itch.io

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!

game of the year contender

I think the concept of survivor but its total chaos could be really fun to play out in real life. I think the fact its ran off of the honor system is what makes me want to play it so bad. I can only imagine the rage of someone who draws a better kitten than I do but I still vote against them anyways.  I can also see more organized rule variations being formed from this, such as an artist edition where everyone has 5 minutes to draw something and you have to vote for the drawing that matches that rounds theme the least. The same thing that makes it so chaotic is also the same thing that makes it seem like it could also be really unfun. If no one is willing to cooperate and play the game based off of challenges, it seems like it could be frustrating.

I like this game because it follows the minimalist paradigm pretty tightly. I like the music and overall visual style. Here are some things I would change if I were to continue to work on this game.

• Tone down the bloom, I think it will make the game look better and be easier to read.
• Make the controls a little more clear? There were a few times when I would get confused and press the wrong key.
• Add "coyote time", if thats what you would even call it here. If you press the correct key within a certain amount of time to when you are supposed to press it, it will snap you into place in the center so that you aren't as close to the wall.
• Make the colors a little easier to read. having black on black on dark grey and then a bunch of bright flashing colors makes my eyes hurt and its difficult to make out where the walls are.
• Add in something that truly separates it from being just a dancing line clone or a geometry dash clone, make it a really simple mechanic but it gives it enough extra depth to truly be called its own game. maybe you can interact with certain objects in the environment,  or have control / influence over something level wise.

I think if you guys had more time the concept could have been a little better actualized. I liked the character, and I'm a sucker for 8 directional movement sprites, but you had a lot of conflicting resolutions and art styles. The game also overall felt... directionless? I'm not sure if thats the proper word, but I was basically just mashing different crafting recipes until something worked and then trying to figure out what I was supposed to do. There was little incentive to stop moving, so I just held down a movement key constantly and wasn't punished for it.

It has potential if you were to continue to work on this game after the jam. I would start with adding more incentive to stop moving, such as you can't craft while you are moving or add enemies, that way you aren't just holding down the D key the whole time. After that, I would try to change the sprites so that they are all within the same resolution and don't have a lot of contrast in the amount of detail. Then you should fix the hitboxes, so that the trees hit box is only at the bottom so you can walk behind it. Same thing with the rocks. You can give off the illusion of depth by comparing the players Y coordinate to the other objects y coordinates and bringing it either forward or backward based on if the y is less than or greater than the other object. I'm not sure how you would do this in unity, but in gamemaker we would just put depth = -y; in each objects code.

Overall I think you guys fit the theme the best. The mechanic of constantly needing to use your spells even if they might hurt your allies is what I think is so special about this project. I like the character models but the GUI and overall look of the game feels bare. Adding some music, even if it was royalty free, I think would have filled the game just enough to make it feel more complete. Another critique was it wasn't very fun for me, it felt like I was just spamming my abilities and waiting until I was within range of an enemy. I kept killing my allies at first and after losing a few times it started to feel more tedious than entertaining. If you guys continue to work on this after the jam is complete you could have a really nice game though. It has some huge potential and the core mechanic could be amazing if you balance it and throw in some crazy level design.