fantastic!! if i were to give any other notes, this might be intentional (and no worries if its not, i personally dont mind planning my minigames so that the easiest are last) but it feels like the difficulty scaling for the minigames is kind of wonky if that makes sense? the flock and voyage become WAY harder as the difficulty ramps, but the forest + the bubble game are both basically the same as the easiest difficulty
if i were to be more specific, i think that for fill the sea, both the artifacts and the difficulty ramping seem to have almost no mechanical impact on gameplay - if i pick it for my very first or very last minigame, it feels/plays very much the same regardless of progress or artifacts. there are a few exceptions, like that the chunks one does make it easier to conserve space, or making the enemies smaller, but the overall feel is very similar, and it doesn't feel like the enemies get that much harder through the level progression either. it's also sort of unclear which mechanisms (shot speed? stamina refill?) cause the bubble to fill more quickly/slower, just that occasionally it DOES feel like the speed is different.
whereas the forest kind of has the opposite problem - playing it in early game CAN be very mechanically challenging/it does feel very much like a strategic or puzzle game with how you have to count your shots and line up the obstacles. however the difference between how much the difficulty changes (not much mechanically imo in terms of obstacles etc) feels very disproportionate to how much the artifacts very quickly can ramp up how easy it is; ones that increase or randomize shot size especially, or ones like the scattershot/chunks/etc make it so that there's no mechanical difficulty whatsoever. whenever i've managed to save it for lategame, you can basically just set the obstacles wherever and shoot randomly and clear them on your first shot. maybe could be improved by adding obstacles in the higher difficulty levels that can stop projectiles in their tracks or taking away aura points if they're hit, if some level of strategic play is meant to continue?
i'd say i actually enjoy the scaling w the flock and voyage - i think with those two in particular the concept of like. having to choose artifacts carefully because of the different game mechanics works pretty well; the example that comes to mind being that larger enemy size is good for the flock but bad for voyage, or that while the magnet is really nice to have in the aura rooms in the flock, sometimes when paired with the moon in voyage it's lost me that particular round.
one other minor thing - i do kind of wish that there was a bit more in mirage to mechanically distinguish it from the flock, as it is it just kind of ends up feeling like a less challenging version of the flock? i dont MIND it, i have fun playing it, but of the currently available minigames i find it's the one that feels a bit more like a throwaway/spare, if that makes sense.
thank you for your responses!! i hope this is helpful + doesn't come across as too critical, im vv excited to see the full game! :]
This is really valuable feedback, thank you so much for taking the time to write this up!
I definitely hear you on Depths and Forest - I think for Forest we could incorporate bumpers with a lot more HP in the later difficulties to balance out the item upgrades that you've gotten so it isn't just "spam anywhere and you'll win"
For Mirage, we've tried a couple mechanics to distinguish it further and nothing's felt quite right so far. We have plans to try one more spin on it, and we'll be adding a lot more maps as well to increase variety. In my mind I see Mirage as a survival horde game, and Flock as a chase sequence!
Thanks again so much for your thoughtful feedback, it's really appreciated and helpful!
Some possibilities for Mirage maybe (disregard of course if these are things you've already tested + didn't like or don't fit with how you want the gameplay to feel!!):
- in higher difficulties maybe enemies that split when you shoot them the first time into smaller enemies? could help w the horde feeling/trying to strategize not getting swamped
- the amount of fog/obfuscation enemies give increasing with difficulty level
- maybe i haven't unlocked it yet or it's not in the demo, but i think it could be neat to have an item with some sync between mirage and voyage (wrt the moon aura) that makes it either so that darkness/visual obfuscation fades more quickly OR one that makes the obfuscation last longer, but gives you more aura per enemy killed (mirage)/moon you collect?
- would having mirage have autofire/be closer to a bullet heaven type minigame work? i feel like that might help distinguish it from the flock/make it feel closer to some horde survival games, and make things like shot speed feel a bit more important when you're choosing artifacts
im so glad the feedback has been valuable/happy to give it!! thank u for taking the time to respond :]