You asked for it... I will follow suit.
The overly damn detailed submission feedback and propositions!
Or in short!...
O.D.D.S.F.A.P.... Erm. Excuse me for a second...
Who came up with this Idea? Marketing? Was probably Marketing, those absoluuutteeee...
Ahemm.. So... Jeah... Here is my
Summary
Adherence To Theme
- You play as a group of Dogs, trying to rescue another dog in this Tether-Mechanic Puzzle-Platformer.
- Did you know? Not all Dogs are considered pack Animals and only a few breeds are considered a "pack". The right name for a group of Dogs is usually a "kennel" of dogs. That's just some extra trivia for you, let's pretend those aren't Labrador Retrievers but Hound dogs and not let semantics get into the way...
- The "pack"Theme was excellently incorporated into the Gameplay as well, you have to stay close to your pack, find the rest of your pack and in later levels you have to play with packets to solve problems. Nice!
Game Design
- The element of controlling 2 characters at once was ingenious. Making the dogs both control differently gave them a bit of personality, which I liked.
- The control scheme was good and fit a platformer very well in my opinion.
- The Level design was kinda off. You had many Platforms just lingering there with no real purpose or need and it felt like you where just playing around with the Tileset at some points but left it in the game.
- Some of the "Puzzles" where pretty easy to cheese, I feel. It's hard coming up with what is a good Puzzle but I think you got very close on the third level, where you had to think... Dare I say... Outside of the box for a bit. (Pun intended).
- The third Level cannot be completed in the Browser version.
- The jumping controls are super tight, I guess you made it so you have to play with the level Elements to block one of your dogs and separate them a bit to make certain gaps possible. The inclusion of the camera swap suggest this as well. A first time player might not understand this and think this is a test of skill rather than wits, which can be found frustrating.
- My suggestion would be to control only one Dog at a time and/or create Puzzles around their different capabilities, like you did in Level 3. Look to the game "Brothers: A tale of two Sons" for inspiration, they did this concept very well.
Originality
- The concept is very unique and you tried a fresh take on Platforming, I like it a lot.
- Try to distinguish a bit more between the 2 characters, I feel that would make the game stand out even more.
Style
- The asset pack was excellent, I loved it's visuals!
- The music track is a bit on the nose but I didn't take it into consideration when rating, since that might be personal preference. But I'm a big fan of trying to get the music to fit with the gameplay, since I'm guessing you want the player to solve the path to the exit in this game, maybe a less upbeat party soundtrack would be more fitting. Also the music was quiiiiite a bit too loud and there is no option to turn it down.
- Some sound effects would be nice, however I know this can be hard based on you controlling 2 characters at once.
Overall
I like this game and it's concept, it played very well with the Theme and the graphics where beautiful. No major bugs found apart from the Web version not being able to finish it. I liked the little easter egg at the end as well.
If you plan on working more on this game, try to tweak the overall gameplay a bit and play around a bit more with unique Level Mechanics, like you did in Level 3.