Hey this is Clancy! This was actually my first time making a platformer, so I really appreciate the feedback. I'll try to tackle each point one by one. I can't speak on behalf of Owen, so I will only be speaking on my own part.
- The reason you need to stop moving for a few frames in order to shoot was to prevent the player from constantly sprinting. Basically the idea was if the player had to stand still for 5ish frames before they could shoot, it would make it more difficult because the gnomes would have a chance to hit you and it require a little more skill to time when you can shoot since there are bombs falling down on to you. On paper, it seemed like a good idea but after implementing it into the actual game I can agree with you it definitely needs to be reworked or removed.
- You are correct, there wasn't much play testing which is something we will have to try to incorporate next time. The thought of having people play test kind of went over my head, but if we had people play test then we would have caught some of the things we did wrong such as the stop to shoot mechanic and the speed of Gnolan. I based Gnolan's speed off how long it took me to complete the level and then tested it a few times after that to make sure it was possible, but I wanted it to be close so that the player truly couldn't stop moving. I've also been playing this game since the beginning of development, so I'm going to beat each level way quicker than people who only just started playing it. I'll wrap this point up by saying next time we need to have people play test, this way we can get a gauge for difficulty and also see where our design doesn't work.
- I appreciate the link! After working on John Goblin, I can say platformers are pretty fun to make so I will check it out once I'm done typing this out.
I want to continue to move forward with this game beyond the jam, so the first thing I want to do is get rid of standing still to shoot and rework the movement and bomb mechanic. I think I might just make the bomb thing an enemy type. Maybe if you are in the line of sight of a wizard gnome, it will put an exclamation point over your head and it will have the wizard do a summoning animation and then drop a bomb on you. Again, thank you for the feedback!