Thank you for the kind words! The dragging logic has been a huge pain point and took a lot of debugging, I just had to call it quits at some point. I wanted to introduce the mechanics as much through gameplay as possible, but I now know that this isn't easy without proper feedback.
That's good to know, thanks for the feedback. I've had some ideas on how to better communicate why a solution was valid or not, but I was pressed on time already. I think I'll make a post-jam build in which I'll address the biggest oversights.
Very solid game - simple to execute, but it fits the theme really well. The difficulty also ramps nicely as each level uses the tools in a bit more creative way. There's also a lot of ways this could be easily expanded with different stencils for even more variety.
I think my biggest gripe with the game however is that it's difficult to tell the black color and stencils apart. After applying black coat, it's easier to check what isn't on the mask, rather than what is. Some unique pattern or an outline for the stencils could have easily fixed this.
The fundamentals are there, but without some interesting twist that makes it unique it's not that satisfying to play. Things like hit detection and movement are fine already, but without feedback like hitstop and SFX, the combat (the most important part of the game) feels disconnected and boring. Your character has a nice movepool to choose from, but it was also difficult to tell whether some attacks were even effective. I'm not sure if anything took damage from the jack o'lantern's RMB attack.
The theme fits only marginally for what is essentially switching between weapons, but I did notice that the spritework of the character and their masks were given extra attention.
Interesting concept, I'm not familiar with the genre but the way the masks tied into the game was very interesting to see. I also like that it's not as much the truth you get from one mask, but rather the bias of one of the two sides. The illustrations also added a lot to the worldbuilding.
I was really lost on the first playthrough, however. I didn't really make the connection that each mask represents the king and queen respectively until after I got the Balanced ending.
I think this concept would benefit from a longer game in which the player can appreciate the way the masks impact your perception and you have to walk the line between king and queen more.
I think the fact that you have to choose between seeing platforms and obstacles makes this a frustrating experience, and because the character jumps at full strength every time, I'd often jump to avoid a projectile only to launch into spikes above me. The art does it's job and the platforming fundamentals are sound, but playing through this felt like I was always struggling against the game's mechanics, rather than working with them.
I think a more interesting approach would have been to always show the platforms and have one mask actually remove the hitbox of the obstacles, as opposed to just not showing them. As a tradeoff, make the timer much more strict, reduce the amount of hitpoints and have it decrease even faster when using the mask. That way, the player has to strategically switch between masks to avoid running out of time and being able to beat the level.
This could very well be a microgame from WarioWare. The art is definitely the strongest point, but with so little game, something more like the mask flapping in the wind, his eyes squinting if the mask slips too far or his hand reaching for whichever half of the mask you're adjusting would have made it feel like a more complete project.
Do you mind telling me which stages confused you and what was unclear? I was most worried about the first half of the game, so I'm wondering what else isn't communicated clearly.
Reminds me a lot of Hitman, and I appreciate that you took the time to give the NPCs different responses depending on the costume. The hand-drawn art was a big plus too, especially the backgrounds feel much nicer than something constructed out of assets.
The gameplay however was not as good. At first I thought every NPC that is grayed out can't be interacted with, but screens after the first one break that rule. This turns the game into more of a chore in which you have to talk to every NPC wearing every disguise since there's no distinction between the same type. I think it would have been better if you didn't go out of your way to make branching dialogues, since it made me feel like I had to find the right interaction to progress.
And I'm not sure if I overlooked something, but I got stuck in the ballroom, so I couldn't beat the whole game. I do think it's funny that the only part of the MC that doesn't change is his mask, however.
This was a bit confusing at first - it took me a while to get that I had to input a digit in every column to not instantly lose. After that, I wasn't quite sure if I was doing it right. The gameplay aspects don't quite mesh well together and I feel like everything would have been a bit tighter if you had a grid-based movement rather than unrestrained platformer controls. There's also a nasty bug where you immediately lose if your dash ends in a crate.
Still, the art was well put together, and I liked the doodles in the instructions screen. For the next time, you should really look into Godot's scaling settings to ensure your pixel art gets rendered properly because the nice art does suffer from it.
The fact that it's a bug rather than a choice is good to know. Fixing that and adding random doodles that look like they were actually made in MS Paint would really sell the idea that you're walking through someone's paint files.
Thanks, but I really had no time left for any more directions. I tried to set up the levels so they'd teach you bit by bit, but I wish I could have added some more feedback to let the player know if their action did something.
I think this game just doesn't work for me. No matter how much I reload, I always start level 1 with my character and two identical looking NPCs. There's nothing that seems to progress the game, not even herding everyone together into one spot.
Probably one of the best looking of all the submissions - I love the designs of the masks and the presentation around them. The floating table adds a lot of flair. The UI is also well put together.
Unfortunately, the weakest point is by far the gameplay. I really like the idea of playing blackjack with a hand and using health to draw more cards. However, since there is no hand limit, drawing cards is cheap and you regain health over time there is no reason not to keep drawing cards until you have a guaranteed blackjack for every round. It makes the game so easy that there's no reason to interact with the mask mechanic of the game.
I think the game would have benefitted a lot from an element of chaos you can't account for, such as the masks using their own powers as you fight them.
The platform physics were solid and the visuals were decent, but the controls felt really unintuitive. If everything is paused, why not let me move the mask with the arrow keys? Or put movement on WASD and have the mask be controlled by the mouse.
Unfortunately, there was more than one level where a key object like a button or a timer was almost completely hidden by the massive timer. I don't know if that was intentional, but it felt more like a frustrating oversight than a sneaky mechanic.
I also made the mistake of pressing Escape around level 2-3 or so - which immediately quit the game and erased all my progress, and the controls were too clunky for me to play it over again. Nevertheless, the fundamentals were very sound, and there's a big variety of levels.
Great presentation - extra points for making sure the cursor changes when hovering over the buttons - but I wish you stuck with the theme more. Maybe it's because I have a big monitor, but even without fullscreen the other levels looked more empty than the first one. I wouldn't have minded keeping the Windows UI. With it gone and the level art not really looking like something from MS Paint, the game stops sharing anything with the source.
The controls had me a little confused for a while, but I got used to them. I really didn't enjoy the last level, however. There were some nice ideas, but platforming while barely being able to see your character was not enjoyable, especially since I beat it another time since I wasn't sure I got it the first time.
Glad you enjoyed it! I unfortunately had no time left for sounds or music, so I had to leave it out completely. I had the settings menu designed early on, so it just ended up being somewhat useless.
Thanks for the feedback, I've already been addressing almost all of these points. You can rightclick in build mode to switch between the possible panel orientations but I've noticed people still struggling with it, so I'm planning on adding some AI that can predict where you would want to build you next panel. I've been also thinking about ways to encourage building unorthodox shapes - I might drop the "build a complete solid to get access to resources" completely and think of other ways how building styles affect the growth and behavior of the population.
The villagers are all running for the same faraway tree because they don't consider walking distance and other villagers already occupying the space - basically lazy AI. I have some plans on how to make it more organic, including a revamped resource system not tied to the player, but to the buildings instead. Thanks for the tip about enabling run in background, I very much want it to be a game you can have going in the back so that will be important.
