itch.io

Very clean look for a jam game. The UI, in particular, is pretty simple and intuitive, which is crucial for this type of game.

However, some work on difficulty balancing is needed to make it interesting. As it is, building each planet and machine in order as soon as they become available is enough to net an easy win. Since each object can only be built once anyway, the player doesn't really have to ponder his choices.
Allowing several machines of the same type on a single planet instead would make the player think about the efficiency of each of them depending on the planet's specific resources, and already create some sense of strategy.

Overall, you've still got quite a nice foundation for your game.

I'd love to read your comments about my entry : https://itch.io/jam/blackthornprodgamejam2/rate/379463
Interestingly enough, it's also about gathering resources to leave a system of planets, but with a totally different take on it.

I was so perfectly geared up for that dragon, waiting for it eagerly... and then it stood me up !

Well, it's a pity that this is unfinished, because the parts that you did manage to complete sure look like they got a lot of care. The lack of any feedback upon obtaining  an  item from a chest was a bit puzzling at first, though.

Anyway, you've got a pretty interesting base to build upon, should you choose to.

It's great to see another interplanetary 3D exploration game, especially as I opted out of player control in between planets for my own entry.

Ground movement felt a bit clunky at times, which took away from the pleasure of wandering around uncharted lands. Placing the camera higher would give the player a better idea of their surroundings, which I think would probably alleviate the issue.

Still quite a complex and ambitious project, with a nice atmosphere. 

Thank you for your feedback ! I especially appreciate that you mentioned the adaptive music. It was a late addition, but I feel it brings a lot to the mood of the different planets. 

The field of view can indeed get frustrating, in particular when you gain altitude. Free camera control was somewhat incompatible with some of the ugly fixes I had to settle for in my code, so I had to forget about it for the jam's duration. I'll most likely work on a cleaner version afterwards.

That was a nice experience.
The slightly unusual gameplay takes some time to get used to, but becomes quite enjoyable afterwards. Changing a planet's trajectory mid-course with a meteor that was carefully placed in advance is particularly pleasing.

Considering the tight time limits, randomizing some of the obstacles was probably unnecessary, as it made some attempts a bit harder than others. A quick restart button would also be a welcome addition ( unless there is one and I missed it ).

Overall, really solid entry, albeit a bit short.

Very nice concept and lovely graphics.

Unfortunately, I couldn't even finish the ice planet due to a number of bugs, such as the character suddenly flying off to a distant wall on its own, crawling on some invisible platform in the middle of nowhere, or getting stuck at a respawn point.
Due to the lack of visual cues regarding gravity, it was also hard to tell whether some other unexpected behaviours were intended, like sometimes being able to get sucked in to a ceiling far beyond the reach of the character's jumps.

It's a pity, because the game definitely has its charms. If the core gameplay got quite a bit of refactoring, I'm sure this could turn into a really nice entry.

Very nice and simple idea, with a clean execution. The well-proven artstyle makes it all come together naturally.
The difficulty curve does feel too steep, and could probably be eased by increasing the number of planets more gradually. Alternatively, although the hitboxes seem to be quite fair, you might want to shrink them a bit to allow for more last-second saves, which always feel satisfying.
Well done anyway.

The game's style and atmosphere are quite nice, but it is definitely too strict on the player.

Everything seems to be done to sanction the slightest slip-up, from the tiny spikes forcing a perfect trajectory after a couple of big ones, to the black wave progressing faster than the character and punishing you for mistakes you made earlier. As others mentioned, the double jumps are not quite working like one would expect either (and only on a descending trajectory, I think ?).

As someone who is still learning how not to frustrate players, I now try to have my games tested as early as possible during development phase, and to make anything new players stumble upon at least slightly easier.

This could still be a very enjoyable game if it was a little more lenient.

Nice effort on this game.

There have been a lot of comments about it already, but indeed, taking the character's control out of the player's hands does leave them feeling robbed and frustrated, so it should probably be avoided as much as possible.

Overall, the game feels very ambitious, which can be both a good and a bad thing. I tend to embark on overly ambitious projects for game jams myself, so I know that all too well. It's easy to get lost along the way while working on many different features, and to never really make them come together. If instead you manage to focus on making the core gameplay enjoyable, without any additional fluff, then you have a solid base to build upon, and the whole game will usually feel much more coherent.

In this case, I think just refining the time actually spent on the planets, and trimming the rest for now, would make for a nice game in itself.

A classic but efficient formula.

For a more fluid experience, perhaps you could have made the spikes come out of the ground progressively and without real interruption, instead of spawning/despawning a bunch of them at once. That way, the player would need to somewhat stay alert to what is happening at the bottom of the planet.

Nice effort anyway.

The level of polish is quite impressive for a jam game.
In addition to the visuals and sounds, nice job playing around with archetypes for the planets' characterization without making them annoying.
The difficulty was also just right, almost forcing players to sacrifice planets on their first try, while making it quite feasible to make it unscathed on subsequent playthroughs.

Did you consider including further levels mixing both comets and asteroids ? At first I thought the game was hinting at it, but with the (well-executed) focus on narration, I'm not sure it was your intention after all.

Anyway, very nicely done.

Very interesting idea.
As others mentioned, the controls and perspective could use some work. I would add to previous comments that, to me, the buttons used to move in the first level felt very counterintuitive. I expected up/down to move the character along its line of sight, and right/left to move it laterally. Somehow, it took a lot of focus to change that mindset.
Still, the visuals and atmosphere for both levels were quite enticing, and I would love to play a more polished version.

Not bad at all. The blue tile was a nice idea, adding a bit of tactical complexity in the mix.
You probably know it already, but going off-screen increases your score, which turned our testing game into a competition to flee the arena as fast as possible. Playing the intended way was quite fun, though.

It's a pity that this is unfinished, the atmosphere is quite enticing.
I also went for the "astronaut exploring planets to gather shiny stuff" approach in this game jam, but with quite a different take on it.

Quite enjoyable, especially once planet switching is introduced.
Graphics are pretty simple but consistent, and you added a few interesting twists to a well-tested formula.
Taking into account the character's angle when throwing planets instead of always doing it horizontally would have felt more intuitive to me, but I guess it might have made some situations more difficult to handle.
Nice entry overall.

Very nice experience !
The difficulty curve felt just right and the levels offered enough variety to keep it interesting.
I second the comment about keeping the music going between restarts. I don't think I ever heard the full track more than once or twice, which is a pity considering its quality.
Incidentally, I noticed an issue on a couple of levels where the center of some gravity fields would seem to drift away from their respective planets after a while. Do they, perhaps, have their own orbits rather than being children to the planets ?

That was certainly atypical, but the minimalist aesthetics did convey all the better that somewhat oppressing feeling of wandering through endless space, with only your map to reassure you that you're not drifting forever into nothingness. Quite an interesting result.

I'm really glad that you liked it ! Also, you do raise some good points.

Actually, I didn't use Unity's physics library to handle the character's behaviour, since it is not easily fine-tuned for a fluid platformer gameplay, especially one that diverges from standard gravity. That means I resorted to coding a character controller from scratch, using lower level functions for collision detection, resulting in some problematic edge cases when a platform's dimensions didn't allow it to follow the planet's curvature closely enough. All of this would still require a whole lot of polishing.

I also wholeheartedly agree with your second issue. This one could probably be solved by tweaking the shader I used for most platforms, and more importantly by giving the player more control over camera movement.

I hope you'll be able to play a more polished version in a not-too-distant future.

The jam's description states that it will last a week, and I seem to remember it spanned at least over the whole weekend. However, the end date displayed now is  Saturday (for my timezone). 

Am I misremembering things or has the jam been shortened ? Any chances it might last longer than scheduled at the moment ?

Thank you for the nice comment. The game is indeed quite slow and easy in the beginning, to allow first-time players to get used to the trajectories. Did you make use of the "Add sugar" button to increase the number of sugar cubes ? I usually start with 4 of them, then switch to 5 once I get into a good rhythm.

Thank you for your input. Indeed, it does not play exactly like a good old Game&Watch. Your moving speed decreases along with the coffee gauge in the upper right. You can actually move instantly for a little while when it's full, but moving from one cup to the next will take 1/10th of a second when it's 80% full. That's why spending some time regularly at the coffee machine is of tremendous importance, especially as the number of sugar cubes increases.

Les sous-titres seront superflus en ce qui me concerne, mais je ne doute pas que d'autres amateurs de café sauront apprécier cette attention à sa juste valeur. Merci de ta réponse.

Thank you all for the nice comments on my previous post. Black, no sugar is now online.

Although I didn't spend much time on it, since I went for a game with such a small scope, I was actually able to add features over the course of the jam instead of removing some. That's right, I can hardly believe it either.

As a result, the buttons on the Game&Watch-like device ( the picture I used as a base was apparently from some sort of russian imitation ) are now fully functional. This means I will definitely upload an Android version. However, I have never deployed on Android from Unity, so I'll have to find some time for heavy testing on a couple of devices before I make the build public, which will probably have to wait for a couple of weeks.

Anyway, in the meanwhile, I hope you will enjoy the WebGL version !

Incidentally, question to Miss Myu : Will you make a video about the jam's games ? I found out about your channel thanks to the jam (clever advertising), and although I'm not much of a video-watcher, I'd love to see an overview of the games other participants made.

Here's what I've been working on during yesterday's and today's coffee breaks :

Don't let those sugar cubes spoil the taste of some good coffee, but mind your caffeine level, so that you can keep up with the pace.

All that's left is basically to add some sound effects, and more importantly to redraw those ugly coffee cups.

L'ajout de contrôles à la souris était naturellement prévu, et n'aurait pas demandé beaucoup de temps, mais il se situait étonnamment bas dans ma liste de priorités (plus encore que la création d'un écran titre). Au vu des commentaires unanimes sur ce point, mon sens des priorités est à revoir. Ce sera la première chose que j'ajouterai dans la version post-jam, dans quelques semaines, si tu as envie de retenter le coup.

Tes deux suggestions sont tout à fait pertinentes. Encore des points qui semblaient très secondaires en cours de jam, mais rétrospectivement, les détails qui rendent l'expérience de jeu plus confortable ne sont pas à négliger.

On peut en venir à bout en tirant dessus, avec de la persévérance et pas mal de munitions, mais il y a une autre façon de se débarrasser de lui, en utilisant le mécanisme présent dans le niveau.

La vignette du jeu me rappelait quelque chose, et effectivement, il s'agit en quelque sorte de la genèse du monde de 'A simple man'. 

Je ne suis toujours pas adepte de jeux contemplatifs, mais tu sais toujours poser un univers en quelques pixels. Pas mal du tout.