I was skeptical after looking at some of the art thinking it was ai and was glad that you actualyl mentioned that in the game page instead of hiding it
But ya, that does make the artstyle feel inconsistent here and there..
The 2D art feels VERY different in places.. For Eg the style of the main menu bg and the tomato in front
The Character art for the tutorial egg character.. Or the whole starting newspaper bit compared to everything else
But i pretty much love the aesthetics of each individual level, how unique they mostly feel and the environments
Thats the best part.
- (Visuals Nitpick)
But then, im not so sure about the level select screen.. I get the idea and it works quite well imo but its visuals do fall a bit flat compared to the rest of the game
Also even smaller nitpick, i see you have camera occlusion or smthing but when u are moving around the centre of the map and the camera zooms out, you can clearly see some of the trees oon the top disappearing and re-appearing
- Getting to the actual gameplay, i actually found this very fun!!
The mechanics are quite polished and it is definitely fun to fidget around with the pan or whatever the platform is
The movement is definetly unique and a lil bit hard to get into but the tutorial does more than a good job to explain everything you need to know!
The levels themselves feel unique and i love how most of the levels have a completely different aesthetic and challenges built around that aesthetic..
But there IS one problem imo.. As the goal is to survive for long, its quite fun to get through the starting bits at first.. But as u start to get stuck in the later parts of a level.. It starts to feel like a chore to get through the starting bits..
So it starts with the time going by without you realising at the start to u feeling every second when you are waiting for the same obstacle to come (but this time u know its coming and how you will deal with it) so it just becomes a waiting game till u get back to the part where u get new stuff to deal with..
Tho I live that there is optional and cool side stuff like "jump in the wine glass" to get more rewards!
I love those..
But once i realised i need to collect all 5 stars when i barely managed to get through 55 secs and no stars? :sob:
That felt like an impossible task to get through
Like yee imo the game is definitely difficult and i kinda like difficulty in games.. But here the difficulty is more related to the punishment punished of having to wait like 30 secs to get back where you were..
(Like in elden ring, if i lose to a boss.. I respawn really close to a boss so i can quickly go back and restart the fight.. But here if i lose the level, im instantly back at the start going through the same and completely predictable level layout.. Which feels like those boss run backs in older dark souls games haha)
Im not sure how you would go on to fix this issue
But maybe after you once get to the take out time.. if you win and actually land inside the box, then next start u can just expect random ordering of the obstacles So its more unpredictable and doesnt feel like a chore?
Just throwing out an idea :P
Also, just curious, are the different characters just skins? or do they have any gameplay variety?
I dont think i noticed anything different while playing with them
For the questions u asked :-
- How is the onboarding and the difficulty curve?
-> Both are quite good imo, the game never throws 100 mechanics at once and its quite simple to get into.. As i said tho, the difficulty curve isnt the real problem.. Its that im punished very harshly for failing..
- Were you ever frustrated enough to quit?
-> Again, i only felt like i wanted to leave when i realised how long id have to keep going through the same predictable level layout (by level layout i mean the order of the obstacles that they appear in)
I feel if you somehow deal with the problem of that predictability.. The game will automatically be more fun!
Tho i wouldnt say all leveles should just be completely random haha but i
If you do end up adding a new testing level with no predictable order of those obstacles, Id love to try that out and provide any feedback!
Finally, as u are making this for a commercial release..
some SUUPERR small nitpicks but the spelling for "Desertion" and "appeal" are wrong :P
Also in the same img, u can see that the placement of the coninue popup is placed weridly, so maybe u can fix that aswell
Also i realised sometimg else aswell..
On the level finish win screen with the leaderboard, i was randomly pressing Q and e to change the filter (whatever that meant :P) and i could still control the plate in the background to rotate haha
Anyways, i too have grape expectations from you!
Good luck fro your full release! (and sorry for the late feedback xD)