The visuals were great - the intro was perfectly done, that would be a very cool style to take further in some way. The main menu looks fantastic too actually. The level was a little more roughly put together I think, but I the see the potential there.
Great gameplay idea, I found it a bit difficult to tell when I was taking damage, and I seemed to die for no reason - but that would be easily sorted with a little bit of tuning I think. I also got the invincible bug, I was trying to see if I could survive for 5 minutes. There was also the bug with the enemies getting stuck inside the large bottom wall obstacle.
I know you played our game, and we actually had some quit similar ideas for implementing this! We both made a twin stick shooter, with a push/pull mechanic on shooting/recovery, where if you're too gung ho you get a negative effect. I did like how your implementation wasn't just straight damage, but had weird effects that happened instead. I think for our game, the straight damage worked better for us in context, but wouldn't have been the right move here. It also tied in to the games theming as well.
Really good crack at it guys!
Viewing post in Painter Of Mana jam comments
Thanks for your comment and honest review! I agree with you — if we continue working on the game, we definitely want to bring more of the intro’s style into the rest of the game.
Since I had to do all the art by myself, I ended up rushing the pixel art for the level a bit more than the rest, so you’re totally right that it looks a bit rough.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to add visible damage feedback, but we’ll definitely keep that in mind! Thanks for pointing out that it affects the gameplay experience. The monsters walking through walls was also a result of time constraints, haha! We all just needed more time ; o ;
I also thought it was cool that we ended up with a similar concept, but yours still feels totally different and has its own unique mechanics — which are really cool!
It is interesting to see how such similar takes still have so much nuance between them. And hey, we literally have the same issue with not really seeing when you take damage - and, even buggier, because you can't even die 😅
You guys did fantastic, even if you don't continue this game, I'd definitely look into the intro style. Thinking about it more in retrospect, was it in anyway influenced by either Stardew Valley or Undertale; or perhaps even both?