I'm so glad to read this review so I try to answer every point you have made as best as I can!:
- Your are right about the RNG part with turrets, I realized that in a game with a tie constraint, waiting on something that has a potential to not happen at all or at the last possible moment isn't great become then you're bottle necked, So one way I would probably think of fixing this would be getting rid of the red orbs from turrets and making them only shoot pink orbs so you wont be waiting guessing for the next one to be a pink orb to finally be able to progress the level. I could have also added multiple paths like in a few of my later levels so that if you get lucky and are able to skip some parts of the level, thats great, or you can go the other more consistent route.
- Difficulty Spike in level 3: Yeah this one was definitely a mess up on my part, whilst testing I built levels around how I could move the character and ended up making a path that requires a very precise jump. I feel like the normal level on level 3 isn't too difficult and can definitely be learned and enjoyed, but I agree that the difficulty spike in the "procrastination" stage was too much compared to the normal level. I definitely could have put this further into the game towards the end with more of a skills buildup.
- My worst levels in retrospect were totally the RNG levels 5 and 6 With 6 I wanted a level where you travel across the orb. And that could have been a cool thing if you weren't waiting for the pink orb. Same with 5.
- My other levels after those are normal good levels in my opinion, except for 7, where I somehow made the stage 2 mode way easier and more fun than the normal stage lol.
- I understand your point about not being able to easily replay your levels so I tried adding the Konami code to be able to play any level you wish including the "procrastination" ones, but it was a bit rushed and I could have gone all out in "practice" mode by adding many other QOL features for the player even newbies to learn
- Also that suggestion you made, thats what I was going to try and achieve with the play testing easter egg (I would have made it more easier to figure out, if I had time) this does build on my previous answer tho, I appreciate it!
- Bananas: I completely agree with your statement ideally I wanted a banana in every stage normal and corrupted, But I just didn't have enough time to design all the levels properly (I can't really keep using this time excuse lol)
- Movement: Tbh I really thought my game's movement felt pretty nice and juicy, with instant feedback, but I could totally see how some changes could change how the game is played, and how level design is crafted in the future, so i'm not closed to the idea lol.
- Im really glad you liked my art, design and prevention it really means a lot because it means I'm getting better at those things! I've always used other peoples assets before, and I been trying really hard to start making my own so that I don't have to search for the most specific things anymore lol.
- The immediate quick respawn was something I learned from games like Celeste, and Geometry dash and I thought it was great so I'm glad I added it here.
- This was my first time making a full game in PICO-8 so I did run through a lot of challenges trying to get it to work, hence why I was so rushed trying to finish this (I was still making bug fixed up until the last 5 minutes of submission lol) (And then I found out after I submitted that they extended the time lol, I had already fallen asleep tho)
- Final Thoughts: Thank You so much! I am really glad you enjoyed my game enough to play it for so long and leave such a detailed thoughtful review! I will defiantly be making changes and bug fixes based on your and everyone else's comments here so that I can learn how to make a better game for the future. I'm really glad I decided to take part this year it was so fun and helpful! Thank You!