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Bogden3 years ago(+1)

Short and sweet.

Really enjoyed the concepts and the theming, but admittedly was unfortunately not a huge fan of the execution.

Really shines at the start, where you are passing the light just as the darkness is about to engulf you, in a noble sacrifice.

In terms of game design, was definitely expecting a lot more puzzle style mechanics, as well as the possessing of multiple types of characters with different abilities. In the end, unfortunately it just ended up being a fairly straightforward platformer, just with one checkpoint-esque mechanic in the light tossing.

Technically speaking, I was quite satisfied with the intelligent arcs the light was passed in depending on the positions of the two entities. Unfortunately I had lot of performance issues whenever I respawned, leading to a lot of failed inputs on jumps shortly after respawning.

The art style felt a bit inconsistent to me though. Some things were detailed, while others weren't. Some things looked too realistic while other things looked too stylized. The animations felt a bit stiff and choppy at times.

Quite enjoyed the audio on its own, though maybe a little too heavy on the ambient sounds given the style of game. Wasn't expecting that much ambience in a 2d platformer. From a mood perspective though, it didn't feel like it quite matched the gameplay either, which felt like a frantic scramble to safety, versus a mysterious adventure through the woods.

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Scoot o' Speed Studios3 years ago

Thanks so much for your detailed feedback!

Having characters with different types/mechanics for some reason crossed our minds, but that's a great idea! We did a little tweaking to their starting sizes to balance the "stamina" mechanic. There was a a couple more puzzle segments towards the end, but they had to be cut due to the growing lag. 

I think if we were to revisit this game, we'd go for clearer distinctions between level segments. Like a torch you can light that holds off the shadow swarm, but slowly goes burns out. That way we could still have a slower puzzle aspect to it, but still have a pressing need to go forward. That'd also help with the music dissonance (my bad on that one, I pushed pretty hard on it.) 

For the animations being stiff and choppy are you talking about the 

  1. character/fire sprite animations
  2. the shadow monster movement / particle fx
  3. ember tossing
  4. other?

Anyway, once again thanks for the feedback! It's a nice motivation to revisit a lot of our original design and run thought experiments on it!

- Josh

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Bogden3 years ago

#1 and #2 certainly, and I'd say they felt more stiff than choppy. In particular, I think the fact that the main character animated the same no matter how fast your character was moving, or if your character was moving at all added to the stiff feeling.

The shadow monster didn't feel particularly dynamic because the sprites seemed to just constantly rotate in a circle at a fixed speed, as opposed to potentially slightly more varied movements.

I think you have a pretty significant choice to make in terms of the direction of your game. Do you want it to be a level based puzzler using possession mechanics, or do you want it to be more of a steeple chase, where you constantly are passing the torch?

I'd lean towards embracing the latter, simply because I think that one interaction has a lot of emotional impact that can potentially be built upon in tons of interesting and varied ways.

If you lean towards the puzzle genre, one potential mechanic that might work well could be to make the darkness only move when you do. That way, the player has time to think about their next move, but also has a constant impending sense of doom.

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Scoot o' Speed Studios3 years ago

Cool thanks for the insight on the animations! Linking them to speed is a good idea!

I don't think we'll do a large revamp of the game post-jam, but it'd be fun to think through. I had a maze-like level in mind that had about 4 distinct heights that that you would pass the torch between thorns. It was pretty simple, but it also had the player kite the shadow monster around so they could make snap, simple decisions. 

So I guess that direction would be heavier on the platforming side, but with some smaller puzzles built in. I for sure would want to lean into the tossing mechanics since it's what makes it somewhat unique. There's still room for the unique character types in that to add more level possibilities.

- Josh

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Scoot o' Speed Studios3 years ago

This is such great feedback, thanks for taking the time to go through everything! Developing an art style for games is something I'm very new to, and I've had to do a lot of experimentation. As someone who has a strong background in realistic painting, it's been difficult trying to find a consistent style that balances a painterly style with outlined, stylized objects. Hopefully I can strike a better balance between detailed and stylized  in the future!

-Kati

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Bogden3 years ago

No problem! Keep in mind that art style in games is not limited to just illustrations. Animations, models, particle effects, shaders, and other VFX can all play extremely important roles as well. Good luck in the future!

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