Ok, this is my favorite game so far that I've played--the hammer jumping mechanic, and specifically the combination of left and right click having similar but different effects, feels fresh and super interesting. There are good interactions explored here, and yet there's even more potential I'm sure! I collected all three triangles (despite missing the first one not once but TWICE, so yes, I played through the whole game three times). Since I like this one so much, and could tell I was going to like it from early on, I took some more detailed playtesting notes than I usually do! So just know that I only kept track of every little thing I didn't like because the game is incredible :)
First, the more significant thoughts:
- One of the first things I felt, and continued to feel despite getting better at it through the game, was that timing the respawn of blocks was a bit hard. I got the timing down by the... third playthrough... but it's pretty punishing to get it wrong in the "nail elevator" level leading to the third triangle, for example. I think this could be pretty easily turned into a skill issue rather than a frustration by adding some sort of visualization of how long before the block is going to respawn.
- The player's right click movement is a little wonky if you aim on the same side of the nail as the player. I feel like the player's movement should be determined by the angle of the line drawn from the player to the cursor, as long as a target is in range on that side of the player (the cursor's position in regards to the target would be irrelevant). Also I'm not sure what the straight line of dots on the other side is meant to show--I think just the parabolic indicator of the player's movement is all that's needed here at least with the current set of mechanics (and that indicator is glorious, one of the most important features of the game, in my opinion).
Some less important thoughts:
- Nails making the key spin in a big circle is interesting but kind of unintuitive. Everything else in the game makes way more sense so this feels a bit out of place. Maybe the nail could push it through a chute or something to make it pop out in an accessible place, if that's the goal!
- The second triangle challenge could probably use a checkpoint under it. That's the hardest platforming puzzle, and the two jumps to get back to that screen feel extra annoying when you're dying doing something significantly harder up above.
- Nails could pop back up a little faster. I don't see a reason why they should remain unusable for long enough that I sometimes had to sit and wait next to it for another attempt when I smack it the wrong way. Maybe long enough that you'd have to be really creative to hit it twice before touching the ground again. I think it could be about half as long as it currently is and be totally fine mechanically.
Some very unimportant thoughts:
- Dying while in slo-mo takes a long time haha. I think exiting slo-mo if you die would be nice!
- If the starting guy is reached again before obtaining all of the triangles, he could give the player a hint towards the ones they missed! I don't think it's possible to reach him without having had an opportunity to obtain them all, so the player must have missed something. I didn't mind going back to search for the last missing one, but the third time got a little annoying. But I really wanted to see what the guy did when I had them all!!!!
- Checkpoint flags ding every time you touch them, but really they should probably only ding when your spawn point actually changes.
- The ding sounds (checkpoint and hammer charge) are a little harsh, but I only say this because the other hammer sounds are amazing
- What are the little brown benches everywhere??? I was convinced that they were going to have some secret associated with them but they never did anything as far as i can tell. :(
All that said, I loved this game. The mechanics are great, intuitive, and well taught through level design. I made an explicit note that learning to pop the nails up into the air and then hit them for a "double jump" is VERY satisfying, both to figure out and to execute. I think the "nail elevator" level (as I've been calling it in my head) is an absolute masterpiece. The process of raising the nail is clever, but the way that it ends up going back to the bottom to get you out of the room is genius. And that process gets started by the double jump to unlock the door. Big chef's kiss on that one.
I put this straight into the same category as Ooo, with easily as much potential, where the mechanic is fresh and can be explored over several hours of gameplay. I think your level design is clearly good enough to fulfill this potential as well, so I really hope you continue with this and give it some more content! Amazing work!