Great! It's easy to understand and it's fun. If I should pinpoint the one thing, that bothered me the most, it is the way of restarting the level. The gameplay is super fast. Make also the restarting fast.
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Basilisk's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Gameplay/Design | #6 | 4.333 | 4.333 |
| Fun | #7 | 4.222 | 4.222 |
| Overall | #12 | 3.833 | 3.833 |
| Audio | #30 | 3.556 | 3.556 |
| Graphics | #60 | 3.222 | 3.222 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
What would you like feedback on?
Overall
What did you update?
Graphics, level design, game mechanics, gameplay loop
Name of updated upload (if downloadable)
basilisk-windows.zip
basilisk-linux.zip
Comments
To be honest, I went into this with low expectations since the premise isn't really anything that sounds too impressive or particularly creative.
HOWEVER, I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered myself having fun with it.
I must praise the use of the first level controlling the snake, since it serves as a good tutorial level to get the basic movement down. It's a good tutorial level because it feels invisible. And that right there is good design.
The game overall is challenging, but has an adequate balance in my opinion. The apples are really useful as a difficulty modulator, since if you find yourself having too much trouble on a level, you can make use of those to give you a bit of an edge to make manageable.
Saving other mice serves as an excellent incentive to push players into tricky situations. And making them optional means that the player can avoid that optional objective if it proves too much for them.
It might be case that the premise isn't something too awe inspiring, but execution of the idea is superb. As long as a prototype goes, this is a good one.
All of that said, the aesthetics could use some love, and the sound kinda gets annoying after a while.
But besides that, it is a pretty solid entry.
Submitted
Gaia's RevengeHappy to hear that we surpassed your expectations and that you had fun!
The first snake level was debated whether it should be included or not so your feedback on this level was helpful thanks!
It's great that you were able to grasp the difficulty balance with the apples and mice it's something we wanted to do since the previous games/version had a lot of feedback about the single difficulty of the game.
The art and sound is definitely our weakest area and something we need to improve on.
Thanks for the feedback it addressed many things we wanted to hear about :)
First of all, it's awesome to see a game that has a Linux build! Thank you so much for that.
The game is really fun already. The idea might not be overly original but it is very well executed. It's very satisfying to lead the snake (or basilisk) down a dead-end and then hop into a tunnel. However, I think there are a few small, easy to implement, changes that could make it even better:
- The controls can be really unforgiving. I would recommend adding something similar to coyote-time but for the direction changes.
- The apples are super OP. They make all the levels way too easy. You might want to think about limiting the number of apples to 1 per level, or limiting them in some other way.
- Being able to reset the level without dying would also be nice. Similarly, a way to return to the main menu without completing all the levels.
- Finally, the difficulties of the levels were very up and down. Perhaps you could reorder them so that the difficulty is a steady increase.
Overall a really solid game. Hope my feedback helps! :D
Submitted
Trap 'n' BackThanks for the feedback and glad the Linux build was helpful!
First time hearing coyote-time and looking it up sounds like a great idea thanks, it definitely sounds like something you would want in all games with this movement type!
The apples were meant to be an easy way to clear a level if you had trouble but looking at it again definitely 1 apple is enough.
You can reset a level by clicking 'R' and return to the menu by pausing and clicking 'M' but it looks like this wasn't obvious and not user friendly something we should address.
Difficulty were ordered based on perfect clearing (Collecting all the mice) but the better solution is probably to have normal clear and perfect clear kind of equal so that order works both ways.
All great improvement ideas thank you for the detailed feed back :)
Nice game! I love the concept. Level design was pretty well communicated, it felt nice once I understood the main idea of the level. Maybe better contrast for important game objects could be more useful? But it is a stylizing choice and it is not that hard to spot them in this version too. Also mechanics are quite nice and I love that it's generally easy to pass the level using apples, but each level is masterable if you want some challenge. Overall, great job!
Submitted
Ollie's Ominous OrbCool game with unique mechanics.
Simple but effective design.
Some of the levels need some balancing.
Couple you can speed run through :)
Also the controls can be frustrating unless you are really good with the keyboard.
A little invisible buffer forgiveness (ie press down a frame or two before (or after) the next cube and it will still go down the next cube)
With time and tweaking could be a keeper.
Submitted
MuffedThanks for playing our game!
Yes some of the levels are easy to clear but hopefully get harder as the game progresses! You can also challenge yourself to perfect a level by collecting all the mice and not using any apples but, this isn't necessary to beat the game and rather an optional challenge to 100% the game
Thanks for the feedback on the controls! Could you elaborate on the frustration you had with the controls and the invisible buffer (I'm not familiar with this)?
You can use the arrow keys to move if WASD is unfamiliar and you can also hold down a key to go that direction. Any extra details you can give would be extremely helpful thanks!
Hi there ! The game is really fun , I love the mix between being quick and planning your course carefully. I enjoyed playing it and I think that with a little more juice and feedback it could be wonderful. For me it fits perfectly with the theme of the gmtk jam. And being able to block the snake was a really cool mechanic, loved it :)
I understood the game pretty quickly but was a bit confused when I changed from controlling the snake to controlling the mouse during the onboarding. Maybe controlling the mouse directly could be less confusing ? Although I'm happy with the arrow control, I'm french so don't really use wasd
I don't remember which level it was but on some levels I can just go close the final door (which was green) and then take all my time to deal with the snake, I think this security kinda defeats the point of the game in those levels
Overall I think the game just needs more animation and to improve feedback.
Knowing where is the exit and the start at a glimpse of an eye would be useful ! I always have to look around when this is simple indication that I should be able to find super quickly. The mouse being black is not really readable too, maybe it could be a more catchy color ? Or animated ? This would help a lot.
On a side note, maybe the game could use a showcase image more similar to the graphics of the game itself ? Some pixel art or whatever ?
But otherwise a cool game with a true potential for fun :)
Submitted
Dungeon CaretakerThank you for feedback, really glad you enjoyed the game!
We went for the switching control from snake to mouse so that the player better feels the "roles reversed" theme, sorry if it caused confusion.
Getting to the end of the level without getting all the mice is intentional too, we wanted to make them a cool collectible, like strawberries in Celeste, which are not required for completion, but are a cool extra challenge for those of players who want one.
As for the indication of an exit, in the new version, the exit is actually additionally highlighted with text. Not sure if that's what you meant, but it seems like a relatively solid indication of where to go.
As for the showcase image, yeah, we could've picked something more in-line with the game itself. We just went with a cool snake, cause it felt like a fitting pic.
Once again, thanks for feedback, really appreciate it. :)
Alright, I see what you mean. About the exit highlighted, I think it would be better with something more than text, maybe another animation in addition ?
But hey I get it, jams are hard and tiring anyway, this is my feedback in case you wanna continue the game ;)
Thanks for the feedback on dungeon caretaker, that's really kind of you, hope you have a great day !
Super fun! if you plan on updating it anymore before the jam I would recommend adding a tutorial or clearer instructions, as it took me a while to figure out what to do.
Submitted
Box Reverser
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