Thank you so much for such a great and comprehensive review!
For distinguishing archers from melee enemies, I think it's actually fairly easy to do by the distance to them; archers have a large "dodge space" in front of them.
I did have health power-ups planned to be scattered around, but I could never find the right visual and sound effects to make them look and feel good, so I ended up scrapping them.
To add more variety, I thought about making the level multi-tiered, giving the player some route choices during the run, but that would require a significantly more complex level generation system and a way to evaluate the future route.
I also sketched out moving rocks that you would need to jump over or slide under, depending on when you approached them, but I looked at them and decided they were too complicated for such a short and simple game. There was also an archer high up on a rock, shooting from there with no way to kill him, but he ended up in the trash as well because he didn't seem very interesting.
In the end, it seems like I didn't really want to complicate this game too much, haha. I don't know how common that is in game jams.
Regarding the controls, I can't really say much. I'm an avid PC gamer, so I just went with the spacebar + mouse controls that I'm used to. Leaving only mouse controls (making it more mobile-like) never even crossed my mind, because, well, I'm a PC gamer! Plus, precise timing and confident control are so important in this game, and I feel like drag movements would make that nearly impossible and often frustrating.
Thanks so much for the thorough feedback! I totally get what you mean about the initial pace, the intention was to ease players in, but it can leads to a bit of a 'getting through it' feeling. You're right, I think it's a common problem in a lot of games - wanting to skip the early stages once you're familiar with the mechanics. I actually considered shortening the loops by 1.5-2x, but I second-guessed myself, thinking it was just overthinking things near the deadline. It’s hard to distinguish helpful thoughts from harmful once you have something ready, I found that thought harmful. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts!
Thanks! I've been thinking about adding more tips on initial screen (especially about the civilians), but I'm not sure if I can make changes after the jam submission..
Thanks! Glad you had fun! The arrows are definitely intended to be a challenge at first. I didn't want it to be too easy! Personally, I often rely on the sound and animation of the archer to time my dodges – give that a try!
