The game idea is really cool and I think it fits the theme quite well. However I did have a number of issues with it on a personal level.
Lets start with the good though (And I won't go over it all because there is too much good stuff in here to go over it all).
Your game sticks to the theme really well, realizing that your actions have consequences at the end when you realize that you are the main villain is great. It makes you think back to all of the shrooms you killed on the way there.
Here are some areas you can work on for next time. The gameplay and controls, and the visual effects.
1. Gameplay and controls: An issue I had with the game immediately was that the player controls felt floaty and difficult to control. This is likely because the tuning for your accelleration and deceleration were off by a little bit which made this game feel more like it took place in space than "Earth". Not to mention that when it came to the boss fight, the hitbox on the player is so small that it was nearly impossible to actually hit them (Or at least it felt like it)
2. Visual Effects: the artstyle by itself is cool, but without lighting or anything adding to the scene, it just looks cheaply thrown together and out of sync with itself. I also noticed that in your tags you added AI Art as a tag (Which I assume was done in the tileset.) This in itself can make the art look good, but in this instance it just doesn't look cohesive and instead makes the background visuals look out of place compared to the rest of the game.
Some other things you could add to juice up the game would be particles. A simple burst particle coming out of the mushrooms, or a trail of the purple fire sprites moving while being collected would make the game feel a lot better.
But overall great game, great submission, and amazing coherance to the theme!
Viewing post in FOLLOW suit ETERNAL jam comments
Thank you so much for the feedback, OwenBrandon! Iām really happy that you liked the idea and noticed its connection with the jam theme.
The intention was exactly to create that feeling of consequence: at the beginning, the player controls the Suitman invading the Ancestral Forest, collecting fires and defeating creatures along the way, but in the end realizes that he was the true villain. The better the player performs in the first part, the stronger the Suitman becomes in the final fight. If he reaches the end with low health and only a few ancestral fires, the bossfight becomes easier. If he reaches it with a lot of health and many fires, he becomes faster, more aggressive, and harder to defeat.
It is also important to mention that, in this fight, the one truly at risk is not exactly the Forest Protector, but the Ancestral Forest itself. The protectorās role is to stop the Suitman from stealing all of its ancestral energy. At the end, the ranking system calculates factors such as health lost during the level, number of fires collected, bossfight duration, and the remaining health of the forest, generating a score of up to 10 stars. However, since the menu Canvas ended up completely out of place because of a mistake on my part, it became practically impossible to properly use that experience and feel the motivation of beating your own achievements.
About the controls and movement, I completely agree. I still need to study acceleration, deceleration, character weight, and impact feel more deeply. The Suitās hitbox was intentionally meant to be difficult, but the Forest Protector was supposed to have two additional powers: one that would cause confusion and make the Suitman slower or stunned for a few seconds, and another that would allow him to extinguish the fire on the tree and restore one stage of the treeās health. That would have made the fight more dynamic and intense, with more possibilities.
About the visuals, thank you very much for pointing that out. I still have little experience with art, lighting, and visual direction, and I understand that some elements ended up not feeling very cohesive with each other. I want to improve on that, especially when it comes to connecting backgrounds, characters, effects, and atmosphere. I also agree that simple particles, such as impact effects on the mushrooms or effects on the ancestral fires, would help bring much more life to the game.
After the jam period, I intend to fix some of these points, especially the things that were already partially implemented but ended up not working correctly in the final build. Thank you again for such detailed feedback. It really helps me understand where to improve and continue growing in game development.