thank you so much for playing the game. I appreciate your constructive feedback. It's really helpful. I agree that there's an issue with keeping the ghost gameplay exciting. One solution I had in mind that you didn't mention was creating enemies that spawn only when you're a ghost that hinder your ability to navigate back to the ship. I think that would have kept things more interesting, so that it didn't leave you groaning every time you get hit. I'm sure all of us would have had infinitely better games if we had just had one more hour of development. Seriously, I appreciate your feedback! Thanks!
thank you so much for playing and thank you for your feedback. There's actually a second or so after you return to your ship as the ghost where you're invincible, but theres no visual or audio effects to cue you in on that. I appreciate your feedback!
This is a fun idea! I like that it forces you to engage with the enemies, getting up close and personal rather than just hanging back and shooting. One thing that could use a little work is the difficulty curve. I think it starts out way too hard. Nevertheless, it's a fun idea! Keep up the good work!
This is an awesome idea. It's got an intuitive and interesting mechanic that has a lot of room to expand. This game strikes that sweet spot between puzzle and action platforming, and I like it. My only complaint is the level design could use some more work. The difficulty curve is way too harsh, and sometimes you can't tell if you're about to fly into some offscreen spikes unless you've already played the level. Maybe the ability to zoom out and look at the stage to plan your moves would help with that. Overall, it's a nice game, though! Well done!
I actually really liked this game. In fact, it was one of my favorites in the whole jam. However, I should mention that it took me a little bit before it grew on me, and I think the main reason for that is that you sold yourself short by comparing this game to VVVVVV. Yes, the gravity flipping mechanic is inspired by VVVVVV, but this is a completely different game. VVVVVV is an action platformer that is fast-paced and requries quick reflexes and thinking on your feet, so when you compared your own game to VVVVVV, that's what I was expecting. However, this game doesn't require action or fast reflexes at all. It's more of a puzzle game. It requires you to carefully plan out your moves before you start pressing any buttons. It's different, and while it's not what I was expecting, I really like it. It's a unique game with interesting mechanics and decent level design, and I think you're doing yourself a major disservice by comparing this game to VVVVVV. With some polish and with time to develop more levels, I think this game could end up being really cool :) I liked it! Keep up the good work!
As far as the mechanics go, it wasn't exactly obvious at first which enemies were weak to the different options you have at your disposal. However, once I had figured that out, I lost interest quickly. I appreciate the artwork, the music, and the voice acting. Nice job, and keep up your hard work!
This is one of my favorites of the whole game jam. It was done so well! The moment I got the dual tread upgrade was a moment that reminded me of why I love video games so much. Thank you for all your hard work!
I can't get this game to run in windows 10. I downloaded the .exe file, bypassed my antivirus settings, and even tried running as administrator, but nothing happens when I run the executable. I wish I could try it :(
I really wish I could play this game, but I can't get the boss to show up. The game starts up, it tells me what boss I'm going to be fighting, and then I pick three different skills/perks, but after that nothing happens. My character just keeps running through the woods forever. What do I do? :(
It took me a little bit to figure out that you were accelerating when you dig through the purple jelly, so I think that could have been shown to the player better in some way or another. However, once I figured it out, I had some fun playing with this game. It's a good idea, but I agree with the other commenters that it certainly could have used some more polish. Thanks for your hard work!
I like the artwork for the game, but the gameplay itself wasn't very engaging for me. I think the game adheres to the theme excellently, but I only enjoyed playing around with it for a few seconds before I lost interest.
You know, I had considered doing this, and I think you're right that it would have made for a deep and interesting game. Honestly, the only reason I scrapped that idea was because it seemed too difficult for me to implement under the time constraints, and I wound up going for this simpler idea because of how intimidated I was.
Either way, thank you so much for playing. I really appreciate your feedback!
Thank you so much for playing! I appreciate the constructive feedback. I considered doing a scoring system that works as follows: you start the game with an 'A' rank. Every time you get turned into a ghost, it drops a letter grade (with F being the worst you can get). So, if you can make it all the way through a level without getting hit, you will finish with an A ranking. Perhaps this would have made the game more engaging to play, as I see your point that the only reason to continue playing as it is now is to get to the next level / next wave of enemies.
I will definitely play and rate your game! It's in my queue :) thanks again for your feedback.
This is really cool, and I applaud you for writing your game in standalone Java and Processing. Very interesting choice of tools. As for the design, it's a very interesting concept, and I'd like to see it fleshed out more. My only complaint is that you can't just choose which sentence you want to rewrite in the dream diary, but rather that you have to keep erasing the most recent sentence until you get to the one you want to replace. It's a little tedious, but I think it's something you could easily change or make more fun, and I don't think it reflects poorly on your overall design idea. Good job!
I love this idea. It's a Metroidvania without real-time movement mechanics! That's a hilarious idea, and it was implemented very well. The music, the sound effects, the detailed descriptions, and the logical flow of uncovering an unknown planet all capture the feeling of a Metroidvania very well. This is definitely one of my favorite entries in this game jam, and I encourage you to continue working on it! It's innovative, clever, and it I think you can just continue to add content and polish until you have a really funny and interesting game.
I think this is a great idea mechanically and I think it fits the theme of the game jam perfectly. However, I don't think it was implemented very well. Nevertheless, I'm not going to give you a poor rating, because I think your main mechanical idea was communicated clearly and I think the only reason the implementation was poor was because of your time and resource constraints. It's clear that if you had more time to polish the main mechanic of the pole, make some more fluently designed levels, and spend more time on 3D sound design, you would have a fun, unique, and interesting game.
Even though I couldn't beat the first level, I'm giving this a 4/5 rating. Good job, and keep on developing!
Congratulations on finishing your first game with Game Maker Studio! Here's my feedback:
First: the positive. Overall, I think the mechanical idea you went for was implemented properly. The game runs smoothly and it's clear what you have to do to beat each level.
Now, the negative: I can't give this game a great rating because I don't like the way you tackled the theme of the game jam. Pacman's ability to devour ghosts is part of what makes Pacman so fun to play. When you take that ability away, it doesn't make Pacman more fun or interesting to play. It only slightly increases the difficulty and makes the game more frustrating. Whenever I collected a cherry, I found myself frustrated that I wasn't able to eat the ghost.
Please, don't be discouraged by my criticism (or by my rating). It's clear that you have the development skills to produce a game, and I think you should be proud of the fact that you made a functional Pacman clone. However, I think your design choices could have been better, and I think that will get better as you gain more experience.
Overall, this is just a guessing game. Unless the level explicitly tells you what's going to happen, there's no way for you to know the pattern the guard is going to use to check your inventory. The only level that I thought came close to being clever with this was the one called "Cross Plus Square Equals?", but even then, I'm not sure it's entirely clear what the player is supposed to do unless they've played the level already.
However, the most extreme example of this is in the level where you have to pick between the two guards: one who is annoyed, and one who is focused. How is the player supposed to know how those two adjectives translate into search patterns on a grid unless they use trial and error to figure it out and replay the level?
This next comment isn't really related to the core mechanic of the game, so it's more of a side note, but I think it's still relevant: is there any reason this game needed to be in 3D? I feel like making this a 3D game actually might have held you back. If you had just made this a 2D game, you probably would have had more time to focus on designing the main mechanic and making the guard and inventory system more polished and fun to play with. I don't know how much time you spent making the 3D models, designing the 3D levels, and programming the controls for walking around in the environment, but I think that time would have been better spent on the main mechanics of the game. Walking around sort of feels like an inconvenience you have to go through to get to the interesting part of the game (messing with your inventory and getting searched by guards).
Overall, I'm not really impressed with the mechanic. I think there's some potential there, but only if the search pattern of the guards are clearly communicated to the player somehow (or hinted at). Otherwise, it's just a game of guess and check until you know how each guard is going to respond.
That was simply delightful :) I loved it! That last level was a fun challenge! Rated 5/5!
With the theme of this jam, I'm sure a lot of people decided to go for a platformer game without platforms, but this is by far the best one I've seen. Thank you for sharing your game!
Hi, I know we're only a few days away from the jam, but I think I'd have more fun if I was working remotely in a team than working alone. I would be willing to chat over skype, slack, discord, or any other chat service to share ideas and thoughts during the project. Here's a little about myself and what I'm looking to get out of this jam:
Typically, I try to approach game jams with a clear head. Once I hear the theme, I brainstorm to come up with a core mechanic to serve as the foundation for my game. Once I've found something I like and that my other team members are satisfied with, I try to get a working prototype of the core mechanic of the game. Once the prototype is up and running, I spend the rest of the jam adding extra features or refining what I already have.
Most of the time I work with Unity, which obviously shouldn't be a problem for this game jam. I'm a programmer and game designer, so I would probably work well with someone who does art or level design. However, I don't want to shut myself out to other programmers. I just want to collaborate.
So, if you're interested in working with me for this jam remotely, go ahead and reply to this post so we can figure out more details. Let's make something awesome!
