itch.io

Thank you! Very thorough and useful.

You're right that the game should evoke a bit of that "old mysterious game where it's not always clear what to do" vibe, but I find that it's a bit overdone now and it's frustrating players. I'll probably tone it down further going forward.

The opening sequence in particular I thought it was a cool way to "cold open" players into the game's world and lore, but it's just turning out confusing. I will heavily change it or take it out altogether too.

Anyways, thank you again for your time!

The QWOP thing is just an idea (I'd find it cool but it might be just me) - the main takeaway is that, at this stage, this could be a thousand different games going forward.

I think I only tried the first map, and most (if not all) the ships - the one with the biggest "turning" was almost impossible to control (also I think the numbers are wrong? One of the ships had a lower number on that stat but would just spin around like crazy).

Also, while on that point,in the future I'd simplify those stats on the UI - instead of big, unnecesarily granular numbers, you could show something more categorical, like a rank (e.g. from C to A) or something like 5 bars that fill up (like mario kart and other games do for the car stats).

Anyways best of luck, looking forward to see where it goes! (dropped a follow here to catch up later)
 

Hey! I tried your prototype, and while it seems like it's in its VERY early stages, I'll try to give some comments on what it feels like and where I could see it heading.

From the control methods, I think what I could see working is the individual motors control - it is simple enough to understand and it instantly provides a bit of depth to the handling of the rockets.

In that regard, it also provides funny scenarios while you're learning how to control the rockets, almost QWOP style - this could favor leaning towards the more "friendslop"/intentionally frustrating angle of making races where everyone is bad and keeps crashing into each other at first. Not sure if this is what you have in mind, but that's where my head went.

On the more formal side, the map vs ship ratio seems correct to not be exceedingly hard. A small tweak I would make is have some degree of directional auto-correct after crashing into a wall, since you tend to spin around several times and it's very hard to recover the proper direction without thrashing all around (the turn radius tends to be a bit high).

I could not test the multiplayer, so I'm basing my impressions off of just taking the ships for a few spins. 

Overall, right now it seems like a proof of concept more than anything, and there could be something there - but right now as it stands, it could be a million different things, so I'd decide on that moving forward.

Hey sorry I just got around seeing your reply, amazing feedback! I will go through it thoroughly, as there seems to be some very good observations in it! Tysm!

Oh and I'll test your game soon too and give you my feedback :)

Hello! I just pushed an update with a more clear FTUE/tutorial and some visual improvements, would love to get fresh eyes on it to hear some feedback!
Right now I'm mostly interested in hearing if the tutorial and game mechanics are easy to grasp, or if there's still confusion as to what is happening/how it works.

Will probably tweak the behavior of the Slimy domino a bit to not make it completely frustrating.

Thank you for all the feedback!

Oh okay that's actually good feedback; as designers we often take things we understand for granted  and it's not always the case for new players, so thank you!

Thank you!

What issue did you have with merging? Dropping dominoes from your hand onto your arm should merge (add up) with others that are already there (tho this is disabled on the first steps of the tutorial).

Also, been developing it slowly for about a year now, taking my time but just now reaching out to find my audience :)

Wow first of all, thanks both for playing, the encouragement and for the thorough feedback!

• Yeah the vibe it's going for is definitely 80's/90's DOS game, so I'm glad to hear that!
• Regarding choices: the metagame part is more narrative and thus more linear, while the core Roguelike game should allow for more emergent gameplay. Even then, this is just the first part of the story, and I haven't decided just how linear/nonlinear the story can end up.
• Yeah the slimy domino might be a bad idea overall really lol, looked cheeky on paper but it's probably too annoying.

If I had to ask one follow up question (and you're willing to answer): did you like the actual core gameplay? Does it feel like you could play it by itself, finding more materials, strategies, and getting further into runs?

https://synaut.itch.io/dominot

Hey everyone! I'm working on Dominot, which is a Roguelike/lite about performing rituals, with a dark mystery behind it.

I'm looking to validate if the core gameplay is appealing, and if the mystery metagame is engaging.

Any comments are extremely welcome!

Like the commenter above said, it's hard to tell without context and/or visual reference.

However, the area's name/description suggest enemies that damage whenever you touch them, hazards, and a zone hard to navigate in general.

Based on that alone and nothing else, it might sound like it's too threatening/dangerous for a first area? I'd go with something a bit more vanilla and friendly, but keep in mind this is based on nothing but vibes.

Very interesting concept and love the graphical style, the atmosphere is top notch.

I'd advise easing into the difficulty more slowly; curves are brutal straight away and I never get to feel like I'm full speed and in control. If it was me at least, I'd let the player get a taste for faster and easier races, and then start making more interesting and complicated courses.

Either way, I think there's potential here for a cool game!

thank you!

Yes, flipping pieces in your hands could be a good Quality of Life improvement, will test it out!

not sure what point you mean by "make a new char", but hopefully you got to see everything the demo has to offer! (several domino materials, tools,  features, a mysterious character, the encyclopedia etc).

and yes, the intention is to have several puzzles and twists going ahead :)

Thank you so much!

may I ask how far into the game you got / what you liked?

ok that was unsettling... in the most interesting way possible

love the layout choice too

Yeah of course I don't mean to put you in the spot of predicting if you the game has financial success potential hehe; I just meant if you felt that the loop and metagame part had potential for engaging players long enough for it to tell the things that it wants to tell. I think you already answered all of it, really.

And yeah my plan is to continue steadily working on it as I have now until I have something I'm fulfilled with, hopefully gathering a (however small) audience along the way. There are a few concepts/ideas/stories I'd like to convey through the game (as pretentious as it may sound), so I really hope it lands with at least some people.

In either case, thanks for all your feedback and positivity :)

Hello Mates!

Wow, really thorough feedback, thank you so much, this is great! It feels great knowing that someone enjoyed the demo/prototype so much!

The game does get  too hard on match 4/5, bu that's in part because it needs a difficulty pass once the entire progression is complete, and in part because the story has nothing else just yet so there's no real ending.

I'll also look into that bug you mentioned, never seen it before.

If I may ask just one final question - do you see potential for this becoming a full game? It is my goal for now but it'd be great to hear if others can see the vision.

Thank you, but I was under the impression that this forum was for voluntary feedback and not for soliciting paid tester work. Good luck regardless.

Hey everyone! I need some critical feedback on my game Dominot, which now has a short demo.

https://synaut.itch.io/dominot

Overall I'd like to gauge if the game interests/intrigues you, if the aesthetic is tiring or it hooks you, and if the core gameplay is engaging and seems sustainable for an entire game.

Thanks in advance!

Ok played it, here's some feedback:

• First of all, love the aesthetic, i think it's going in a great direction!
• Maybe minor, but it takes too long from loading the game to actually get playing (several loading, disclaimers, "cutscene", etc). Cut that friction down.
• While the character controls aren't bad, the air handling is abysmal - feels super stiff mid-aid, can't even change facing direction. This all really takes away movement expressiveness from the player. I'd work hard on this.
• Coins are hard to see - not sure what their use is, but they are too small and not distinctive enough.
  • Something similar happens to the boulder of the kick tutorial, took me a while to realize it was even there
• First enemy too long to appear, had to walk forward in a straight line for a while to get to it. Get to that action sooner.
• It feels like mashing the basic attack resolves most situations. Maybe I just didn't get far enough to find more combat depth, but even the hopping enemies were easy to handle like that
• Something similar to the air handling happens with the dash attack, you can't cancel out of it and it makes the control feel taken away from you for way too many frames

Hope it all makes sense, those are just off the top of my head playing over it.

All in all I think it's headed in a good direction, but moment-to-moment feel and control needs adressing asap. Good luck!

Loved this - very simple but elegant concept.

Very awesome!! Fun concept; struggled for a while to understand that you didn't have to drag the mouse to stretch and that it was intuitively more like "pushing".

Would probably make a very cool bigger game :) hope you take it further

I really liked this! it's a really cool combination of the basic dice walker and a dungeon crawler. With some more polish, it could be a very cool roguelike.

Also, love the presentation; reminds me of playing Windows 9x games back in the day, which I don't know if it's intentional, but game me some good nostalgia :)

The concept is solid, I like the idea of building a world with the dice; maybe you could be building towards an end goal/level, and you have to strategize how to build the path (e.g. each dice value has different number of enemies; where you place each dice on the grid changes the enemy types, etc).

I'd try to take the idea further!

Great presentation and has a bit more of a twist than several other dice walkers; having a small "backstory" also makes it more memorable and charming. Good submission!

Loved it! It's actually one of the most solid concept/prototypes I've seen in the jam!

Like, there's a really cool roguelite game in here with more work and polish. The gameplay is fun and unforgiving (maybe a tad bit much), but as long as you tweak it to make it super dynamic, it's fine.

Dice should resolve faster as I believe others have pointed out; maybe have a dash besides the jump too, which also pushes enemies apart from rolling attacks?

Another quick idea would be that you could customize each side of the die with the items you pick up along the way (attacks, blocks, spells, you name it). That way, you can customize your playthrough for different playstyles.

Maybe integrating rolling dice to the randomization of the dungeon itself? Like, each room rolls a dice, and that room gets N exits according to that roll...

Anyways, sorry for the rambling; I think this is a really cool jam entry and has the potential to be an actually good, fully fledged, successful game :) congrats

Thanks a lot!

Totally agree on the undo button; I already have it working on a newer build and will upload it post jam. Was a bit worried it'd kill the flow or difficulty of the puzzles but it's actually quite the opposite, since it removes the need on longer levels to re-do the whole sequence (tho sometimes you need to, as specific moves at the beginning might make the state of the board unsolvable later!).

Either way, thanks a lot for the feedback!

I was hoping for more FPS style takes on the theme, so cool that you did! I really like the presentation; sadly, I think the gameplay needs a bit of work. Mainly, there's a lot of downtime waiting for the dice to be retrieve-able; maybe add a secondary button to pull it back? It could even have a longer or shorter cooldown depending on the roll, things like that.

All in all, cool concept and idea, just needs a bit more of polish and I bet it'd be a really fun fast paced game!

Such a beautiful presentation! Really 5 stars, the look is really charming and cohesive.

The gameplay is really arcady and fun! Only thing I'd maybe change is having the ability to dash horizontally to attack enemies more straight on. But it's a really fun entry!

Hey I think you had a nice thing going, with some more tweaking and polish, it'd be a fun game! The shooting might be a bit slow tho.

Either way, congrats for submitting! Also, 46 seconds before the deadline, living the danger haha

I really enjoyed it! Did you make the art? Either way the whole experience has a cohesive style and presentation, and the music and sound is awesome too. Cool game.

After rolling two dice (and getting one curse and one blessing), subsequent dice didn't do anything, was that supposed to happen?

Anyways, cool and creative game, movement and combat were really satisfying, I dig it!

A very simple but very cool idea! Haven't seen anything like this on the jam so far. With some polish it would make for a great time wasting game.

Maybe the speed ramps up a bit too fast, could start a bit slower and slowly build out from there. More difficult levels could even include more dice to keep track of.

All in all, a really cool and original concept!

I think you had a great idea here, and as you said, you might've overscoped a little, but I applaud you for having such an original take.

Obvious missing things were a bit of a tutorial, and just a bit more polish on the presentation (which was already on the right track for a charming look). But good job submitting either way and if I were you, I'd try to take the game a bit further to see where it goes :)

It's a really cool idea (and throwback to ice climbers I suppose hehe) and it's fun to play; however I did find myself basically giving up hope if the roll was too low (floors of 1 felt way too punishing). Thinking of ways to balance this while keeping some random unpredictability, maybe the rolls happen on a per-tile basis? maybe you can re-roll floors or tiles on the go?

Just some random thoughts, I liked the game and think with some polish it can be really cool! Good job!

A really cool shooter! Had fun with it, and really loved the artstyle and presentation.

The only thing I'd point out that detracts from the fun is the movement, it's a bit slow. Maybe it was just me, but the only viable strategy for dodging i could find is to continually move in a circle away from bullets, as doing any other movement I wouldn't be fast enough to avoid them. Could be improved with a faster speed, or with a dash (hey, maybe dashing also rerolls your weapon!).

Anyways, cool submission!

I think there's a really cool game in here with some additional work (and also love that we had a similar idea of dice "walking" with progressively smaller dice numbers.)

The look and presentation are definitely on the right track, very relaxing.

The gameplay makes sense after reading the rules and the extra info you left here, but it still needs tweaking. Randomness in a puzzle game can be tricky, as you don't know if you'll have an actual solution each time you (re)start a level. In my head this could go one of two ways:

(1) No randomness, or at least a more deterministic outcome each time: with a certain "state" of the board, you always get the same sequence when placing a specific die. Otherwise, you'll never feel you're "advancing" the puzzle, and you can't build the sequence out in your head to reach the goal in a satisfying and "earned it" way. That way you can also ensure that every playthrough of a level has a viable solution.

(2) Fully embrace the random: throw the set goal out of the window. Turn the goal into making something aesthetically pleasing, or making the highest tower, or getting the most dice on the board before not having more viable dice to place. This makes the game less of a puzzle and more of a toy, but it has its own value and is more of an experience.

Sorry if that unsolicited wall of text seems like a lot. It's just that I think there's a really neat idea in this game, and my mind worked through the design as if it was my own, figuring out where to take the prototype next. It also doesn't mean that what you submitted is bad, quite the opposite actually!

Anyways, I'll stop my rambling, good work and good luck :)

Very cool presentation, it has a lot of personality and with a little bit of tweaking, it could be the look of a complete game and not just a gamejam entry!

As for the gameplay, the mechanics are cool but it needs a bit of polish, especially to add a bigger strategy element (for example, having to perform certain moves in order to line up the enemies in a certain patterns to knock them out, having set dice per level so you can plan out the solution, etc.). Also, I wish you could just restart the level instead of the entire game when you lost.

All in all, there's potential here!

I think this was a potentially cool idea! Sadly, I'm not sure there's an actual win condition?

Make it a bit more polished and relaxing (the sounds are a bit too aggressive) and it could be a really satisfying game.