❤️ What I Loved
The movement feels really good, especially with the dash. There’s a surprising amount of detail and polish throughout the game.
One of my favorite examples is the wildlife. When you shoot into a flock of birds, most of them fly away while the one you hit actually gets taken down. Even something as simple as shooting a wild boar feels great because it survives the first hit and then runs away instead of just dropping dead. Those little details make the world feel much more alive.
And of course, the beer. As someone from Bavaria, beer holds a very special place in my heart, so seeing it treated like some kind of highly protected treasure genuinely made me laugh. It was basically: Yeah, nice. Prost! It's also honestly impressive how heavily some of those beers are guarded.
I also absolutely loved the arrow system. Only having ten arrows but being able to retrieve them again is genius. It makes every shot matter without unnecessarily punishing you for using your ammunition.
The way the environment communicates what you can and cannot shoot through is also really well done. The objects you can't shoot through are visually distinct enough that you can immediately understand what provides actual cover. That becomes especially important against the human enemies, who can be surprisingly tough. Beating them feels genuinely rewarding because you can't just mindlessly rush through encounters. You actually have to think about when and how you use your dash.
The enemy design has some nice surprises as well. The fact that Slimes can spawn additional Slimes isn't exactly reinventing the wheel, but it still caught me off guard in a good way.
I also really liked how enemy movement works. Enemies don't simply stay in one place and wait for you. If you die and retry, an enemy might have been at position A before, but while you're not looking, it can move to position B or C. You then assume it's still at A and suddenly get hit from somewhere you weren't expecting. It makes the encounters feel much more dynamic.
There is also a lot of game feel here. The death animations, screen shake, splash damage from barrel explosions, and all the little impact effects add a lot of juice to the gameplay. You can tell that a lot of attention went into polishing those details.
The difficulty progression is also very well handled. Each level gradually asks more from you, and Level 9 was probably the one I struggled with the most before reaching the final fight.
The music deserves a mention too. I really liked that it isn't just one track playing throughout the entire game, but that the music changes between different environments.
Another small detail I really appreciated was being able to see the player through certain environmental objects, with the character becoming tinted when they're behind something like a tree. It's a tiny feature, but it makes the game much more readable.
And then there's the boss fight.
Seeing the boss bar immediately at the beginning of Level 10 already gives you a good idea of what's coming, but the actual design of the encounter was even better than I expected. Throughout the game, you can develop this little routine of killing enemies and then making your way toward the beer. The boss completely breaks that routine because enemies keep spawning.
That's really good game design.
You're forced to rethink the strategy you've been using for the entire game. Even the opening of the boss fight immediately puts you in a situation where there are more enemies than you have arrows for, forcing you to adapt instead of simply eliminating everything one by one.
I genuinely enjoyed the boss fight a lot.
I also really appreciated the presentation of the itch.io page itself. The fact that dedicated GIFs were made specifically to showcase the game is a nice touch, and I definitely appreciate the extra work that went into presenting the project.
💭 What I Wished
One thing I would have loved to see is a way to cancel your bow-aiming state, perhaps with the right mouse button. Especially during the later fights, being able to immediately lower the bow and return to normal movement would make it easier to use cover and react to enemies.
I also think it would be really cool if arrows that hit an enemy remained stuck in that enemy instead of simply dropping to the ground. Once you kill that enemy, you could retrieve all the arrows that were stuck in them. It would fit the existing arrow-retrieval system really well and would make your ammunition feel even more connected to the enemies you're fighting.
🔧 What Needs Improvement
The biggest thing I noticed was the beer pickup sound. At least to my ears, it sounds slightly more negative or unpleasant than rewarding. Since picking up the beer is such an important and satisfying part of the gameplay loop, I think a more satisfying pickup sound would fit the moment better.
There were also a few moments where the player seemed to collide awkwardly with objects after using the dash. This might simply be related to the colliders of certain environmental objects, but it's something I'd take another look at.
I also encountered a few arrows that ended up in locations that seemed impossible to reach. I remember noticing this around Level 8, near the long stone path/bridge over the water at the beginning of the level. It wasn't a major issue, but it could potentially become frustrating if the player needs that arrow to continue.
The boss fight is probably the one area where I'd make the biggest adjustment. I absolutely loved the encounter, but for me it was simply a little too difficult.
A big part of that difficulty came from the randomness surrounding the arrows. Sometimes enemies would knock or blow arrows away, or the red-bearded Goblin would destroy them, leaving me without enough ammunition to properly deal with the encounter. After quite a few attempts, I eventually had to give up because I kept getting killed by something unexpected right near the end, or simply ran out of arrows.
I think the boss itself is really well designed. The issue for me isn't the concept or the mechanics, but rather that the amount of randomness can make some attempts feel less like I lost because of a mistake and more like I simply didn't get the resources I needed.
I unfortunately wasn't able to see the ending because of this, which was a little disappointing after getting that far.
⭐ Overall
Overall, I had a really good time with this game. There is a lot more polish and attention to detail here than I expected going in, especially considering this is a Game Jam project.
The movement feels great, the combat has a surprising amount of depth, the environments communicate their mechanics well, and there are a lot of small details that show a clear understanding of game feel and game design.
The boss fight in particular was a highlight for me. Even though I ultimately couldn't beat it, I really enjoyed the way it completely changed the rules and forced me to rethink the strategies I'd been relying on throughout the rest of the game.
Really solid Game Jam game with a lot of personality and polish.