing major to complain about. It works, you can play through the whole thing and you had an interesting idea based on the theme. Keep jamming!

Submitted

This is … spectacular! I greatly appreciate your insight and the time it took to analyse and write this.

I both agree on the visual cohesiveness and the background music being a little too repetitive, these are definitely my weak points and the area I can most improve on. They also directly relate to the game feel, which is mandatory in a game.

Everything else makes sense to me and is very helpful.

Thank you again for the effort and encouraging words!

Submitted(+1)

I think it is also important to take into consideration the overall distribution of the ratings. The game that ranked first in this jam has an average just above 4 stars! And the last game in the top 20 is about 3,5 stars in general. That's a bit crazy :)

So 3 stars may not actually mean that the game is bad. Especially when there is only one overall criteria and everyone has their own "rating system".  3 stars might just mean something like "a solid game, but nothing extradionary" for some.

I must say that in this game jam ratings might seem a bit harsh compared to some other jams :) And there are jams where you get only 4 and 5 stars, but that may say almost mothing of the game quality. So I wouldn't rely that much on the ratings (or even reviews), especially when there is so few of them (only 24 for your game!) 

As for me, I found "Broken Game" quite nice. It fits the topic, and may not be too original, but well made :) The visual style might not be exactly my thing, and it would be really cool to have more levels (maybe just a couple to create a small, but full experience), but for a 48 game jam this looks really solid. 

Submitted(+1)

Your point of view is helpful and makes me feel better about the score, thank you.

You bringing up the visual topic as well makes it clear to me that the design both visual and levels is more important than I thought while I was creating the game. 

Thanks for the kind words.

Submitted

For me personally, music and sound effects are super important.

There is nothing wrong with the actual gameplay, per se. In fact, it fits quite well into the theme. :)

The graphics are nice and quirky, as well.

However, I would definitely suggest improving on the music and sound effects. :)

Was this your first game jam? How was your experience with Godot?

Submitted

I understand where you’re coming from and I appreciate the feedback.


I was foolish enough to think, that I could create the music on my own and make it sound good, that’s why I watched some videos and made it myself… it gets annoying very fast but I didn’t have the time to fix it and wanted the game to be fully self made. Which definitely is not a smart idea if you want a great game.

Yes that was my first jam, I really like godot, but I’ve never tried a different engine so I can’t compare on that.

Submitted (1 edit)

First level: I was decently surprised about the physics and sfx. I immediatley understood what the task was and the snapping really made it confirm my theory going past the first level with ease. 
Second level: Has a similar vibe to the first but different. i still kow what to do and ware able to clear it. Nice progression so far.

Third level: first thought was: "oh god, i gonna need to replace them all" but no. you change the task. I was also immediately able to understand and progress. But it felt way less satisfying than the task before since finding the right button doesnt really have any challenge. Before you at least had to remember a position.

Fourth level: I know "dont click" games and the clicking sound really helps knowing that the game didnt break. I was able to wait it out and progress. But it was yet again a completely different kind of task. Also not as satisfying as the first two.

Fifth level: The blue screen didnt really make sense. I understand that you wanted to go for a 4th wall break, but the execution didnt really work and the game design didnt make it expectable. Especially if fixing it means just clicking it. At first, i sat there and waited since in real life you gotta wait for it to restart but nothing happened. Then there was this weird QR code that has no connection to a blue screen. Then i though "since this is a try for a 4th wall break, maybe they actually implemented some server thing that the qr code works with. That would actually be pretty cool as i have seen those before." But to be honest, i am never going to visit a link on some sketchy browser game so i though well... am i stuck here now? Then i ran a scan of the qr code to check the link and it just led to your game page. That made me realize that this code has no functionality and it wasnt the solution, which was quite disappointing to be honest. Why putting it there then? It is completely out of place. I just clicked to see what happens and it continued. Very unsatisfying and not very puzzely.

6th level: The chipmunk platformer. The chipmunk felt really unconnected since it is an unexpected and completely new character mid game but okay. Controls were obvious so no problem there. The puzzle was again easily understandable and it actually picked up some functionality from the first two levels which was nice. But it was really no challenge. I displaced a single platform a little bit and was able to get the acorn. And then...

The game ends... mhh

I felt like you had many puzzle ideas to put your game but didnt think enough about continuity or coherence, which are very important things for puzzle games in my opinion. The puzzles were too unconnected and too random for it to feel like a continuous, nicely rounded experience. 

I would trash the fifth level and the whole 4th wall break idea. It doesnt fit to your more fun ideas.

Rather work on expanding your what works and what is fun, which i think were the first and second level. Applying the same task of the wall of buttons in the third level would actually been more fun to me but it also needs a twist just like you did for it not to be repetitive.

Fourth level is again a big task change and break in continutiy with the "dont click" game mechanic. I would also scrap that and go for the previous type of puzzle mechanic. 

The 6th level was actually decent even the the chipmunk was a bit out of place because it picked up the established puzzle mechanic from the first levels which is great and what a puzzle game is all about. Presenting the same mechanic in different ways. Here, simply placing the  acorn in the top center of the game would have at least made me use all the platforms and it is not that hard to understand. You could easily make more out of that but also keep in mind your first puzzle mechanic. Dont suddenly abandon your first ideas by becoming a puzzle platformer for the rest of the game since you could have started with the chipmunk in the first level then. 

So long story short: I see great ideas and also the execution was great. Not a single bug or issue, super clean playthrough. But the design just needs more work, more consistency, more coherence. Revisit what makes puzzle games work and try to improve on what you already built.

Edit: I just played with sound and the sound bug in the fourth level was already mentioned before, but i personally think the music is too fast and stressful and gets a bit annoying. The bouncy effects were really fun though.

Submitted

Thanks, this was exactly the feedback I was aiming to get. Amazing write down, appreciate the effort.
I can use this to improve upon!