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Hi mate,

Thanks heaps for the feedback and the video link, much appreciated! Although you commented that this usually isn't your sort of thing you actually performed with a very high degree of aptitude for a new player. It was heartening to see a player like yourself with a good level of gaming literacy be able to connect some of the dots (like the wall speed indicator) more fluidly than we have seen with less experienced gamers. 

Unfortunate you had the issue with the sound levels. The solve for that must have somehow gotten disconnected during one of our hot patches. We will put it on the bug list. 

Many of your gameplay specific questions are, for the time being, answered in the 'Learn to Play' menu but we hope to smooth out and integrate some of that learning process with some of the onboarding features we are currently working on. There are actually run modifiers (find in main menu) that tweak how the game plays similar to the skull unlockables in Halo which would be a good candidate for your random mode idea. We actually have a feature similar to that we are working on to have a mode where you can almost play the co-op version by yourself with the bricks automatically placing themselves. 

Thanks again for the feedback and video!

Thank you for the kind words! 

Regarding the visual 'chaos' is much of that in relation to the binary effects from the Death Wall following you or are there other parts in particular you thought were cluttered / chaotic?

Hi Ogamo,

I'm glad you were having fun! Thank you for your notes on the resolution issue and the sound sound effects. The sound effects are meant to be a useful indicator for when the Death Wall is eating a lot of blocks and speeding up but at the moment it applies equally to grey and coloured blocks (but it only speeds up with coloured ones). Internally we had discussed representing this by having little puffs of binary pop out from the left of screen whenever a coloured block was destroyed off-screen. Maybe this could have a much more subtle sound effect. I think if we added that we could then have the brick explosion noise fall off with distance from the wall as you would still have a moment-by-moment visual and audio feedback of your performance. Do you think you would prefer something like this?

Thanks again for taking the time to try the game out and provide feedback, we appreciate it a lot! :)

Hi DDmeow,

Glad you were having fun with it! 

It sounds like you might benefit from checking out the 'Controls' and/or the 'Learn to Play' areas of the main menu. You can rotate tiles with the shoulder buttons / bumpers on game-pad (We recommend game-pad) or with right arrow / tab on keyboard by default. You can rebind the buttons in the controls menus if you have any issues with the default control schemes. Line clears are triggered on 10 (or more) bricks in a row (Same as Tetris). You can look for more clarity on specific mechanics like this in the 'Learn to Play' menu.

We are trying to implement some ways to better onboard new players but for now these are the tools available. I hope you give it another go with the other tools and knowledge. The game really picks up with a bit of practice. Internally we have had a lot of fun pushing ourselves to get better at it. There are some tips and tricks you might learn from looking at the video on the store page too. Best of luck!

You are very welcome! As I said the foundations are very strong as a starting point, just needs a bit more meat on the bone for the systems to really shine. I look forward to seeing where you get to with it!

If you do check out our game be warned, it is quite challenging! We are trying our best to put together some better on-boarding tools but haven't quite got them together for this build. Might require a bit of practice... Hope you have fun! :)

Hello!

This very much seems like a learning project so congratulations on getting something together to this point! 

Firstly I would recommend zooming the camera out as the game felt very closed in. It also seems like you were using prefabs with colliders built in for the environment blocking which I think lead to some issues with walls that the player could phase through. Maybe look at blocking out the level and box colliders as separate layers so there are less seams between the colliders to reduce the potential for clipping? I think the general platforming felt okay but definitely could use improvement. The jumping felt very floaty which could be addressed by changing the way force/gravity is applied to the player when they are rising/falling. Often these values need to be different for the jump to feel nice for the player. I would recommend setting yourself up a test environment with a platformer player controller with some of these aspects exposed in the editor so you can play around with the values until you find something that feels good. On top of this some another trick to look into is coyote-time which lets you jump after having just left contact with a platform can also improve game feel. There are just so many ticks you can use to help a platformer character controller feel good I'd recommend trying out a bunch of them to see what you like. Good job putting this together though, it's still a tonne of work getting anything playable so keep at it!

Our team have submitted a square-guy platformer too that combines Tetris and runner elements if you'd like to check it out (Link below). :)

I wish you the best with your projects!

https://itch.io/jam/feedback-quest-8-indiegames-x-indie-streamers/rate/3773442

Hello!

Good concept! I like the main idea of time looping through seasons with different mechanics assigned to the different seasons. I found the puzzles enjoyable with a bit of challenge. The graphic and UI were functional and the music was decent. I did find the 'crumbling rocks' in the winter season a bit unintuitive only finding out how they worked by accident after I thought I couldn't solve level III. I also has an issue on level VI with the platform holding the second crystal being longer when transitioning from season 1 to 2 (Not sure if this is intended) and also bouncing myself through the same platform sometimes. 

Overall I had fun and it was a nice exploration of the concept, good job!

Our team have submitted more of an action platformer that combines Tetris and runner elements if you'd like to check it out (Link below). :)

I wish you the best with your projects!

https://itch.io/jam/feedback-quest-8-indiegames-x-indie-streamers/rate/3773442

Hi Renons,

Thanks again from the whole team for your feedback here. It is very helpful. As was stated before on-boarding for this particular game has proved rather difficult. Internally we have discussed it as being somewhat akin to learning to juggle. One ball (platforming) is easy enough, two (moving blocks) is maybe a little harder, three balls at a time (platforming and blocks) is extremely difficult without practice. The game is a bit of a throwback to arcade skill-testers so some degree of investment on the player's part to progressively improve is expected but we really do need a better way of easing them into it and encouraging that loop of slow practice and progression. We are working on some ideas towards that end internally but keep running into the issue of needing fresh eyes on the project to test it with. Are there any particular resources you have used in the development of your own games for testing puzzles etc. that you could recommend?

Thank you again for the honest feedback. We will definitely take it onboard.

Hello!

I finished the game! It was fairly simple but for what it was I liked it. I did however feel like maybe at some times I brute forced the puzzles by sending the blocks off-screen, especially on the last level. Maybe think about putting the flip function on mouse click instead of 'E' since you are already having to use the mouse for that function. You could even expand the flipping environment tile concept with a left click and right click with their own function depending on the colour of the tile, for instance swapping colours on right click for non-grey tiles. Adding more colours with unique effects could expand the concept too if you wanted to take it further. Overall a good minimalist platformer!

Our team have submitted a Cube game too! It's a runner that combines Tetris and precision platforming if you'd like to check it out (Link below). Would love to get some feedback if you have the time. :) 

I wish you the best with your projects!

https://itch.io/jam/feedback-quest-8-indiegames-x-indie-streamers/rate/3773442

Hello!

Very well put together game! It feels very polished. Admittedly, this style of puzzle game is not really my speed these days but I have fond memories of playing similar games when I was little on my family's old Macintosh :)

The art was very functional and was nicely done. I liked the totally-not-Cthulhu Statues! The UI was very clean and polished, I liked the menus a lot. The music and sound effects were good if subtle. I thought they did a good job of setting the 'trapped underground' spooky atmosphere.

Gameplay was solid as far as a Boulder Dash style game goes. The puzzles are at a good difficulty level with the difficulty ramping over time feeling reasonable. I like the various enemy types mixing up the puzzle design, especially the slimes with objects hidden in them. I'd usually try to provide more constructive feedback but honestly it just seems very solid and would definitely be enough to carry the whole game with additional levels and maybe some extra variety in special units or tiles to spice things up later. 

I think this is an excellent demo and the full version of the game will be very solid if you keep up this quality. Very good Job!

Our team have submitted a runner that combines Tetris and precision platforming if you'd like to check it out (Link below). Would love to get some feedback if you have the time. :) 

I wish you the best with your projects!

https://itch.io/jam/feedback-quest-8-indiegames-x-indie-streamers/rate/3773442

Hello!

Firstly I want to compliment the art and animations, that is a tonne of work! The UI too was very well put together and clear. I thought the music was good if a bit monotonous after some time, perhaps some sections that varied it up a bit could help.

Gameplay-wise I had fun though I didn't feel like there was much in the way of tactics or meaningful choices I was making. Maybe I am missing something but I felt like the best option was basically just to flood units in as soon as I could. I liked that I had to change up the composition a bit to deal with the new enemy types that come but timing and running low on population didn't seem to be punished. Maybe with that kind of mechanic a sort of 'upkeep' based on the amount of population you have in reserve slowly replenishing your population with more reserves and replenishing more quickly, could give some more meaningful player skill expression? I unlocked all of the upgrades in the order that seemed reasonable and then that whole system ends which I thought was a bit disappointing as I liked the idea of the give-and-take of progressing through the options when there were negative effects as well as positive ones. If the game was expanded upon that I think would be a good design element to explore more, maybe try and at least make a set of options with negative and positive effects for each track that loops back onto itself so you cycle through them? I did like the idea of the king unit adding an active element to the combat space. Maybe if you wanted to lean into your narrative of sacrifice and loss of humanity the ability to press a button to kill one of your own units to heal the king could be interesting? These are all just suggestions if you intend to take any of these design concepts further in future. Overall though for the scope of this build I did have a fun time with it. Good Job!

Our team have submitted a runner that combines Tetris and precision platforming if you'd like to check it out (Link below). We always really appreciate feedback :)

I wish you the best with your projects!

https://itch.io/jam/feedback-quest-8-indiegames-x-indie-streamers/rate/3773442

Hello!

I enjoyed the game overall but did feel like for the simplicity of it the level unlock requirements were far too long. After unlocking level 2 I got to 2500 before giving up because I just felt like there was no real challenge and didn't want to spend the time to unlock level 3 and then keep playing past that point. I would shorten them substantially. I did instantly feel the Jetpack Joyride inspiration even before I read it on your page, it felt similar in control scheme. I really liked the concept of the player bubble expanding in size as you gain the health resource. Felt kind of similar to the phone game Osmos if you have played that. Maybe consider zooming the camera out a bit and leaning into that aspect of the design more with a larger limit on player diameter and more obstacles? I also think adding a 'pop zone' or something to the spiky rocks on the roof might be an interesting addition. I assumed I might pop if I hit the spiky rocks but when I tested it I just went through. I think if you continued to expand on the concept with more variety in the playspace it could be a very good phone game.

UI and controls were simple and readable, got the point across. I liked the simplicity of the controls and given the possibility of porting this to phones it makes a lot of sense.

The music and sound effects were good. I liked the background music and the menu music was a bit of a jam :)

Good job overall though, definitely a solid foundation to build upon!

Our team have submitted a runner inspired game too that combines Tetris and precision platforming if you'd like to check it out (Link below). :)

I wish you the best with your projects!

https://itch.io/jam/feedback-quest-8-indiegames-x-indie-streamers/rate/3773442

Hello!

Overall I had a good time with this demo. I like the main gameplay gimmick of having to master the level as you go with checkpoints and recursion flags. If the game was longer I would probably want more of this format with three recursion flags making up a level and intermittent checkpoints. I think that will allow a good difficulty ramp without making the levels too arduous to complete. The player controller was good for this format of game. It might feel a bit sluggish if you weren't trying to get a good 'flow / line' going with the run but if you are pushing for speed it felt okay. 

I might look into changing the dash key as Z and M felt a bit awkward for my hand position, otherwise UI and controls seemed fine. Maybe consider putting them in the background of the first level as I had to look at the controls menu to discover I has a dash mechanic. I am generally not a fan of un-skipable stuff and you intro sequence was quite long as was the menu scene transition on restarting after I finished the demo. I would either make those shorter or skipable in some way. Maybe a way to fast forward the text scroll in the intro?

I liked the art and music. The music was very nice and the sound effects were good. The player idle and run animations were nice. A background plate with some dark grey texture could make the environment feel a bit more finished.

Our team have submitted an action-oriented platform runner if you'd like to check it out (Link below). :)

I wish you the best with your projects!

https://itch.io/jam/feedback-quest-8-indiegames-x-indie-streamers/rate/3773442