Skip to main content

On Sale: GamesAssetsToolsTabletopComics
Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines

Obviously a game from this developer would be pretty polished and appealing, and I enjoyed the concept, but didn't quite love the way it was implemented.

I'll start with my issues and then follow it with my praise.

Personally, I thought the "Crowki-eye" view was too small or positioned weirdly in the UI, and found it frustrating trying to split my attention between it and the aiming view, which (at least in early stages) is less important. I think this is the kind of thing that is easy to address (in that there's nothing inherent to the game that makes this a problem), but is difficult to actually adjust (because people are different and so many little tiny tweaks can make a huge impact on experience). I didn't personally find the gameplay to be that interesting, but that may simply be about the frustration of the screen-juggling/my personal preferences in puzzle games and I'm not docking points for that or anything.

This one made my computer fan go "VRMMM," but, as the page indicates, you're aware there are some spikes.

Okay, the praise part.

The ambience is great and it's clear that the developer just "knows" the kind of humor or style that fits well with VTubers in general and is coming at this from a fan perspective. It's very game-y in a fun way because it's approaching things "gameplay-first." (Why shoot at barrels instead of just running toward the dragoons and grabbing them? Because that's the gameplay! It's a puzzle game!)

The theme of chain reactions is incorporated very simply but quite thoroughly, which is harder than it sounds, because making a game jam game about "chain reactions" could quickly become much more unwieldy than desired. I would be a little surprised to learn that anything major was cut from the initial vision of the game to this. It seems scoped cleanly and neatly.

I know a lot of the assets (music, models) are third-party things, but I thought they were chosen very well. The main menu theme is a great find and all the pieces are used in a way that coheres.

This game has my favorite implementation of a reference that I've yet seen in the jam (working my way through the queue) and for that alone I think it deserves a medal. It's a very simple, elegant joke deployment that made me smile.

To summarize: I thought the game was nice, nailed the brief and a particular sense of humor, and was quite polished, but personally didn't vibe with it much, possibly because of some UI issues or possibly because it's just not my kind of puzzle game.

(+1)

Wow! Thank you for the lengthy and detailed feedback!

Was the Crowki view too small even after playing in full screen? Hmm... maybe I should've considered some kind of accessibility setting that allowed the player to resize it to their preferred dimensions.

This is one of those things you can't notice unless there's other people playing your game but unfortunately I was pretty tight on the dev time to have any chance of getting playtesters to try the game, let alone incorporate their feedback into the final product.

Thank you for playing! :D

(1 edit)

You're so welcome!

Yeah, I think the issue for me is size + position of the window combined with the activity. I think my best comparisons are to film/TV. It feels kind of like a movie violating the 180-degree rule and jumping across the axis of action, or a TV show using a bunch of quick cuts in an action scene where the intended focus leaps around the screen.

I have a possibly bonkers suggestion which might be terrible, but might be interesting to try. It occurs to me that if the window were somehow linked to the cursor position, it might feel a bit better? As is, the flow is: eyes on cursor -> flick to Crowki View to time -> flick back to screen and locate cursor and change position -> flick back to Crowki view. The Crowki View having a consistent relationship to the cursor might help? I agree that in lieu of that (or some other approach) an accessibility feature might be a welcome addition.