I really like this game.
All of the effects are really well done, especially the liquid neon splattering across the tiles. Using the liquid neon to scout for platforms, traps and enemies is, I think, the best mechanic in this game. It's really fun to do, makes backtracking feel safe and encouraged and gives the player so much information for safe platforming. The MKII is great at splattering walls very quickly and is an awesome 1st gun reward.
Here's a list of more things I enjoyed about the game:
- Really enjoyable, retro neon cyberpunk inspired music. Never once minded it while it was playing.
- Level design is superb. The levels never felt exactly the same, and seeing similar structures that I knew had good loot was a good feeling. And with all of the traps scattered about, the levels encouraged careful exploration, which is something pretty unique about the platforming.
- Loot gathering works very well. I would have hated jumping into spikes to gather items. Thankfully everything just zooms to you!
- The MKII.
- Upgrade shop is packed full of goodies. Finally getting past U3 and being able to buy upgrades is an incredible feeling, especially with how hard U3 is.
- All transitions, effects, animations, UI, etc. are all on point.
Criticisms/suggestions
- Getting to the save area is harder than it should be. I'm all for hard games (Dark souls I, II, III player over here... :)), but I think the save area should spawn after every level completion, and you should have the choice to go back or continue. About 70% of my resource collecting was lost because I died before I could make it past U3, and its a terrible feeling finding over 100 of each resource and dying on U3, as it feels like my efforts were for nothing. And even though it feels incredibly good making it past U3 and getting to upgrade for the first time, at that point my skill and understanding of the game increased as well, and I don't need the upgrades as much as another player who is struggling to make in the early areas. Upgrades should help the struggling players more than it should reward the skillful ones. Before I made it past U3, I actually stopped playing because I got to frustrated, as played for around an hour not being able buy anything, which would have helped as the upgrades really did make the game easier (MKII especially).
- U3 is a big jump in difficulty. I feel like that jump might be better at U4, after you've been able to get upgrades. Also, there isn't really a visual indicator of the difficulty jump on enemies and spikes, besides your normal blaster not being able to one shot enemies after U2. Something like different colored eyes or an outline would be nice.
- A neon explosion would be an awesome reward for killing an enemy. Shooting into the darkness and lighting up the world is a great mechanic, and I feel that after spraying light everywhere and seeing an enemy and killing it, it feels a little disappointing not having much happen.
- Interacting with the world should be a different button than the shoot button. Shooting in the shop area and accidentally opening up the shop, as well as making it to the end of the level and wanting to backtrack and collect but accidentally going to the next because you shot, could be avoided.
- The bullet spawns too far from the player. There were many times when I was right in front of a barrel and shot and missed because I was too close to it. With how important ammo is, as it is tied to your health, exploration, and protection, missing shots like those felt unfair. Having a quick collision check right on top/in front of the player before you instance a bullet would easily fix this.
- Spike collisions are weird. This is the example I'm refering to:
If I line up to the left wall like so and jump, I get damaged by the spikes. I feel like that shouldnt happen, and really sucks when you end up dying by things like that in game, especially if you've gone far in the run.
- Performance isn't bad, but It could be better. I noticed stutters the longer I played, the first really noticeable one after buying the MKIII. I didnt mind it, tbh, but just thought you should know.
All in all, I thought this game was insanely good, and I felt how much passion was put into it. I've only played 5 jam games so far but this game feels like 1st place material for this jam, and a game I definitely want to see polished and complete. I will hopefully continue to play this game after the jam and see how much stuff you packed into it, as I have yet to complete it, but I gotta play other people's games, too! Awesome job!
- Side note: Did you include the project files anywhere? I wasn't able to find them and was curious how you did alot of the effects in the game. Not sure if I was just looking in the wrong place..