Thank you so much! I'm happy you had fun playing! I had plans to add more content and polish but had to cut a lot due to the deadline. I think in level1 the obstacles take too long to leave the screen for eg, and the jump in difficulty between level 1 and 2 is quite high. I will look into polishing this outside the jam. If you have any more feedback, please let me know :D
Hahaha I really like this game. The concept is very original, it's a very cool mechanic to move around using the the recoil of the bullet. I noticed the different weapons have different recoils,which is a nice little detail. Your take on the theme is also pretty funny.
I did run into a bug : After dying I clicked retry, but on wave1 I killed the enemy that spawns and the game didn't progress any further. I got stuck in wave 1 and didn't see or hear any more enemies to kill. Also, I do think some auto reload when you shoot with an empty barrel would be nice to raise the pace up of the game, especially in later waves.
I really liked the artstyle of this game. The gameplay loop is quite fun and offers a lot of replayability, at least for me. Overall great game! Keep up the great work
Here's my game. I wanted to add a final boss and more levels, but didn't have enough time. I think there's still a couple bugs that need to be fixed, but i'll get to it before the deadline. I hope you enjoy it!
https://itch.io/jam/gamedevtv-jam-2024/rate/2750627
I will check your game in the coming days as well :D
Here's my game. I wanted to add a final boss and more levels, but didn't have enough time. I think there's still a couple bugs that need to be fixed, but i'll get to it before the deadline. I hope you enjoy it!
https://itch.io/jam/gamedevtv-jam-2024/rate/2750627
I will check your game in the coming days as well :D
Thanks for your feedback! I'm quite happy you enjoyed it :D
I do agree the balancing is off. I had a larger scope in mind when I started but had to limit it to 2 levels due to time, so I bumped up XP gained from enemies so players can try out everything on the skill tree. Though with only 2 levels, the player would be way too overpowered with all the skills haha. I will test the game more to see if I can reproduce the hits not registering.
Nice entry. I like the music in the background, and the color scheme you used. The player character looks really awesome too. You did say this is an unfinished game, so I think that explains why there is no way to progress out of the first level (or I missed something, i collected 14 coins then fell to my death) or no enemies to use my cool attacks on. The retracting spikes were a pretty good idea. If I would give feedback, do add feedback for when the player gets hit. I couldn't tell when spikes hit me and when not. Anyway keep up the good work!
I love idea of the game. It's quite simple but interesting and engaging. I loved the trap variety and placement for the most part. The art style is cute and the sound effects are nice. The timer itself is a nice extra challenge, pushing the player to go fast. The tick at when half the time is remaining is a very nice touch. But to be honest, I may be just bad but I found the first level way too difficult. I died so many times but I still couldn't beat it. It's up to you how difficult you want the game to be, but I have a couple points of feedback:
- A game like this desperately needs coyote timer (time window after leaving ground where jump input is still accepted). Forcing the player to be fast and also meticulous is understandable for a game like this, but with so much platforming that requires very precise jumping, it gets tedious quite fast. A short coyote timer would give a lot of breathing room without compromising difficulty much.
- You need to motivate the player to keep playing the same level over and over until they win. An easy way to do this is to add an indicator of how much of the level is left (think of the indicator in PS1 game Pepsi Man).
- It seems like running into the frog kills the player instantly, regardless of health left. Not sure if this is intentional, but it makes little sense considering the spikes and saw take 2 hits to kill you.
- You need to balance the length of the level and the available HP the player has, including any possible health refills. I think the first level is a bit too long (and I didnt even finish it) for 2 HP. Maybe consider adding more HP, or adding points where you can refill your HP halfway through the level.
- This is not a metroidvania at all, at least not the level I played.
All in all this is still a fun game for people who enjoy a challenge. Especially for your first game, this is very well done! Keep up the good work!
This game is quite nice! I like the setting of the game, and the 3D element was a very nice addition. The art style in general is quite cool and I love that you leave a blood splatter behind sometimes after getting hit. I noticed that if you get hit while in the air though, you are locked into the hurt animation and cannot move sideways, which kinda sucks in my opinion. The level design is top-notch and incorporates all the metroidvania elements. I really loved also that you added paths for going backwards too like the ghost platforms in the sky in the cemetery after you get the purify skill. I really cannot emphasize how much I loved the level design. Amazing job creating this map. I would say the combat could use more polish in terms of player animation speed, maybe adding stagger animations to enemies, and better enemy placement. I loved that you needed to use a variety of the upward attack and the normal attack for different enemies.
I had a blast playing this and really wanted to finish the game. Unfortunately I think I ran into a bug (or I'm dumb) after picking up the hammer (i think it was the hammer?) from right side of the sewer area. I couldn't figure out how to switch weapons, I tried RMB, scrollwheel, numbers (I even found out pressing number 4 brings up FPS and latency :D), and basically every letter on the keyboard but I couldn't switch weapons or figure out how to break the stone wall blocking me. I thought maybe it's a bug so I restarted the game, but then I respawned in front of the chest but without any of my abilities, so I got soft-locked :(. Did I miss something?
All in all I had a lot of fun. Keep up the great work!
I enjoyed playing this game. The story really drew me in and I was trying to piece things together through the story notes in the world. Lovely feature. The atmosphere is very dark and I enjoyed it a lot. The soundtrack is so good and I loved the variety of sound tracks provided in the different areas (outdoor, indoor, underground, etc). The art style fits the theme of the game quite well. Lovely experience.
For some feedback, I think player movement is too slow. There appears to be stamina for running but it's not visualized and it depletes way too quickly. I really wanted to explore but the slow movement felt like punishment for exploring. I understand you need to balance the player speed with enemy speed, so maybe increasing stamina recovery speed or just total stamina when the player is not aggrod by enemies is a good compromise. This is especially problematic in the underground tunnels. It was kinda a drag to explore as the player moves so slowly. Also, when using melee weapons there is no feedback on whether you hit enemies, which makes it hard to know if I'm properly aligned with the enemies. Once you get the gun, it's just steamrolling enemies from there so maybe the gun needs some balancing.
The inventory system is well implemented and I loved the tarot card art. I managed to get 100% in the game but I don't know what to do with the amulet? I thought it was to be used in the pink netherworld-like area but couldn't find a way to use it there. I do think you have some metroidvania elements (having to get the axe to access some areas, locked doors where you need to loop to the other side of the door to open it), so that's cool.
Very nice concept, keep up the great work!
I love the idea of the lore you proposed. It's a very cool concept. Look up OneShot if you don't know it, it has a similar idea (I don't wanna spoil hehe) and I think you can take some inspiration from it.
I do not have any more feedback. I haven't tried hardcore mode yet either, but it's nice that you added 2 more trap types there. I'm trying to play the other submissions as well so I will try to come back to hardcore mode when I have time. I would say generally for traps you want to add a variety in terms of how the player will interact with it. For eg lava pits and spike pits are very similar mechanically: the player just has to jump over them. A trap that shoots bullets at you on the other hand can require more complex interaction depending on where the shot comes from/how fast it is. I did not see the 2 trap types you added in hardcore mode so I can't give more specific examples, but the point still holds generally speaking. I think the way you used spikes is good because in many instances it requires careful thinking when navigating them. Maybe you can build more on the wall jump mechanic and add spikes on walls that the player has to jump over.
I'm still very much a beginner, so take my opinion with a grain of salt :D. Anyway cool game!
Sounds great! I'm quite excited to see more of your game. I definitely see the potential and will try to keep up with the game. Best of luck!
Also, I loved getting launched into orbit. I legit laughed the first time it happened. That was a compliment as opposed to criticism, apologies if it came out negative.
This game was so fun!! The art is so cute, the music had me bopping my head the whole time, and the controls were so smooth. I can tell how much work you put into this. I found the dialogue amusing, and the premise of the game sounds interesting. I wonder who the big slime was. I'm quite excited to play this game when it's fully done!
If I were to give feedback, I noticed the sword respawns if I die and respawn at save point. I could pick it up again but I didn't notice any bugs caused by this. Also, there is no feedback when attacking big slime (not any that I noticed at least). A sound effect or flashing sprite would help convey that the player hit the right spot, but that's something for the full game I suppose.
The only other feedback I have is that it was very short and I'm upset that I cannot play more. The level design was well executed and suits the metroidvania theme extremely well. Honestly amazing job. Keep up the great work!
I played the web version. Immediately from the beginning, I loved the artstyle of this game and the sound track. The opening sequence is pretty cool and added a nice touch. Blast seems like a really cool character with an interesting past. The world itself is pretty nice, and the idea of AI taking over is very real now considering chat gpt 4o's release :D. I think you have a good base for a great game here.
The bane of this game in my opinion though are the controls. Things are a bit clunky. For example, you can't move while jumping until player reaches max height, which really makes platforming hard unless you have a running headstart. And even when you do, the character goes too far to the right or the left even if you let go of AD input. Also, shooting while running will give the player momentum that will persist for a good couple of steps even if AD input stops. This made it difficult at times to align with enemies and shoot them, considering the tight spaces enemies spawn in. Also, I noticed shooting at the top of the jump consumes 4-5 bars instead of 1? Is this a bug or a design choice? I find it very peculiar if it is a design choice, as the green tank-like enemy are usually situated on high spots and the only feasible way I found to attack them without getting nuked is to jump shoot. But then I have to spend a good 20 seconds jumping, shooting in mid air, waiting for my bar to recharge, repeating this sequence 5-6 times till they die. I would recommend halving their health as they simply do too much damage to have that much health. Using shift to climb ladders is a tad annoying as others pointed out.
Also, does the game have checkpoints? I went to an area marked as "S" on the minimap expecting to see a save point, but found nothing. I got to the rat-like boss with drones dropping grenades and died there and I really dont like having to go all the way back from the start everytime. But this could have been my fault for not finding the checkpoint. I also didn't see any indicator of which movement mod I have equipped, did I miss something?
I got hit by the enemy carrying a bat and i got shot into orbit. This reminded me of getting hit by the giants in skyrim, 10/10 would get hit again. Even though the map is a bit empty, I still like the design of the levels. There seemed to be a lot to explore and a lot to find which got me excited. Again, you have a very cool concept here. All these issues are relatively minor and shouldn't be hard to fix. Don't feel discouraged about it. Keep up the great work!
yes I think this is already a lot better. I just replayed the whole game (finished in 582 seconds), and I can I only die now when the character sprite is inside the spikes which makes more sense in my opinion. Very cool concept, I think you have a good base for an original game if you add more lore as to why the colors are missing from the world and maybe attach some power-ups to each color to give it a more metroidvania feel (if that's the direction you want). Also, timer was a nice addition :D.
The game is very well polished, i loved the art, sound effects and background music. The level design is nice and the abilities were meaningful and added to exploration quite a lot. I finished the game with 39 deaths. I like the idea of challenging the player with the controls, and I did found it very rewarding when I successfully passed a difficult room. But I did find myself raging when having to use double jump; it's just not intuitive. I think changing double jump to "up forward X" instead of "down forward X" would already make it so much better. Also, I found the charging ability that shoots you back a bit kinda peculiar. Most of the times it triggered were when I just finished a sequence and accidentally held the X button for too long, knocking me back to my death. I'd say increasing the charging timer would give more breathing room and help avoid these accidental knockbacks while still pushing the player to actually get better, but that's my own opinion. I really dig all the player and red orb animations and the challenge added to the game with just platforming elements. It helps a lot that you respawn at the door you entered the room from, makes retrying easier. All in all, amazing work! Keep it up!
I love the artstyle, and the way the background seems to move with you. The way the color of the world changes when you pick up colors is very neat. I can tell you spent a while polishing the game. The map is a cool idea, letting you know what's coming up and choose in advance what path to take; that is a double edged sword though as it can prevent players from exploring. I like that you added the check points as that minimizes the impact of deaths. The only thing i found annoying was that the hitbox on the spikes was very big; I think the spikes should only kill you if you fall on them, not if you touch them from the side. I died too many times from standing a bit too close next to spikes. With that being said I loved the world and platforming elements in general. I haven't finished the game yet, so I might be wrong, but I think it's lacking the backtracking aspects of metroidvanias. All in all still a very fun experience, keep up the great work!
I loved this game! It's really polished in many ways. The artstyle is very nice, and I love the attention to detail and the way you managed to highlight depth when you play with the printing machine. The mini-games are quite funny.
Overall a great prologue! As you mentioned already though it is not really a metroidvania, so I scored it lower there. I'm personally interested in what the rest of the game would look like. Keep up the great work!
