Hello GameFavorites! Before I read and respond to your comment, wanted to say thank you so much for leaving these all around the competition! They have been a source of critical insights not only to the developers themselves (I find them SUPER useful), but also to players playing other games (as a player I find them super cool to see if your experience matches mine, as well as critically evaluate different parts of what I missed while playing, but also perhaps any areas that you have not covered that I could comment on [very rarely this happens XD]).
Finally, as a person leaving comments myself, I am more mindful of how useful such comments can be and try to mimic or at least provide some more depth than I usually do.
Here I go reading and responding to yours now!
1. Design: So happy the intro animation helps! I spent I don't know how many hours making each piece work, and being sucked in, might be of my favourite and most complex animations so far! Happy the boss feels a bit alive and the player flashing!
2. Fun Boss play: Wooohoo! So happy you figured out it was yarn patterns and that this was the whole aim! I wanted to update the big yarn ball to somehow have more patterns or vice versa with some colour, but it would be a huge mess to animate by that time...
Happy the progression bars help! I think currently, visually they don't fill completely (although they do nicely turn to their "complete" version, once their quota is met). Glad it felt nice having them refill the bar!
100% on the one way platforms! There were so many cool things I could have done on the platforming (Coyote timer for a start...) and level design (great idea with the water! initially I wanted it to trigger the boss "unraveling" or becoming heavier so the player could descent and trigger the match 3. In the end, randomly dropping the yarn-staircase was the quickest solution to try and submit on time..)
3. Technical: you are right! Spent most of my time on the Match 3 (along with the animations hehe). Also glad the physics feel nice! Really happy how it bounces around hehe. Luckily the water was simpler than I thought with a shader (still fills like magic how these things just work after following a tutorial...)
4. Genre mashing: so happy you mention about keeping distance but also close proximity to the boss feels nice! I was debating to have even each bump hurt the player, but this way I think is better, sort of "playing with fire", but also allowing players to experiment and try to touch the dropped yarn for the first time, even if they might be scared. Glad the transition helps to communicate the process! 🥳👏
5. Polish: hehe I am delighted you noticed and mentioned the shadow staying there! Had to play around with different sprites and clipping but it worked!
Thanks again for a great comment experience! Got to relive my whole development weeks!