What did this game do well?
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The premise for the game is really compelling. It's satisfying to get upgrades and become stronger so quickly as you traverse the level. It's easy to identify what each upgrade does based on its icon. The tutorial screen at the beginning of the game is also very informative, telling you everything you need to know without wasting any time.
The implementation of the variety of features was impressive, and they move and interact well together. The mechanics feel smooth, and the power-ups really made it feel like I was making progress as I could feel the movement speeding up and changing. Movement was also intuitive.
Simple graphics but very cute! The game is smooth between moves and the game's timing mechanics are very interesting! Makes me want to play it multiple times!
The game has a lot of interesting mechanics. I enjoy upgrading your character over time.
Good mechanics and level design
The range of powerups and abilities is nice, with layered goals (fight enemies but also gain more abilities throughout the levels to improve your character). I like the general idea of the gameplay loop and creating an open level that can be tackled however you like.
Instructions are very clear, and camera movement is smooth. The collecting of the objects are very satisfying along with the music and sound effects. The gameplay mechanisms are creative and diverse.
The upgrade system felt very smooth and the player could notice a significant increase with each upgrade. The controls also felt very smooth and I could easily navigate through the game.
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What could this game have done better?
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The controls feel somewhat imprecise, especially how floaty the character is. The enemies are arguably very unfair, either shooting faster than you can dodge or moving towards you too quickly to avoid or shoot. There is also a lack of feedback as far as how much damage you do to the enemies, since bullets go through them and there's no other visual to show that they're being damaged. Some additional color coding for the player upgrades would also help differentiate them quickly.
The sheer number of possible interactions upfront was a little overwhelming, and it was hard to remember which blocks did what. Also, green as an enemy was a little bit misleading, because green is often associated with good. There were also some points where it was easy to get stuck. For example, landing on top of an enemy made it difficult to move away, because jumping didn't quite work the same way, so the player was kind of stuck losing health over and over.
I don't have any drawbacks to bring up, but maybe giving the player a clearer tutorial would help the play experience a little bit!
The screen is way too zoomed in, it is hard to tell what is happening. There's almost too much visual clutter in the level -- upgrades feel a little meaningless.
Location determination and attack determination are fuzzy
The collisions and enemy tracking/behavior can make the game fairly frustrating. Enemies will non-stop shoot at you even when you leave their range and return, and given their rate of fire and your limited range it's almost impossible to fight enemies that you don't instantly beat when entering their viewcone. The powerups also sometimes felt like they made too much of a difference too quickly, after picking up a handful of items I felt like I was completely out of control and had a difficult time maneuvering even though it should be when I'm the most overpowered. Overall, good concept, but the mechanics need to be rebalanced for a more enjoyable gameplay loop.
There are a lot of things for the player to remember to do, which could be tedious. The enemy behavior could be improved more. The goal of this game isn't very clear as there is no indicator of a certain spot that the player needs to reach.
I think the game leans into the speedrunning category so I would like to see that expanded. With all the different powerups, it becomes a lot easier to defeat enemies and reach different platforms.