p.s.
One last suggestion: make the true ending rely on a game-spanning secret.
In a secret-hunting game, discovering the secret built up from clues that have been in plain sight (but only given context near the very end) is just the best. ><
Um, if you’ve played Tunic, the true-end puzzle of that is what I mean.
The true-end puzzle of Outer Wilds also does it (and its dlc does it again!). (edit: Leap Year might also be a good game to look at)
For this game, maybe it’s some sort of song, with pieces scattered around the world in weird symbols? IDK.
It’s a lot of work to pull off, but I think it’s worth trying for. ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
I really liked this game! It’s definitely one of my favorites from the jam. (^o^)
The secret hunting was a lot of fun, and the moment-to-moment systems all supported that. I did a 100% run and a 0% run right after.
Now that I’ve finally got my hands on it: I’m glad to say that hitting stuff in a fight feels good! d( ´ ▽ ` d )
I was a bit worried by the in-development videos and how Dear Clockmaker’s combat felt. (^^)
I didn’t do much of the boss fights though, because I figured out the pacifist trick for them really early.
Some more attention on making enemies satisfying to read and maneuver around would start bringing it up to the level of Wind Waker.
Also, the screen flash when you get hit really hurts my eyes, please turn that down! That’s my biggest request. X.X
The moment-to-moment movement felt pretty good too.
The walk animation is really weird though. The left arm moves forward when the left leg moves forward, instead of a normal person walk where the arm moves opposite to the leg. Didn’t catch that until I was actually walking around in-game. >.<
The walljump was pretty nice, the dash felt about right (maybe it fell out of the air too early?), and the ground pound was a lot of fun to use.
There was some weirdness where I could double jump sometimes, without unlocking the doublejump upgrade. I remember it happening when bouncing on mushrooms (without ground pounding them), near the central bell, and a little after beating Seiryu on the 0% run.
Now onto the main focus of the game (and best part): discovering stuff. I won’t go into too much detail (spoilers!), but figuring out all the mechanics and skip-tricks was great. I’d think “oh, would this work?” and then, after a little bit of fiddling, it often would! :O
Spoiler, Best Secret:
Figuring out the Sun Concerto was the big highlight for me.
There's no direct hints in the game for it (edit: that I found), other than the implication that a song that melts ice should be possible.
I had seen pretty much everything else in the game up to this point, and was mid-fight with Genbu.
So... I tried a few ways of reversing the song that froze water, and managed to hit the Sun Concerto! :O
It was a really cool moment and a really fun way of finding that song. :D
I was really interested in this entry from the character design posts Daeleth had been making beforehand. It's cool to see it coming together, even if it wasn't quite finished in time! (^^)
The start is pretty rough, with some camera issues, choppy movement, and difficulties figuring out where you're gonna land/where the walls are. (There's a lot more minor things feeling wrong that all stack up, but I don't want to bog you down with them here. I think everyone else has covered them.) Once you get out into the open areas it starts shining though!
The movement abilities by the end of the game chained together really well. I had finally figured out the timing to use the swing properly, and how to boost into it off the slide jump. Then, combo-ing that with the wall kicks and dive kick felt really cool.
The exploration was also really good. :D It felt like there were a lot of places to go, branching paths, and stuff I realized I could've gotten in a different order. Also, since you could see most of the landmarks in each area from most vantage points, it was really easy to find your way around!
For lore, I'm a bit confused at why these skeletons would be better at flying than dragons. I really liked the implication that the dragons knew more about flight than we might think, from finding the secret celestial key in the [SPOILERS] area.
For minimalism... removing armor to unlock abilities doesn't actually feel like "minimizing" to me. It's just a cosmetic difference away from putting on armor to unlock abilities. The unlit art style and simple area designs really land the minimalist feel though.
The exploration in this was so good! I felt like I could just get distracted by every new path I saw, and find something neat when I go down it. \(^o^)/ Though, I found it really difficult to keep track of where I've been and how places are connected, especially after the 4th marble.
The music was amazing too! I think my favorite track was the Caldera's BGM, and second place is the Ruins'. (^^)
This might be a weird criticism, but I think there could've been a bit more excitement? ｢( • ﾍ •) I don't mean more "action", it's more like... some mind-blowing discoveries or connections would have really pumped up the experience. The closest moment for that feeling was when I (spoiler!) froze some big pools with the Ice Ball.
My favorite thing about the game is the ways the different marbles interact with different environmental objects. It was always a joy to see it happen, and then go "Oooooh, of course that's how X would work with Y, why didn't I see that coming?" (◉ o ◉ ) All the different ways to interact with "basic" Water was so cool. The surprises even kept up all the way to the end, with what happens when the last marble falls too far. Pfhahaha, Of course it would do that! (^o^)
I had the same bugs as everyone else, but it wasn't too bad. (^^) My only wish is that there was a bit more uniqueness in the abilities. We get a gun, let's use it for more stuff! (Though, the Pseudoregalia inspiration is pretty cool too.)
The sound design felt very careful/deliberate about which things got sound and which didn't. I liked it. The visuals are stylish and striking, and the atmosphere of it all together was really cool/eerie. (The freaky hands and masked things?! And they're not all in the distance!?)
The pawn npcs' lines for when you reach silly spots is probably the highlight for me! (^o^) They're so funny, and make me feel like getting to that spot was noticed.
The movement was really tricky to pull off. (X . X) It turns out that Godot's built-in CharacterBody behaviour doesn't maintain momentum on slopes the way roller skates do. I had to actually code new physics logic for moving the player and handling its collisions.
Also, ouch, I thought we fixed all the reset-button glitches. DX The whole point of that was to be a quick fix for getting stuck inside of geometry. It became what it was made to destroy... ( _ _)
- I got stuck just before the Freeze upgrade, because I couldn't figure out what I could even do next. I didn't notice that the upgrade was in a ball that rolled around. Once I saw it moving, it was a fun puzzle though. Maybe something could be done to bring more attention to the rolling? - The purple box mechanic took a long time to figure out what was even happening. Maybe something could be done to draw attention to how standing in the right spot makes the boxes activate? Maybe the spot you need to stand on changes color when you're on it?
Some more cool things: - The music was good! - The "boss battle" at the end was fun and goofy!
This was a really silly and creative game. :D I like the way the whole game used and reused such a small number of rooms.
The main issue is that the physics were really frustrating to deal with. I'd get trapped in boxes all the time, boxes would phase through my webs, and... the star ball. (- _ -) The star ball would float off into those red cross things no matter how softly I tried to nudge it or how many webs I used to guide it. The concept of that puzzle is so cool, but every time that ball got reset back to the start felt awful and unfair. Fixing the physics sounds like a huge undertaking though, so I get why it's like this. >.<
Overall, all the puzzles were nice though! They were all interesting and pretty varied. (That includes the star ball, once it finally works) I really liked using the webs to stick those boxes in place. (^o^) And then there's twists on that!? :O
Figuring out which place fit which new ability was also a joy.
It must have been a lot of work coding in all the minion controlling stuff, and the multiple resources, and building types. (O.O)
At first I was trying to do all the tasks just by myself, but figured that getting a few more peasants than requested would help out overall. I like that there's that level of decision-making done by the player, and it's not all the boss's orders.
Wish there were sound effects, they could've been so goofy. (^^)
I loved the ending where the boss got turned into a frog. Revenge! >:D
This game has a really cool setting and aesthetic! You really delivered on that "horrific beauty" type of thing. (◡ ◡)
I think there were a lot of frustrating mechanics though, like how it was kind of tricky to quickly pickup, fill/use, then drop things. Having to do a couple cycles of that just to get the blood water for my plants felt really finicky. (>_>) Same with the bloody footsteps, and spilling the watering can when I'm trying to clean the broom.
The sponge ball plants were fun to use, especially in those enclosed areas where they'd bounce around a ton and were easy to pick back up again. (^o^)
I'm not really sure what the point of the other plants were though? It didn't seem like I really needed them to clear out a level?
Overall, it was a cool experience! I'd love to play a version with more cool and crazy plants in the future. (^o^)/
I initially had them similar to Minecraft's swimming, but then wanted to make the camera a bit more dramatic (edit: and free to look around). The terrors of camera design that followed were not for the faint of heart. (X . X) Did you know there are multiple books about how to make videogame camera systems? I didn't until two weeks ago! (@ o @)
I ended up putting the mouse-controlled turning back in pretty last-minute, to hopefully get the nice controls and dramatic camera. Effectiveness still in-question.
Glad you enjoyed the game with controller! Thanks for playing! (^o^)/
Sorry to hear about the motion sickness. I wish I could've gotten the camera to follow the player a bit more loosely, but whenever I tried to, I got motion sick. D:
Glad to have you! I've sent a friend request on discord, my username is speedrockstrong.
I have also found another musician person (literally minutes before you replied), so would you be okay potentially sharing the musical stuff with them? >.<
Would you like to potentially work together, or would you rather be the sole artist of a team? Also, it's looking like we would probably do something 3D, would you prefer to do that or strictly 2D? Cool turtle tortoise art!
I'd like to focus on programming complex interactions, and making a very usable game. My engine of choice is Godot, it's been a lot of fun to use lately.
I'm also considering messing around with 3D modelling.
3. What can't I do?
Really nice art/graphics. Nice music or sfx.
4. What don't I care about?
Please do whatever with the music and sfx. d( ´ ▽ ` d )
5. What is my time commitment to this project?
About 15 hours a week.
6. What kind of games do I like? What genres or game types would I like to try making?
I like Fighting games, Turn-based strategy games, Card games, Platformers, Puzzle games, and Adventure/Metroidvania games. RPGs, Visual Novels, Racing games, and FPS games can be okay too.
My favorite games are: Cave Story, Rivals of Aether, Hollow Knight, Library of Ruina, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Rain World, Outer Wilds, and Spelunky.
tldr; I'd be happy with most genres. (^o^)
7. What kinds of skills am I looking for?
Anyone with art or music skills would be awesome!
Other programmers would also be cool, but I might not be able to pull off the art and music to the level we'd want ( . _ .).
edit: I would prefer to keep the team size at 4 people or fewer though. It gets tricky to organize (X_X).
Hi, I liked playing your game! It's got that classic hearthstone-esque card game feel.
I do think it's janky though, and it took me a while to figure out the controls. Did you know there's a glitch where I can attack with the same summon over and over in the same turn? It's super OP. There's also a glitch on the win screen, where clicking does nothing and you're just stuck.
One thing that I might've got way too into is the characterization. Miya seems like she'd be the brash and argumentative type with her Cardstorm ability, but her stats as a card have her come across as "tough-but-tiny". I guess she's all bark and no bite? Was that on purpose?
The actual card abilities could be cooler, something to feel more like "magical girls". Right now is okay though.
My favorite combo is a couple Kevins with Cardstorm, it's really satisfying. Nice job on the game!
For the "Dust" move, is it that the right-click isn't registering, or that it isn't very comfortable to do? I think I'll have to make a menu for re-binding controls to fix this kind of issue in the long-term (>_>).
I was worried my theme interpretation would accidentally come across as "dungeon of cages", so I'm glad you liked it!
Thankyou, I worked really hard on them! The spin can also be done by left-shift. (I uh... didn't figure out how to make re-bindable controls in time) Thanks for playing!
Hi, thanks for playing my game! I think I've fixed that kind of crash. If not, there's now a downloadable version (for windows) which should hopefully run better. The art took me super long to do, so I'm glad you enjoyed it! "Elegant" was the kind of feel I was going for with the movement abilities :D
Hi, thanks for playing! The sliding around was a bug I missed just before the submission deadline (; n ;), and I've fixed it up now. Glad you liked the game despite that! :D
