Somehow managed to clear and reach #1 spot on my first attempt... No idea how scoring works and whether it's deserved but I'll take it.
Lovely hand-drawn style, reminds me of CryptRat's submission, though the gameplay loop is different. Overall - plenty of interesting ideas, having to "protect" the page is a neat mix-up mechanic and having multiple tools for this makes it fun. Two thoughts though - I wish the enemies were more aggressive in applying colors (in a harder difficulty setting maybe), and also it felt unnatural that you can't shoot down the blots of paint before they apply, considering how long they can linger on screen (if you don't want them getting shot, how about dashing to destroy them instead?)
In terms of abilities, the shrink didn't feel relevant at all, save for one of the patterns of the first boss where the passage between bullets is tight enough that dashing was too dangerous and precise to try. I never used the shrinking afterward, the tradeoff of losing power is just too unappealing, and the patterns were spacious enough that it wasn't necessary.
The charge shot - I think it's overpowered but in a fun way, the damage you can deal with it seems to be way higher than normal shots, and since the last boss is very mobile it's preferable to use it since you can charge the shot during moments where the boss is not aligned with you. Only thing is that it made dashing mostly irrelevant for page discoloring since it's weaker and doesn't cover as much range as charge. If the enemy was more aggressive with coloring and/or the dash had some utility like the "dash to destroy blots" suggestion - I think it would make it more useful, and also fun due to making the two mechanics interact more deeply.
Other than that, solid work overall. Thank you for sharing!
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Sorry for the late response! I was on vacation during the last couple days of the voting period, so I wasn’t able to be too active with replies.
Congrats on the clear and the #1 spot! Whether the scoring was deserved or not, the leaderboard has spoken lol.
Seriously though, thank you for such a detailed write-up. This is super helpful feedback. I’m really glad the coloring mechanic stood out, because that was the main thing I wanted to feel different from a more standard bullet hell loop.
I think you’re right that the enemies probably could have been more aggressive with applying color, especially in a harder mode. The coloring mechanic was honestly a tough thing to balance, because I wanted it to matter enough that players couldn’t just ignore it, but I also didn’t want people who were already struggling with the bosses to get completely overwhelmed. So I tried to find a middle ground where ignoring the color would eventually fail you, but keeping up with it would still feel manageable. That said, I definitely think it could have benefited from more fine tuning, especially for more hardcore players or a harder difficulty setting.
The blot feedback makes a lot of sense too. Funny enough, at one point in development I actually had it where charge shots could take out the blots, but I ended up removing it because I was worried it might make the cleaning side too easy. In hindsight, I probably should have kept some version of that interaction, or maybe made dash destroy them like you suggested. That would have made the blots feel less like untouchable hazards and given dash a much clearer utility outside of just avoiding bullets or cleaning the page.
Totally fair on shrink as well. I wanted it to work more like a focus / precision mode for tight patterns, but I can see how the power tradeoff made it feel not worth using unless the pattern specifically demanded it. That’s something I’d probably rebalance if I revisit the game.
And yeah, charge shot probably ended up being the star of the mechanics lol. I’m glad it felt overpowered in a fun way, but I agree that it kind of overshadowed dash for cleaning. Making the enemies color more aggressively, and giving dash or charge shot some extra interaction with blots would probably make those tools feel more evenly useful.
Thanks again for playing and for taking the time to write all this out. This is exactly the kind of feedback that helps me see what worked and what could be pushed further in future games.