Interesting style! At some point I thought you could have made it with long 3D blocks that stick right into the camera (like earlier GTA games made their cities), but maybe it is some other technique.
And sound greatly contributes to the atmosphere of loneliness and despair, I like that! ¦3
Awww, almost got a hundred, but then gravity and no-floor tricked me!
Interesting experiment around Jetpack Joyride, Undertale, and Balloon Fight. It felt a bit restricted on the Undertale section where I can't move diagonally, and there was also a strange effect of projectiles accumulating over time (my tactics there was just to wait in a safe place until all the diamonds would spawn).
I like this little game, it was fun to spend some time!
Although, I don't know what should happen in the end, since I managed to pull the lever one frame after getting caught by my other self, causing me to respawn on a checkpoint with no controls.
With only 3 hp (vs 105 of the first boss) and such a huge difference in the speed between me and bosses, the only viable strategy was to throw the dianthus away and simply focus on running from projectiles while praying that the dianthus would randomly knock the boss out.
Placing most of the controls on the mouse is a great idea for this game, it helps to move precisely together with making faster "dashes" (well, as fast as the speed limit allows, which sometimes felt like an unfair drag). Maybe you could also map X onto M1 to completely eliminate the need for a keyboard, and it might also play great on a touch-screen (with a couple of on-screen buttons).
Interesting concept, reminded me of the original Sonic's diamond stages.
It was strange to see my character sliding from and through platforms as the arena rotates. Maybe it would be better to rotate everything around the character position to avoid that effect, and to not include a jump-through-platform mechanic at all?
But that was a fun experience ¦3
I love all these glowing effects, they work great with simplified visuals highlighting all the important things.
Amazing visuals and effects! I love these little intro cutscenes, they certainly help to build up anticipation and to show off these awesome environments.
Gameplay-wise it felt a bit strange that a giant monster can barely hurt you hitting your ship with 1000-ton fists, but some flying projections can destroy you in a minute. Distance is very hard to read, which makes it challenging to evade any attack (especially on the interception stage, especially with diamond-shaped things that damage regardless of where I am).
I would also like to see the UI in 3rd person mode (it was hard to keep track of cooldowns). Having one mode for evading and another mode for shooting in such a dynamic game is a very bold decision ¦3
It was hard to properly plan the shield usage as you can't predict the next attack. The strategy I used was to face the wall with the shield on my back, and only use it for lasers, while hoping to be able to also turn chain-chomps into the saw, and eventually just walk around to collect and launch all the fallen saws.
But what to do in the second phase, where there are so many dangerous things around? Health is decreasing almost instantly, and there is barely enough time to turn into the right angle and not enough time to recharge the shield :<
I can totally see these mechanics of different parts placed on different spots could easily take a lot of time to be implemented, though, and that was quite a unique experience!
I cheesed the first two bosses as much as possible (by just standing on the edge where most of their attacks won't reach me), as with the amount of health they have I don't see any way to beat them in a fair fight. But the last one didn't have any obvious weaknesses, so I don't stand a chance against it ¦3
It was an interesting experience, well done finishing all of that as a solo dev!
Nice visual effects there! The style is great, I love it.
I was very restricted at the beginning, and only after getting +100% speed the game started to feel right. But that's for the rogue-likes in general, I guess, to gradually give abilities that would normally be there by default.
Attack patterns were not very predictable at some times, but that was compensated with a smart choice of having plenty of health.
And it is super cool that you made it all as a solo dev! ¦3
Yeah, I couldn't figure out how to make a proper tutorial without sacrificing much precious time or showing a wall of text no one will read, and just entrusted everything to the player to find stuff out with a couple of gentle nudges. But that's great feedback, thank you!
It took some time to get used to the rotation of the hamster wheel stage, but at some point it just clicks and feels natural ¦3
Battles did not feel very well balanced, with very little actual fight and a lot of waiting in between while trying to move the giant hitbox out of obstacles that appear anywhere on the screen.
Attack patterns are great, and I love that I have to learn them the hard way, which makes them feel rightfully dangerous.
Visuals and sounds are clean, great job at polishing!
Awesome tracks, thank you for sharing them! After searching for something like this for hours, I was very happy to use it to finish XVIII. It really saved me out there ¦3
I love the story aspect of the game, it adds another layer of motivation.
Battles are decently balanced, all the attack patterns are crafted well, with just enough time to make a decision. Limiting the moveset just to selecting the ring and direction is very smart, it allows you to create some unique situations, although reduces their possible combinations at the same time.
The controls are a bit confusing for the default position of being in front of the boss most of the time. Maybe having a single button to switch the movement direction could make it easier? But maybe not ¦3
Awesome style (with so many lovy unnecessary little details!), and a great variety of bosses (not the first 3 though) with incredible telegraphy of attacks! A truely wholesome game of skill.
You've absolutely nailed the 100% accurate spin-the-bottle simulation.
I can nitpick into a weak use of the theme or not having a deep progression in bullet-hell-rogue-like-slasher mechanics, but who needs all of that if such a charming game gives an engaging experience?
Despite some very minor issues (like the music track not matching the situation, or the shield animation confusingly stuck on top of the flower) I had an amazing time playing up to phase 4. It was very fun to get power-ups and new swords.
However, after that the pacing goes down, as the bosses progress quicker than me, requiring more and more time (despite me having 7 rarest swords). Phase 7 onwards turns the game into a clicker, where I would appreciate having some sort of auto-attack (especially considering that it is impossible to have any downtime with that many swords).
But the grounds are totally here for a great game if you are going to follow it up! Visual effects, the player controls, camera direction, music and sounds feel very polished.
It took me some time to figure out that I can control the direction of that spinning thing, but after that it was very fun trying to figure out the next hitting position ¦3
I would suggest locking the mouse pointer to the canvas, otherwise it is too easy to accidentally leave the game window and click somewhere else (even in fullscreen with multi-monitor setup). And maybe catching the spinner with the same button as the throw would make it more intuitive (and less disruptive for WASD fingers).
Cool idea to place the battle on a rotating arena ¦3
Many of the things that make this game feel a bit unfinished could be solved with just a little shadow sprite below the player and each object to have a more readable space.
You have a nice variety of attacks here, keep it up!
P.S. please write up the controls somewhere. Healing is very useful if you know how to activate it, and I still have no idea what the right mouse button does ¦3
I found the keyboard input to be much better than scrolling the mouse wheel, it is very accurate and allows you to hold the combo waiting for the perfect moment to release the prepared attack (not sure if that was intended though).
It took me some time to get used to the controls, but after that the game turned from hip-hop battle into a high-speed slasher ¦3
Naomi bugged for me just standing and talking over the phone all the time, but probably that made me happier.
I can see the influence of Cuphead in this game. Well done finishing it!
You can consider adding some HP to the player, which could help to leave more room for risk. Right now, every mistake is unforgiving, so you have to play it safer, resulting in doing nothing for most of the time.
Interesting concept of changing gravity while rotating the platform. I would love to see you exploring it a bit further.
The game is very challenging, though. The learning curve is quite steep between "jump" and "don't ever fall, or you won't be able to use the only useful ability". Maybe making the moveset less restrictive could help (e.g. remove the dependency on scarce collectible resources that you can't accumulate, or reset double-jump on landing, but that would also nullify the need for rotating platforms).
The level layout on each boss felt like you've designed it for some specific movement pattern, which I couldn't solve ending up only using rotations to replenish the double jump.
It looks and sounds awesome! The variety of attack patterns is also pretty cool. I had a great time trying to learn how to survive there (without much success ¦3)
I love the story aspect and the cutscene, it greatly adds to the mood.
The decision-making loop is nice, you have to adapt to the bullets and to changing surroundings. However, bullet effects did not feel different enough to care with a few exceptions: I was always happy to get shielding and healing bullets (and sad not to get them for many reloads in a row), and blanks were also useful sometimes (I was hoping to get explosives after collecting six blanks, and it is amazingly effective when you get it). For all other types, I could hardly tell if they do anything apart from adding visual effects.
I would love to have a controllable FOV, as it was hard to plan the movement at later rounds without seeing more (where are these jumping cubes? oh, exactly where I decided to dash-jump :<)
Thank you, and congrats on getting the most out of the game!
Other endings are not as worthy, as they abruptly finish the game in the middle. I admit that trying to squeeze them in was a mistake (but a fun one, so no regrets on that ¦3)
I tried to record a 100% gameplay video with the main ending, and, to my surprise, it takes ~40 minutes even if you know where to go.
Don't want to trick you into replaying, but there are more moves in the last third of the game ¦3
But yeah, having a more complex combat system from the beginning is a great idea! I think the game suffered a bit from a self-imposed restriction of having only two action buttons (yet I can experiment with adding a "run" by double-press on any direction button, and processing when punch button is being hold, which will give a bunch of different combinations).
Wow, that's very nice! Rhythm Heavens are among my favourite games ever!
You've nailed the rhythm input, that is an incredible achievement in itself!
The second stage is very tricky. You've tried to reduce the confusion with the tutorial, but I think this tutorial makes it even more confusing (not sure how to make it better though ¦3). Also, the stages felt a bit disconnected from each other (like they tried to be connected, but couldn't find a way to do so), and I would definitely love to see the remix stage!
Graphics, music, and sound effects are amazing as well. I like all the small details, like in-rhythm animations, and bunny bumping into the screen.
Based on the overall progress bar, I would assume there is a third boss, but my skill doesn't let me go through the second one.
Another thing I appreciate after replaying it 4 times is that the game progresses in an interesting way with my skill, allowing me to discover new moves (e.g. collecting a lot of bullets in one place and then manipulating the boss to be there). That doesn't help me with the lightning though :<
Game pretends to be a simple shooting arcade, but don't be fooled!
The intermediate parts are too easy, and felt unnecessarily long.
Bosses are much more challenging (must mostly because of a huge hitbox of the playable character).
But these suns! And then lightning that just corners you without a chance! With the amount of HP they have and such little damage each of our bullets causes it quickly becomes incredibly repetitive and too risky with no reward.
I would love to see some upgrades to make it a bit easier and more interesting ¦3
