itch.io

Amazing Game! Especially that you managed to create a rougelike in such a short time is really impressive!

Some feedback that I gathered while playing :) :

- UX wise, i think it would be nice to highlight which things in the shop are currently affordable with your money and which are not, and disabeling buttons for items that are too expensive (i was confused that nothing happened when clicking a button, just to realize i dont have the money XD

- While the game is already really solid, I think it could benefit from more player feedback ( or "Game Feel", but personally don't like the word that much😅) What I mean is more VFX, SFX, screen-shake, etc. when something interesting happens. While the intensifying music is nice and sfx wise you already have quite a bit, I think especially with the paddles and balls there is still a lot of potential :) (basically everything the player interacts with directly)
Examples: when hitting the ball with the paddles above a certain speed, having some kind of small "explosion" on the paddle (still needs to fit your game of course), or when the ball falls into the pit some screenshake, fail sound and maybe a light shining out of the pit (think of when players are eliminated in smash bros, does not need to be that extreme xD but as example) 
I think that could really elevate and hype up the player experience quite a bit, even toned down if you want to keep more of the chill vibe of the game.

- I agree with one of the previous posts, that getting money is a bit confusing xD you just have it at some point...

But still, the current version is already really solid and polished, so good job! :D

Hey there rank sister/brother :D 
Thanks for the kind words! Definitely want to look into if I can't make a bit more out of it :)

Thanks for playing! Did not really think about it like that, but now that you point it out it is true xD

Thanks for the Feedback and Playing! :D

Thanks for the Feedback! :)

I felt like I need the shards to make some levels more interesting, but maybe there are other ways... And yeah, accessibility wise there is for sure still stuff to be done!
Thanks again for playing!

Really solid and very polished game, art, animations and audio are great (also the voice acting xD) Really got into a flow at some point! 

The only "critique" I could think of, is that it is likely difficult to expand on the concept for a "full" game. (Or maybe I am not creative enough xD) But that is also depending on if you would even want that, for a jam it is an absolutely amazing game!

Good Job!! :D 

Good job on the game! At a certain point I definitely got into a flow with the bullet jump (the one where you dash) :D

Some Feedback I noted down while playing :) :

• It is hard to see/understand some damage colliders, e.g. the knife and also the fire under the glass, at first i did not understand why I took damage
• The camera is very zoomed in, and quite static on the character. Giving it a bit of headway on the character (moving it in front of the current look direction), makes it easier what is in front of the character. Some (even very slight) camera lag can make the game feel a bit more ... alive? (for the lack of better word xD ) 
• I think the nicest functionality is the bullet/dash jump, with it it feels like there is a quick/speedy game possible, but for me currently it is a bit hard to perform these jumps chained (if that is the design intention) I feel like letting players buffer the down key while in jump could make this more fluent. (so basically, players don't need to press down and space when on the floor, but can down again already in the air and only the press jump on the floor for a dash jump. )
• I did not exactly understand the ending, but also kinda skipped the intro xD (sorry, I am impatient like that, but you can also assume that most players will not read anything if they are not forced to do it)
• Many collisions feel somewhat rough/not really connecting (e.g. the player collider is quite wide, but the sprites often do not reach the sides (visible especially at the wall jump)

But still really good job on the game, and congratulations on your first game on itch :D Hope to see many more ;D

Of course :D Time is short in game jams, so that is completely understandable :)
And if the font is intentional, than it is perfectly fine! (And true, although not knowing too much about dying feeling out of place irl xD)
Thanks again also for the kind words :)

Thanks for the feedback! :D 
Yeah, it gets quite hard towards the end xD

Thanks! Good point with the UI, i have not really tested on different screens, but it is likely that some scaling issues exist there :) And yeah, another mastering pass, making sure the sounds are more coherent would have been smart likely, but oh well xD Again, thanks for playing and the feedback! :D

Really nice game, with solid visuals and audio! Using your dead bodies as game pieces is always a nice concept, and absolutely well executed here :D

Some feedback I gathered while playing:

• I am nervous and twitchy, I would love to be able to speed up or skip some of the text xD (especially after failing)
• Having a bright glowing character against white environment makes it hard to spot your character sometimes.
• While I like the impact and size of the countdown counter, this is the only case where a modern/not pixelated font was used, right? The font felt a bit like it belongs to a different game imo, so maybe something a bit more coherent would fit better? Unless this is the whole intention of course :) 
• Keep holding the bomb after dying feels a bit buggy imo
• Very personal point, I don't like jumps without hang time (so basically the instant downward movement after letting go), it always feels a bit rough, and slightly imprecise to me. But other people like it, and it is also an stylistic choice, just putting that here ;)

But generally really nice, and well fitted to the theme, good job! :D

Generally a solid start with potential! 

I think for me, currently what the player can do is a bit too limited. Maybe some upgrade system for e.g. sacrificing a count or generally something for the player to do during the round could benefit the game. 🤔

Good job! :D

Really good and super polished game! :0 Insane what you managed in the given time :D
Was a bit lost at the very start where exactly i can place stuff (the constellations as colliders where not clear to me) but this only took like 5 seconds to figure out ;D
But otherwise, the puzzles, art, animations, audio everything is really solid. Good Job! :D

Thanks for the review :D 

Yeah, i think sometimes the bottom death plane is a bit too close (or was the death somewhere else? The stars instantly transforming into black holes can also get you sometimes, which is a bit evil ^^;   
Glad you liked it :)

Thanks! :D 

Thanks! :D

Really interesting idea :D 

It is quite challenging, and maybe i did not see it in the controls, but a way to reset what you draw in the hourglass would be nice (because at some point i just frantically moved my mouse around, and erasing that again was quite a challenge xD

But really nice, also fits the theme really well! Good Job :D

The art is really nice, voice acting and "glitchyness" are on point! :D 
The one thing I think would be nice is subtitles, at the start it was a bit hard for me to understand the voice (especially with the added distortion), but after a few sentences It was fine.

Good job! :D 

Thanks! Yeah, have to say, the theme was also stronger in the game I envisioned at the start xD But testing and figuring out what feels good kinda drove me away from it a bit :) 

Really nice, even though I am not the biggest puzzle game enjoyer :D The art and progressive music are great.
One thing I would suggest adding in the future is a bit of tutorialization at the start. Also at first I was not very sure what can be clicked and what not, but figured it out after some time... maybe some more obvious highlighting of what can be selected would be nice? (but also did not read the description first, bit of a thing I try to see how far I can get without help xD)
But overall really solid, good job :D

Apart from the UX issues that were already mentioned, it is a cool concept with some nice new ideas :D 

And congratulations on your first game jam 🎉

Really great idea! And well executed! As there is a very obvious best strategy, would be interesting if there are ways to make this a bit more challenging. (maybe like placing random stones on the field?) But that said, even knowing the strategy and then executing it are 2 different things. Had quite some fun with that!

Some other notes:

• Might be just imagining things, but sometimes felt that the game went slightly out of sync. Like, that a move just took ever so slightly longer. But this is in such a game of course still very important, as quite percise inputs are needed and you are relying on the rhythm
• It was hard for me to figure out when the best time to input a key is. Or maybe it was more that I was unsure if my key registered on my button press. One idea that comes to my mind is to make the snake look in a direction immediately on key input (so even before the move), so you are at least certain that this worked.

Overall really nice, art and music is also great :D 

Thanks :D

Thanks :)

Thanks for playing and your feedback :)

Really nice idea, that extrapolates quite a bit of gameplay out of a somewhat simple setup. :)
Some very smart swaps, actually loled at stones <-> enemies; the final change is also really cheeky! Music is chill, love it. 

Some notes i took while playing (see it as feedback that I would also give for a final game, I know that we need to cut some corners in game jams ;) ): 

• Controls/info at the start is very nice; no need to read anything outside the game. 
• Jump is quite floaty, it might be intended, but I would wish for a bit more control when falling down (e.g., just search for any video of the 100s that analyze the Super Mario jump).
•  While the directional shadow works quite well here, you might also want to consider a drop shadow directly below the character. This makes it way easier to estimate your position (e.g., are you already over a rock or not yet) 
• Player feedback for falling "sand": was surprised when they first fell (some hint that this happens, classic would be a small wobble before falling, but you might find something different) 
• Took me a bit to realize that the character actually has health, some UI or display on the character would be nice there. 
• Camera is very static and quite central to the player. Adding a bit of camera lag and moving the character down in the camera view a bit might make the game feel a bit more dynamic
• Characters slide very slightly when standing still (not a big issue, but I just died over and over when writing this feedback xD) 
  • Also enemies, some just died when I was waiting for a bit 
• Love the walk & attack animation, has quite a bit of character for how simple/goofy they are (and that is meant in the best way possible) :D

Thanks :D 

Thanks for playing!

The spawn mechanic of both enemies and keys both surely need refinement. But more keys just dropping in the world is a good idea!

Hi, thank you for your comment!

The tediousness of this control scheme is somewhat intended. Not sure if we can change something there without losing the original idea of the game ;D.

You can switch to your other weapon using either the mouse wheel or the keys 1 & 2 on your keyboard. We forgot to mention that in the game itself.

Great to hear you had fun! :D

Onboarding is surely something we haven't handled well. The shotgun is a bit tricky, there are different keys for left/right shift, but it is true that it is not displayed very well. Enemy spawning was something we still wanted to improve, but then the time was nearly over, so it is sadly not ideal. Thank you very much for your feedback!

Thank you for playing! :D

Yes, maybe we overdid it a bit with the post processing effects... While the size of the keys is hard to change (as they have to fit on the gun), putting the gun closer to the screen could work. And glowing characters or keys would have been a really good idea! Thanks for the great feedback! 

Really great, wonky game! I love it! Art is on point, gameplay ... yeah, exactly how you would expect it :D Makes you want to try and try again! Great job!

Played and rated! Interesting concept, and I really would love to see it developed a bit more :D

Interesting Idea! But while i get that flow was your intention, to stay in the flow state the game would have to get harder bit by bit. Of course an extremely hard topic. ;D But yeah, I would also appreciate a bit more gameplay variety. However, I dig the artstyle! Overall an interesting concept, would love to see it developed more!

played and rated! nice concept and I really love the art and sound design!

Nice game! Getting used to doing multiple actions at once is a real mind twister (sorry for the pun :P ) This could probably be introduced a bit better, but I liked the game overall, nice work!

Checked and rated! A really fun game :D Good Job!

Damn, this really is a great game! Could be included as is in a party game. Espcially if you would also have a local multiplayer option! Really great fun, polished experience! Hats off to you!

Thanks for playing! Definetly want to try out your game with a friend, it sounds also great! :D

Yes, we went a bit crazy at the end ;D But yeah, thats what happens when you only work for two day with too little sleep... Great that you enjoyed it, thanks for playing!