itch.io

Short and sweet. 5/5

One of the browser games with better 3D models that I have seen so far.

I like the execution of the concept, the environment surrounding the theme of loss of control was well portrayed, and quite amusing too.

But, 

- The platformer was not easy! The vertical jump distance could have been improved to make the game feel better, especially in the earlier levels, but this might cause problems in the last level since the shortness of the jump became a boon on that level. Perhaps decreasing the distance of the platforms in the earlier level would make the game more accessible. It does not feel good if the player cannot even get past the first level without dying.

- The use of 3D models feels a bit wasted. The quality of the 3D models are very good, but the emphasis and the points of interaction by the player is predominantly on the computer, and specifically the platformer. But the platformer is lackluster in comparison to the 3D assets used. Perhaps adding more animation like the bird flying in would add more value to the use of 3D models. Or not being confined to the platformer would make the computer feel more realistic, like the bird "alt-tabbing" or "alt-f4ing" the game.

- The use of sound could have been better, I think the use of environmental sounds is used a bit too sparingly. The divide between the "real world" and the PC could be further emphasized with sound. Stuff like having chirping noises at the start to foreshadow the birds arrival would be quite funny. I am torn about the use of a jackhammer for the sound of the bird, its pretty funny but doesn't sync up well.

- Oh you should add a note regarding how to start the game, or highlight the spacebar. The intro ends on the pan out of the monitor and would stay there until the spacebar is pressed. Without any instructions, the player might not know what to do at the start.

Loved this game!

I think the art work, sprite design and animation were very well done.

Gameplay was fun and the idea of splitting the game was unique.

But,

- The AI pathing is a little dumb, sometimes it would just get stuck on an obstacle while trying to move in the direction of the player.

- The sound! The sound choices were not the best but added a very satisfying feedback. But the choice to trigger the same sound on hit for both enemy and obstacles was very annoying. Perhaps removing the sound on hit from obstacles altogether would be a good idea. The sound also duplicates each time screen duplicates, this makes the sound effect absolutely unbearable, especially the cast sound effect and the obstacle on hit effect.

- The end condition could be improved. When one copy of the sprite dies, it should trigger the end condition rather than much later.

Overall, a pretty fun game with a very well-thought premise.

I think one of the better concepts, I have seen so far.

The use of certain colours and shapes were crude but sufficient to convey the purpose of each gameplay piece.

But,

- I think you should tweak the jump acceleration and deceleration further. Currently the character feels very floaty. Along with the sprite design, it looks like a paper doll. Maybe that is intentional. But jumping does feel tougher than it should.

- The instructions at the start were unclear. I was not sure if I was supposed to use a mouse or a keyboard, I only progressed after I tried a bunch of stuff and ended up clicking the black box. Adding an initial click here text box would easily solve the problem without much work.

- The trampoline component could have been improved further. The diagonal trampoline felt unnecessarily tough to control with the weird control scheme. Perhaps changing it to a vertical trampoline instead would have had the same effect but feel better for the player to handle.

- Overall game assets could be improved, but gameplay was fun regardless.

Game was quite fun, with suprisingly good mesh of sound and music.

Loved the consideration of adding more than one type of attack animation.

But,

- The ending screen. I am sure you already know, the game does not end when the ending screen appears and the score keeps tallying if the player continues the game.

- Not very sure how this fits the theme of the Jam. Just feels like a normal hack and slash to me.

- Adding powerups or some sort progression in difficulty would  be nice. Stuff like walking down a corridor with tougher and tougher ninjas and ultimately facing a boss ninja would be quite fun, something like a bullet hell but with ninjas.

- Have you considered using a discreet life system rather than a life bar? Usually when you use a linear life bar, you benefit from varying damage counters informing the player to manage their health at a more precise level. But using discreet health is more preferable in bullet hell and hack-and-slash games, because the damage amount does not matter, only the fact that you got hit. This gives the player better understanding of how much health they have to deal with.

- Adding a cooldown or resource for blocking ninja stars would make the game more challenging. Currently the game feels too easy with the ability to block almost all obstacles in your way, dying is really tough, but killing is not too risky.

Love the core gameplay elements!

I think the use of control to make friendly fire a problem is a nice one.

And the level design, placing the player in situations where it is difficult to shoot the correct target, is well done and executed.

But,

- The choice of colours for non-gameplay parts like GUI clash too much with the game sprites. Having the game sprites be simple is not bad, but having a good distinction between the game and menu is important, and makes the game feel more polished with little investment in time.

- Adding sound and music goes a long way, having some free generic lazer effects would have made the game feel more responsive and less sterile.

- Improving the hitboxes would feel good too, some of the bullet collisions mid-air feel really bad, especially when the sprite clips the ally pieces slightly mid projectile shot.

Nice idea with a decent execution.

But, 

- Adding sound effects and music can go a long way to making the game with less bland. Attacking would feel more impactful and a pure white arena would not feel sterile

- The concept is a good one, using control as lives, but the concept is not strong enough to carry the game on its own. There are many games which are simpler with the same concept but added more to expand the idea further this Jam.

- The game could have made better use of the 3D component, the game in its current state is essentially a 2D shooter placed in a 3D environment, with little benefits of making it 3D. Perhaps simplifying the game to 2D would have saved work on developing models and allowed for better design on the gameplay elements. Don't shy away from using openly available free sprites or models!

- The enemy drops were not rewarding at all, dropping control or lives should be used more sparingly especially if there is a limit to the amount of control available. Dropping powerups rewarding the player for playing well while making the game feel more exciting and allows you to create more challenges without feeling too harsh on the player. Adding lives without powerups make the game feel draggy without anything to look forward to. Toning down the life drops and adding better drops would help make the game more fun.

Not sure if I reached the end of the game or not, if there is an end.  (I reached the black out room)

The game is quite surreal, the scene depicted was like an escape room mixed with a surrealist horror movie. 

I do not know how I can suggest any constructive feedback to something I do not even understand.

Was there a puzzle to be solved?

Was there supposed to be an end?

Maybe its too random, feels more like a RNG tied to a bunch of rooms than a cohesive storytelling device. Or maybe I just do not get it.

Great game with visual and sounds that match up very well.

Very polished puzzle game, not too hard nor too easy.

Some level designs were very nice to look at.

But,

- The controls at times are overly sensitive or not responsive at all. This may be due to the unnecessary and unskippable Level title, preventing any key inputs before the level starts. Perhaps removing the period where keys are not registered and adding a "press any key to start level" button would be more intuitive for players.

- The pylons or nodes will not turn from red to green at times, even when hit by the green projectile (I think it does not even register the hit.). This is most probably a coding error somewhere preventing the state from changing.

- The way the level restarts when you miss or fail is a bit uninformative, especially at the start. Adding a lose message or some other user feedback would be much appreciated. The unskippable and uninteractive level title sequence is very irritating especially if it causes the player to miss again when mashing buttons trying to restart the level.

- Perhaps making the pylons turn from green back to red when struck again would make for very challenging levels? Just a suggestion

I think there was quite a good consistency with the visuals and theming.

But,

- I do not feel like I can be faulted for saying this... the game is very boring. It's a bit harsh, but I think the idea of using "out of control" thematically has been executed too literally in the game, and the removal of control takes away value from the game rather than add an interesting twist or concept for the player to experience. Overall, the idea of a random generated action, takes away too much agency and engagement from the player.

- Without considering the previous point, maybe adding a fast forward button would help reduce the duration of the game where the player does not interact with the game. In addition to that, you could scale the number of levels as well, instead of 7, you can increase the number of levels significantly since the player would not be waiting for very long during each level.

- Maybe add more choices to the game, like upgrades that improve chances of attacking blocking etc. or add better swords or shield or armour. Add gold so the player has something they get and collect while waiting. Add perks/traits/skils, that trigger manually while the character is moving or with a chance on attack or defend.

Hopefully, its not too harsh, I added some suggestions which i think would improve player engagement. Hope you find them useful.

As a dvorak user, I can sympathize 

Overall one of the most fun games I have played this game jam.

This game has a very classic visual and good pairing of music and sound.

I love the overall idea and most of the execution.

But,

- The game really needs a better way of conveying the core controls of the game. The game would be a huge turn off for anyone not patient enough to randomly try keys until something worked, you will lose a lot of player numbers because people might think it is a broken game. A simple comment with the control keys  on the main game page would go a long way!

- The upgrades in this game are unbalanced as heck, most of the upgrades are worst than the meteors. I think more thought could have been placed into making more meaningful upgrade paths, ones that would make the player weigh the pros and cons of each upgrade, rather than feel scornful at getting the ability to recede backwards away from the objective. I feel this point is important, because, eventhough I found this game fun, would I have chose this game over any rip off of galaga with only various gun upgrades? I think the answer would be a resounding No

Oh and the GUI elements could be better, it kinda takes away from the effort making nice sprites and backgrouds.

Loved the inclusion of a minimap, very nice

Very cute, the sprites match the background pretty well.

I think the gameplay element is quite interesting and can be expanded upon.
Considering how simplistic the objectives and obstacles are, you can consider using a RNG to randomise the levels. 
Also, the barking gameplay element feels very sluggish  initially and can get stale fast. If you add power ups or a skill tree or upgrades would make the game feel more engaging.
Also more terrain and enemy types would also make it quite interesting!

Just suggestions, maybe you wanna stick with just a more realistic wolf and sheep theming

Nice visuals, interesting gameplay, like an inverted Doodle Jump!

But, I feel the jump acceleration and deceleration feels a bit too fast and the jumping is too random with no indicators, its very tough for the player to feel rewarded for planning based on the jumps.

Perhaps slowing down the jump frequency initially would be more accessible.
Adding indicators prior to the jumps would be allow players to plan before the jump.
Slowing the fall speed would also help allow players feel better about the control system

Great game, loved how the camera, visuals and music meshed, very reminiscent of Hotline Miami.

very immersive and engaging, if you continue this project further, would totally loved to play a horror game with a similar vibe or premise.

But I think the second half was a bit barren compared to the first half which was more "story-oriented". The difference in the two halves were a bit jarring, feel like populating the second half further would reward the player for exploring the empty space more.

Also, maybe add a diminishing resource like oxygen or fuel in the second half would provide a sense of urgency and claustrophobia to the second half to make the second half more challenging and exciting.

Good attempt

edit: don't know what button was the gun, but didn't need it anyway

Great game, the visuals used distinguish between gameplay objects are clear and well designed.

The level design was very informative without needing any words. The blend between visuals and the progression of levels made the mechanics of the game very intuitive. Loved how the introduction of only the horizontal movement leads to the first jump without the player being cognitive of how the jump even happened, leading to a perfect "AHA" moment when dying to the first lava pit.

But,

- as a browser only player, I faced an issue where webgl would black out the screen every single time the cube jumped, quite annoying but still playable

-  I think the death sound effect gets old pretty fast. Considering how often dying is in unlimited life puzzle games, I think the choice of such a "scratchy?" sound was a poor one. After a certain number of deaths, I needed to play the game without sound.

- The levels involving cubes could be tune to be more reliant on the new mechanic. There were ways of solving the level without needing to use the cubes, many of which involved air jumping.

Nice models and great pairing for music.

Love the manual controller using mouse, feels like I'm playing a VR game with mouse.

But I think the ship acceleration and deceleration could be improved to make the ship feel like it has more weight.

Can't really review, I can only play on browser

Looks great though, would love to review it

Very nice.

Nice visuals and music pairing, very cute.

Interesting use of controls, quite challenging to play without using the mouse, especially for people with abnormal keyboard layouts.
I played with a Dvorak keyboard, was very challenging!

Love the creative use of shapes to play with the balance of the platforms, my favourite part of the game, very unique :)

Don't have any negative comments, overall great jam submission

The premise is interesting albeit a bit difficult to play

But,

- The vertical acceleration and deceleration feel are a bit too fast, especially considering how short the horizontal range of each jump is.

- The feedback for the collision with the platforms feel very bad, there were multiple cases where slight touches despawns the platforms unintentionally.

- The initial stage feel a bit long, especially when there is no distinct break between stages

Getting a black screen on webgl

Fun game, very polished

but the use of both arrow keys feel very asynchronous as compared to the space bar, feels weird using both arrow keys at once. Maybe more staggered keys would allow for more keys and better control.