itch.io

1. The dash feels pretty good. It seems natural and I think the distance the player travels is good. I think it does make the gameplay a bit easy because you can just dash through enemies and ignore them. During my first play through I just dashed through all of the enemies until I couldn't go any further. Either having smarter enemies or a limit to how often you can dash might help with this. Alternatively you could have a class of enemies that you can't dash through which might force the player to have different strategies depending on the enemy (like in Crash Bandicoot) or allow the enemies to "block" you from dashing through. 

2. The enemies feel very static and aren't too difficult to kill/evade. I feel like having more enemies that are more difficult would make the game more fun. The health for the enemies is a good amount if they are going to heal. If the player can't heal then it might feel unfair that the enemies heal though. Having multiple enemies on the same level felt like a good amount but they felt very lifeless so it wasn't hard to dash through them or kill them. Having abilities or different actions/behaviors for the enemies might help with increasing difficulty. I think if it is challenging to pass a certain level then it will be more important to have to learn skills like parry/block/heavy attacks and timing them properly. Currently I just spammed the mouse and didn't bother blocking or using the parry or heavy attack. 

3. I think overall the game is balanced in the way the player moves and deals damage. I think the enemies are well balanced too regarding their health and speed. To make the game more challenging and to be more fun, it might be worthwhile looking into having a key or something that the player needs to collect on each level before they can advance. This could force the player to have to actually fight enemies (if the key is a droppable item) or destroy the boxes in the level. Otherwise there isn't really a need to fight the enemies. Alternatively increasing the difficulty and the amount of each enemy can make the game feel more like a run-and-gun where the player can choose to stay and fight or try to just keep going without dying. 

Overall, great job! Everything is coming together really nicely and it feels like a solid game. I really liked the way the player travels between levels. Since the backgrounds are the same it doesn't feel like you went to a new level though. This could possibly be fixed by having the level be a different tint/color or having an indicator on screen to show which level you are on (especially since you can go back down to other levels). As a side note, the transitions for the door didn't cover the entire screen and it was just a rectangle over the door (I played on a very wide monitor). I look forward to seeing the final product!

-Breanna Flickinger

1. The cool down felt really frustrating to me. It is a little hard to correctly grapple into the wall and if you mis-click then you aren't able to use the grapple hook again and this often means losing. It made the game harder, but it didn't seem like a fair way to die. It also was difficult to tell it was a cool-down. It just felt like the grapple hook wasn't working. Having some sort of cool-down UI element might help with that so the player knows when they can use the grapple hook again. As a side note, it also might help if the mouse shows where the player can click to get the grapple hook to "stick" to the wall. This could be shown with a circle around the mouse- red means the grapple hook won't stick to the wall and green means that the grapple hook will stick to the wall. 

2. I think having a number with a visual to show how far the lava is would be a nice way of showing its position relative to the player. Maybe have the distance listed at the bottom and once it reaches a certain distance away from the player you could have some sort of visual effect (like a red glow on the edge of the screen that gets more intense/brighter when the lava is close- like how Leviathan does it) to warn the player that it is close. You could also look into having camera effects (like shaking) or particle effects for when the lava is getting close.

3. Unless there is an in-game reason why the cool-down time period changes, I think it wouldn't make much sense and would feel unfair to change it randomly in the game. If you wanted to change the cool-down rate you could have faux "levels" to the game. This could be pre-determined checkpoints that the player reaches that you can use to change the lava/player speed. For example, after the player reaches 100 in game meters then you can change the values for the speed of the lava, cool-down time, and the player speed. For this to work without feeling random, you can display that they have reached a new checkpoint/level and have some visual to make the game feel like they are in a new/harder level. Alternatively, you can have pick-ups or have areas that the player has to go through (like how racing games have a boost area- attached is a picture from Crash Team Racing Nitro to show what I mean) to either increase the player speed or reduce the cool downs for the grappling hook. You can have the collectibles/areas be more frequent later in the game to balance out the lava. Alternatively, you can have the player collect something to give them the ability to slow down the lava. Maybe it could be like a "freeze time" ability.

Overall, you all have improved the game a lot since the last play test. Great job! I love the player animations, the lava, and how the game is coming together. I look forward to seeing the final product.

-Breanna Flickinger

1. I think the grapple hook feels alright. It would be fun if it was a little faster and it felt more like you were swinging instead of just shooting straight towards the end of the hook. It was a little frustrating to have to actually click on the wall to grapple instead of the general direction of it. I kept trying to click in the middle of the volcano (in the direction that I wanted the grapple hook to shoot) instead of the wall. It might be helpful to have some kind of indicator to let the player know exactly where they can and can't click in order for the grapple hook to work. I think having a cooldown might feel frustrating since there isn't much the player can do to avoid the lava besides the grapple hook. Instead, I think obstacles should serve as a way of slowing the player down. 

2. I think that you have a great foundation where a lot of different types of obstacles could work and make sense. The types of obstacles don't matter as much as the purpose they serve. Right now it feels like the only thing the player is doing is clicking to go up. Obstacles that force the player to be strategic and think about where they place their grapple hook would be good. Other obstacles that slow the player down might also be beneficial. It might be fun to have parts where the player can't grapple on to. Maybe it is foundationally weak and crumbles when the player tries (causing them to fall halfway up) or maybe they can't grapple there at all. Another thing to consider is having obstacles that slow the player down. Something that might be fun is having "cotton candy" or something sticky that if the player touches/grapples onto then they get stuck (or makes them move in slow-mo) for a short amount of time. Another obstacle might be hot milk bubbles that pop up from the bottom of the lava? I think having the lava pose more of a threat would be fun because right now it feels stagnant even though that is the biggest threat to the player. 

4. I think the milk/lava is really slow as it is right now. This is mainly because the player can move so fast. It is easy to get really far ahead of it. So unless there are a lot of enemies/obstacles that will prevent the player from getting a huge start then it is a little slow even for the beginning of the game. If there were more obstacles that prevent the player from going up as quickly then I think it is at a good speed. Until you have the other obstacles in the game it is hard to know the right speed for the lava. Having random spurts in the velocity might be fun. Since it is going at a set speed it feels predictable. Increasing the speed later in the game would be nice. 

Overall, great job! I am excited to see how the game turns out. I love the art and the overall theme/setting. 

1. I felt the process of buying and placing the towers was intuitive. I didn't really know the range of any of them. When the towers are all on the board it is hard to keep track of which one is doing what. The act of upgrading is kind of intuitive but I didn't have a need to hover over any of the towers so if I had not read your description I wouldn't know that I could upgrade them. 

2. I think knowing the range each tower has when placing them (maybe in a circle like you did for one of the towers) and when they are actively attacking enemies would be helpful. Also, it would be helpful to know how much damage each tower has taken and how much each tower gives. I know the towers flash red faster the more damage they have taken but that is only visible when an enemy is currently attacking them. It would be nice to know how many more rounds until the Leviathan comes. I know it is every ten rounds but it would be nice to have a visual reminder on screen (maybe a countdown). I think this will help remind the player about how much time they have left and will also make the rounds leading up to the Leviathan feel more nerve-wracking. 

3. I feel like the first ten rounds until the first appearance of the Leviathan were pretty easy and then the shift to the next appearance the rounds got really difficult. Having the rounds more difficult made it a lot more fun. I think the first ten rounds should get progressively harder (so round one would be easy but by round ten it would be harder) instead of waiting until after the Leviathan shows up the first time. Otherwise, I felt like there was a lot of downtime in the first ten rounds. The difficulty after that is good. It feels rewarding to try to play for as long as possible. 

4. The central tower's health was noticeable since the center grew more red. I noticed the towers flashed red faster depending on how much damage they received but if there was another indicator I didn't notice it. I think when the towers were being attacked the red flashing was enough to know how much damage the tower had taken. However, if the tower wasn't being attacked it would have been nice to know the health for it. 

I didn't notice any bugs. I love the art style and the noticeable difference between the different towers and how they play. Great job! I look forward to seeing how you continue to develop and improve the game!

The game is coming together really nicely, great job! I am going to try to answer these questions in as much depth as I can. This is not a criticism of your game, just a way to try to be helpful. 

1. I thought the player movement was intuitive and smooth. Having added movement capabilities could be fun but it is something you might have to play around with to see what works and what doesn't. If you have to collect eggs to rescue them it could be fun to have to go get them instead of shooting projectiles at them. Otherwise, there isn't a big need to move up/down since the birds are fairly easy to hit and you can only shoot up. Dashing might be something fun to try to implement, especially if the player is invulnerable while dashing and can only use it every so often. This could add some strategy in to help avoid the dive-bombing enemies.

2. I think the projectiles that the player shoots at the enemies are fine. They are a little slow to watch but the easily hit oncoming enemies so it doesn't hinder the player. If you increase enemy movement/speed then I think increasing the speed of the projectiles will be necessary too.  It would be cool to see a powerup for the player that would allow the projectiles to either move faster or to shoot multiple directions at the same time. You could try having the powerups come as a collectible falling down the screen for the player to collect or you can have it be a special key/mouse button. 

3. Since there isn't a way to regenerate health or pick up items that give health, I think the player has a fairly good amount of health. The amount of damage the enemies give is a good amount too. I think if the enemies were a little faster/unpredictable it would add to the difficulty of the game. So, if you make some small changes to the enemies without changing the health it'll make the game harder. Right now, it is fairly easy to go through the waves of enemies without losing too much health. The only exception is when the enemies dive bomb the player at the start of a wave. They do a lot of damage which doesn't really feel fair since the player doesn't have much time to react. Having a delay when the wave starts might help with that. In the middle of a level, the dive-bombing birds are fun to try to avoid since they are so quick. 

4. Overall, I think having more movement from the enemies would increase the difficulty and make it more fun. It is really fun when the dive bomb the player and move around but right now most of the birds just stay in one place which makes them easy to hit with the projectiles. So, I would love to see more overall movement from the enemies. I would also love to see the baby birds/eggs that the player is trying to find since right now they are missing from the game.

Also, this is just a side-note: I have an ultra-wide monitor and the game plays full-screen by default. This made a lot of the text very blurry. When I played it on a smaller monitor it didn't adjust properly so the panel on the left with the health was cut off a bit. 

Overall, great job! I love the art style. It really communicates the feel and story that your team pitched. The background scrolling in the background is smooth and it just makes the game come across as really fun/cute. With a few tweaks to the enemy behaviors, I think the game will end up being really fun to play. I look forward to the final product.

-Breanna Flickinger

The game is coming together really nicely, great job! I am going to try to answer these questions in as much depth as I can. This is not a criticism of your game, just a way to try to be helpful. 

1. I survived around 44 seconds the first time because I was trying to pick up the arms with left mouse button and then I re-read and figured out it was with E. The second time I lasted until around 2 minutes because I just ran and avoided the enemies. I gave up because it felt like I could have kept avoiding enemies indefinitely. I think if you try to fight the enemies it is difficult to survive because the enemies swarm on you and back you into a corner. If you just avoid then it was fairly easy because you can jump really high and run fast. 

2. I like that there were a lot of enemies that would spawn because it made it feel intense to have to avoid them all but when I first started the level the world felt sort of empty. I understand that this was probably to give the player a chance to get an arm without instantly dying but it's something to consider. Also, since the enemies would all just follow you, it was easy to lure them away since you are faster than them. So, if you were trying to collect a specific arm you could just lure them away and circle back. Instead of increasing the number of enemies you can experiment with their behaviors. Maybe when the player is out of reach some of them will go back to wandering around? If you wanted to make different enemies without having to make new art- you could use the same asset just give it a different color. You could also change the size of them- i.e. small robots are faster but easier to kill while bigger robots are slower but have more health. 

3. I naturally wanted to click the left mouse for the left arm and the right mouse for the right arm. It was a little difficult to get used to having the right mouse switch them. I also kept wanting to click on arms to equip them. One thing you could try is having the active arm be whatever was last used. So the player could use the two mouse buttons for the two arms and whatever arm they last used would be the one that is accumulating damage. That way the player can switch between the two arms seamlessly. I'm not sure if this would work for your game or not, but it is something you can play around with. I think having dedicated buttons might not work because then you would have to have both hands on the keyboard and you wouldn't be able to use the mouse to aim. This could work if you had it auto-aim.

4. I liked being able to jump so high, that was really cool. I also liked how fast you could move. It felt smooth overall. The only exception was trying to pick up the arms. It was difficult stopping near the arm to pick it up. I had a lot of trouble with the controls at first. I kept clicking the right mouse button for the second arm. I never discarded arms because Q felt like a weird button to reach for. I constantly had my fingers on W/A/D so even pressing E felt awkward (at first) but eventually I got. At the beginning of the level this was fine because I could stop moving and pick up the arms but in the middle of the level it was really difficult to grab arms because you the pick up radius was so small you had to be really close to it. Since I ran away from enemies by running and jumping around, it was difficult to land near the arm just right. After I played a few times the controls got easier because I got used to them. I also didn't realize that your mouse was supposed to help you aim. I had my mouse by default near the platform so I just assumed the range of the arms was very small. Eventually I figured it out and the game was more fun because I was actually able to kill some of the enemies. Having that in the instructions or some kind of visual queue might be helpful. 

5. I think the HUD made sense and I really liked the arm health display and how it would show which arm was active. I do wish it was bigger though because I didn't really look at it when I was busy fighting against the enemies. I did wish there was some way to see if the enemies got damaged. When I first played I didn't hit the enemies enough to kill them so I just decided to run away instead of fight them.

6. Everything was pretty easy to see. The grey stood out nicely against the orange/rust colors of the background so even though the arms were small it was easy to find them. I think the art style was cool and I think it did a nice job representing the environment your team planned for. 

7. I didn't encounter any bugs. At first, one of the arms wasn't working so I thought that was a bug but it was just because I had the mouse pointed down towards the ground so I didn't see it working. 

Overall, I think you all are doing a great job! This game has a lot of potential and I look forward to when it is finished.

-Breanna Flickinger