Hi! Here are some thoughts and feedback I had while playtesting:
Overall - feels pretty nice. It is a cute, cozy platformer that evokes pleasant emotions. At the moment, it feels relatively easy.
Music enhances the atmosphere and aligns with the artistic direction. Although, for my taste, the low bass in the hub base sounds a bit too distorted, and the music does not loop well in that location.
Character controls feel smooth and behave as predicted. In the base HUB, I caught myself several times thinking that it would be nice to be able to climb downstairs. Also, since jump is the same button as interact, I had several instances where I would jump over the character instead of interacting, or interact instead of jumping.
It is pleasant to explore the main base and to chat with the characters. I am curious what the main storyline would be. Felt a bit that there was a lack of a mid-term narrative hook. But perhaps it comes later.
What I disliked were the disappearing crates in the base/rocks in the second level. I believe the act of breaking them can be a satisfying moment, but currently, it feels rather tedious to bump into things and to wait until they disappear. What to me makes it worse is them reappearing again. At the base hub level, it creates narrative dissonance about why crates return to existence. In the mushroom cave level, it creates a very tedious traversal, especially when backtracking, as the challenge of finding the path iwas already solved, and the game feels as if it is wasting my time for no apparent reason now when I am just trying to exit the passage back. Additionally, in the base HUB, I had instances where I wanted to stand on a crate, but instead, it would vanish.
One more thing - trampolines in the first level are almost invisible.
Level Design.
Level Design is decent, although I felt as if the levels lacked a bit of mechanical variety and progression within the levels. What I mean is that as soon as I landed in the new location, I already saw all the visuals and mechanics the new location presents, so exploring it becomes less engaging. Additionally, I would appreciate it if I had a counter so I can track if I picked enough orbs. I had cases when I would leave the location without knowing if I had collected everything I wanted.
Random thoughts:
Add an indication where I've already been on a level. Levels can feel sprawling, and it gets hard to remember where I've been.
Very nice to see progression in the main hub.
Bottom Line: I had a fun time. Moving and exploring were good. The game felt a bit too easy, and I am not sure if I would stay engaged if the game had more levels for much longer. Unless something new is thrown at me, both mechanically and story-wise. But for the 2 levels present, the game is engaging enough, and I left feeling that I wanted to play more.