itch.io

Thanks a ton for the feedback! It's funny you mention the keyboard haha, It was actually the original way in testing, to use the arrow keys to cycle through states or have each key click to instantly transform to a given state but it didn't feel good so we settled on holding the mouse clicks - looking back though and considering your feedback, I think the problem was more that "click" vs "hold" feels fairly different and we didnt give holding keys a chance at all, and like you said would enable keyboard / laptop players a much easier time. The amount of times I've reccomended it to a friend and they say ahh I only have a laptop 😅 It's a good idea and thanks for making the point, if we update this after the jam we'll definitely consider this

The low number of ratings is not a poor reflection on this game, the quality is really high & it's super on theme, original and fun. The times you really get going feel slick and cool and it's just about easy enough to achieve, I loved the idea that hairs nit combs and shampoo are hazards, and the shop also gives a good incentive for the player to work towards something more than just a higher number on their score. You should be pleased, I think if this had a web build it'd be much more popular but downloads always seem to get shafted in gamejams.
I also reccomend that you emphasise the absolute pace you can pick up if you're mechanically slick enough, that's absolutely what sold me on downloading it - the trailer does a great job of illustrating this

I liked this a lot, the sliding was polished to the point of being fun & not too frustrating to manage (which is always the risk with icy games). As someone else has said, the grappling hook should ideally be something more visible, perhaps a circle around your player so you know which ones you're in range of and then an arrow showing which direction you're about to go

Insanely innovative idea, I love the idea of a deckbuilder colliding with other genres like in this case a platformer. I think there's definitely room for it to becomes something - the problem I had with it was that jump always seemed like the best card, so it ended up being cycling the cards until jump or ninja jump came up. Still, really cool to see such an innovative idea

There's an absurd amount of all-round good stuff here, but it looks like a lot of that has already been said. I agree with all of it, it's really good!
If I am to give something for the team to work on, it'd be the controls, I found the sudden stopping of the skateboard unintended, and sometimes I fell through the railing without meaning to. There's definitely some parts of levels that feel slick as hell and some that feel clunky - I'd say it doesn't matter too much whether it's too easy, as long as the players feeling slick n good, that's enough. I also had a large lag spike when the bomb exploded for the first time (I played on web). Sometimes as well when you're carrying something it seems to clip into you which was hard to tell if intentional or not
Again, incredible level of polish for a gamejam, it would handily beat paid titles that exist on steam already

The best presented game I've played yet, everything is polished aesthetically and gamefeely. The jump feels solid and I like the little flip on double jump. 
I got so far and seeing the beginning of the game again made me leave, I had the exact same thought as someone said below, "no checkpoints is criminal". It's an easy fix to lessen a lot of frustration. I also feel like the theme is original, but mechanically it's no different from anything I've played before, there's definitely opportunity to expand on what a player playing an octopus might be able to do. Would love to see how future development goes, really nice work making this look and sound like a paid product!

I liked the originality of brickbreaker meets platformer, the shooting mechanic was cool. There was one level, the level after green, where on the removing the second blocking gate I got very lost, it didn't seem clear where to go. Also, on the green level, the blocks I was meant to be shooting were also a very green colour similar to the background, this meant that it wasn't clear what I was being blocked by when my character didn't move. Level clarity is really important if the goal is to create a slick time-trial platformer and sometimes I felt lost, or as if I could get a better time now that I know the correct way. The problem with asking the player to do this again however, is that the levels are fairly long, it's not a supermeatboy style retry the last 4 seconds, it's minutes of replaying something the players already done

Again I really like the novelty here and I'm glad you added more mechanics than many other platformers this gamejam! For a first game it's incredibly clean

I LOVED the presentation a lot, the art and polish is clear to see
I'd love it more if I didn't magnetise to the wall so easily, there were so many unintended walljump hangs. It's also quite unfamiliar, or at least felt awkward in my head, for the player to not slide down for so long, almost like it was 0.1-0.2 seconds too long of a hang
As someones said as well, the part where you fall and cannot see what's the correct path is frustrating to play, I think you never want the player to feel beat or cheated by the level, especially if the goal is to make them feel slick. I think the level with lots of windpushes where you could mostly walk one direction and jump at the correct time felt the slickest to me. Good stuff

Top fish game this jam
I liked the integration of the theme, I also thought it was an innovative approach to make the player stay slickly in place to complete the goal, that's quite a lot cooler than just hitting the goal especially in a game where the struggle is to stay still, good stuff!

I like the originality, presentation and the sound design makes it an exciting experience like you're just making it inside to safety everytime
I think it'd be even more fun if there was more variety in obstacles or enemies. Overall a really well presented good game

I liked this a lot, you've managed to make players feel slick without requiring too much from the player themselves and I think that's a really good achievement. It's a combination of well designed levels with good clarity and simple well executed mechanics, you also left us all wanting more haha
It'd be even better if there was some more originality or incentive for the player to get to the end beyond completing the game. Again I really liked how solid this feels for almost any platformer player, that was my original goal when hearing "slick" was the theme but towing that line between making most people feel like they're slick and the game being too hard is really tough, especially in the context of a game-jam where playtesting is going to be very limited, well done!

Really pretty map design, I liked that you focused on slick mechanics AND slick aesthetics. The oil splattering everywhere is great for that slick feeling

I had fun as someone who enjoys hard platformers (though even then I died a LOT), I think it could be made better if you play-tested with less skilled players and see what they struggle with. That way, you can adapt the game to let those players feel slick too

It's one of my favourites I've played, I really like the depth you put into it! The level editor I gave a quick look at, I thought wow that's a crazy thing to include in a gamejam game, the scope creep must have been a LOT. Best of luck with future development!!

This is right up my alley, I love rhythm games and mechanical difficulty and this game definitely has it! I was able to reach the end with mostly A+, I liked that the new mechanics were gradually introduced. Everytime a new mechanic came in I thought wow am I going to be able to handle that but it was always just easy enough to keep me from frustration. The only bit I didn't understand how to go about (and ended up tanking) was "love is an oasis" section on the penultimate level, it's a ton of teleport enemies but I didn't understand where to hit from to make it easiest
One thing I would say it that this seems like the kind of game that would have a marmite audience, personally I loved it, but I think the slickness requires the player to be mechanically good at these kind of games. If you wanted to work on it further, I think it could be improved by somehow allowing less skilled players to feel good too - but of course you don't want to detract from the experience in doing that
Nice work!

I like the original idea on the theme, we had an idea to play as a bead of sweat making itself slowly down someones face, but this is a much less gross idea hah

Would love to see some kind of player input to choosing which droplet, it was sad to lose 3 in a row

I've never played a platformer with a political message, I liked it

Nice interpretation of the theme and an original idea!
Would be even better if the kicking of the cube felt a bit more controlled & there was more of an incentive to use dash (whenever I used it I just ran into enemies). The tracker cube made early game a lot easier too, cool addition

Amazing presentation and fun!
Would be even better if there was some clarity as to if the players dealing damage/hitting the boss, it can be hard to see where im aiming with the boss attacks

I really loved this, the start was a little hard and confusing but it made the progression feel that much more satisfying. I can already see Dunkey playing this one

My favourite slick game of the ones I've played!

Really like the presentation and the cool tricks
It would be better if there was more variety in gameplay and environment, the wall of death I was also completely unaware of until it killed me. I also found that trying to methodically do tricks wasn't giving me great results, but button mashing WASD as fast as I can made me look real slick

Really fun and well presented, I liked that the gameplay revolves around you using all your abilities, it makes combat feel well rounded and keeps it fresh

My only complaints are the camera & the last levels difficulty - it's a LOT of guys and quite a step up, but I suppose it exists for those who want to master it & enjoy the challenge. Really well done!

I like the art and sound, presentation is really professional

Really on theme and fun, I too miss the MW2 era
Would be better if there was more environmental design and if some of the levels/conditions were better explained, I'm sure I was following instructions for the double jump across the rooftop level but it didn't seem to work - no problem though because you have a level select :)

This is really cool and I know it's something I'd consider wishlisting on steam with more content. I think you nail the presentation and fun

As to how it could get better, this may be down to me just sucking / being impatient, I think it'd benefit from being slightly easier, however you can do that. On my first run, I didn't realise that the chalks were a resource that wouldn't be replenished between rounds. I also only got one double hole - but I can see some absolutely mega scores so this may be down to me. If you can somehow make it more accessible to an audience that sucks at billiards in game and in real life, that'd be amazing :)

Really on theme & fun with great visuals!

Having skipped the itchio page description I went straight in, read the controls and died pretty quick and it took a few times for me to understand what's happening. I think if it was clearer that im being hurt & that spin is a melee attack I would have fared better in my first runs. I love that there's a cosmetic incentive, it gives the player more to play for other than just a higher score!

Original, really well presented and 100% on theme I liked it a lot. The poses are hilarious, very Jojo

The only feedback I can think of is that it stands excellently by itself, but do you see it going further with increased scope? Maybe upgrades to add bullets per jump / different levels

Really nice puzzle loop game, took me about 5 tries to workout the puzzle. menu music bops

Incredible vibes, everyone loves building sandcastles. I particularly like that the idea went outside of the "loop" concept we have within games and into the spiritual realm, really well done

Lovely write up!

Thanks for the feedback! I'm in agreement, I think the first nights are the pain point of balance, it seems to balance out when a run gets going but if the player falls behind on gold early or needs to light lanterns instead of upgrade, its really tough to get back to surviving

Fun few minute platformer! I really love wall-jump mechanics in games, I think they're most satisfying when they give some height - in this game its very small, I suppose more like what height you'd get jumping off a wall in real life  😁
Even better if the visuals or sound  changed up a little, or if there was more of a challenge with the bomb I assume is a hazard. I ended up wall jumping up the whole left side on the second section. Nice work!

Really fun and quite difficult! I got 13-14k score, the tools took a while to get used to, especially the dirt and water squeaks, I think they were similar in my mind so I kept messing those two up - the leaf blower was perfect, distinct sound effect and visually very different. Would be even more satisfying if the music lined up with the "beats" more and if there was a subtle distinct sound for the different scores for better timing (I was thinking similar to osu's 300/100). Perhaps a combo system too, that always adds a lot of tension to not "break" the rhythm. Great work!

Thanks a lot for the feedback!

I'm glad you made it first try! I think the balancing has this problem whereby more hardcore gamers who are really familiar with mouse aiming and timing (fps, rhythm games, mobas) find it easy to beat, whereas many have found it too hard, especially getting through the first nights. It's an interesting problem to have a very wide range of people saying too easy too hard, but ultimately it's up to us as game devs to make that gap a lot smaller in ways that don't take away any fun or depth.

I'll be taking these thoughts into any future updates / more game jams I participate in, thanks again!

Thanks a ton for this detailed response!!
I think thats a really good shout to lower the initial difficulty - watching others play its clear night 2/3 was too soon to throw that many that fast, without having a solid grasp of the controls
More upgrades and randomness I absolutely agree, it'd add a lot of variance and more suprise to the shop phase. Changing up the mechanics per colour could be good too, it means you'd have to adapt stategically.

I think you nailed some good ideas, thanks once again!

Like the other comment mentioned, my brains not big enough for the pace at which we have to think of and type words. Really cool concept, even better if there were more letters on screen (especially vowels, I kept getting "Q"), a slower ascent/descent and more detailed visuals. Really nice work!

Thanks a lot for the review! The arts really nicely done I agree

How do you think we could make the gameplay more fun? We were thinking about having enemies be purple for a "dual click" to kill them, or enemies swaying about more with a little more variance in attack pattern, or different enemy types, or perhaps more interesting upgrades in the shop as a way to incentivise saving money for more impactful/fun upgrades. Did you have any thoughts on those or ideas of your own?Thanks again for playing!

Thanks a lot everyone for your time in playing and reviewing the game! We're really happy with the kind feedback, especially our artist 😁

Can I ask any future reviewers for particular feedback:

1. Did you find the game difficult or frustrating, did you make it to the end?
2. How do you see it being evolved to make it more fun?

Best soundtrack of the jam, the battle music is pumping. would love to see it develop further

as a bug report, my game crashed when I had already bought the sword that oneshots everything, and tried to buy it again, right after the "you have already bought this sword" message

Very addictive, took my minutes away from me
Really nice minimalist art style, really clean looking. Innovative system, to be bounded to the furnance, I got down to 1-2 hp a few times. Really satisfying progression system, it felt good to become that fast and powerful
Definitely something I'd buy if it expanded into other core mechanics (I was thinking of dome keeper)

It took a first run through (and a re-read of the tutorial) to fully understand what I was meant to be doing, but after that it was really fun! Shooters gota be my favourite tower, all resources went to them haha.
Even better if, perhaps for the first time someone plays, theres UI indicators that indicate that the cart should go back to the spawn point to drop resources off (and that the healing tower is a healing tower, not a dropoff point). I think the abilities of the towers is intuitive, it was just  where to go initially. Nice that theres music variety too! Good stuff