We did add coyote time, clearly not enough though so we'll keep that in mind! Thanks for the heads-up
MrMate
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A member registered Oct 14, 2020
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I'm having struggles coming up with feedback for you, because being honest with you, you made this game quite well. The art is better than a lot of the art I've seen for this jam, and the gameplay is really easy to understand and get a hand of. There are only really a couple of things I can think of to improve about this game.
For starters, any game can get improved significantly with player feedback. You need more than a sound effect and a little bit of flashing to tell the player that they've been hit, and you need more than a death screen to tell a player that they've died. If the player can't tell exactly what is happening when it happens, it just gets confusing. Easy ways to fix this would be by adding some screen shake whenever the player gets hit, maybe adding some particles whenever the player parries an object, and doing more with animations to make it very clear when things happen (even just making the character flash white takes almost no effort to implement but does heaps to improve player feedback within a game). Another more interesting way to add player feedback is with the environment. Maybe the screen can go red around the edges while the player is on low health. Maybe people can get out of their cars in frustration when their cars get parried. Small details like these to make the game feel more connected whilst also working towards improving player feedback in the game. Don't get me wrong, you already do a really good job of this just through level progression, but there are always so many little details that can be improved to make a game feel more concrete and fun with almost zero extra effort.
The pace of the game is also a little bit weird to play. If you want to develop this game further, I'd suggest just getting some playtesters and mess with certain variables like the player's speed, behaviours of obstacles, maybe even add the ability to move up and down on the screen. Your goal is to give as much control to the player as possible, so that they can get where they want to get without feeling unnecessarily restricted. Maybe even consider reworking the shield, since it was a little bit finnicky to use, and a little bit of thought and testing could turn it into a really interesting and unique feature. Maybe there should be repercussions to using the shield? Maybe the shield should have limited uses? Maybe the shield can be limited to a powerup that the player has to collect while playing the game (being sure to implement a LOT of player feedback to communicate this clearly to the player)? Maybe the shield could be replaced entirely with a different parrying system? There are a lot of options at your disposal that I'd highly suggest you experiment with to improve the gameplay of the game.
One other thing I'd look into is trying to find some sort of twist with your game. This just feels like another temple-run type of game, so if there's nothing making your game unique you're going to have a difficult time making your game stand out. Maybe you can turn the tables, and rather than avoiding the chaos, the player is responsible for the chaos? Maybe there's some incentive for the player to keep running? Maybe the game scrolls without the player, so the player is forced to weave through obstacles without getting left behind? There are so many ways you can implement different skill curves or twists into the game which I'd highly suggest you experiment with, either with this game or the next.
Aside from these few things, there's really no more feedback I can give (although background music would be nice). I hope this feedback was helpful, and I wish you luck with this game jam :)
The game is a little bit confusing, and there are some minor gameplay issues, but aside from this I really liked the concept and playing the game was fun! I'd probably request for a little bit more time to think for making moves, since the timer kind of prioritizes rash thinking over strategy. Regardless, it's a really nifty game you have here :D
I've rated the game, and I'm sorry but I'm a bit exhausted from giving a lot of in-depth feedback for a bunch of games, so here's the gist of my feedback for you;
- Give more game feedback to the player: The player should be able to see and hear every time they hit an enemy and when they get hit by an enemy
- Fix the health bar, please.
- Consider adding some sort of limitations and incentives for the game. Right now the game is just "hold down left click and aim at the bad guys". Maybe consider limiting the number of bullets in each gun, and force the player to physically pick up new guns when they run out of ammo to add more skill and thought to the game.
- Maybe try revising the colour palette for the game. Unless you can afford to draw custom sprites for everything, just stick with coloured boxes for everything, giving everything very distinct colours. SuperHot is a great example of this, with only 3 colours for the whole game, yet everything stands out and these colours do a great job of communicating what's an enemy, what can be interacted with, and what can't be interacted with.
- Increase the player's movement speed to make the game feel more responsive. It doesn't feel like it when you code it, but just changing the speed of the player makes a huge difference.
I've rated the game, and here is the constructive criticism as promised. Quite simply put, the game needs some work. There are a few things that you've actually done really well, but some things that definitely need some work.
I'll start with the positive, which is the fact that the game does a beautiful job of communicating everything the player needs to do without directly telling the player what to do. The colours make it clear as day what the player controls, what are obstacles, and what the objective of the game is. Few games are able to pull this off (believe me, a lot of people struggle with this), so you should absolutely give yourself a pat on the back for this. Another example of this in your game are the parabolic arcs that predict where the cube will go, doing a perfect job of communicating to the player exactly how to move and where the cube will move once the mouse is clicked, without ever directly telling the player "this is how to move. these dots show you where the cube is likely to go"
Unfortunately, the buggy nature of the game makes it rather infuriating to control. Yes, the predictive arc of the cube can be really helpful for that player, but this is only if the cube actually follows that arc, which it does not. Fixing the movement of the player will definitely improve the quality of the game by a mile. This shouldn't be a difficult fix, but it's an absolutely mandatory thing to fix if you want a playable game. Maybe even reconsider the controls of the player to control a bit more like Angry Birds does, with the player having to pull back on the cube to launch it forward to add an element of skill to the movement.
The only other issue I had with the game is the audio of the game. Instead of whatever audio you chose for this game, download some royalty free music to be played quietly in the background of the game and a royalty free "bounce" sound or something similar for when the player jumps. Once again, more often than not it's these really small details that can seriously improve the quality of the game.
Once these things are fixed though, you should really consider the direction that you want to take the game if you want to develop it further. Maybe look into some more dynamic interactions, like canons or explosions or breakable walls or many other ways to add more diversity into the gameplay of your game. Right now it's just a really average platformer, so you'll have to think hard about what will make your game unique enough for people to choose to play your game over another one, and what will make your game interesting enough to keep people playing your game. The simple fact of this is that if there's nothing about your game that makes it unique or interesting, people aren't going to play it. I'd suggest spending some time doing some trial and error to figure out what mechanics are fun and do some brainstorming to think of unique mechanics for the game.
If you can work on these things, you'll have yourself a really fun and unique game. I hope this feedback helped! If you have any questions or concerns, don't be afraid to bring them up :)
Great idea, and well executed. I promised I'll give some constructive criticism, so I have a few positives and only really a couple of negatives.
For starters, game feedback for the player in this game is some of the best I have seen so far in this game jam. People seriously underappreciate how far adding some sound effects or death animations can take a game in terms of quality. Literally the only game feedback that the game is yet to provide is some sort of indication of what potion the player is currently using in the shooter game, and how much time that potion has left before it runs out. If you did implement this, it's really difficult to tell, so I'd suggest making that a bit more obvious if this is the case.
Secondly, the amount of polish that went into this game is really good. I can easily tell what's good and what's bad just by looking at them because you've done a really good job of indicating this to the player through visuals and effects like particles and lighting. This might sound like a dumb thing, but having a game where the player already knows what to do just by looking at the screen is a huge accomplishment. No tutorial necessary here.
My biggest issue with this game is that it feels like I'm playing two separate games. Each game mode should like to each other to feel more like one game. Even just a proper cutscene to blend between the two game modes will do wonders to improve this. I personally think you should take it a bit further, and have the two game modes interact with each other. How you do in one should affect your conditions in the other. Maybe the shooting game mode will spawn enemy bodies in the platformer that the player can move around to help them reach higher platforms or keys. Maybe the keys the player collects in the platformer can unlock more areas in the shooting game mode to reveal more weapons and more enemies. There's a world of unique opportunities that are being missed here, and I seriously think you should look into these opportunities if you wish to develop the game further.
Another thing that could be improved is the movement in the platformer. For starters, double jump. Developers don't like adding double jump, but quite simply put it's always a really good feature to add to any platformer. Also, player deceleration should be much faster than the player's acceleration. I don't enjoy having to reset because the character decided to walk an extra mile after I had already let go of the key. The character should really only be moving another half a step at most once the player has let go of the move key. And finally, make the player a bit faster. People like snappy controls, and increasing the speed of the player ever so slightly can go a long way. It never feels like it, but trust me on this one.
My only other issue is a much smaller one. When in the platformer, don't keep the player directly in the center. I couldn't care less what I've run past when I'm in that platformer. I want to be able to see what's ahead of me, and I want to be able to see a lot of what's ahead of me. Or, maybe the camera can be programmed to have certain anchors, so that as a player walks into an area, the camera pans out to reveal everything about this area to a reasonable extent.
I hope my feedback was helpful! If you have any questions or concerns, don't be afraid to bring them up :)
Redface - Jeff & Beff in Chaosland jam comments · Posted in Redface - Jeff & Beff in Chaosland jam comments
I just finished rating your game, and here is my constructive criticism as promised. I think there are a few elements to the game that need to be revised and a few others that need to be embraced. I'm going to start with the things that need to be improved, and move on to the things that should be embraced.
For starters, the game could provide the player with more feedback to let them better interpret what is happening in the game. Things like sound effects, death animations, and highlights are all necessities when it comes to building a game. The player should easily be able to tell what's bad and how much time they have to dodge said bad thing. Yes, the tutorial shows players what to look out for, but you know you have a good system in place when a player can play without looking at the tutorial and know exactly what is bad just by looking at it. For example, most zombie games aren't going to say "Hey, avoid the zombies, and kill them if you can" in the tutorial, because players should be able to work this out for themselves. Changing your colour palette and maybe doing some animations to turn the lines into lasers would do a great job of communicating this to your players.
Speaking of which, you should revise the colour palette that you used in the game. Make sure that every individual element pops with as little effort as possible. Choose maybe 3 or 4 colours that stand out from each other and use them throughout the majority of the game. Purple does not stick out in front of blue, but orange certainly will. A good example of this is SuperHot. They only use 3 colours in the whole game, but that's all you need to identify exactly what you need, what you can interact with, what to avoid, all while having every colour visually distinct so that nothing in the foreground or background is getting confused.
Don't move the camera around like you did in the 3rd phase. It's nauseating. You can add maybe a bit of screen shake and use movement in other ways, but I straight up got a headache trying to play that level. If you really want to keep it, find a better way of doing it so that it has the same effect on the gameplay without being nauseating.
Finally, you should really do more with the player's companion that they are trying to save. I didn't play to completion, because I seriously couldn't handle that 3rd level, so I'm not sure if that character does get a use further on. But if you didn't, it was a serious missed opportunity. Being able to interact with them or use their electricity to fight back could have given a more unique and interesting play style to your game that it could really use to stand out from the other games in this jam. Maybe the player should be forced to stay within a certain distance of the companion to get some kind of bonus. You'll have to do some trial and error to see what works, but having that extra character without incorporating him into the direct gameplay of the game just feels like a wasted opportunity to me.
I hope this feedback helps. If you have any questions, or any concerns, don't be afraid to bring them up :)
There are a few recommendations I'll give for your game: Better player feedback, better visuals for the game, Make the player bigger, and make the player faster.
Better player Feedback: Small things like changing buttons slightly when hovering over them, or giving directional indicators when someone gets hit to know why they're taking damage aren't even optional. They're necessary. If the player isn't being told what's happening, they're going to have a harder time finding out, which can be tedious and an instant turn-off for players.
Better visuals for the game - you don't even need to do any extra art for the game. Just make a strict colour palette that's vibrant so that everything can be seen clearly without the colours looking ugly when combined or on their own. SuperHot is a good example of this. Very little art, but a really vibrant colour palette that makes everything pop. You instantly know what's good, bad, deadly, or neutral, without the game losing any visual quality.
Make the player bigger - I feel tiny moving around the place. Neon games usually give the player a sense of power or superiority, but playing your game I feel tiny and insignificant running around a really large and empty level.
Make the player faster - trust me, making any combat-related game faster than you initially intend is a really easy way to almost instantly make the game more fun to play. Especially with the neon theme, making players faster makes them feel more superior. Mouse sensitivity should also be considered.
Jonas Tyroller on YouTube actually has a few videos showing the fundamentals of improving fun in game design, and more often than not it's just really small details that make a huge difference. I highly recommend you watch his videos.