Here comes a review. :)
Miscellanea:
- Nice ‘3D curved screen’ effect for the title screen! :) Does this come from a shader?
- Oh, the font for the tutorial is a little too small, it is hard to read because of the pixelisation effect; thankfully, I can read it in fullscreen, but this is close to the limit.
- The controls are QWERTY-only; this translates to a partially cumbersome ZQSD for my AZERTY layout… There is a way to program the keys on a position-based basis to avoid such problems; furthermore, you can also enable the arrow keys if you really want not to take chances.
- Very cool that you put a contextual tutorial in the game! :D I have been willing to do this for several game jam games, but each time, I felt this would take too much time and effort. Well done.
- In the tutorial, the long jump in the lower right-hand area is already rather hard; this may have to do with my uneasy keyboard mapping, but still.
- You can still walk during a pause; maybe this is voluntary.
- I made it to the end of level 1 (and it was not easy!! Although I managed to achieve it on my third try, I think), but how is the player supposed to get through the door? <:o
- It looks like there is a small bug (or is it voluntary? :)): enemy shots are still present in the menu screen.
- Tackling level 1 seemed to confirm my impression from the tutorial that jumping and dashing are less fail-prone than walking (and thus, a good strategy is to jump and dash, not to walk). Can you confirm this?
- Small bug: after failing in the air, I fell in a vertical tunnel, but still managed to wall-jump while in a lying down animation.
- I wonder if the fact that the character seems to fail a lot when he collides with a wall is a bug (I suspect this is considered as extra walking) or normal.
- I gave up level 2 during the ascent in an area towards the right, when there are both shots and a circling enemy, because I felt climbing around the left (using a dash?? And then, what?) was too hard. (Ah, I realize in level 4 that you can actually wall-jump on the same wall, granted you make a U-turn!)
- Level 3 is way more horizontal (so, less helly climbing!), but you get massively harassed by enemies. I gave up at the base of the right-hand vertical tunnel (you must realize how taxing my ZQSD controls are: the game is already hard in itself!).
- Some lonely spikes are hard to spot; I often mistook them for mere scenery bushes — causing my doom. I would suggest making them more noticeable, by painting them in plain white, for example.
- Protip for other people trying out beating those levels: the rolling capacity (C key) allows you to hover horizontally, which can be useful to pass some void, especially in the lower-left area of level 4 and the horizontal tunnel of level 4 (the one with three shots coming from the right and small cavities).
- I gave up level 4 when reaching the lower-right zone for the first time, skewered on the lower spikes. X) Man, is your game hard. XD
- I agree with GiantFrog on both counts, namely, the game is cute, but the failing mechanic is taxing.
Actually, it is both (1) original and (2) player-killing. XD I think the worst case is when climbing long vertical tunnels using wall jumps: you have no choice but do it, and the game punishes you for no reason by having you fall down to the bottom!
On the other hand, the platforming mechanics work very well, including the horizontal roll. They are all pleasant to perform — too bad they get interrupted by this pesty obligatory failure! X)
In conclusion: a game that is cute, original, with dynamic gameplay, and very hard and (too much) exhausting. I would also add that the mechanic, although original in itself, is only weakly connected to the theme (as you acknowledge yourself in the form! By the way, I think you should explain the connection, and not state the degree: ‘Its fits a little bit!’): you added randomness to a platform game.
To be frank, I still like your game. :) But you are not making my tester/reviewer life easy. XD