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(+2)

I really like the concept for the game, but I think it missed the mark in a couple key areas. I really like the way the game looks, the spritework is really nice, and the dark palette fits very well with the overall dark tone of the game, and I enjoyed how simple the intro is. The biggest problem with the game is definitely its movement, you’re just… you’re too fast in all directions, you move extremely fast on the ground (even slowwalk is still fairly fast), your jump has an incredibly fast upward and downward speed unless you’re firing, it really feels like any movement action at all is some kind of emergency get out of an area button. But then the first boss requires a lot of precise movement to dodge effectively, and you don’t have a good capacity for precise movement, so it’s easy to get yourself in a situation to be forced to take damage (honestly, I’d say it’s hard not to), and that only worsens as the boss shrinks and becomes more nimble and necessitates even more precision in dodging. Ultimately, despite my best efforts, I wasn’t able to beat the first boss. I initially didn’t like how the first weapon at max fire rate aimed extremely slowly, but once I learned I can just release fire to aim quickly again and then press fire again, it created a fun stop start rhythm to the firing.

As a minor aside, the first boss’ sections could have used some tell for when they were going to attack, it was easy to dodge too early or too late since you just have to get a feel for the timing of their lunges. Also, while I don’t think it’s the game’s fault, I did notice the game randomly was locked to a lower frame rate and I did have occasional frame drops, but I played the web build on Firefox, and I have had issues with that happening on some web builds in the past, so I won’t fault the game for that.

(+2)

Thank you for giving it a shot, and for your kind words!

The movement is definitely very subjective, in the sense that I tried to make something that would appeal to me personally. I wanted to embody the "magical girl" side of the gamejam by making the gameplay cartoonishly fast and exaggerated, and I 100% agree there isn't much room for precision as a result. As such, I tried to design boss encounters around the principle of "whatever you do, just don't stay still" (with the exception of Rust and the final boss, which were the reason why I added the slow walk option).

However, with Python, it's definitely easy to put yourself in an undodgeable situation! The best way I found to beat him was to avoid jumping at all unless needed, and slowly inch away to keep him as vertical as possible, while preventing him from spreading too much across the arena. That said, the crates around the room were a last moment addition that definitely messes with that strategy a lot, and definitely a poor decision on my end. The goal was to make the boss destroy the crates as he passes through them, but sadly I ran out of time to do that!

I know most folks probably won't ever come back to check out the game again after the gamejam, but I am planning to release an update as soon as voting is over, and hopefully work on making the game flow better without sacrificing the difficulty. Some improvements I've had in mind for Python were to lower the HP of crates and make them disappear instantly rather than having a "ghost" period where they still block you despite already being destroyed, giving the detached sections a "laser sight" indicator to show where they're about to launch, and potentially lowering the boss's HP a lot while giving him an additional attack phase to compensate.

I'm also planning to post a video of clearing the whole game some time around the voting end, so people who are curious about the rest of the bosses can get to see them too. Regardless, thanks again for checking it out in its unpolished state!