Thanks, it worked.
Kibate
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Nice and cute little adventure game.
Fun fact, just yesterday i was looking into the last Yuri Jam to find a sweet game to play, but didn't find anything that caught my eye. Today i browsed the frontpage of itch(which is something i usually don't do, due to no time) and coincidentally saw this.
Drawings(both cutscenes and ingame) were really good, the puzzles were decent enough as well. And I'm glad you guys put in the last note about the plush, because i felt bad during the gameplay for it haha.
I saw your video about this and was really interested, however already in the video i noticed some game design decisions that i feared would make this not a proper soft-body tetris as intended, and my fears were unfortunately correct. The blocks sticked way too fast once they hit something, making this more of a "glue-body Tetris", making the whole point of it being soft body pointless.(my suggestion, they should only start to stick once they stopped moving for 1-2 seconds, regardless of how much they may fall down) Plus it is too easy to make lines, i think the percentage should be higher.
The actual soft-bodies in the early version of the game looked amazing, exactly what i was hoping for when i found out someone made an actual soft-body tetris.
There was also some other minor issues, like the rotation speed not fast enough, or that you can't move a block anymore once they barely touch another block, or that the next block comes too fast down(there should be a rough 1 second waiting period) all decisions that could be changed(if desired) in a few seconds of coding.
And like you said in the video, once too many blocks are on screen it started to lag on my weak laptop, but that's expected considering the method you used to make the softbodies.
The actual execution is awesome! Plus the aesthetic designs are great as well. Just some gameplay decisions don't really fly with me ;)
For a game made in 2 days pretty sweet
However i will still criticize a bit ;)
As others noted, the gravity is an issue. I do my gravity coding like this: The character has a vertical number, meaning the player will move up or down depending on the vertical number. The gravity is a constant -1 for any time you're not on the ground. For example, when you press jump, you get a +10. Thus you move 10 pixels up. In the next frame gravity reduces 1(since you're in the air), thus you move 9 up, in the next frame 8, 7 etc. Thus eventually you reach 0 somewhere in the air. Then gravity continues to add -1, thus you're not at -1 and move 1 down. In the next frame it adds up -2, you move 2 down, then -3, -4 etc. (it goes on forever, or until you reach a max fall speed. Like -15 or so). If you do it like that, it feels like a perfect natural jump. (Of course change the number for jump strength and gravity based on the framerate/timerate etc.)
Oh, and another platform tip: Many platformers give the player a second to press jump even after falling off a cliff. When i learned about this i thought "That's bull, if a player can't jump when on the floor then it is his own fault" however i quickly realized when making my own platformer that yes, it is indeed better to give the player a moment to react, even after falling off a floor.
In the third level though, the one where the spikes appear, it was impossible to win. It was impossible to get all the coins and not die from the spikes, as you can only move in one direction.
But like i said, i enjoyed it. And considering only 2 days, wow.
Score 490, i think i did pretty well. It was at times too easy. Based on other comments, i assume i had an unfair advantage by using a graphic tablet instead of a mouse :/
Loved the sweet music, the cute design, it all fit together perfectly. The bird noises can get a bit overwhelming when you move 100 birds at the same time. Maybe make it a max of 3 bird sounds, even if you select more?
The only nitpick i have is that it is sometimes difficult to tell(especially at the last level), which pan is at the foreground and which at the player-level-ground(you know, the ones that would hit a bird). Oh, and a timer to tell you, how long until a level is beat.
But that's really just nitpicking, i enjoyed the time.
Neat idea, had some fun with it. But yeah, the puzzles could have been better. Like, maybe start a level off with the two characters being on opposites sides of the screen, or up/down etc.
Graphics are really good, as well as the controls. Sometimes though when there is a steep floor, the controls get a bit funky, as in, you would expect the character to fall, but he remains floating in air. The object designs could be improved cause of this.
So basically, good base to build upon.
First off, amazing puzzles! As i myself always sucked at making puzzles(but love solving them) it always amazes me when someone else is able to come up with such things.
The idea itself is also neat, however i really disliked that some walls were invisible in physical-mode, it made no sense thematically and was just annoying for no real benefits for a puzzle challenge or anything. But that is really my only problem with the game.
Well, there is also the key inputs. As i said in another game today, it's not your fault, but many european keyboards have the Y and Z key switched, meaning for us having the keys at that location is really uncomfortable and even painful for a game like this.
And one really really really minor nitpick, in the introduction level, you could have a box lying around so that the player can test the possession feature. Just so, you know, the player knows what the instructions are talking about. But like i said, that's just nitpick.
I had really fun with this.
Idea is decent enough, and graphics were good too, but the gameplay could be improved on in my opinion.
My biggest issue was that the player character doesn't change color himself, meaning you have to look at the top left(or see where you don't fall through) to know what color you're in. The jumping physics were good at first, but when i had to make a U-turn to get into the higher platforms it fell apart.
The ghost of the same color as the player-ui should look like items/spheres instead of ghost. That was quite confusing. And lastly, that the player loses health over time was really frustrating, especially since the health pickups were always in places that were difficult to reach.
I said a lot of criticism, but it wasn't THAT bad, i did enjoy a bit of it. It was more like because i feel like there could be done more with this game is why i criticize so much ;)
When loading the game, the webbrowser kept telling me that the app is causing the webbrowser to not function properly. I kept clicking on ignore until the game finally loaded, but there were quite a lot of lag issues in the game itself as well.
The graphics, from what i could tell, were decent. I always like it when there are 3d games in this Jams, as they are so rare.
It was a bit weird that the player characters sprite was flat, but the sprites of the other people had some perspective to them. Their sprite should also be aligned to the camera like the player character is.
I wish i could comment on the gameplay, but due to the lag i had to give up. Based on the description it sounded interesting.
I try to judge it fairly, but there was a problem that you probably didn't know about. The keys to change or X and Z right? In European keyboards the Z key is located in a completely different location, thus making it incredible difficult to press along with X. As someone else noted, you could just as well make switching colors with a single button, it would resolve all possible issues.
Now, as for the actual game. Graphics were decent, one can tell you put in some effort.(other than the main block character. I always dislike blocks as player characters. Ironic coming from the guy, who made a Tetris game for this GameJam ;)
The level designs, from what i can tell, where good as well, i gave up after the third level or so.(my fingers were starting to hurt from the awkward Z position. Yeah, i hate it as well that different nations have different standards for keyboards)
However that the blue cube can only walk on red floors, and vise versa, was confusing. I feel like the other way around(blue on blue, red on red) would fit better. Maybe make it so, that the floors/walls that you can't interact with, become slightly transparent?
Anyway, overall decent
Definitely one of the better games i played for this Jam yet. The tools are all there, it just needs a bit of fixing.
The collector was too much missing, and i didn't even know how it exactly worked until way way late into the game. And since it worked so inefficiently, it was the only thing i upgraded, and it still wasn't worth it spending all that ore on it. In the wave where the first UFO appeared i barely had any ores left. I was able to destroy the UFO and some asteroids, but then were left ammo-less and quickly died. Some optimization needs to happen here.
But i had some fun while it lasted, certainly! The graphics also looked good. Heck, i didn't even notice the lack of sound ;)
Interesting concept for sure, but it had some issues.
Controlling both at the same time, even though you can only see one, was really really REALLY confusing and annoying. I would suggest to make the game splitscreen. Otherwise the controls were really smooth, which i liked.
The graphics were really good for the most part. I really love the 3d look(as most games in these Jams are 2d) and looked overall decent as well. Only it was at times difficult to tell what is what. Especially the lasers. Look into...what was it called? Post Processing Effects! It helped me a TON when i learned about it. You know 'emission shaders', that are suppose to make something look like it emits light(like lasers), but in the end it simply makes it so that it doesn't have any shadows? Well, Post Processing Effects help with that! It was a game changer when i started using them.
I've seen this kind of concept before, but it's not a bad idea, however...
Well, the fact that the characters don't share the same location is really confusing, might as well just make it a two-window-game, i.e. black guy on the left, white guy on the right(or something along the lines) and just activate/deactivate which one is moving. Would have resolved a lot of the confusion.
Is the second level suppose to not end? I get to the box(which i assume is the door to the next level) but nothing happened. Same with the level selection, i can't get level 3 and beyond to work. If you haven't finished them yet(which i assume based on your description) you should have a note in the game itself that these levels don't work yet.
(like others noted, i can't get the webbrowser version to work. The download version worked fine)
The graphics were okay, but i really loved the particle system.
The axe throwing was a real pain. Not because it was difficult to aim(i haven't even tried yet to get it right) but because you're limited to just one axe(later two) and that's it. If you throw your axe, it lands behind an enemy, you are forced to get hit to get your weapon back. That's really not good. I gave up trying to beat the bosses(if that is what they were) even with unlimited continues. But hey, it looked good :)
I think there may be a bug in the tutorial part. When i had to go jump over the big wall, it told me to press right key. Thus i threw the axe over and over again until i realized i had to press the left key to super-jump(and aim with the mouse, there was also no indication that this is how it works)
As other noted, sounds were lacking, but i understand if time was running out. I had similar problems :/
One tip, keep a collection of free-to-use sounds handy in case you ever need some. Those with a license that don't require you to credit the creators. That way you can easily put in some sounds without a care in the world in any project.
Overall i enjoyed the idea and liked the puzzles in the levels.
The controls could have been chosen better though, Q, E and R on top of with 1 and 2 is really not comfortable to use.
The graphics themselves were fine, however since many were upscaled it just looked jarring and often very confusing. Go look up basics of pixel art and this game would instantly become at least a 9/10 from a currently 4 /10 just by doing that.
The third level i feel like was the most interesting, as despite it's small size it was difficult to figure out the solution...and that is, i haven't found the solution yet. (having to go up the chimney thing everytime you restart is quite annoying and just feels like filler). I beat the level with a bug though (when you're near a wall you can do walljumps and thus easily clear the level)
There is another bug, but one that doesn't break the gameplay. When you're in spirit mode and then switch colors, the spirit goes back to the main body. But when you then become a white spirit again, the texture for a regular white guy is used instead of the ghost.
[edit]
I tried my hand again at the third level without using the bug, and i managed to figure out the solution! That was fun.
Idea not bad, but...maybe it's just my personal preference, but i think it would have worked better with a stationary player, and a 1hit kill method. Because in the end all games turned out the same: The enemies come, you run away and try to kill the now huddled group of enemies and then you try to escape from the sidelines.
As the other comment noted, a BGM would have been nice, and maybe some more detailed graphics instead of just blocks. And maybe health pickups?
Sorry, but this game is unplayable for me. The first level(if there are more) is waaayy too difficult. Before sending you monster on top of monster, the first level should only have the mirror to find, so that player even knows what the objective looks like. I walked all around the place and could't even find a hint of the mirror.
The monsters are also too difficult to deal with. Too fast and one hit and you're instantly send to the start? In a MAZE?! IN THE NIGHT?! WITH FOW?!! After the third time i gave up from sheer frustration.
The visuals, from what i could tell, were really good though. Though i would disable the shadows, as they give extra confusion(they make the corner look diagonal) and are not necessary as the gameview is small to begin with.
The idea itself is not bad, but needs(in my opinion) a bit overhaul.
Just as others noted, the lag, sorry... I would love to look at the source code and/or the editor view , because a 2d game like this on Unity shouldn't lag like this(i'm not the best code writer, but i think i have learned enough to at least deal with stuff like this). Though there is already one small advice i can give you, a problem with Unity that i have noticed on my own weak laptops all the time: A Unity game can run almost twice as good with just a windows options instead of fullscreen. I don't know why that is, but Unity really hates fullscreen.(talking about the standalone version, i don't know if the same applies to HTML5). But like i said, a 2d game like this should work either way.
The design is top, especially considering the small time frame you had to deal with. The two player characters looked a bit too...how do i say, unique though. They don't feel like part of the same team.(and I get that they are suppose to feel "part of different dimensions" but it's still too different) I also feel no connection from their design to the world, the designs are just too random for that.
For single player controls(which most people would play this as) i would suggest to make it(or at least give the option to) switch between the characters, instead of using two different controls at the same time. It is simply too much(in my opinion) to use two characters at the same time.
The hint how to restart a Level came too late for me. One of my characters died before i saw that notice and thus had to press every key on my keyboard to find a way to restart the game. (and on that note, stepping on the second players head shouldn't cause it to get hurt)
Sorry if all of this sounds too negative, it really wasn't.
I use a wacom graphic tablet, i.e. the kind that you use to draw on with a pen(but not the ones that work as a screen)
These things allow me to almost instantly move the cursor to a point on the screen where i want it to. Thus it was incredible easy for me to just point at a Zombie and instantly knew the target would hit it. (I personally think a graphic tablet is better for navigating on a computer screen than a mouse. The only times where it is not better is in first person shooter games. Of course, it's a tad too expensive for non-artist to buy such a thing for just navigating the cursor :)
Wait, you can run or crouch in the game? Here is another advice i would love to give 90% of all itch.io developers: Have instructions of how the game works IN the game(especially in the first few levels as a quick tutorial). Not just in the description. Of course with GameJams it would mean spending time on something that isn't absolutely necessary, but if you have the time, do it.
Yeah, enemy character following the player is already AI. A very basic one, but it's still AI. AI in videogames just means that an enemy character doesn't move in a fixed pattern, but instead moves according to how the player(or environment/NPCs/other enemies) behaves. Thus if the player moves left, and the enemy then also goes left after him, that is an AI.
If this was made solely for this GameJam, i.e. you started working on this for one week, then it's amazing. Creating the idea/story and most important the assets in one week, just wow. Especially the two artstyles choice. (though i find it a bit ironic that the less detailed pixel art is for the "real" world, while the more detailed handdrawn art is for the dream world)
Before i got into some criticism(don't worry, it won't be bad ;) let me just tell you, i would love to see a full game like this.
Now then, my only real criticism(other than the length, which is why i said i want a full game haha) is that the movement of the player is too slow. I get you don't want him jumping around like in a platformer, as this is more of a horror/point&click adventure game, it's still boring to sit through him going from one end to the room to the next.
There was also a bug that happened(minor spoiler for new players!). I played the game first normally, i broke the musicbox and then later "accepted" the situation. He woke up moved a bit and then it faded to black, with the new music keep going. Nothing happened and i assumed it was the end. I then looked into the txt file and decided to play again to get the second ending. I kept the music box as much running as possible, however the moment i "accepted", the game gave me a bug notice and crashed.
Hmm...that's a difficult one to judge.
You see, on one hand it was way too easy. Every gun, other than the one in the first level, makes killing the zombies way too easy. The most difficult part was to find a zombie to kill to progress with the game. But this also made the game fun. Like, sure, overcoming difficulty is part of most games, but just going ham on zombies without a care in the world, is nice, you know?
A big problem was that the Zombies didn't chase after the player unless you got really close to them. But since all guns(except the level1 gun) was long range, there was never a need for that.
Most disappointing was that you put in the effort to crate all these different guns, but they are only randomly given to you at the start of a level. Picking them up with limited ammo in the levels themselves would be better i think.
I never had to use the close combat weapon nor the bombs, and i don't know know what the two bars on the top left are for. I assume one of them is health, but the other? Never changed for me. Got to level 12 until i quit, as having to kill more zombies meant more time aimlessly searching for them. Instead of simply making the player kill "more", the enemy should instead be more difficult to kill with each new level. At least in my opinion. But don't simply give them more health either, instead make the A.I. better with each level. Something like that.
As others noted, not being able to see the bullets was a tad confusing at first, but since i used a tablet it made no real difference to me.(i assume this game was made with a mouse in mind, right? I think i had a slight unfair advantage)
Nice idea, and the (somewhat) slow pace plus relaxing music is really...relaxing haha.
Of course the bug that causes the second level to not load is annoying but understandable. That is what happens with these GameJams. But i wonder if the second level would have made use of the birds ability to go back/forward, as the first level(and the mini level after that) can easily be completed just with up/down movements.
Though personally(!) i dislike this auto-scrolling format and think a game where you would have to fly forward yourself, with more complicated puzzles, would have been more fun. Try to think about this.
I can only speak for myself (thus as a developer you might think i am biased, but i am completely honest here):
I always loved playing Tetris, however at some point it just feels the same, you know? Some people certainly can play a single game for decades, but i am more like a regular player, where i try to be the best i can be, but at some point just feel like there is nothing to gain from playing more. But with stuff like this it can bring back some of the excitement of the original game, plus gives you room to learn new skills. Essentially you can see this as a mod. Now that i have corrected most bugs, i think i will play this game for several hours the upcoming weeks.
And yes, it certainly is more difficult. Even playing at only half the speed of what i play at regular Tetris, i feel overwhelmed. But it also feels possible to beat, you know?
Thanks for the input!
Actually while reading your comment i came up with new ways to use my idea for other Tetris variants. Like, let's ignore the scale thing for a minute, and just have the gameboard have different shapes. I certainly feel like there is still room for new Tetris versions to exist. Of course, the problem is that the original Tetris is simple and fun at the same time, thus most people prefer something simple. Any new version will just become a trend for a few weeks at best and then forgotten.
Hmmm...as for the visual clarity, i thought it was fine? I mean, the background(on one side) is black, the gameboard white, with borders to help make the difference even more clear. Do you have any suggestions to make it better?(of course it should remain black/white)
As the size of the playing field can't be changed(due to the way this tetris version works, essentially making the board twice as tall) i can't do anything against that. Except i have now added an auto-zoom function. It will zoom in now if it is possible. Thus if you keep the board even, the playing field size will remain large :)
The music loop was corrected, and i have made the game a tiny bit faster + only 15 lines per level + you can choose what level to start as well.
Thanks a lot.
That is certainly a normal feeling people have when playing Tetris. The pieces are 100% completely random. Meaning it's possible that you won't get the piece you want for 50 turns, even though on average every seventh piece should be it. Gamblers have this problem all the time ;) (for example, with Roulette there is a 50% chance you will hit red or black, right? Well, it's not uncommon that only a single color will be hit 20 times in a row)