That's a shame but I'm not very surprise tbh, we've made the game for a game jam a few years ago so it may be a bit buggy sometimes! Glad you liked it anyway :)
Keyboard/mouse is actually not that terrible imho. I've developed the game so I'm obviously very biased, but it's not the worst jam game I've made to play with these inputs haha. But yeah, I'm more of a controller player so I get your point!
I agree on the monitor complaint. We did not take enough time for some confort options like volume sliders or things like that, which I usually try to work on for jams.
Thank you very much! No special trick that I'm aware of from the few times I've played the game after submitting it. The dragon balancing is indeed pretty hard, and that's on us, we didn't take enough time during the last hours to properly test the game and balance it properly! It is beatable for sure (as we saw many people doing so), just a bit too hard compared to the rest of the game.
Very clever game, I love that take on the theme, and overall it's very polished and nicely done.
Here are some of my thoughts:
- One of the rule mentions that the shortest path will be chosen. However, in some levels (for instance Up A Notch or Rule Number Three), both paths are the same length, and it doesn't seem like there's a priority system as some levels will prioritize the colored path, other will use the main red path. Nothing serious as you only have to play to find out how the level behaves, but for a puzzle game, that's a crucial info that is unclear which can be annoying. Maybe a path preview system before playing could be interesting? You may want to put the emphasis on the trial and error system, in such a case, a preview would not make sense, but I hope you get my point.
- I'd have expected the game to be a bit less punitive as it's a puzzle game and it's pretty cozy. However, after placing a tile, you cannot remove it or change its position, which prevents the player from trying things by moving the tiles and then press play to try out their solution. I believe this can quickly become very hard for people who have trouble with planning their level in their head only. Also, when playing and realizing that the solution is wrong, everything is lost, so you kinda have to memorize what you've tried not to do it again. It can be okay to include some memorization in the game, but here I feel like it would have been way more fun to play with a more flexible approach, focusing more on level design than having to do everything perfectly in one take.
- The artstyle is simple, but very effective and beautiful. However, it can quickly become repetitive, as well as the notes always being the same. I wish that some of the notes were bass notes, to add a bit more depth to the game audio (typically the first note from each bar could be a bass, it would be very cool imho). It's definitely okay for a jam game, but if I were to play the game for a few hours, I would expect it to have more visual/audio variations.
- Special mention for Up A Notch which is the best level by far in my opinion: it has this puzzle game moment where you think "okay it looks easy", then you try, and you look at the notes in the bars doing a A-B-B-A pattern and you're like "okay what?". Overall the game is not very hard (which makes sense for a puzzle game made for a jam), but that level was a very nice ending!
Hope you don't mind me being critical, I believe it's more constructive this way, but don't get my comment wrong, overall I seriously loved playing the game and that's definitely a game I'd play an extended version of! Congratulations!
I could not go very far in the game as I had crashes each time, that seemed to happen on collision with various objects from the house. A bit disappointing as the game looks cool and I love your work, so I'd like to know if those issues are just on my end, or if you're planning or debugging a bit? In such a case, may it help to send you the crash dumps or something?
Anyway, I'll try playing on another computer when possible as I really want to catch those bugs!
I played again and indeed, the game feels wayyyy better knowing that right click mechanic! The banner is a smart addition, not being able to update the game with the input inside must be frustrating, but that's better than nothing!
Nice game! A bit too repetitive and very slow for my taste, I expected it to be more of a fast-paced arcade game than a slow game where you have to position yourself to avoid pull enemies to you. I can be wrong, but I didn't see any combo system to reward you from killing many enemies at the same time? So taking your time for a great attack is not that rewarding, apart from the personal satisfaction of doing a nice attack, which is effective at first but quickly becomes too repetitive.
Also, I think that your room looping system is actually not a loop, just a level system that is just displayed as a loop, but I may have misunderstood something with the level design? Please let me know if that's the case.
Other than that, I love the aesthetics. That color palette is amazing and nicely used, the atmosphere is great, and the music adds a lot to it. The game has nice visual feedback everywhere which makes it nicely polished and enjoyable to play. Also the enemies pulling mechanic is interesting, but I was not really paying attention as most of the time I hit enemies from as far as possible, so maybe the pull could be way stronger for further enemies?
Nice idea, I like it! Also the fact that you're playing a human cursor is very fun.
I must say that the platforming was a bit frustrating, I felt like I had to focus a lot for my jumps, as the notes are very close to each other (both vertically and horizontally), it's very easy to get stuck on a jump, fall, get killed, and being reset on the left. Even worse when that happens on the right part of the screen, because you respawn on the left, and the playing marker kills you on spawn. I know you can loop from right to left, but then you have to run all the way to try your jumps again, which can become annoying quickly. At least the respawning is quick so that's not that serious, but definitely something I would improve if I were to work on the game. And that leads me to another thing, which
I feel like the game is more of a platformer than a music/rhythm game, which tricked me a little bit because I was expecting being able to do some composition using the notes by jumping on them or something, and eventually I was just focusing so much on platforming and not dying that I wasn't listening that much to the music. Which I think is a shame as it's called "Midi Madness".
I guess I'm being critical because I'm a developer and a musician, and while I really love the initial idea of the game, I may have been expecting something and was kind of frustrated (and that's my problem, not the game's). But, it's not my game, and overall I believe that it's a great entry and a cool take on the theme! Looking forward to your next version with that second level!
Very nice idea! I love how it's both a twist on Snake and a good take on the theme. The fact that it's a long dog it also very funny and cute.
My only real negative thought is that the tail biting mechanic, while being very interesting and well done, is weird to me as it starts as a very satisfying sequence, and ends up looking more like a level restart, as your position is reset, your length too, etc. Nothing serious, but since it's kind of the main mechanic, I think it would have been better with an implementation that does not make it look a bit strange. Hope you get my point.
Also, more of a detail, but it would have been cool to have a bit more animations and juiciness. For instance, the squirrels could have a little walk animation (either a two frames sequence or some bounce on the sprite), the bones could also move a bit to make them stand out more, with some VFX on spawn, etc. Nothing serious either, but these little details would have make the game muc better imho.
My comment is pretty critical, but don't get me wrong, overall I enjoyed playing the game and I believe it's a very solid entry! Congratulations!
That's already been said, but I also think that the game is too short. I completed it in maybe 2 minutes. I know that's a jam game, of course, but a few more levels would have been cool because the game is nice! Very simple, both in the concept and the artstyle, but it's still enjoyable to play and fits the theme nicely.
I wish there was a bit more juiciness, for instance making the cogs rotate and kill the player with some particles, the character having more bounciness when jumping, more particles, and a less high pitched sound too, as it's very annoying when jumping.
Overall a good entry, that you should keep expanding if just a bit!
The most obvious issue with the game is that it is very repetitive, and too easy (in a few rounds, you already have enough money to buy attack upgrades and one shot everything). Moving enemies, new enemy types, smaller ones to challenge click precision, enemies that shield the ones around them and prevent the player from killing them, etc. There's a lot of room for more content which would be cool!
Another thing is, if your game is very simple and played only by clicking, that is fine, but then, each click needs to feel great. Here, clicking on an enemy just decreases its health bar and will spawn a sprite on death. What I would expect is that the enemy shakes on click, explodes on death with a sound and a screen shake, stuff like that, so that I really feel like I'm powerfully bursting enemies with my mouse. That reminds me of that video from Jonas Tyroller, in which he works on a simple button and tries to make it fun to click on it:
Anyway, all of these are easier said than done, what matters is that you made a game that can be easily extended on, so I hope you'll spend a bit more time on it in the near future! And I'll be happy to play it again if so :)
Very nice! Simple, effective, and actually very satisfying. I like that you went for a mechanical heart instead of an organic one, it's not much but that adds a nice touch to the game.
This is typically the kind of jam entries that make me think "I want to play more of it", as it's very easy and quickly completed, even for a jam game, but I guess it's smarter to keep a reasonable scope than trying to do too much and end up posting an unfinished project, so I cannot really blame you for that!
That's a very interesting take on the theme! I feel like the levels are mostly inspired by the shapes but not perfectly accurate 2D representations of their topology, which tends me to think that the game would benefit from having a clearer visualization of what's going on, where you're going to end up after taking an exit, etc.
I really love the artstyle, the selection menu is very cool looking, and the controller is nicely polished and enjoyable to play with. Congrats!
I feel like the game has a nice idea behind it, but there are many things that prevented me from truly enjoying it. First thing is the lack of feedback and the unclarity of some things: the spikes do not have any animations to know they're about to pop, the green slime thing looks more like an enemy than a thing you want to collide with to collect your stuff, the holes collisions are very punitive and don't just remove one health but one shot you (which is understandable as they're holes, but since the hitbox is not very generous, they're quite frustrating), some rooms have a bottom exit with no door, etc.
The last thing I'd like to point out that really disturbed me was the gameplay of the boss: during the all game, you play with WASD/space/shift, and the boss requires you to click on buttons, with limited time, which is very weird and made me die to it without understanding what was happening.
To talk about positive points, I liked the initial narration with the key bindings explained with the "meaning of alphabet", I think that was a nice touch. The rooms navigation/roguelike structure of the game is basic but very easy to understand, which is what you're looking for in a jam game so that's a great point, and the character controller is responsive and the controls easy to get used to.
I feel like a bit more time to polish the game would make it become a pretty nice prototype! Congrats for making the entry!
Adorable and fun game, games with cats never disappoint and I enjoyed every minute of playing it! I wish there was some background music playing during the act, as if there was a few musicians. Would have been a nice way to put the emphasis on the fact that cats are in an actual musical show, and change a bit from the very repetitive audio of the game. I believe that's my only negative point, I really love everything else. Congrats!
Thank you very much! The tiny loop technique is something we wanted to work on, as it's indeed a potential softlock issue since it can lock all of the flags forever. I'm glad you enjoyed it though!
Damn, I did not even see that there was a flashlight, that one is on me... I totally understand that time is limited and that you had many ideas to improve the game, I hope to see it updated after the jam indeed! And this time I'll play again with the flashlight haha
Very cool entry, I like the take on the theme, and overall the game mechanics is very easy to understand, which makes it enjoyable to play.
I had some trouble understanding how to move the camera at first, and the background not following the camera yet zooming in and out made me have a strange feeling when starting to play. Also, it's a shame that everything is so small on screen, like I could almost not read the prices for upgrades, and the ships/bullets was also very small on screen was zooming out to see the full planet. The game seriously looks good, so I wish everything would be bigger to enjoy the artstyle to its full potential!
The defense gameplay was fun, the only thing that frustrated me a bit it is that there's no aim prediction; your ships will fire at an enemy ship's position, but that ship will move, so your bullet will not touch it. Either an aim prediction or faster bullets would fix the issue, I think (faster bullets are easier to implement and would add more juiciness to the game).
Anyway, pointing out what's negative is always easy, but don't get me wrong, I liked playing your game and I think it's really well made. Congrats!
I liked the game, it's cute, easy to understand and play. I'm just a bit disappointed that there's no actual drawing mechanic, at first I thought I'd have to draw some circles or spells, but it's actually a more basic character movement, and the drawn path doesn't have any effect on the game, right? Maybe I've missed it.
The circle rotation when selecting a level hurt my eyes a little bit, not sure if it's the speed or the detailed pattern that made it harsh to look, but maybe that's something that could be improved. Or maybe that's just me haha
It's hard to get used to the controls at first, mostly the fact that when you reverse the gravity, you also invert the movement axis, but it's still enjoyable to play. I feel like the looping mechanic is working in a platformer game, but the gravity switch system actually makes it hard to do a loop to kill enemies (also the fact that there's a very limited size between pins doesn't help either). Maybe a platformer with no gravity switch where you have to perform precise jumps and place pins on the way would've been interesting? Hard to tell, but I hope you get my point. The idea is very interesting anyway!
I enjoyed playing the game overall :) Congrats for the entry!
I love the idea, I think it could be a very cool game with more time and polish.
The main negative point imho is that the game requires to place the tiles quickly because the car will not wait for you to start moving, but, the tile placing mechanic is not polished enough to be fast and the game is very punitive. For instance, when selecting a tile to place it, I would expect the game to allow me to replace an existing tile (by just swapping the tile I selected and the tile already place), whereas here, I need to first remove the existing tile, then pick the one I want to place in the menu, and place it. Doesn't seem like much, but when you realize that the tile sizing and replacement is not that easy to get, well, you just end up removing a tile and the car will crash. And when the car does crash, there's no option to keep playing on your current level, you will lose all progress, which makes the game frustrating, as building a race track is hard and you lose it on any mistake.
Such a game would be great if the tile mechanic placement was perfectly fluid and intuitive, that would make it an arcade game where you have to build a race track on the fly, as Gromit does in the gif posted by michalrajkowski below :D Or, the car could wait for the user to press a "start" button, which would leave as much time as needed to build a cool track, and then see how it goes. What I mean is, the balance between the tiles/puzzle system and the car not waiting for the player isn't good.
Let me add that, while I'm sharing an overall negative thought about your game, I still think that the idea is very cool and I would love to see what your game could be with more work! I hope you'll keep on working on it, if just a bit :) Congratulations for your entry!
Very nice game, I like the take on the theme. And the title screen is very beautiful.
I feel like the controls could be a bit more sharp (a faster jump and less inertia) as the game requires precision, but I also understand that you're on the moon so gravity is not that high haha I also think that the light was not in perfect sync with the top screen gauge, so it was a bit hard to anticipate jumps. That makes the lighting system look great as the light fades in and out nicely, but sadly it impacts the gameplay a bit too much for my taste.
I'm sharing a few negative points, but overall the game was very enjoyable to play :) Congrats!
Very solid entry! Polished, fun, good looking, and I definitely was headbanging while playing! I also really like that the game has a 5 waves system, which makes it shorter than survivor-likes games and fits a jam entry well.
The fact that money disappears at the end of each wave was a bit frustrating at first (as that does not happen in most survivor-likes, at least not the ones I've played) but is an interesting touch and invited me to play again and try to collect more before wave ends. And I wish there was a way of healing up between waves (maybe there is and I did not see it though), for instance a cassette giving a few HP, that would be a tradeoff as you sacrifice damage on a beat to survive a bit longer.
Anyway, tbh there are not many negative points, overall the game is very cool! :) and an impressive amount of work even for a 4 days game jam. Congratulations!
Nice game! Very similar to Jump King, as it has a nice balance between frustrating me but making me want to try again every time haha
I did not understand the controls at first, and I think it would have been interesting to play only with the loop and not be able to control the jump distance by moving during a jump, but the game is cool anyway. Also the dog is cute.
You're surely aware of that already, but the lack of music and the repetitive jump sound is a bit annoying over time. Nothing serious, but would have been cool and make me want to play even more with a slightly more polished sound design :)
That's a great entry and a very nice take on the theme! Also the game is very polished and beautiful, it's just sad that there's no music.
It took me a few moments to understand all of the mechanics, but after that I really enjoyed the game. I did not manage to win the last level, but I really loved playing anyway. I don't really like big text block as tutorials, especially for jam games, I wish the tutorial was a bit more integrated into the gameplay directly, but I know that's easier said than done.
I'll probably take some more time to play and try to beat the game later on :D
The game has a nice atmosphere, it's both weird (in a good way) and beautiful.
I did not understand how to exit the labyrinth at all, I ended up dying a few times (the death sound scared the hell out of me) or just not being fast enough, and the night part is completely black which makes the game unplayable. I had a warning before launching the game about my graphic's card driver so maybe this is a rendering issue (I've read your comment saying that you were not familiar with UE rendering).
Very interesting entry, and congrats on making it!
Very enjoyable game, took me a few minutes to understand how to create planets for after understanding the mechanic, I found myself trying out as much combinations as possible and was happy seeing that there were a lot of different planets to discover!
Nice little game, I like the take on the theme and playing a boa constrictor kinds of reminded me playing Carrion, and playing the monster in a game always feel cool to me.
It took me some time understanding how things work, despite reading the tutorials, but after eating my first preys, it was cool navigating in the game, avoiding the hunters before eating them, etc. I feel like I would have enjoyed a bit more feedback (like audio and VFX) when eating preys, to really make me feel like a deadly snake. I like that you put work on tutorial and level design, it makes the game enjoyable to play too, like you're not just lost into a game not knowing what you have to do.
Anyway, I enjoyed playing the game! Congrats for making it :)
Hi! Thank you very much for your nice comment! The dragon is supposed to be defeated in the same way as basic enemies, it just has tons of HP (and is probably a bit too over powered, tbh).
Very addictive game, and nice take on the theme too. The artstyle is great, I love it! And overall it's very polished.
I think the only criticism I'd level is the sound that's a bit too high pitched for my taste, and the fact that there's no real goal. I understand that the game is an endless loop, but I feel like since there's a score, there could be some kind of goal to reach or something, otherwise the score doesn't make much sense. But anyway, I enjoyed my time playing your game! :)
Cool game! Very quick to understand how the mechanic works which is enjoyable, the art is cute and the sound design is very fun :) Adding "w" in "score" and "combo" is a nice touch too, I love that detail.
As mentionned already by wowa, I thought the game was about splitting cows into two groups instead of ignoring the brown ones (especially because capturing brown cows encloses them exactly as it does for white cows so there's no real way of knowing that before playing). On my second try, after understanding that, I ended up waiting for white cows on top of my screen which was a bit less fun to play than splitting the cows (as it made the game much slower), but at least my score increased! I think I had a score of 230.
Anyway, despite that, the game is really nice. Congratulations!
