Post by Glasnerven in Hot Summer Sylvie comments

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It's got potential, but I see a couple of areas that could use improvement.

First, jump height varies, but it's not at all clear to me what causes that variation. All I can tell is that sometimes I can make a jump, and sometimes I can't. That's especially frustrating when jumping to escape a crab.

Second, in "Dive to the Utmost Depths", you've got a crab that kills the player in what seems like less than half a second after the level starts, if they don't move. It's easy to get dozens of deaths here before realizing what's happening. Maybe start the level with the game paused, and have everything start moving when the player hits a key? Also, it seemed like the motion of the fish wasn't the same every time, which makes it hard to learn how to avoid them.

Maybe I'm just not the intended audience of this type of game? It's definitely cute. I hope you get a lot of useful feedback!

jseakle2 years ago (1 edit) (+3)

Everything you've identified here is very much an intentional feature. Jump height is explicitly randomized, being killed instantly upon level start is a hilarious joke (and doesn't really impede you in any way; dying 10 times is essentially identical to standing still for 5 seconds), and fish speeds are also explicitly randomized, presumably for the exact purpose of making it harder to learn how to avoid them.

These features are all there in part to push on and play with standard ideas about "bad game design"; you can read some things sylvie has written about this e.g. here http://sylvie.zone/posts/2021-02-15-Sylvie-A.html and here https://twitter.com/sylviefluff/status/1282834519880544256

sylvie2 years ago(+3)

Thank you for the comment! The game is supposed to feel a little strange and different from other platformers. You might just need time to adjust to it, but it's also possible you just don't like this unusual type of game. The intended audience is probably people who want to experience a New Summer Feeling.

Glasnerven2 years ago(+1)

You're welcome, and thank you for being gentle in pointing out where I'd gone wrong! This isn't the first time I've missed the point of a work.

I'm definitely going to take another look at the game. It's possible that it's just not the kind of thing I like, but it's also possible that if I can see the game for what it is instead of what I think it should be, that I'll like it better.

In either case, I have believed for some time that artists do better work when they stop striving for mass appeal and instead make something true to their vision, trusting that the right people will get it, and not worrying about the opinions of people outside their audience. I can't reasonably complain if that leaves me on the outside from time to time!

itch.io

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