What did this game do well?
The music was great! I thought the mechanics were well done.
This game was intense and fun to play! The map being different every time worked really well because it allowed the player to replay it with a different experience each time. It tested my dexterity and aim as well. Super simple, but effective prototype.
I like the idea of the power-ups, this makes the game more challenging and rewarding.
The game feels good to play. I liked the ricochet mechanic since it made the game feel more strategic than just holding down the lmb. The graphics are very minimalistic but work effectively to show exactly what’s happening on screen. Each floor also feels unique to run through. I know there’s grazing in this game but I didn’t really get to it, but it sounds like a cool mechanic to put in after introducing enemies that shoot directly at you.
The generated dungeon is good, the shooting sound effect is satisfying. Enemy bullets pattern is well made!
The idea of enemies chasing you in a dungeon is a classic one, and is a good idea. I like the idea of the power up that gives bouncing bullets. The game has a good background music.
The game was actually quite fun and fast which I liked. The gameplay, environment, and sprites are also quite minimalist in design which helps to focus on the fast action. The spinning enemy spraying bullets provided a good challenge to avoid. The audio effects fit well and helped me to better understand what was going on and to develop the atmosphere. PCG also seemed to be implemented through the environment and item spawns.
The procedurally generated levels are nice and fun to play. The enemy variety is also very good.
I’m very impressed with all the mechanics and progression implemented in this game. It is very fun to play, and it is pretty challenging and rewarding to navigate around the maze and defeat the enemies.
What could this game have done better?
I was a bit confused on how to use the controls to play well. I also didn’t know what do after I went into all of the rooms. I think there could be more feedback on how much damage you are doing to the enemies. At first I didn’t know I could destroy the objects spawning insane amounts of ‘fireballs’ which made it really difficult to move around. On the other end, once I figured to that I was doing damage and killed them, it was super easy to destroy them from afar. Sometimes the frame rate drops when there are too many bullets on the screen. And I’m looking forward to see more game-feel elements in your game. The graphics on the left that are just text should be icons or something instead. If you want it to just be text, you should probably make it better than ‘canBomb.’ I think you should also have enemies ‘activate’ when they take damage in addition to being a certain distance away from them, since i can just snipe those orange guys before they can do anything. This distance should also be a little smaller since if I’m moving vertically into another room, I get jumpscared by the purple enemies because I can’t see them and they shoot me before I can react. The purple enemies (and I assume the yellow ones too) can also go through walls which they definitely shouldn’t be able to do. The movement control seems not very precise, the enemy bullets are too hard to evade. I can feel the touhou game in there with the enemy shooting pattern but if there were more PCG enemy shooting pattern it would be better, even with just different bullet colors. The assets of the game could have potentially been better, as there are several available for free. Had there been much more going on in the game, the assets could be ignored. However, it was essentially 2 types of enemies, one that follows, and one that shoots. This could have been appended to with better assets. There was also a ‘canBomb’ option which I was unable to use, and I’m not sure how to use it and what that does. Otherwise, good game. Had some unfixed rare bugs like the player model getting stuck and having to reload the game. The camera could also use some polish to follow the player more smoothly/accurately. The UI could also use polishing with better formatting and fonts. Visual indicators of player feedback would also be good like receiving damage from the player sprite. More enemies would probably be appreciated as well. The controls feel a bit confusing. It is not very clear how to escape a floor. Perhaps it can have more game feel elements, animations, and polishing.