I would have never thought that a bullet hell genre game could provoke emotions like this. This is perfect fit for the theme of the jam and it has a lot of meaning in it. It is a simple concept but (or "and because of that"?) it works very well. This might be my favorite game of the jam so far. We'll be seeing this game on the Review session tomorrow.
I could leave the feedback for that but there is some other details that I still want to mention:
- The mechanics of the game were simple to understand and playing the game felt natural. I haven't seen a lot of games with this mechanic which is weird seeing how simple concept it is and how well it worked.
- The difficulty level of the game is appropriate. I lost my first attempt which was good so I could see the fail screen. It also gave me motivation to try to get to the "good ending". Then on the other attempt I managed to beat it. If you would like to have it more difficult I would have been ready to retry the game something like 2-5 times to get to the end but I guess that this game is supposed to more like an experience(?) and in that setting this current difficulty works well. I constantly had to move, make the links and dodge the negative stuff and I felt that I could lose which I think is enough for the challenge. Healing mechanic was good because it allowed taking damage and being afraid of losing but still I always managed to get my health back
- The meaning of the game is super clear and coherent. I feel that every game element works for the same overall purpose. The links between "I" and their allies (parent, friend, love) being able to defend from bad things and the allies being able to protect the "I" from the projectiles. The simple color scheme was enough to make clear distinction between good and bad and you managed to paint very clear pictures with only those colors and some words. The word "depression" to be used as the health bar/ damage taken indicator was very original idea.
- It is really hard to think that this kind of story was able to be told like this but the game did it very well. The story was very sad. I was hoping to get a good ending. Instead it was kind of sad still but at least hopeful.
- The projectile text "sadness" was a bit hard to read. I'm not sure was it the curved font or that it was small.
If you have a chance to try either of the games I participated creating (DNA & Travelling Neighbors), please consider leaving at least some feedback for it. They are maybe not as thought provoking (more like "normal" games) but I would like to here your thoughts. Positive or constructive are both welcome and greatly appreciated.