Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
Tags
(1 edit)

Excellent controls . . . Interesting Art Direction?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I for one can surely resonate with the message behind this game. We all have busy days and need a break. I can't tell you how many games and devs I need to review and how refreshing it was for me to play this. 

The gameplay is simple, but solid. You don't need fancy physics to accomplish what you were aiming for and to that I say good job. The controls feel a bit loose at times, but that could be due to my mouse's extreme calibration. rather than shotty design.

Now for the level difficulty . . . It's fine. The difficulty ramps up just enough as to where the player's not being bombarded with ball after ball, but essentially eased into the challenge. Nice balance.

Now my only real complaint could be labeled as subjective, but I feel that the art design, while creative in its own right, needs to go. Everything has this weird Salvador Dali aesthetic to it, which creeps me out instead of calming me. Now again art design can be argued up and down the street, but I feel that you should try to aim for a more soft and cartoonish look. 

Something that doesn't have so many hard edges and whatnot. Now for my final piece of advice . . . Please change that U.I(User interface). While your artwork is strange yet intriguing, the U.I is so stock and unimagined. Now I can tell that you're still working on this game, but you'd need to really shake up the menus if you plan on getting serious with this game.

So in conclusion, we at Shock Site gaming give this 3.5 stars out of 5. Keep working on this, it's not the end, but only the beginning.  

Wow!  Thank you for your wonderful review!  Some of the things you've said are to be expected, but some are surprising!

You are the first person who has said that the art is creepy and uncalming.  Most are saying "wow that's beautiful!"  It's all hand watercolor paintings  (with some post processing).  Perhaps we hit the brightness/contrast buttons too hard.

The UI isn't something anyone has talked to me about so far, but  have been struggling with it.  I think it might be a bit obvious I made the game, and then tried to figure out how the UI goes.  Not only that, there are several cases where I am trying to think up something that looks good, and a cartoony UI would make things easier to see but I haven't done it, thinking that it would seem out of place in the game.  The UI is (mostly) hand drawn and painted too, actually.

You've given me a bit to think about!  I had thought  the difficulty ramped up too quickly, but I eventually got frustrated tuning it!  I may replace the menus with something more cartoony.  I'm currently working on making pop-up features to highlight some of the unique aspects of the game - my analytics tell me that very few people find Ella, so I keep modifying it to make it easier for her to find.  And although I hate the idea of a window popping up and saying "go do this!", I'm starting realize why it is so common in games.

Thank you again for your wonderful review!

(1 edit)

You are very welcome. I too once wanted to be a game designer then I realized that I could never do what you and so many others do. So now I focus my efforts on helping others because that's what's more important. I really enjoy the game, and I look forward to seeing you improve upon it in the future.

I don't know how this got past me, but the music quite literally stops after some time. I made it down the the final screen below and the music cut out and all that was left was the sound effects that the little dividers made when the balls touched them. That needs to be patched Asap!

...  that was a design choice.  We wanted the music to stop when you were contemplating your question.

I'll modify it so the music quiets down rather than suddenly stops.  I'll convene with the artist and see what she thinks.  One man's feature is another man's bug.  If it looks like it's broken, I'll change it so it looks purposely done.

I want to revisit the music altogether!  People who play through the game say they got sick of the music (and the developer says this too  ;) but once upon a time I had the idea that each page would have its own music.  Time to get on that!

That's a very interesting design choice. I personally found the music to be the most soothing aspect about the game, but I'm glad you plan on updating the game with quality of life patches. Shows the mark of a true developer who cares.