I'm making a more in-depth review here just because I really enjoyed the mechanics, gameplay loop, and the music. There are a lot of thoughts in my mind, and it was really hard to structure... Take everything I said below as if I didn't consider too much of it as a jam game. If you add that back in its good.
2 days ago (+2)
Gameplay Loop
It's well made with the simple premise and thematics of trying to prevent a blackhole from going critical. That lends nicely into objects (asteroids) falling into it, and blocking them is the main core of the game. It's solid with the steering not being too immediate/fast, but responsive enough to have that control.
The one thing I noticed that struck me on this topic, is... the lack of clicking. I'm not saying its a bad thing and it kind of gave the game an easy onboarding, but its really funny a rhythm / timing game w/o the actual rhythm clicking. Its a really hidden but strong strength the game has. I'm still on the fence if having clicking mechanics is even a good or bad thing the game should have (like: clicking when the asteroid hits gets you bonus score, or certain asteroids require it), since I feel like the constraint is what breeded some creativity, and going further with the constraint would be even more beneficial. (Edit: yeah after going through Last Singularity a couple times, I don't think adding click timing in base would be a good idea, its a bit too hectic).
Overall, solid and has a surprising easy onboarding.
Variety and Level Design
From there its really easy to expand from existing concepts, theres the slightly tricky to track yellows, the avoid to hit reds, and the very tricky to follow greens. Each of the variants is solid in giving the game distinct modes on you should approach them. Greens especially breaks up the pattern of only caring what's closest, and requires the player to be aware both near and far to the blackhole, which is well done. The asteroids themselves have a bit of character as some are big some are small some are fast and some are slow. Some pop out far while others is close and that's enough to make it hard to tell the exact path which is nice.
Random stuff
The main menu music can be... better, its a bit chaotic disoriented for my taste, and the intro sound (the thing you hear every time the game puts you back in the main menu) is jarring.
Yeah the game end screen was triggered to early.
The little text on the bottom is fine, and i like the little shake it does, a better indicator would've have the blackhole change dynamically in some capacity (I expected it to grow and shrink), but its okay and the relief on seeing the green "Core stabilized" put me at ease, while locking in when it does fail.
The asteroid sound was nice.
There is a weird dissonance with the pixel and realistic assets, not a bad thing but the only one I feel like should be realistic is the rotating thingy.
The Covers were okay, can be better.
The effect of the shield is a nice touch.
The deadzone was a good touch actually, it prevented the player from camping at the black hole since less mouse distance = more responsiveness, and you have to physically turn around the blackhole to do it well.
Specific Music and Levels
Neru's Kingdom
Oh My! - the level is not bad, hitting with the reds at the start and a general mix of asteroids is okay. The music, is not bad, not great, and I feel like a call-response structure would make it okay as the first level.
Cytoplasm - Starts of withe oms asteroid - red hits, and then really introduces greens... at the last part lmao as a teaser to the next level. The music funky I like the vibe, its fine and serves its purpose.
Fall Empire - The greens here were tricky but its not bad. The main instrument though was... something lmao, its goofy but a bit off...
Sticky Eyes - This is where I see the game starting to pick up and died a couple here. Its short and sweet with the knowledge and preparation of the greens and with a really nice red section. From here the music starts to pick up and a lot more well spread out for a lack of a better term in "placement".
Purple's Adventure
Tutorial - Not bad in introducing the mechanics, the color coding was clear and got time to at least see the telltales and movements on each one. The music is solid for something basic and what I thought ish the starting levels would be at.
Stellar Ballad - This is when the major colors really shine and while you have your greens and reds, this was when the yellows start really being difficult which was nice to see. For the music, its really nice and probably my favorite in terms of composition, with especially the middle part allows the keys to evolve out. The only thing that was off is in the flute and the main backing not working with each other, but how everything is placed with the musical ideas, its really close to being really good, and only missing in evolving certain "motifs" or proper mixing/layering. Nice.
Spacetime Rift - Really a nice calm before the storm track and it was so nice to finally get a SS then a P, its nice and good, nothing much. The music is my favorite in terms of atmosphere and everything just feels like its building up, and once those keys came in, eargasm. Solid.
Last Singularity - Best one of course I could tell with the effort. DYNAMICALLY CHANGING COLORS FOR EACH SECTION was so nice and really aaa. This is where you are really tested and I only got into A at most. The music is solid and takes well with the music ideas with what it introduces and runs with them, that eguitar and those break like drums really nice. The sections are such an experience and yeah it is the best. Be proud of this one. (EDIT: GOT AN S LETS GOOO).
Specific Sections: The red sections were pure dopamine, you get insane combo and the main danger are the big ones. Grey-Yellow, these are by far the hardest, and really tests your skill in predicting which one is first and tells where you position. Green - These are calm ish but precisely deadly, it acts as a semi break from the hard hitters but its a different kind of difficulty that demand the player to be precise.
Overall well made yall, this is probably the most I spent in a jam comment review, and yeah. I liked the game.
1 day ago(+2)
First of all i can't thank you enough for this review, i read it thoroughly and it makes some really great points. I wouldn't have tought anyone would put that much effort into our game X)
Now for some answers and fun fact there were actually 2 more asteroid types planned but we didn't have enough time, blue ones that you would need to hit twice and comets who would act as long notes like in OSU
Thanks for noticing everything really it makes me really proud and happy
I agree with the main music but at some point we were limited in time for new music which is why i added a setting specifically for main menu music
the core stabilized and critical mass was actually the last feature implemented and we couldn't really test it a lot so i'm glad it was fun
for the pixel art dissonance, it was voluntary for the mouse and player to make them stand out a bit as for the covers /ui our artist couldn't do something else than pixel art so that's why we went for it despite the change in art style
We tought about making the asteroid grow and shrink but it would've been too much effort for how much it added to the game, it might had been too confusing for the player too
i feel like the deadzone should've been an option but glad you liked it
for the specific level designs i didn't do the composition nor the level design so i can't answer as much but i'm really really happy for all you said, purple said that got her tears
Thanks a lot and gg for getting S in last singularity, that thing is hard, only punduch the other dev managed to P rank it
1 day ago (+2)
THANK YOU SO MUCHHHH, it was actual pure dopamine reading how all of the asteroid types, song charts and visuals that I spent so much time designing and coding made you enjoy the game more!
Honestly really nice feedback! Seldon already answered everything so I'm not going to do it again. Hope you can get a P rank on last singularity! (Its very very hard, but I somehow did it, so you should too)
Oh actually Seldon didn't really answer about level designs, well I'm going to since I charted all of the songs the day before the submission lol
I pretty much fully agree on how you identified the functions of the asteroids - it is exactly how I've chose to use them! Ones that I'm not so sure about are the grey ones (regular asteroids), from my point of view yellow/green asteroids are much harder and while regular asteroids sections may appear harder its probably because I used them in much much higher quantities. Outside of that I would still pretty much put them on the same level as Red asteroids... but that also changes from level to level.
I'm really happy that you noted the dynamic colors in last singularity! I thought it would be a very nice change for once, it was worth spending my time on that in the end it seems.
As Seldon said in his comment, we were planning to add a lot more time and from all the downsides you've mentioned it was just out ways of distributing work and pumping into the game as much as we can for this gamejam!
We might continue developing it? idk ;P