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(+1)

Played the steam demo and I got thoughts about it! It's a very stylish, polished game and the gameplay is cool and fun... except that the controls kindaa put me off of having the most fun with it.

Having only the left and right arrow keys to turn is very annoying, especially when your character is facing in literally any other direction but up. It's very likely that, when under pressure, you're going to press the wrong key and end up dying because of your misinput.

My reccomendation for fixing would be either:

1. Allowing the player to turn with the rest of the arrow keys. Aswell as having the keys dynamically change how they rotate you depending on your current rotation (so when facing downwards, pressing left would actually make you turn right).

2. Just making it so pressing the arrow keys (all arrow keys, not just left and right) will make the character turn to the key's direction.

If that one issue is fixed, I'd probably only have positives to say about this game! The aesthetic and music is fuckin AWWWESOME, we really need more Y2K-inspired games out there. Also definetley will be seeking out the soundtrack soon (plz be on bandcamp lol). Like, the only other critism I could make is that I don't like how you go out in one hit, but maybe that problem would be less of an issue when the control issue is sorted.

So yeah, this has got potential to be fuckin' AWESOME! Excited for the full release :]

(+1)

I would argue that the tank controls are integral to the gameplay since all levels and obstacles were designed with them in mind. Removing them would remove a level of challenge and can become a problem considering the line behind you at all times. Fine tuning your angle and speed as you move while avoiding obstacles is the core of the gameplay.

I'm glad you enjoyed the rest though!

okay played it a bit more, yeah I’d say I’m getting use to the controls and see your point. Though I still think the controls should dynamically change depending on rotation.


Though now I have ✨a bonus criticism✨. If you stand a little close to an edge the game will just *push* you off into the void. I can tell this is likely an intentional thing, assuming it was added to prevent any air floating, but literally this only causes frustration. For a game that has pretty long levels (well less of literally but more in their feeling, since you have to be very focused) and isn’t too forgiving with checkpoints, you want to cut corners as much as possible to optimise the amount of time you spend in a run - but then this mechanic just exists to punish you. Also other weird stuff relating to this mechanic exists also, I was on one of the wire platforms in a level and I wasn’t even that close to the edge and I still got pushed, and I got pushed like CARTOONISHLY far here. It was kinda funny tbh. Basically, I’d say just remove this. I really don’t see why it should be here. Or at least like make it more forgiving, so you can cut around corners.

This is something that took me a lot of getting used to as well... I've gotten the hang of it now but I still sometimes find myself feeling not entirely in control, though maybe that's part of the fun.

Maybe you could allow the player to point Cereal directly with the arrows/joystick, but still clamp his rotation speed to its current value? That way it's more intuitive to understand how he'll rotate in response to input, but he still needs some time to fully rotate to that direction, and the player still has to think a few steps ahead. Just an idea! I could see that still taking a bit of the challenge out of it too. :)