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(+1)

Nice job! I appreciate the work you two put into this. More in-depth review incoming:

Design [3/5]: A lot of other people have commented on how the controls feel imprecise, so I guess I'll start this by throwing in my own two cents on the matter. Yes, the controls are imprecise. Yes, the physics are a little chaotic. Sure, it's difficult to control your character. The thing is, I don't think any of those are weaknesses all by themselves.  Character movement and physics don't exist in a vacuum: they exist in a game. A game which has levels, puzzles, and decisions to make. My point here is that having an imprecise character can actually be a positive thing if the rest of the game's design facilitates that.  For example, I Am Bread is a game where you play as an awkward physics object that is terribly difficult to control. However, it's still fun to play because of the unique level design, aesthetic, and hilarious narrative. Having said all of that, my main criticism of your design is not that the controls are imprecise, but rather that the levels and the objective of the game didn't really feel like they were designed to work with the way you control your character. I think this game's biggest strength is being able to throw your character around like a ragdoll using the platform, but I don't think the rest of the design capitalized on that strength.
To explain this point in a little more detail, I think one of the most questionable design choices was to make this game an autoscroller. For me, the most fun part of this game was flinging your character into the pink mush at the end of the level, basically treating the platform like a catapult. That was genuinely fun, but I wish there had been more moments like that intermingled throughout the levels. The fact that it's an autoscroller means it's usually far safer to just keep the player on the platform at all times until you reach the end of the level, slowly avoiding the enemies and inching towards the collectibles. I think it would have been far more fun if you had more freedom to toss the player around, having a camera follow the action until you reach the end of the level.
There's some more missed potential in the obstacle design. The enemies have an interesting property: the player dies if they touch one, but the platform can just move right through them. One idea that popped into my head as soon as I started playing was "ooh, it would be cool if there was an obstacle that the player can go through, but the platform can't". Such an obstacle type would require you to toss the player through it and then find another path for the platform to take while you find a way to catch the player. I'm not criticizing you for not including that idea specifically, but I do wish there were more obstacle types than simply moving killzones for the player. Again, I think you might have had more range in that respect if this game wasn't an autoscroller.
Considering the dissonance between the controls and the level design, I can't give this a full rating in the design category. Having said that, I think the controls are fun. As I mentioned above, it's really fun to toss your player around like a ragdoll. I just wish the game was mostly about that rather than slowly and precisely avoiding static obstacles. The controls are imprecise, but the level design often requires you to be precise, which just slows down the action and subtracts from the fun of chaotically tossing the player around the screen.

Adherence to the Theme [5/5]: I can see the argument that this is a platformer with only one platform. However, it doesn't exactly feel like a platformer to me. This feels more like a physics game to me. But I understand that's a pretty subjective point, so full credit from me for adherence to the theme.

Originality [4/5]: There aren't too many physics-based games where you can't actually control the physics object directly, so that's pretty cool. The only other example I can think of is Rocket League, since you don't actually control the physics-controlled ball directly, but this game is something totally different. The enemies, however, feel a little uninspired and didn't stand out to me, and collecting objects didn't feel terribly unique either.


Overall, good job! Keep doing what you're doing.

Oh boy, we got a lot of feedback here, thank you so much! I'm gonna unpack this one piece at a time and give my thoughts. 


Design

I like the example you gave with I Am Bread. I think I didn't see the controls as a problem during development, as I got used to them. I think, as you said, it's just a problem with it being an auto-scroller with precise movement required, which is why it's often seen as a problem. When it could also be instead seen as just a level design problem. That's a fault in the last-minute level design (all levels were done in the last few hours of the jam, unfortunately). But I absolutely agree with what you said with that. 

I've noticed everyone always tried to throw the character around like a ragdoll like you mentioned because that is genuinely fun. During development and even now, I'm just not sure how I'd turn that mechanic into full on coherent and controlled gameplay. I think my biggest problem in this regard is, I'm not sure how I'd take this, a 2D game, and make it not a side-scroller. That's the part that has me the most confused, I feel. 

Regarding the obstacles, I had a similar idea with having more varied obstacles. Actually, I had the exact idea you had for the exact reason you mentioned, to allow for the character to be thrown around more. This was unfortunately not a thing entirely because of time constraints for both team members on this project, although I wish we had focused on that more than the elements that we did, looking back. 

Should you or anyone else see this, do you have any recommendations for, should we continue development, how to make it not a side scroller and instead capitalize on the chaotic nature of tossing the player around in such a way that the level design enables that? I'm just not entirely sure how we'd be able to make that happen, it's something I've thought about throughout development and don't have an answer to, even now. 


Adherence to the Theme

What you said makes total sense, I can see the argument being made that it's actually a physics game. I think approaching it that way could help a lot, should development for it be treated as such. 


Originality

Thank you, I appreciate your feedback on this. I may look into physics games more, as it's not a genre I've played too much beyond a few games here and there to look for inspiration if we continue development on this. But I absolutely agree with what you said. 


Overall

Thank you for your feedback. You took what was probably a different stance from most other people and I think that opens up a completely different way of thinking about the game. You've given us a lot to think about and while I'm not sure where I would take it from where it is now at the time of writing this post, it would be fun to continue, if we found a good direction to take it. That direction is honestly, probably treating it as more of a physics game rather than a precise "move the thing through things to get other things" type of game. I've said it a lot already, but thank you again for your well thought out post, we really appreciate it. I hope the rest of the jam treats you well! 

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It's important to recognize that I wasn't criticizing the game for being a sidescroller, but for being an autoscroller. That is, the problem is that the camera is always pushing you further along the level. It puts you under constant pressure to keep moving, when what players really want to do is take their time, aim shots, and take them. In fact, I think that if the game was a sidescroller that didn't auto-scroll, it would give you much more freedom as a level designer. One way to implement it would be to simply have the camera always point directly at the player, regardless of where the platform is. This keeps the pacing in the player's control, so they have lots of time to aim and prepare a shot. Hopefully that makes sense. If not, feel free to ask more detailed questions. I'm also happy to talk about it on discord if you want :)

As for your question of "should we continue development"? My answer is simple: if you still feel passionate about the project, definitely! Nobody gets their design exactly the way they want it in 48 hours. If you still feel like the project has potential and you want to keep going, then keep going with it.

I like that you're thinking critically about your design and looking for ways to improve it. If you keep that attitude, I think you will only stand to improve as a game designer.

I think that makes sense! Since you offered, I might fire off a discord message to discuss ideas sometime in the next few days. I think my struggle is I haven't played a lot of physics games and I'm struggling to imagine something similar to take inspiration from, or how to the game function in a fun way with it not being an autoscroller. I also have minimal practical experience as a level designer, so that's something I need to work on as well. Overall, I appreciate your feedback and I will hopefully be in touch with you soon!