itch.io

I updated the game:
- Fixed the softlock at the tutorial when you didn't kill the flower
- Boss nerf: less HP, easier patterns and less bullets
- Increased movement speed

It's just a small fix, there are issues with the bullet system that I'll get to fix once the jam I'm in right now ends
Also I'll rework the level and boss before I continue the game!

I updated the game:
- Fixed the softlock at the tutorial when you didn't kill the flower
- Boss nerf: less HP, easier patterns and less bullets
- Increased movement speed

It's just a small fix, there are issues with the bullet system and in general the game loop that I'll get to fix once the jam I'm in right now ends

Yeah, someone else told me today that case where you get softlock in the tutorial, which it's amazing how until today was discovered haha
Thanks for playing :)

Yeah, the bullets can be big, I was thinking on making them smaller, you can touch part of the bullets since the only part that matters is the yellow core part but still are bigger than maybe it should
Thanks for playing! :)

Oh, nice catch, that scenario where players don’t shoot the flower went over my head haha, thanks for letting me know
Sadly I can’t update the game until the jam is over so in 3-4 days I’ll upload the update that fixes this :)

And I’ll have in mind that about shooting non hostile enemies next time, right now in the level you have to shoot 2 flowers for needed upgrades, thanks for checking out the game!

Yeah, I was thinking the same about the music, but I didn't have much time to make an agressive or more active song for the level, I'm not used to make songs like that and this is what I could come with, which isn't too bad but it doesn't fit very well the story and tension of the moment, I agree some drums would make it more intense but I also wanted to use those instruments to get used to them, maybe next time I'll be able to make a bigger range of intensity haha

Thanks for playing! ^^

I didn’t expect to see Pizza Tower visual style in a jam haha

The game is fun, there are small parts I felt it could improve with little things, for example, the ray beams enemies, would be nice if you get a small pre read that something will appear there and shoot something that big. The enemy isn’t annoying, just can feel a little unfair the 1st time because there is a safe spot and suddenly you get a ray in the face, that isn’t bad since you have plenty of life but it can make better the flow of the expectations or the reading the screen threats better

The other thing is in the middle/end of level 3, where the enemies are behind walls, you can’t shoot them but they do, I think this is to make you deflate and be small but idk, it felt a little frustrating not being able to hit them when they do haha

Other than that, the game felt responsive and good, despite the hitbox being big, the attacks are dodgeables, the bullets are clear to see, I like the bosses, the second one could be more interesting because if you get very close to it in the center, you don’t get hit unless the rng of the spikes does but for 10 damage, I prefer to stay close and make the boss eat all my damage haha

The visuals are nice, the songs are great, just the sound of shooting could be a little more quiet, after a few minutes it felt a little strange to hear but nothing that ruins the game. Also I like that there are parts that make you be small, even if those are a few, at least make you do the action to be small

I like it’s playable with control and this was an unexpected nice experience, nice game :)

Wow, a very polished game and very fun to play! :)

I like the song because it doesn’t feel repetitive and the boss intro is very cool. The visuals are nice, I really like the design of helpers with the axe of the boss and the bullets are clear to see
I’m thankful that everything can be played with the control, not having to change to the mouse to pick an option is great

The difficulty is good enough to be a challenge without feeling overwhelmed and never felt unfair, maybe if there were more enemies coming from your side of the screen outside the intro, an indicator would be nice but since that doesn’t happen isn’t needed

I think I would like a really small tutorial or space to see what the Hyper does, I could see it on the game by pressing the button but I like when there is a relaxed space to test the controls and see how the actions are

Also the menu for the resolution screen is a little strange, only let me change the resolution option when it’s on "fullscreen" but not when it’s on the "windowed" option. Since this doesn’t affect the gameplay and I didn’t change the screen resolution, it didn’t affect me, just a little strange to navigate that menu section

Other than those 2 little things I can point out, there is nothing I can say, only good things, the patterns are good, the game gets intense when it need to and I like the way of playing this, as the page says, its aggressive and rewards the risk, on my second gameplay I saw this through the gameplay and it feels very rewarding seeing the hyper and bombs in action. And talking about the game page, I like it, also nice story setting, when I finished the game twice, it really left me wanting more of this. This is the kind of game I wanted to see when I joined this jam and I'm happy I could play this

Really nice job, this was very fun! ^^

First of all, I appreciate it sooo much your in depth and honest feedback, this is the kind of feedback I always seek because they are the ones that help me to improve my games faster

About the boss hp, I over did it, while I was testing, I noticed that if the player gets both “rate-up” upgrades, the boss could be melted quickly with the original hp, and I got a little worried that if that happened, the player would lose interest. The next day, after the submission time ended, I realized that if the player doesn't pick both upgrades, then the boss becomes a sponge
At the end it ended as a sponge because the homing bullets don’t work and also realized after the submission time was over, so the fight is already longer than it should

The attacks overstay because for some reason when I tried to stop the attack and free the bullets or remove some patterns, it crashed the game in a line that hasn’t anything to do with the bullets, but before when I was trying each phase individually it didn’t
Also the shape patterns are chopped, when I tried to fix it, the game started to behave strange so when I fix my bullet system, the attack duration should be better…
About the not making damage between phases, I couldn’t implement the original idea, it was supposed to be a damage “race” with easier patterns than the actual ones, if you didn’t break the shield in 30 seconds, you would get a status that makes you “shrink away” but I didn’t do that and forgot to reduce the timer on the animations…

About the speed, thanks for the observation, I’ll check it more when I go back to continue the game. I left it as it is now because I thought that if the player was faster, they would collide more than intended with the bullets or the flying enemies. Which can be dumb to think that but the day I was building the level and boss, I already couldn’t think properly and decided to keep building the stuff because I felt if I start to change stuff I wouldn’t make it on time

The bomb, I agree it’s useless in the last part of the boss, with the gray bullets and it can also be useless with the flying enemies once the 3 seconds of “invincibility” ran out. I decided to make the last part of the boss like this because I would like to have just a “skill” check but since the homing bullets are bugged and the boss is a sponge, it ended as a bad and slow part, and I don't want the player just spam the bomb but that's hard to balance
I could rework bombs after the jam since I would have more freedom and not just stick to “shrink away” bullets but also I couldn’t make attacks that could benefit from this shield/bomb better due the technical issues I mentioned above haha

This said, I’m sorry this game didn’t give you an enjoyable gameplay experience, also congrats on being the 1st person on beating the game or I know of!
Thanks for reading the credits, I’m happy you gave my game a try and still decided to give the feedback despite the inconveniences

Thanks for playing! ^^

About the boss HP, I think I over did it but I didn’t want the player to melt the boss life if they pick both “rate up” upgrades haha

Thanks for playing and happy you liked the shader, I really like what someone can do with them :)

I see, I should try that, doing the not shooting reminds me of Ikaruga and the achievements you get by clearing the levels by only absorbing bullets

About the enemies staying, maybe I over did it haha, in some way I wanted to create “time bombs” in order to cover my lack of mid boss and make the player kill enemies and not just avoid attacks because I thought that maybe if the player just avoided, they would get bored quickly…

I wanted to do something like Darius Burst, where the enemies go through the whole screen in swarms and you have to eliminate them before it gets too overwhelming, though, in that game you have a better tool to eliminate faster the enemies that stay longer, so I should check better this :)

Yeah, it looks like a Touhou game, which is funny to me because I have never played those games but since the communities I was part of in the past really liked that game, I ended up knowing and thinking about the UI and visuals for the hitbox and stuff like those games haha

About the level, the advice I could give you is that, try to be on the side of the screen where the “rate up” power ups appear, I kind of tried to make a path with enemies that leads to the “solution” of how to beat the level, at times I put a “fake” path that usually it’s the “bomb” power up and use the bomb when the 1st sun appears so you can spam the shoot in its face until the next wave appears

I’ll try to record the gameplay once the jam is near the end, I still need to fix the delay there is each time I record my screen haha

And I also think it needs a balance, I only did the boss and level in a day and a half so that’s why it’s very hard xD

Thanks for coming to play more than once!

Small but polished game and very fun :D

When I finished the level I wanted more haha, before playing I read about going slow and that was also my 1st impression but when I saw I could go faster if I didn't shoot, the game turned into a very fun experience with a great difficulty

The songs are great, really give the Cave vibe, I haven’t played those games but I have listened to the music and it really reminds me of it, the visuals are also great and I really like how clear you can see the bullets and each dead didn’t felt unfair, maybe only when you kill the big cocoon and the screens shakes a lot making me not seeing the enemies…

Outside that, the gameplay is smooth and fun, I like the progression of the weapon and how easy it is to remember the level, at the 3rd run I felt I had a good chance to clear the level on hard and I did! I beat this on normal and hard, maybe another day on Ultra

The bomb is very powerful and I like that, also I like the design of the enemies and the boss, the background is nice and playing with the game area really fits the theme in a fun way but seeing your pieces going away when you die because you didn’t reach it feels a little sad haha

When I see the game as a whole, it’s charming and as I said, I wanted to play more. Very nice entry! ^^

Wow, thanks you for coming back to try to clear my game, it makes me happy haha ^^

It can be hard, I think the only advice I could give is that the start of the 1st “break” between phases is that moving in little circles can help to clear that phase or using all the bombs if you didn’t use any, once you get to the vortex part, being in the corner and going slow makes it easy, the second phase it’s more of patience and sometimes going diagonally, the 3rd phase try to be under the boss the most you can

Since I didn’t make the green bullets as I should, it becomes slower and more risky than it should be. I'll fix that after the jam if I don’t join another one in a few days haha

Thanks for playing and sharing your comment! :)

The game is pretty and challenging, this is the kind of difficulty I thought would be in bullet hell jam haha. I tried it on Hard but my best progress was in the last part of the second boss, so I went on Normal and could beat the game. It’s nice to see how little changes in the game change the difficulty enough to be noticeable haha

The patterns are good, makes you move and stand still mixing it between those 2 without being exaggerated on difficulty. I really like the phases on the bosses and the power ups they drop, those snowball hard if you don’t die much, the song isn’t repetitive and fits nicely with the game. I can’t decide which boss is my favorite because visually I like them the same, but in patterns I guess I like the second boss the most

Great game with nice difficulty, I had fun! :)

Yeah, the boss would be easier but the bullets I made last day don't make damage and other stuff missing so it's harder than it should...
Thanks for playing! :)

Happy to see feedback like this :) 

The paper idea/style comes from inspiration from songs like “ Ado - Aiaia” or “Devil's Manner / Tatsuya Kitani”, I wanted to get more stuff/sprites in paper style but I ran out of time so I rushed at the end with the classic normal style I do. I'm happy with the visuals because it gets closer to what I want for my next main game

About the bombs, I actually made them less common, before I gave a lot but after playing the level for the day, I decided to cut the amount because pretty much you could use the bomb all the level with no punishment haha

Thanks for playing, reading the credits and your comment, I really appreciate it! ^^

This game was so fun, I could beat the game in 1 hour and it was nice, the time flies playing this one haha

It’s difficult enough to keep you engaged without feeling unfair and feel “one more time” when you get game over, the learning curve is nice and it doesn’t feel overwhelmed when the screen gets painted. I think the attack that got me most of the time was the barriers of heart bullets with a gap because the gap was difficult to reach between each wave of bullets even with the dash

The art is good and everything feels nice together, I like how it looks with no color and in some way I feel like the bad guy, everything is colorful and the character you control is stealing everything haha. The selection of songs really fits the visuals and that’s nice, I really liked the 3rd boss and I think if I actually would clean the screen more, maybe I would snatch the 1st place but maybe I’ll try again another day

About shrinking, here it feels great and smooth, you can really go through rough positions with no problem and makes you feel more powerful, the charge attack is a great implementation in this game, feels better when you time it to clear paint and hit the boss and not just to make damage. I also like that the game shoots for you, it really reduces the mental load of pressing 1 button all the time and helps to pay attention to the safe areas you can go

I’m thankful you can play with control, it’s easier for me to play with it, just I would liked that you could go through the menus with it, just to only use 1 “device” at playing.

I think that’s really the only observation I could give, and that you are able to send the same name with different scores showing all and just not the highest to avoid someone filling the whole board, like me I put my score 3 times xD, but those 2 don’t affect the gameplay

I really had a very fun time playing this game, amazing entry! ^^

Yeah, the backgrounds help with the narrative, I like how shaders can be used to make something like this, the level background was hard to draw because I think it’s hard to make a “brain” as background, at least I tried haha

Happy you liked the aesthetics, I’m trying a new style or this way of showing things as paper and I’m getting closer to what I want :) 

Thanks for playing! ^^

The game is pretty, I really like the visuals of this game ^^

About the gameplay, it’s fun and I like the small story presented here, also the absorb ability is nice and a fun way to reload the power, but I would like to see more chances to use it

I really like how everything feels cohesive and in theme, in a sense it actually feels like a world, the song, the font, visuals. Those details that are hard to fit in a small time are present and I like that

About the difficulty, I like it, maybe a level a little more hard, the boss is ok and fun, but maybe a little more enemies would be more fun, also the wave before the boss, there seems to be an invisible shooter or something like that because you kill everything but there are 2 that keep shooting

I like this base you have, I would just add a way to speed up the text after you have seen the dialogue once, outside that, I like it as it is now, nice game :)

Here is my highscore and the boss got me twice but I cleared it haha

I agree, small completed games are good, also it's already fun as it is now haha :)

About the green bullets, yeah, those don’t do damage and I realized like 4 hours after the jam submission time ended…

About the difficulty, I’ll lower it when I continue the game, it’s supposed to be the 1st boss of 3 but last day I was too tired to properly balance it so I just went this this, that was the purpose of the green bullets, so the player could focus on surviving but right now it’s longer and more difficult than it should haha

Happy to see you liked the game and I’ll take note on the song, thank you for playing! ^^

I liked the gunplay of the game, it felt ok and fun, one thing I didn’t like much was that when you kill the swords sometimes you can get hit despite the enemy being dead and that was a bit of a problem in level 3 where there is a cross of lava and 4 platforms

The setting of the story is good but I couldn’t see the ending, I don’t know if I kill the boss too fast or if I have to endure a very long wave of enemies but the door doesn’t open when I kill the boss… :(

I like the fact you have to grab your bullets again, make the game tense in a fun way and it can be a bit difficult to time in the boss fight, but it’s an interesting concept :D

I like that you can save because the game crashed on level 2 and I could start from there, but the Credits button doesn’t work on the main menu.

The game was fun just there were little things that can be seen a little more in the boss fight, I died 3 times after killing the boss because it kept attacking after dying haha.

In overall it is an enjoyable game :)
(No screenshot of clear the game, sorry)

I played the game until I broke it, literally, it doesn’t play any sound right now xD

I find it funny how you are 1 upgrade from going survival to just chilling killing enemies, or that was my case, it reaches a point it’s overkill and it snowballs until you are almost untouchable for how fast you kill everything haha

I would like that at the start of the round, there was a little wait time to get a good position, you can get free hits at the start of each level, and I would like that the arena gets smaller after level 3, once you beat level 3 it can feel that the game was beaten

It was fun and I like how much you can break the game, good game! :)

I like the glow on the bullets and the amount the screen shrinks, I feel it’s kind of relaxed or it doesn’t push you too much if you take it easy or don’t rush yourself to make damage but I think that’s fine

I could clear it in 3 attempts and it was a nice couple of minutes :)

Wow, I really like this game, it feels creative and smart to actually put together this, I never thought something like this, about putting together wrapping screens giving this mirror feeling, it’s so great!

I love when something gives me this unique vibe of something that shouldn’t be there and it exist, for me, this feels like playing in a liminal space or seeing many self of the character in the same screen, like each mirror was its own dimension and when you cross that mirror boundary feels like you are jumping between dimensions, I think it’s the thought this game gives me

I like a lot that you can continue despite losing all your lives, it makes you able to enjoy the game despite not knowing the patterns, also I like this music in sync with the gameplay, it reminds me of games I used to play back then that were bullet patterns with music matching the visuals

I’ll come back to this game for sure to try to beat it with at least 1 live, also because I had a lot of fun, the last pattern is interesting and fun, also the lasers are very fitting because it looks like the reflection of the mirrors so it makes the game prettier haha

Very good game, one of my favorites in this jam! ^^

I like this despite being bad at this kind of game or when the bullet comes fast, the best I could do was clear the game with 2 continue because I’m bad at reacting to throwing the bomb when I get hit haha, the part before the boss it’s the part I just spam the bombs xD
The 1st part of the level I could clear without losing a life after a few tries

Nice songs and I like the visuals of the characters, I think they are a little cute, and I think I can't say more aside nice game :)

This game is very fun, I wanted to play this since I saw a preview on Discord, the music is great and each level has its own personality well defined

I also liked the visuals and the patterns, the fly it’s too strong and it’s too accurate. Also the fight is very active and with the song, it feels great to play and the intro of the level it’s very funny to me, the movement is also nice and despite being a short game, I had a very nice time playing this!

I can’t think of something negative, maybe that if you land a hit and die almost at the same time, the boss respawns with the next phase active instead of resetting but it doesn’t feel like a problem for how short the fights are and how good the hitbox is

Really good entry! :D

The 1st part feels like a war hahaha, I really like how chaotic this game feels and how many bullets you can shoot. It’s nice enemies can’t spawn near your position so it doesn’t feel unfair or it feels safe that a strawberry won’t spawn next to you

The visuals are nice and the song makes it a little epic or that you are actually fighting for your life

I would liked 1 or 2 more pattern with the spoon and it’s nice you have a HP bar, I don’t think I would clear this without a hit hahaha, fun game and concept, I liked it ^^

This was a fun challenge, the last part can be intense and it’s a nice survival part

I would liked that dash was another key, at the end I had the Sticky Keys window over the screen because the amount of dash you have to make, which don’t make it impossible since you only need to dash around until you complete the game but it hurts the experience of the last part

About the phases, it would be nice a little pre-read at the start of the 3rd phase, I got a free hit because of the white bullet around the boss only because I was standing without moving. The explosives that grab you are fun and make you move more than previous phases and I think 3rd phase it’s my favorite for how active it is

About the gameplay, the movement is nice, I just would have liked that the player was a circle and not a square for the corners, and sometimes when you dash a little before moving, it dash in the previous facing direction that only could be a problem in the second phase, outside that the controls are good

The final part can be a little confusing how much you have to endure, so a timer would be great or maybe there was but I couldn’t see it for the windows window xD

Nice game, it was fun! :)

At 1st I had fun but after a few tries in the second level, I would like that there was an actual threat during the level, once you get your 2 red power ups and the 2 missile one, you ran out of motives to shoot until the end before the boss, which can feel a little boring to wait to reach the boss again

Trying the level again when you lose to the boss isn’t bad, so I wouldn’t suggest a checkpoint before the boss, just more active threats

Outside that, the game can be fun, I like the design of the skulls and I like that it’s clear what gives you power up after the 1st level, I didn’t like to pick the green weapon because I prefer to see 3 bullets than 1 single shot and for that it didn’t feel powerful haha

I also liked the visuals, good boss, but I would like 1 more attack pattern, the sfx and the mood of the game is nice

The game crashed just after I kill the boss which was funny but I take that as my victory :)

The loud sound at the game over makes me laugh for how saturated it sounds xD

I like the character and it can be a little fun when the pentagon appears, I wonder if there is a hexagon… This is my high score and I wish there was a song, other than that, it was nice for the couple of minutes I played :)
Edit: I forgot to mention that the "Try Again" button didn't work for me haha

This was fun despite how short it is, I really like how each time it touches the wall it changes the pattern and shrinks the screen. The sfx is good and it wasn’t annoying but a song would improve the experience in this game

The last part can be intense but it was the most fun part of the game, I did my clear playing with my drawing tablet and it was a nice short experience :)

Yeah, the game can be hard, I left the level like that because I wanted people to replay that part, the difficulty of the boss is unintended but with patience and the slowdown with a control can be beaten, when I get to update this, I’ll lower the difficulty :)

But happy you liked the visuals of the game, this style is closer to what I want for my games so seeing people liking it feels nice haha

Thanks for playing!

I struggled a bit with the controls only because I’m not used to this kind of shooting, mostly because I would like to have more control over where my shots go without moving the ship a lot haha, I’m used to having 1 stick you move around and with the other you aim so my mind wanting to move the aim make it a bit difficult to get used to the game xD

I liked the 1st level, relaxed and giving a chance to get used to the controls, the second level I feel it would be better if it’s more quick, before the boss I feel there is more dead time than it should but that gives you a chance to see around and see the visuals of the game so it’s ok

About the visuals, I like them, like people say in the comments, it’s like the old games and that has its charm. I liked the weapons but I killed the second boss so fast that I couldn’t see more than the second attack haha

I had fun playing :)

Yeah, I saw we interpreted the same way :)
I’m happy you liked the art, and yeah, the game is hard, I had very little time to test it due how tired I was from making everything and trying to fix a dumb bug that I couldn’t fix so the shapes on the boss get chop and can’t spawn certain shapes without breaking haha

Thanks for playing!

I like the vibes of this game, I always like when the visuals are like this and the music really fits and improves the atmosphere

About the gameplay, I had fun and could clear 3 bosses on the 1st try. I kind of like how the enemy is able to push you away with their movements and picking “Diagnosis” as 1st shot was actually slow but it makes you play aggressive which makes the game more fun. I like “Addiction” and “Random” actually feels random haha

About the bosses, the hardest one was the pyromaniac, the second phase was actually hard but the 3rd boss vibes are great

I guess the only feedback that comes to my mind is that a slow down key would be nice but it can feel good as it is now

Nice short game! :)

I would have liked that the boss in the last 2 phases would attack but I guess maybe this is for the “shrink” theme as difficulty gets lower.

I like the visuals of hit and explosion but a quick sfx would be nice, and I like how the robot gets smaller each phase haha

I agree that the boss can be hard, yesterday I was very tired that I couldn’t test the attacks properly and I was like, “Ok I completed this section once, so it should be ok”, after failing like 4-5 times xD

So the boss is very unbalanced but it can be doable, also playing with control makes dodging everything easier, though I tested everything with the keyboard haha. 

About the boss hp, I also agree. Today I realized that if players don’t grab both “rate up” upgrades, the boss becomes too long making it more of a sponge, also today I realized that the tracer bullets don’t do damage to the boss so the fight is already longer than it should be…
Right now the design punishes you a lot just by missing one red power up, which is bad and I overlooked.

Glad you liked the art, I had lot of fun doing all the sprites and the UI, and thank you for playing! ^^

I see, it’s fine, that’s why it’s a jam haha, bugs always go out after making the game :) 

And I see why I couldn’t find it, at least I played enough to not get hit by all enemies, except 1 flying one but I still think it’s a fun game, grats on the jam placement! :)