itch.io

You are correct and I apologize.  I didn't see the passage about allowing WSAD keys until someone pointed it out to me.

I'm reversing my comments.

You know what, you are right!

I didn't see that passage on the Game Jam page.  I'm reversing my comment.

Edit: After learning that WSAD keys are in fact allowed, I have struck my comments from the record.

Loved the art and gameplay but this game broke the rules

PROS

1. Love the art style so kudos to Synty for the polygons.
2. Sound and music was enjoyable.
3. Level design was mostly good but had some minor issues.

CONS

1. Game broke the rules by putting the WSAD text in the beginning of the game.
2. The sword dash felt too laggy, like it had a 0.5 second wind up before the dash executed.  
   1. If there was a reload timer or mechanics to tell the Player they had to tactically time their engagement I would be less judgemental.
3. Fireball was cool but didn't have a purpose.
4. The sprint, jump and dash attack was not enough to get me the height I needed to get up on the castle.  Spent about 5 minutes trying different movement methods based on what I had learned earlier.  In the end had to rely on "wall jumping"; see #5.
5. I learned on accident you could wall jump; not sure if that was intentional or if I skipped a tutorial.  That had to carry me through the rest of the game.

FEEDBACK

1. This game feels like it should have been "Ninja" based due to the movement, attacks, fireball jutsu and wall jumping.
2. Putting enemies and puzzles in the game to utilize the attacks and fireball magic would give the game more "life".
   1. Example: Lighting ropes on fire to drop pathways or lighting torches to unlock doors/pathways would have given the fireball purpose.

3. Need better UI for Skill Resource Management.  Example: show a charge meter/reload UI for the Dash Attack.

4. Make the Dash Attack instantaneous to help the Player maintain speed while in the air.

Overall

If the game didn't break the rules I would have placed this higher.  Besides that it's fun once you get the hang of it and it has alot of potential for an FPS Ninja Simulator type game; it could fall in the same category as "Thief" or "Dishonored" for action stealth FPS.

Fundamentally the core of the game is strong.  With more content, abilities and a story line it has potential.  Minus the rule breaking, the team did a good job overall.

Nailed it.

PROS

1. Game was legit fun.  Growing that zombie horde was incredibly satisfying.
2. Sound and music was great.
3. Art and visuals were clear.  Animations were fun to watch.
4. Level design was great.  Clear visuals provided me with opportunities to pick optimal choices and take risks.
   1. Example: I knew the barbed wire and mines would impede progress so I pathed around them until I realized that my horde was big enough to tank some of the hits and chase down the gun-guards.

CONS

1. Zombie responsiveness got a little mixed up with the pathfinding but that could have been my error.

FEEDBACK

1. I wish there were ways to upgrade the zombies.
2. I wish there was more zombie variety or variants.
3. I wish there was more levels and content.
4. More progression.

Conclusion

Easily a top 5 game in the Game Jam in my opinion.  With more work, levels, progression, upgrades and visual polish this easily could be a Steam Game for the RTS genre.  Even better if you can make it multiplayer and color code the zombies for 2 - 4 players to take over a "Mission" or "Challenge Map".

Also this would make for a decent mobile game with one UI joystick on camera pan and the other joystick on the zombie-marker-control.

Very good entry for this Game Jam.  Well done.

Edit: I looked back up the rules and WSAD was allowed.  I have struck those comments from my record.

Dark and cute art style but fails the Game Jam.

PROS

1. Sound design and art brought a spooky atmosphere to the game.
2. Art style is kinda cute.

CONS

1. The game breaks the rules of the Game Jam by putting WSAD text in the very beginning.
2. The hitbox for lighting the candles must be small because I kept missing the candle even when visually I feel like I should be hitting it.
   1. I feel like even when I was dimming I should have been able to hit the candle so dying while at a candle felt unfair.
3. Having to strike a candle when the candle is lit and your character is dimming didn't feel good.
4. I don't know the goal of the game at the beginning.  After a few tries I assumed it was "stay alight and get to the end".
5. First level exit wasn't obvious and I got killed due to ghosts.  Found it around the 4th attempt.

FEEDBACK

1. Increase the hitbox for striking the candles.
2. Maybe allow the Player and Candle to stay alight as long as they are on-top of each other to prevent unnecessary maintenance.
3. Having some explanation of the goal at the beginning of the game is helpful.
4. Brighten the "Goals" a bit more to help distinguish them.

Overall

The game unfortunately broke the rules of the Game Jam.

The team obviously put in work and it has charm but suffers from non-verbal / environmental communication problems.  Needs polish to make the game a bit more fair to the Player.

Beat the game.  

PROS:

1. Controls were shown through symbolism and immediately made it understandable to control the PC.
2. Puzzles were engaging enough.  Some were overly complex but that was ok.
3. Excellent art from the artist.  The backgrounds and variety were very cool to experience.
4. Music and sound was great.  It's got a chill vibe despite the punishing nature of the falling and knockbacks.
5. Puzzle elements felt intuitive and easy to understand.

CONS:

1. Player controls were a bit stiff and I don't think there was any Coyote Time on the PC, so falling off because I miss timed a jump was a bit frustrating.
2. WSAD keys are what I normally use so switching to Arrow Keys took me a minute to adjust to.  Wish that would have been taken into account.

FEEDBACK:

1. Loosen up the Player controls with a tiny bit of acceleration & deceleration (think about how Mario games allow a tiny bit of momentum/sliding)
2. Add Coyote time so the Player has around 0.1 - 0.3 seconds to make a reflex jump off an edge.
3. WSAD and/or controller support.
4. Allow the Player to move the puzzle blocks with the mouse (this is optional but good UX imo).
5. More puzzle variety.  
6. More enemies and environment interactions.

OVERALL

Excellent game that was driven by the art and sound.  Ranks highly for this Game Jam, the team did very well. 

Cool.  Ty.

Both were hard to tell.  Like I know I put out a few fires but I couldn't tell how far away I was supposed to be to make an impact.  Basically had to stand on top of it but that didn't get consistent results either.

Hey Skrinkus, thank you for the feedback!

We totally forgot about Coyote Time and you are right, we need to put that in for the next platformer we do.

Appreciate you playing our game and rating it!

Hey Deebo, I'm one of the developers of this game.

You're feedback is valid.  This was our first first game jam using tools like Aseprite and Godot; we gained alot of experience from building this game.

We did as much playtesting as could be available for the two weeks (not withstanding we have day jobs and families to take care of) but we could have done better.  It's a frustrating game with fun goofy art but it was intended to be at least beatable.

Thanks for the feedback and we'll take it to make a better experience next time.

Interesting concept but the controls are wonky and I can't get the hitboxes to work to put out fires or fix panels.

We have 3 team members on Rebellion Studios.  Our level design/marketing guy submitted our game from his account.

How do we, the other 2, vote since our Itch.io accounts are not the submitters?

Is there a way to link all 3 accounts to the game so we have our ability to vote in this Game Jam?

Took me a little while to figure out but it was fun.