itch.io

Yeah, the CPU is a bit funky. I am amazed that we got it to work at all

The original plan was to have at least one more stage and an entire basebuilding section where you could build rapport with the playable characters as the manager, and boost their performance in the next match

. . . sadly we didn't have time to implement this

Glad you enjoyed! ^_^

Yeah, the controls are a bit scuffed. Apologies for that 😅

Hello there! Let me address all of your concerns

- Initially the CPU was too skilled/advanced, to the point where you wouldn't have been able to score a single point at all. So I made the executive decision to dumb the AI down

- The game experienced a lot of difficulties during its development. This game was supposed to have two programmers but ended up having a total of four. Our primary programmer had to leave due to urgent real life troubles, which obviously took priority over this game and the Jam in general. The one we got after that left our work-server after some time out of the blue towards the tail-end of the Jam, and I'm pretty sure they never actually contributed anything to this game's code. Our secondary programmer, Tiiger, struggled during most of the development, and the last programmer we got on our team, credited as "NathsGames", ended up having to do the remaining programming by himself in less that five days to get this game to a playable state

As a result, the game isn't polished (and probably never will be unless I get some new programmers to be interested in continuing this game post-Jam), and that unfortunately shows . . . I acknowledge this. Also, for most of the team if not all of them (excluding myself of course) this was either their first ever Jam or their second/third. Including our programmers

- We toyed around with several ideas for the limitation. Originally this game was supposed to have a basebuilding mechanic that's tied into the volleyball-section. You furbish your base with furnitures, a bar etc. Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator -style, which can offer bonuses and boons for the volleyball-section. The initial idea was that the playable characters would lie about their preferences for how they'd like to be treated during their downtime in-between the matches in the base. Or at the very least "they wouldn't lie but they wouldn't tell the truth either", misleading the player about what treats and activities they would like to receive at the base

Then later on as I realised that we'd never be able to implement the basebuilding into this game in time, the objective shifted into "this whole game is a lie". This game was supposed to have an ending where Capy-tan was supposed to reveal to the player that the game was just a training simulation and suggest that the player go "play the real game", aka whatever Rocky's Beach Volleyball Bash's potential full release would be (if hypothetically that game ever gets made). We did have that two days grace period to implement this, but our programmers didn't seem too interested in adding that ending into the game anymore. Now to be fair, I did tell them that "it doesn't matter if it doesn't actually make it into the game, I'm just happy that we finally got this out there"


I hope this answers your questions! ^_^ Yours truly --Zeromus

OH HEY! My team would be looking for a 3D artist. Unfortunately the game we're going to be making doesn't match your description. But our game is cozy-esque. Could you please contact me on Discord? My Discord-tag is zeromusofrenegademelodies . I do not use Itch all too much, and besides our workgroup is on Discord anyway

No problem, and hey, don't take any of what I said into heart! You did well, and you were able to do more than others: Make a game, be proud of yourself! I'm a GameJam veteran, most of the games I've worked on have never come out, some teams I had to leave due to disagreements and/or just a bad team. Even some games that have come out and have been released leave things to be desired

We live, we learn ~

Fun, adorable little platformer. Few points of note:

- I'm sorry but the music is absolute ear-poison. Also the orb's own sound-effects don't make it any better. They ring constantly. It should only be ringing when you're near/next to it yourself

- The shadowmen have a 50% chance of moving from their spots, which is inconsistent

- You're able to get stuck on ladders. Do with that information what you will

And what I meant, as I tried conveying in that text, is that sometimes you have to not be afraid to seem like you're belittling people's intelligence and really hold their hand through the essentials of the game when warranted, and let's be real people are kinda dumb. I'd like to say that I'm a pretty smart fella and I had no idea what to do in the game

But there's no point in beating you over the head with the topic anymore, especially since your comment already shed light on why the safetyrails were missing. Just wanted to clarify

Sorry for my heated comments. Playtesting, QA and game designs are my passions as a professional. Your team realistically did the best they could have, you included. And I must commend you for the effort

The pixelart is specifically Kekaiyø's, our artist's. Say hi Kekaiyø if you're around!

I now see what the staff is meant to be. Why is it so big and long?!!? I genuinely didn't even notice it on my first playthrough, and now on the attempt that I made while typing this specific comment I thought it was a lamp-post until I went near it. You people really didn't think this one through didya? Not trying to be mean over here, but its size literally makes no sense. And when you spawn into this world, the frog or whatever it is should pop up and start up a dialogue "Hey, don't forget to pick up the staff. Did you pick up the staff? Please pick up the staff, do so immediately!!!" And if the player would still try to circumvent getting the staff, the frog would say "you want to do this the hard way then eh?" or something like that, and a cutscene plays where you're physically forced into the ownership of the staff. Is it 'bElItTlInG tHe PlAyEr'S iNtElLiGeNcE", yeah sure but sometimes you have to do that. Some processes should be automated like acquiring one of the core mechanics of the game.

Of course, never go to the point of yellow-tape in a modern Resident Evil game, but it is only normal to nudge players towards key features and basically every single game on planet earth does so in one way, shape or form, that's just game design 101. Core gameplay mechanics should not be optional and missable, even by accident. No matter how unintentional it may have been from your team's behalf, that's what acquiring this staff ended up being: optional.

And it seemingly literally breaks the game. Because a lot of the other events and mechanics, apparently and I can only imagine (even admitted by you: "But this only works when you grabbed the staff ofcourse"), are all programmed around you having the staff. This is a massive oversight that should not happen under any circumstances, game design 101. Trust me, as if it shouldn't already be common sense but I went to school to study game design. I can tell

If this game is just meant to be "wander into random places, defeat/beat up random foes", then fair enough. But otherwise everything needs to be stated as clear as a polished, shiny, spotless crystal with not even a single scratch or chip upon it

I have no idea who or what this "frog" is or what level the staff spawns in. This is why, when it comes to the core mechanics of the game, they should be made so painfully apparent and idiot-proof that there's no way you can physically miss them. Put up some glowing red arrows next to the staff if you have to. But that's just one problem with the progression. Who are you meant to beat/defeat and why? Where do you go (in general by the way, what is the streamlined progression of this game, open-endedly)?

Really impressive for a Jam game!! Hence it really hurts me to have to air out the issues . . .

1. This game is VERY graphically intensive, something that isn't adviced for a Jam game

2. I have no idea where I'm supposed to go, what I'm supposed to do, anything at all. This game could have used some indicators of where you're meant to go and what you're meant to do. Where do you grab a weapon so you can use one of the core mechanics of the game, the left mousebutton? How to get to the point where you can use the shop-button since it does nothing at present. And the game just assumes without any prior instructions or warning or indication that you're supposed to know that stuff that glows green is the stuff you can rewind. Also, what is the "ult" and what is it meant to do exactly?!!?

3. As already established in the above paragraph, most of the buttons don't do anything. This is either a bug or intentional but a massive oversign since nothing is explained. And even when they do work, they lag heavily. Either because of a programming-error or due to the perfomance-issues

This game is a glorified tech-demo, windowdressing and eye-candy. It feels so hollow, and screams of unfinished. Which is a damn shame, this could have literally been the best game of this entire Jam

How have I missed this game?! Cute, calming music, great art and models, and because I like tower defense games "everyone gets one for free" from me ~

It pains me to say this about a game with such high production-value, but this game is far from finished:

- It is annoying and bothersome that you have to go near your house to reaload and upgrade stuff. Even if it makes some semblance of sense, it isn't very fun. And fun should come before semantics

- I have to reload the bowgun constantly, and the particle-effect on the projectile and the faint sound make it feel super unimpactful. The projectile should have been a different one from the turrets, and there should be more of an audio-cue to the shots fired

- The character, for whatever unimaginable reason, every now and then drops the bowgun on the ground. This seems to be purely a visual glitch, since the bowgun can still be reloaded and fires as normal after doing so

- The shop and reload texts overlap, making it hard to even notice that there is a shop-feature

- While a minor nitpick, it absolutely isn't enough for a game to contain instructions only on the Jam-page. Especially for downloadable exes. In the case of a browser-game it is more understandable since at least you're on the Jam-page anyway. Games like these should include a built-in tutorial/instructions included in the game itself

This game still has many ways to go, but it is and has a solid foundation!

Thanks a ton! A Skele-ton, even ~

Also keep in mind that the enemy waves in this game are somewhat randomized. That's how I learned to cheese the game and I've now beaten it three times, even if I'm not the level of beast that Calum is when he plays this game. He is able to swap his Polarity within seconds, I primarily scum the game with the Fusion Mode myself 😅Sometimes you get lucky with the enemy placement, and the shield they receive or better yet no shield at all

On the behalf of the whole team, I'm extending our warmest thanks to you. It means a lot to hear such positivity from all of you towards our game! ^_^

That's . . . bizarre. The tutorial does have the player ship in it, but just as a slide-image. The "background" is supposed to be there too. Because it is a slide it doesn't have any enemies in it, it isn't an actual tutorial level. Calling it a "tutorial" is a bit misleading because 'tis just more like "instructions" since all it has are still-images. What's happening with the settings makes no sense though . . .

Maybe this game is too powerful for your device? Although I doubt it. Does this problem exist with the exe or the browser-version?

Thanks for the link! Please pass him my regards for his excellent music ~

Interesting little glitch. Thank you for enjoying our game! ^_^

Ah, fair enough! Apologies for causing ya a headache, glad you were able to enjoy our game despite that! ^_^

By sounds, what do you mean specifically?

Pretty nifty bossrush-shooter with an interesting concept

I was able to enjoy the game without having any clue what I was doing or why (before reading the game's description). I'm not sure if you can lose in this game, which would of course make it feel a little bit hollow if you can't. But over all pretty neat premise, well done!

A cyberpunk rhonin with roguelike-progression (based on the screenshots), easy way to activate my neurons ~

The music for this game is great, did you make the tracks yourself or took it from somewhere else? Also, the bullets having a chance of ricocheting to damage the screen is a lovely delectable touch! And this game having a baked-in tutorial is always a plus

Overall, excellent game! Well done

Calum is a John Carmack -level coding-wizard.  The smooth, bugless experience came at the cost of us having to leave out a lot of stuff that we originally wanted to implement into the game, but in retrospect I'm glad we did instead of half-assing and shoehorning in complicated features that would have more than likely broken without the help of a second coder. Calum was able to do a lot and in a reasonable timeframe considering he had the Herculean-effort of doing all of this by himself, he's one of the most reliable programmers I've ever had the hounour of meeting ~

I'm glad you noticed that Bravesun has essentially created two versions of almost every track in the game! ^_^ It was nice attention-to-detail that helps to really spice up the game in a special way ~ 

EYYYYY, A FELLOW FINN!!!! (unless you just so happen to have a Nokia-phone without being Finnish yourself 😅) God you unlocked a core-memory for me with that one. Space Impact was the shit with my very first-ever phone, I'm glad we were able to illicit this golden experience for you!

That's unfortunate to hear, my sincerest apologies. They seem to be working out for everyone else, could you please describe what exactly is happening with them when you try to interact with them? Or is nothing happening at all?

It is so cool to find a fellow SHMUP-enjoyer ~ Yeah, our team got really big-brain when they came up with the gameplay-hook based on a lot of our brainstorming and my base idea

Bravesun's aim for a vapourwave style music (however unintentional) was really smart because it fully sells the idea and feeling of an authentic arcade Gradius-like experience that I was aiming for when I suggested the music-style for this game, the imitation-Gradius effect is fantastic and it could genuinely pass for something you'd hear in an old arcade-game. And we all already know how good Jonah's art is so I don't even need to add to that discussion ~

Thank you for recognizing how much work we put into this! ^_^

No problem at all, not the end of the world! You live you learn ~

Thanks for taking the criticism well ^_^ I've been able to beat our game three times now, and I realise 'tis a difficult game. Everyone says so, I have to rely on the RNG of the waves to boost me through

Of course when we play our own games, we know their ins-and-outs and also repetition develops skill and tolerance. That on itself doesn't mean anything, we can grow blind to our own creations due to bias. But I'll take your word for it that 'tis beatable if you all have been able to do so ~ The main issue is with the inconsistency in that case

I wish nothing but the best for you and your team going forward, cheers! Recommendation, draw the disappearing-ground asset as crackled, indicating that it is supposed to break on its own

Trust me, my PC specs are fine. What causes problems is the amount of models being rendered simultaneously. Of course I over-exaggerated the problem when it comes to the exe (even if 'tis noticable even there, and that's what I meant)

I get that the enemies are meant to be weak because of the theme, but in that case the theme could have been executed better and/or differently because at present the enemies might as well not be there, and their upgrades might as well not exist since they don't really do anything

Overall, don't take this to heart. The game's neat for what 'tis worth, even if it devolves down into brainless button-mashing due to its nature

> Wow I really appreciate the great compliments as well as the actionable feedback!

I'm a professionally-trained game designer, being able to give good critical feedback is a part of the resumé ~ And thank you once again for liking Void Reaper, the whole team appreciates it :) <3

The game looked great in general, those two are just what I wanted to especially point out. My original wording was a bit off, apologies

Absolutely, no problem friend ~