I love slowly chipping away at things and your interface is really cool. As for overall gameplay, I was champing at the bit for some upgrades.... even little ones. The upgrades come too slowly for me to feel progress. I've noticed other popular games introducing upgrades very early on to get the progress / reward system flowing.
Seriously, if you expand this concept, I could see myself playing your game for hours.
I love this idea and you executed it really well. The UI, the graphics and music are really polished. I think if you cook it a bit more, you could have something really good. PvP perhaps?
The art is great! Where did you find the time to make all those assets?? I really liked the CRT effect and palette you used.
I think you've got a good thing going here and you've got one of the best entries in the jam so I wanted to give some extra feedback. This is info intended to help, not criticize. I actually had a hard time playing your game in the current state. I guess I am a lazy gamer and tend not to read all the instructions. Even with your game, which looks very intriguing and fun to play, this was true. So, each time a scene started, I was kind of lost at what to do. For example, the visual feedback was not clear during the sorting scene, I saw a thumb up and down, but I didn't know if I should click it or not click it - if it stays on the conveyor belt, is that good? do I want to remove the good or bad ones from the conveyor belt? It was similar during the next scene. I didn't know where to look to get the info to do what I needed to do.
So, with that said, you don't need to adjust your game for players like me, but if you want us to play and keep playing, I recommend digging into intuitive game flow. Less instruction, more guidance. I hope that makes sense.
Good luck with this project and looking forward to seeing future projects too!
Great job - I played it all the way to the end. The UI is really easy to use - very intuitive. For me, the "wall" was visually confusing. Maybe some visual differentiation from the other pieces would help. Level 17 was especially hard for me to see what was going on.
Speed, repair, production. I couldn't quite figure out what these upgrades do. Does it upgrade the machinery or the robot?
Overall, fun race-against-the-clock game!
Another note:
One funny peeve that I have in games (this is not a criticism of your game), for example, in an RPG the game graphics show a giant pile of treasure with gold and jewels and swords and armour, but when you click it, you get... 100 gold, only. So, in your game, when the factory machine breaks down, I can see a box sitting on the conveyor belt. I want that box! lol.
This is a great starter project. You did a great job with the basics and you added some more advanced stuff too, like the particle effects. There is a lot of ways to progress here - score counters, difficulty, buffs, modes, etc. I hope you keep working on it. What would you want to add next?
Just FYI, I am getting performance issues when played using Firefox. I've had low FPS and quite a bit of lag on input. I don't think I was able to play it as you intended it to be played. Which browser do you get the best performance on?
Thanks for playing! Playing for a long time without escaping can be frustrating. If you like, tell me what step you got to in the manual and I can give you hints to get that bird off the ground.
Good premise and set up. The dialogue is well written and voice acted. It was easy to play and progress.
A few things I would like as a gamer (these are not criticisms): I wish the cat would move a little faster. I wanted a frame or two lee-way when the human appeared in the window, or an indicator that they were approaching so I could actively react and stop moving instead of just guessing a safe time. I'd prefer the cat to stop at the edge of the screen instead of walking off the screen.
Nice idea. I was able to get to level three. One thing that made me want to quit was the buttons on the spinning controller. We have to constantly move the mouse cursor to keep pressing the button. Improve the input and you've got a playable game.
One more thing to report. The third level is bugged. The playing field zooms way in and the controller no longer works.
Nice variation on a popular mechanic. I didn't catch what the difference (if any) between the tile types. I recommend making a bigger show of it when the player dies (or the end runs).
I quickly realized my lack to platforming skill. After some trial and error, I figured out how to operate the platform. The tutorial teaches the "wind" mechanic, but didn't give me the feedback I needed to realize what the mechanic actually does. The part I love the most is the comments after dying. I died over and over just to see what it would say next.
I enjoyed playing this game more than most. I think you did a good job with balancing the progression. I always try to find the weak point in the upgrades, but I didn't find one in yours. You should take this knowledge and expand it into something more unique or eye catching.
Thank you for sticking with it! It's kind of funny, when making it, I though I was making the restarts fast. Now, I really see what players are looking for. Thanks for positing your score. I think 8780 is the highest I've heard during the jam. Just FYI, the "beat the dev" score is currently sitting at 15781 (with the aviators buff). I have A LOT of practice :|
Great idea, great level design. Clean graphics. I like connecting the wires. I can tell you tried hard to make the game feel good, so I wanted to give some feedback: This is just my observation, I recommend you ask a bunch of people to really hone that juicy feel, but I felt there was too much lag before the wire connect sound. If you can somehow reduce the lag between the button up signal and the click sound, I'd have even more reason to keep playing.
Great music and SFX! I concur with the comment below "clearer tutorial and maybe a speed-up button for battles". Cool images for the cards would be great too, but I understand de-prioritizing it because of the time limitation for the game jam.
You did something really smart here. As i reached the goal, I said to myself. OK, that was fun, but I'm done. Then I realized how you can unlock different parts for your robot. That was an instant hook for me. I went from about to turn it off to having to play again and again to see what all the parts do.
You also did a great job planning the level, it was the same level each time, but because of the upgrades, the player can use a different strategy each time.
Something that I caught that you might want to look into. the physics body that you used for the robot or the platform allows the robot to stand very far off the edge of the platform. There are also physics bodies on some of the walls that the robot can stand on. I feel these are probably unintentional, but if not, that is cool.
The repeat jump when holding W or up arrow was also unexpected.
Overall, great job - its a great example of good game design.
I'm glad you went with the controls you did - it makes sense for a "Sweeper" to move like that. Solar recharge is another great idea to make the premise work. The shove mechanic seemed a little out of place. I imaging a sweeper could ram things or slowly push them out of the way. i could be a great chance to introduce physics to the game.
I like the allure of pressing a big red button and seeing what it does. It feels really nice to press that button - the animation and sound effects are right on. I experience a big drop in frame rate, which made the mini games almost unplayable (after the first $5000 upgrade). I don't see other comments about this, so the trouble might just be on my end. The other trouble I had was the size of the viewport. I was playing with the window maximized and I think I could see outside of the intended viewport area. I don't think I'm explaining this very well, but for example, I the progress counter during the mini games would reach about 70% across my screen and then I would be taken back to the button scene. Maybe the scenes for the mini games is not scaling to match the size of the window.
Even with all my technical trouble, I had fun playing your game!
Thanks for playing and thanks for the feedback. I've got a long list of ideas for other levels. "Train" was actually not on my list, but that is a great idea for a level. I'll definitely take your advice on shortening the "in between" time.
I'm glad I scrolled down to see what was up with the 1fps on FireFox. Tried it on Edge and it was game on! I like the feel of the controls, especially on the hairpin turns. I think you dialed in the right amount of rotation. I also loved the tire tracks. It's a small feature, but gives the game a lot of juice. I didn't really like how the car reacted to hitting the edges of the track. I expected to slow down a bit and maybe have the car turn slightly, but I sometimes spun more than 180 degrees and sometimes got stuck temporarily.
A few people have mentioned "I Expect You to Die". I wasn't aware of this game previously, but I's good to know that there is a precedence or a similar existing framework. Thanks for giving some honest feedback about how the game can improve. Speeding up the time between play-throughs wasn't on my radar initially, but now I see how important it is!
Thank you for sticking it out. I appreciate the feedback regarding your initial feeling and play experience - it is all very valuable info. Based on your info, I bet a lot of players tap out before finding the depth and another group taps out due to the grind. I'll have to do some work to expand the group that sticks around for one more try. Thanks again!
This is great. The gears fit together so satisfyingly and it is a really fun idea. The artwork is interesting and cohesive (the water looks amazing). I think this is my highest rated game so far.
I did come across something that you might want to think about - several times, when I was trying to drag the screen, I accidentally clicked on a gear and moved it out of position, causing the machine to stop working. I thought, I wish I could do something, like lock the gears down or use a different button for the screen and the gears, so this wouldn't happen. At the current pace of the enemies, it didn't really cause much trouble, but if maybe at a higher level, the enemies are faster/more powerful, accidentally stopping the machine might be very detrimental.
Good luck with this one! I think it has high potential.
Cog-wsome game! I like the drop mechanic - it is a unique idea in a cog game. Keep working on level design - I bet you could come up with some pretty cool puzzles with this system.
Pressing Q to start the game is a barrier that might stop some players (like me) from starting and playing the game. Flashing a little note like, "press Q to start" would get us playing right away. Or better yet, start the game with a short count down. I like the character art, by the way. I like the bounce you achieved with "Punchy".
Nice polished game. I wanted to play more, but my eyes are not good enough to read such small fonts. There is a lot of screen real estate with your organized layout and UI, so I'd recommend bumping up the font size a bit.
I would love to spend some time cleaning up the debris orbiting the earth - in reality and in simulation. So, right off the bat, I'm hooked on your idea. The visuals are great in game, menus and banners, store, etc are awesome. I can tell you spent a ton of time making it high quality. I'm sad to say though, I couldn't figure out the gameplay. I'm a pretty casual gamer, so I might not be your target audience. I read the tutorials and watched your YouTube video for clues on how to play, but when in-game I wasn't able to complete any tasks. If you do want players like me in your target audience, we may need a little more hand-holding to get started. I only mention this because I see high potential in your project and thought honest feedback might help.
I was going to comments something about the controls feeling sluggish, but then I thought about the title of your game and had another go at it. I focused on moving only on the beats and I had a better experience. Was this limitation intentional? If so, I needed more obvious instruction before the game starts.
Also, the loading screens slow down the fun. Eliminate them if you can so we can get another run in right away.
Thanks for the valuable info. Yes, a constant sense of progression and the ability to get back at it immediately makes a lot of sense. I'll use that to improve the next iteration. Thanks for taking the time to respond!
I enjoyed playing it. Your tutorial said attack was space or LMB, but only space worked for me. Dynamic camera is a good idea, but as it is right now, the changes take away from the experience more than add to it. I think it will be cool if you tweak it a bit.
