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A jam submission

SpyBallView game page

Research a top secret SpyBall that groups all of its controls together!
Submitted by andrew7fls — 2 hours, 27 minutes before the deadline
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SpyBall's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Originality#18423.1703.170
Presentation#22292.9362.936
Overall#22942.8092.809
Fun#26922.5532.553

Ranked from 47 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

How does your game fit the theme?
In two ways. First being that the idea of a control in research is the version that is not being affected. In this game, players slide between the control state and the state where they adapt their controls. Secondly, the combination of variables introduced to the player, is likely to become unwieldy at it's extremes! (aka it can get pretty out of control!)

Did your team create the art for this game during the 48 hour time slot?

No

We used pre-existing art

Did your team create the audio for this game during the 48 hour time slot?

Yes

We created all audio during the game jam

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

The tutorial was a good start, but then the music got repetitive and the game got hard. The graphics are cool though and the menus as well.

Submitted(+1)

I really like that I was able to upgrade my spyball how I wanted! However, I think my favorite part of the game was the tutorial, after that it was too difficult. Good job for making this game in 48h :) 

Submitted(+2)

I have some constructive criticism.

It's too easy to get lost,  maybe if you changed the color of textures in different areas of the map so it wouldn't look all so samey it could be easier to tell that your in a new area of the map. 

The camera is very slow. I found it hard to control. The one thing that stopped me from turning around was the size of my display. When I wanted to turn the camera a full 180 degrees, the one thing that stopped me was the mouse hitting the edge of my display.

The extra variables don't feel like there adding anything. I bought seven light upgrades and I still didn't feel like I could see any further than I first started.  When you progress to grow stronger, the changes need to feel immediate, and I just didn't feel it.

I am sad to say that I quit playing halfway through the game. I actually gave the game two attempts, but if the camera was easier to work with and the progression was there, I probably would have sought to beat it.

I know I sound negative but I sincerely hope in the future that you will become a better game developer and not take the little things for granted.

Developer

Thanks for the feedback - always very happy to receive any criticism to improve in the future. 

Sounds like you had quite a negative experience in this game, which is a shame. In an ideal world, more playtesters (other than me on my own system) would obviously highlight some of these issues such as locking the cursor to screen so as not to limit rotation - they also only seemed an issue on the online version which I didn't get to spend much time playtesting at all which is a shame. 

I completely agree about the camera speed and ideally, I would have had a player preference setting to adjust the speed of the camera.

Strange about the light, I imagine after 7 upgrades of it is must have been quite blinding when the scrollwheel was fully turned up! Again, this is probably something that could have been caught through proper playtesting and is something I will keep in mind for the future. 

Thank you so much for persevering  with the game, despite finding it frustrating. This was the first Jam I have entered and I have felt very fortunate to have received so much positive and constructive feedback from people playing something that I have made. Have certainly learnt that the lesson is to try and get others to playtest if possible within the 48 hours :) 

Submitted(+1)

I sincere apologize. 

I didn't know you could use the mouse wheel. I was wondering what the blue bar on top was for, now I feel stupid. I think the reason I missed it was because the tutorial was too wordy and I was able to beat the tutorial without the upgrades.

So I played the game again, re rated it and I beat it so I now feel much better. So yeah, it in my earlier playthroughs, I played the entire game in the dark and it was very frustrating all because I missed the thing about the mouse wheel. I take back everything I said about the upgrades. 

But still camera needs work though. And the scroll wheel only works when the mouse is on screen, otherwise it just scrolls the browser window up and down.

Great job!

Submitted(+1)

Pretty fun! I found out you can double jump sometimes, not sure if intended.  The Light variable was basically essential otherwise I found I kept falling off the world in some spots.

Developer

Many thanks for playing the game and for the feedback :) Yes double jump (but no more than 2 before touching back down again) was intended. I agree for the light variable - wanted to include one variable that the player would really need to get to give them to motivation to try others :)

Submitted(+1)

Looks and sounds cool but the controls could have been a bit more responsive. Or turn it on its head and move the stage instead of the ball (like in super monkey ball)

Developer

Many thanks for playing my game and for the feedback - I have also had feedback from others about the responsiveness and this is definitely something that I would make into a setting in future so that players could adjust this to their desired level :)

Submitted(+1)

Really cool use of the upgrade system! Controls feel a bit too difficult, but with some tuning this could turn into something really neat!

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for playing my game and providing feedback :) I think a bit of tuning was probably necessary. Was difficult in the time limit to find the balance between making it possible at the beginning, but become out of control as things ramped up :)

Submitted(+1)

Definitely. It's hard making those small adjustments when you're under such a time crunch. We ran into the same problem. Excited to see what comes of it if you continue to work on your game!

We'd love your feedback on our game as well! - SpaceBus

Submitted(+1)

The upgrade system is very cool! The only thing is that the texts are too long. Good job.

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for playing my game and providing feedback :) I completely agree about the tutorial text. It does feel a bit jarring and wishing I hadn't added it in. Just wanted to have some kind of actual tutorial level so threw it in at the end. Will go and check out your game now - Many thanks :)

Submitted(+1)

Very good presentation and implementation, however, it is necessary to balance a bit, it is very punishing at the moment.

Developer(+1)

Thanks so much for playing my game and providing feedback :) Yes definitely to balancing. Was difficult in the time available to balance making the start not too difficult but also give incentive to the player to add more variables. 

Submitted(+1)

Cool game, the only thing I would say is that it is a little hard, but maybe I am just bad at it :] well done.

Developer

Many thanks for playing the game and for the feedback :) Some of my family also found it too hard :)

Submitted(+1)

Good work! The UI is pretty nifty, perhaps the light could be increased slightly because it was quite hard to navigate. Otherwise, I like the lore as well!

Developer

Thanks for checking out the game and for the feedback :) Glad you liked the Lore :) I agree with the light and this is something that I would have change now if I could :)

Submitted(+1)

Cool that you can decide what you want to upgrade yourself. It would have been nice with a little more light and speed in the beginning, but else well done.

Developer

Thanks for checking out the game and for the feedback :) I agree for the light and speed - it actually looked darker on the build than it seemed in unity! 

Submitted(+1)

This is weird as hell and I love it for it. When I realised you could apply the same modifier over and over again, I just kept on doing Inflate to make my ball bigger and bigger!

Developer

Haha - that was the inspiration from the out of control theme :) Many thanks for playing it and for the feedback :)

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Neat game! I really found it enjoyable that all of the stars are in the same world, leading to some skippable sections and an open world feel.  Although I didn't go through with the tutorial because the controls were easy to understand, I appreciate its existence for people with little prior knowledge on video games. The only thing I would change is to lock the mouse to the center of the screen so that it wouldn't get stuck on the edges when trying to rotate the camera around.

Developer

Thank you so much for playing Spyball and for your feedback. Really appreciate it :) I agree about locking the mouse to the center. Unfortunately, I only thought about it once I had made the build but definitely something I would like to have changed. Once again, really appreciate you taking the time to play and provide feedback :)

Submitted(+1)

This game is very cool, and It is fun to roll around.  That is a lot of text for a tutorial in a jam game, at first I thought I clicked the wrong button hehe.  still it was cool once the game got started.  If you like this idea, keep working on it! Awesome job submitting a game to this jam and I hope you learned a lot of new stuff. When you have time, please check out my game :D

Developer

Thanks so much for playing my game and providing feedback :) I completely agree about the tutorial text. If does feel a bit jarring and wishing I hadn't added it in. Just wanted to have some kind of actual tutorial level so threw it in at the end. Will go and check out your game now - Many thanks :)

Submitted(+1)

Interesting take on the theme however, the tutorial really slowed down the game for me. Good job!

Developer

Thanks :) yeah we just wanted to put in a quick tutorial at the end of the 48 hours and I agree it does detract from the pace. Thanks for playing it :)

Submitted(+1)

A tutorial should get into the gameplay immediately and not start with lots of unskippable text.

Developer

Hi - many thanks for playing my game :) Yeah I agree with this and would have liked to have made it flow straight in. Just limited by time at the end as the tutorial wording was the last bit I did :)

Submitted(+1)

Good work, I couldn't even figure out how to get mine running on browser. The main mechanic is really cool as well.

Developer

Hi - thanks so much for playing my game! Really glad you liked the main mechanic.  Had some fun messing around with it! Will go and check your submission out now :)

Submitted(+1)

I want to join the ballsoup ;) It's an impressive game you have there for a jam. YOU HAVE A TUTORIAL, and it's great. The mechanic is good, I like it and it's original. Good job, keep doing games!

Developer

Thanks :) Yeah tried to put together the tutorial at the end :) Just checked yours out and I love the visuals. Very well executed!