I hear your call for an overly complex review for Jam games? No? Yes? Maybe?
Here it comes anyways!
Quite a little fun experience!
Summary
Adherence To Theme
- Another twist on the packet delivery subgenre, this Jam has spawned. Nothing too daring but it gets the theme across very well. Nicely Done!
Game Design
- The controls are nice for this game. They weren't too hard to grasp, although I had some time to figure out I could move with the arrow keys, since you didn't point that out in your description. I'm so accustomed to WASD movement so at first I thought the game was only me Boosting to move.(Which would've been entirely plausible.)
- The momentum is frantic, makes this game really unique! As an huge of the original Sonic The Hedgehog trilogy, this made me very happy.
- The inclusion of the Birds being sort of flying springs that propel you forward a lot made for an extra layer of depth and skill, welcomed in this game! But there are quite many of them. I would personally like to see them toned down quite a bit in spawn rate to make for a more rewarding experience hitting them, something special... But I also understand doing this would make the rooftop route always the best option.
- The Arrow pointing towards your goal was a bit far away from the focus of attention. It was sometimes hard immediately knowing where to go which is not what you want from a game like this.
- The extremely over the top streak system was ingenious. And I want more states! MOAAAR. Oh also I didn't notice it change much, do you get more time for higher score streaks? It wasn't very clear.
- Perhaps there should be a score system, rather than judging on time alive and packets delivered. In my first run after I had understood the controls and objective a bit better, I had a lot of time left. I waited for almost 2 minutes to get my result, which was 50 packets. Perhaps it is a bit too easy to continue streaks but I mean for the Jam it is serviceable.
Originality
- The game is highly original, what can I say, haven't played anything like this before. (Although my retro gaming experience doesn't go back quite as far. 90ies kid and all that.
Style
- The form of pixel art is amazing, it reminded me a bit of the Atari games of old times. Commodore style. Neat idea and fits the game well.
- What doesn't fit the game well is the sheer amount of same colors used for everything. You tried to indicate platforms as being pinkish color. Great! You already did a better job at communicating walkable surfaces than I did in my game jam entry. But then there are Birds in the same color... Ok. I guess you signify the player this is an object you can touch for positive effect. But then the delivery arrow and signal are the same color. It becomes very noisy, very quick. Same goes for the blue color for the the pedestrians and signal.
Now I don't know the target system you where trying to emulate. My first guess was old school Amiga Consoles. The C64 mentioned above could show 16 colors as a palette. If I counted correctly you are already above that with the rainbow effect, player and background colors. So why did you make the signals and arrows the same color as everything else? A little bit of variation could make things more clear in my opinion.- I did a bit of research and found out about the Pico 8 Game environment. It turns out to have very similar architectural bounds as the C64. 16 Colors. So you did not go above the 16 color limit with the rainbow effect. Still you had much to choose from for the signals and arrows. I think you should still overlook their design once. That being said, knowing with what limitations you created the game made me appreciate it even more!
- The sound effects where neat but the game was a bit quiet. I was ready to get blasted with Chiptune sounds haha. A welcomed addition for the future!
Suggestions
- Pull down the arrows a bit so it's clear where you have to go at a glance. Focusing on the tiny character sprite and going to the top (where the pink arrow might or might not be obstructed by platform and bird colors) is a bit jarring.
- The Combo System was neat but overall felt a bit inconsequential. It was also very simple to get the combo going, which is nice for the jam but could be a tad bit more engaging in the future. Just a tiny bit.
- Some more sounds (for example for boosting.) or a musical track could help make the game feel even better. (Bear in mind, that I don't know the exact limitations of the Pico-8 system regarding music and sounds, I did adjust my rating and took it not into consideration after I found out about the System.)
Overall
This game is a frantic and fun experience, I liked it quite a bit. Overall it didn't really strike the balance of being challenging enough to keep me playing and easy enough to get me started. It felt a bit too easy after I knew what was going on with any object and my limitations and goals. However for a game Jam this gets the Theme across and is pretty addictive! Great work!