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Haha dude this is such a cool concept! I'm nostalgia tripping just looking at it.

This is such an interesting idea, and has such a great feel! I love the idea of a sort of hide-and-seek thing with the two seekers each having different strengths and having to help each other out, and I think the theming and abilities in this game really help complete that experience. 

The music and sound effects are really nice and help lend the mood really well, although a slightly longer loop/more tracks should maybe be a priority if the game was taken further. The art is really clear and evocative; I love that there are distinct portraits as well as the character sprites, lending all of the characters a bit more personality. The level’s tileset also really adds a lot to the general vibe, and I really appreciate that you included art even beyond the playspace.

I like the way you guys designed the abilities a lot; everybody has a few distinct roles that are easily memorable and can in potential be pretty decisive, and there’s not an overload of information, which is especially important in a strategic game like this since you kinda have to know what everyone else is doing too. 

I have two main criticisms; one I brought up in class, which is that it takes a little bit to get going. Honestly, actually playing the game, I don’t think this is as much of an issue as I thought watching; the starting turns are a bit slow, but it gets going fast enough, and the downtime gives you a some maybe-needed time to think about what you’re going to be doing. 

What I really think does need adjustment is the transitions between turns--the game is about information, but the round transitions are instant. Assuming you’re all playing around the same screen, even if you use a “close your eyes” honor system kind of thing, it’d be kind of hard to actually look away. So you basically always see where the heart is, and with the angel’s sight lines and so on. I don’t wanna make too much out of this ‘cause just a like 1-2 second fade between rounds, or a “confirm end turn” thing would alleviate this, but I think it is kind of a big issue with the game as it is right now. 

In all though, I really liked this! I think it’s a really elegant concept; there’s enough going on to keep things interesting, but not so much that it’s hard to remember. And the visuals, abilities, and sound all add so much too!

I really love the concept of this, and the art! It’s such a fun idea, and I feel like the interface and models (and character models especially) both really match the kid-based theme and also lend a nice and necessary lightheartedness and non-seriousness to a game where you’re gonna end up murdering a few pedestrians by mistake. 

I like the audio too; the engine sound always running rather than just being when you’re moving might be nice, but I like the contrast in audio for the menu/game. It’s a tiny bit repetitive (I remember someone mentioned that in class) but I don’t think it gets annoying or anything.

As for gameplay, this obviously suffers hugely for me playing a 3 player game as one person, but I do feel like it falls short a bit; I feel like the babies just aren’t strong enough to be able to meaningfully change things. Even with vomit on the screen and so on, the field of view is large enough to be able to navigate easily enough, especially since you can also look around at will. I mentioned this in class, but maybe something like letting the passenger actually divert the vehicle a bit--maybe the one on the hood obscures/annoys, and the passenger does active diversions--would balance things a bit better. I’m sure it’d be helped if I was actually playing as a driver against people trying to beat me though, rather than..against myself. 

Also really minor feedback, but a proper name + icon would be really nice. It takes like a minute to change and makes things feel so much more finished! Also I spent a bit looking in my downloads folder not realizing it was just called WBuildLatest.zip, haha. You guys have a really nice name, too!

I think there really is a lot of personality in this game though, and it could be so much fun with honestly not that much changed.

This seems like an interesting game that is unfortunately really, really let down by the fact I can only play it as a single person, to the point I’m not sure how meaningful my feedback can be. 

I think the character art is really well done. It and the abilities interface have a really cohesive and nice look, and are eye catching to boot, and the movement they all have is really unique and well done. 

I’m less sold on the environmental art; the ground with the normal mapped texture and everything looks nice, but I don’t feel like it meshes too well with the character sprites. Its contrast with the interface is pretty nice though.

The abilities all seem really interesting. I love how the bounce works for the trap; the push/pull seem like they could lead to some interesting things, and I really like the idea of the two runners having to be near each other to be at their best. It’s kind of hard to tell more than that by myself. Looks really promising though!

I think it’s really great you guys included a dedicated tutorial, and it seems laid out in a way that does a decent job of explaining things. I think there’s still a bit too much going on, especially for the monster, but it’s kind of hard to tell when I’m trying to absorb 3 roles at once. If there’s a way to describe all the abilities without as much text on the screen I think it’d be helpful though; there’s a bit too much reading. Or at least space them out a bit more. 

In all though, I think this is really promising! I’m hopeful we’ll get to see it played in multiplayer during the demo, I really feel like playing it by myself lets it down.

What were your favorite moments of the game?

This is such a weird but novel idea for a game! I really liked how you threw something new at us with every round; I feel like the mowing mechanics from the first stage plus a few different enemy types could have carried this by itself, but you really shook things up with how we had to do things in the later rounds. 

It’s also just weirdly satisfying! I never knew I needed this game.

Where do you see room for improvement?

I think more variance in the bulls would be helpful, maybe with them ramping up in difficulty as the rounds go on; in the first round I feel like they’re overly punishing (we don’t get enough warning, there’s only one gap etc)--it feels more like how it maybe should be in the later rounds. Whereas then they don’t really get harder, so as you get more used to them, the later levels are actually in some ways easier.

Also small thing, but I don’t think the projectile in level 2 should be part of your hitbox for getting killed; at least to me, it feels kind of unfair. Up to you though!

When did you stop playing and why?

I played all of the levels through once. My highscore was about 80%.

What was confusing or intuitive about the interface or controls?

I thought these were really well done. I love how simple you made it to restart, it made me want to keep trying over and over to see if I could do a bit better; without the ease of that, I think I would have given up a lot sooner. 

I like how the controls are shown on screen, too.

What was confusing or intuitive about the game mechanics?

The purpose of some of the attacks confused me a little. If the goal is to get to the end of the level, why do I care about mowing the entire field? For high score, I guess, but I feel like something else should make me want to--maybe a gate that only lets you win if you more a certain % of it, or something? It felt like I didn’t actually need to try to figure out the harder mowing types, since I could just not use them and run to the end.

What was frustrating or imaginative about the visual art, or sound design?

I liked all of this. The visuals are distinctive and off-beat in a nice way, the sounds are a little repetitive but I feel like kind of should be, and everything fit together really well. The character animations were really nice.

Do you have any other feedback that you would like the designer to hear?

I really like this concept! I’m impressed with how much you managed to make out of a mowing game, haha.

What were your favorite moments of the game?

There were so many cool moments in this! Just the menu with its collapsing blocks is such an eye-catching intro; the test commentary throughout the first level is pretty fun, and the variety of abilities is really cool and I think very well introduced. This feels like the kind of game that, after a bit of practice, you could really blaze through the levels in, which I think is really impressive. There’s such a nice flow.

Where do you see room for improvement?

Performance is obviously a big thing, as I guess you guys have already gotten plenty of feedback for, haha. The main other thing I would say is the text; in a lot of ways it seems to be a game about going as fast as possible, but the text just kills that momentum since you have to be completely stopped to read it. If it followed behind you for a big as you went so you had a chance to read it while moving, I think it would be feel much better integrated.

When did you stop playing and why?

I played this a month ago when you guys first submitted it and got to a point (on level 2 or 3?) where I rolled off the edge of the level and couldn’t find my way back. Today I played a bit of the first level again to refresh myself.

What was confusing or intuitive about the interface or controls?

The text problem I mentioned is my main issue with the interface. I do like how the controls are naturally introduced throughout it. 

I like the controls a lot! I think they work really well.

What was confusing or intuitive about the game mechanics?

I had some trouble getting through the column you have to dash through; I think I forgot what dash was (or just missed the text sign), and ended up just slamming myself into it until I got past it.

I do think this kind of game with a lot of things going on can suffer a bit when you can just sort of brute force it, so a more gradual introduction of some of this stuff until we can master it might have been helpful (although it’s also largely on me for not reading what dash was properly).

What was frustrating or imaginative about the visual art, or sound design?

The visuals are really cool, although their performance impact not so much. 

Do you have any other feedback that you would like the designer to hear?

It feels like you guys put a lot of effort into getting the jump timings right for this, which I think is really cool! The wall jumping especially is really nice and novel for the kind of platformers we usually have in class, I feel like.

What were your favorite moments of the game?

The variance in levels; I feel like you could have had a decent game with just the magician and enemies in a default layout, but there’s so much more to it; ladder mechanics, dark levels and sound, vision cones, switches, even tunnels. There’s enough variety that this is actually really fun.

Where do you see room for improvement?

This is super minor, but it’s partially because it’s so minor that I’m bringing it up: an icon! For the level of polish the rest of the game has, the lack of one was really striking. I feel like it makes the game just feel so much more finished; I think you should try to prioritize putting in an icon (even a placeholder) relatively early, just so you’re not left without one at the end.

I think the other big thing is that the knife is too strong / the purple ball is too weak. It gets a bit harder on the dark level, but in the beginning there’s not really a reason to use the ball--you can just run around slicing everyone up. I think the restriction on where you can throw the ball really hurts it--you have to be on the ground (I think?), and can only throw it straight left/right. Maybe just letting you throw it in any direction, or having it bounce and hit multiple enemies (but a longer cooldown?) might give it more utility.

When did you stop playing and why?

On the dark level, I hit esc to give write some notes for the feedback and accidentally closed the game.

What was confusing or intuitive about the interface or controls?

This was brought up when you guys demoed it in class, but I think the UI for the ability cooldown looks too much like buttons--when I played this the first time, I kept trying to click on those to activate the abilities. 

Beyond that, I think it works well. I like how accessible you guys made ladders, it all feels really smooth to control.

What was confusing or intuitive about the game mechanics?

I was confused about whether to press the “buttons” on the UI rather than just use the mouse for the attacks at first, but otherwise I feel like it all works really well.

What was frustrating or imaginative about the visual art, or sound design?

The song is a little bit repetitive after a while, but it’s not too bad really. 

I liked the footsteps, and how they varied in sound. The animations and sprites were also all really nice and clear, it made it really painless to navigate and look around the levels.

Do you have any other feedback that you would like the designer to hear?

I love how much you guys managed to pull off, especially in only a couple of weeks! This is a really cool game.

>What were your favorite moments of the game?

The art and animations are amazing! They give it such a clear feeling, and make everything super visible, which is super nice for a puzzle game. The boundaries all being really clearly defined with the sharp and precise art style is really nice for a platformer too. 

I also really love the mechanic of launching the boxes! The sound and movement of it is so satisfying. And it always felt amazing to finish a puzzle.

>Where do you see room for improvement?

The big thing for me is that it’s really easy to trap yourself into a spot where you can’t make any progress if you do a step wrong. I guess it’s not inherently bad, but since it forces restarting to be a huge part of the game, leaning into that even more might have been nice. You can already restart the levels in the menu which I really appreciate, but maybe having it be sort of fast-paced-low-stakes with a timer or something could feed into it being “if you mess up there’s no time to change things,” rather than the kind of contemplative atmosphere right now that I feel is a bit at odds with the lack of take backs.

>When did you stop playing and why?

I finished it! It was great. 

>What was confusing or intuitive about the interface or controls?

I’m super impressed you have pulling up on ledges as a thing already so this isn’t a big thing at all, but having your character do it automatically if you keep holding in the direction might be a nice change. It felt a bit jarring to have to hit a different key to do it.

Otherwise though, I thought this was all super clear and intuitive!

>What was confusing or intuitive about the game mechanics?

Not being able to go back if you make mistakes in a lot of puzzles, like I mentioned before. 

I thought the puzzles were laid out especially intuitively; I wasn’t always sure what I had to do right away, but after I figured it out it always felt like it made sense. 

>What was frustrating or imaginative about the visual art, or sound design?

Some kind of feedback on victory would have been nice, like was mentioned in class. The art style was super clean and the animations matched it really nicely though; I have no complaints about it otherwise! I thought it was fantastic.

>Do you have any other feedback that you would like the designer to hear?

I really loved this game, especially the concept and presentation! It’s really refreshing that a group went for a straight puzzle game, since I think most of us leaned into the action side of things. I thought you guys did great!

>What were your favorite moments of the game?

The intro was really cool! The art has a really tangible-feeling quality to it which I think is really strong, and the theming is interesting. I’m not sure if there are more enemies than the bat, but the moment it appeared was really interesting too.

Also, I think crawling works really well as a mechanic! It helped feel like I’m exploring this out of the way place, going through crawlspaces and so on, and it adds a lot of depth to things like avoiding enemies. 

>Where do you see room for improvement?

I think the big thing is it’s kind of unclear where you can go sometimes. In level two after you get the syringe, the way the rock appears made it seem like (to me) it was supposed to act as a floor for the entire thing; I didn’t realize at first you could drop down there. The exit to the next level being bright red made me think “don’t go there!!” at first, too. 

Also, I might be wrong but it seems like there’s no disadvantage to crawling? You stay at the same speed and can jump just as far, but your hitbox is smaller. Just adding a drawback would help with that! I ended up just crawling the entire time.

Also, just adding an icon and proper name woulda been nice! It makes the game feel so much more polished and really doesn’t take long to do.

>When did you stop playing and why?

I think midway through level 3? I had to pause for a second and accidentally hit escape when I got back, so I lost my progress.

>What was confusing or intuitive about the interface or controls?

I personally prefer using wasd to arrow keys so ideally I would have liked that option, but I thought the controls were intuitive.

>What was confusing or intuitive about the game mechanics?

With the things you pick up being so specific, I felt like they should have some kind of effect on me? (Maybe they do had I gotten farther), so them just sort of not doing anything felt strange to me. The crawling felt super intuitive though, and water = bad was nicely consistent and visually readable.

>What was frustrating or imaginative about the visual art, or sound design?

The colliders on some of the platforms were a bit hard to judge, but the art was really neat otherwise. 

>Do you have any other feedback that you would like the designer to hear?

The concept and mood in this game were really rich! I was curious about the backstory, and I thought the art all around was really effective visually, even if sometimes a bit frustrating mechanically. The way the crawling worked into some of the puzzles was really novel and interesting too.

>What were your favorite moments of the game?

This game was fantastic! The levels just all around seem to be really cleverly designed, and some of the puzzles are great. Simple things like shooting into the crevice (in level 2?), and in general the timing and flow of the jumps is amazing. 

Following from that, the core mechanic itself is really nice! Simple and intuitive but with a lot of room for great design, which I think you guys executed on well!

The art style is also fantastic; really clear and readable, and the crispness of it makes judging the jumps really intuitive. The color coding is also just really clever and I think works really well!

Also just wanna call out the respawn system! Dying without reloading the level, with the camera zipping you back feels really nice and polished.

>Where do you see room for improvement?

This might very well have been my own problem (maybe I installed it wrong?) but there wasn’t any sound, which was a bit surprising given the polish of everything else. 

I think having enemies respawn after each death might be helpful too, mostly because it contributes to the difficulty curve really climbing, which I’ll get into below.

>When did you stop playing and why?

I think it’s level 4! I got a few tiers up but couldn’t beat it The one with the two moving blue spikey platforms you have to get past. I tried it for about 15 minutes and it was really fun (I might go back and try again after class, I really loved this game); I’m sure I can get past it eventually. But the difficulty curve jumped hugely at this point; every missed jump meant instant death, and being sent back down like 3 levels. 

Thinking about it though, I’m not sure it’s actually that much harder than the earlier ones on a first run through--it’s just that for the previous levels, each time you die, the enemies you cleared out stay cleared out, so when you run through afterward you’re just going through an empty level. On this one, the instant death spike platforms are there every time, which made it feel massively more punishing.

>What was confusing or intuitive about the interface or controls?

This was all great! 

>What was confusing or intuitive about the game mechanics?

I think this was all really clear. 

>What was frustrating or imaginative about the visual art, or sound design?

Well I can’t really comment on the sound, but the art was fantastic! It feels slick and polished--I love the little animations when you die or destroy things. The grid based style is really helpful for this kind of game too and I love the aesthetic.

>Do you have any other feedback that you would like the designer to hear?

I think this is already a really great game! I’ll be going back and trying to beat the entire thing, and I’d love to see more levels in this style.

The theming for this is really novel; I just love the concept of a broadway-based shoot em up, and I think you did a great job with the aesthetics and sound design (where did for find the first song, anyway? It fits perfectly). The menu is also really nicely done, and I appreciate that you put a how to play thing in! You mentioned in the feedback for my game that I should have, and I definitely agree! I think it’s a really important step to help the games feel more complete, and I really want to start putting that in going forward. Another random thing, telegraphing how far your sword swings with the arrow is really helpful, and also added to making it feel like a well thought out game.

I also really like that you put upgrades into the game! I don’t think I’ve seen that in any of our games so far, but I was surprised at how much more compelling it made the gameplay--I kept wanting to get a little bit faster (the slow speed you start at, which I thought was frustrating until the upgrades started showing up, is a nice choice for this by the way; I think it really helps add to the upgrades and make them feel actually tangible). 

I think my biggest criticism is the balance--I found the clippers especially way too hard to dodge, especially compared to the devils which were fairly trivial--but considering the time constraints I think that’s totally understandable. Other main thing is I’d have really appreciated alternate controls, not just the arrow keys; I find them so awkward to use! 

In all though I really liked it!

To start with especially, the atmosphere in this is really incredible. I really appreciate the effort you put into making animations for the characters; the shadow figures that crawl towards you are peculiarly unsettling, and the main character’s frolick helps set a strong feeling of danger. The sounds you picked really help as well; the flashlight sounds impotent enough that when I started, I felt really helpless. I think it captured that feeling of a nightmare really nicely. 

My main criticism is that, I guess as with most horror games, horror part of it started to fade as the game went on. For the first phase, where I was frantically scrambling away from the shadows, barely hitting them in time, wondering what might be next, it was really unsettling. After I got my timing down though, I became pajama-boy superman and started effortlessly juking the monsters and one-shotting them several at a time, which eroded the feeling of horror and mystery a lot, even though the ramping up of the soundtrack and stuff still helped alleviate that a bit. I think if I were to prioritize one change, maybe randomizing the monster speeds a little bit, so I couldn’t get used to their timing so much, would alleviate that issue? Or that could get annoying, I’m not sure. Something to keep up the feeling of helplessness though.

In all I thought it was really atmospheric and nice, especially for the first level.

The menu screen was super unique! I thought it was a really nice way to start the experience in the game; getting to control the character in a harmless space, and the effect with the title text floating over you was a cool way to intro it. Some visual clues leading to the different paths might be helpful; I actually didn’t realize you could go to the sides for the other levels.

The art was also really nice, as always with your games; the mood around the bird level in particular I thought was really cool. I know there wasn’t much time for this assignment, but as like a little thing to prioritize in the future, if there even just a track playing in the background without any other sound effects, I feel like art/audio could carry a whole lot in this kind of game by itself. 

In general though I thought it was a really cool experience!

I’m really blown away by the polish of this game. The colors, lighting and music all come together for a really nice mood, and the hard-edged lines on the player and enemies, UI, and bullets etc all come together to give a really unified and finished feel. The sounds and visuals feel really impactful, and the controls and shooting are super slick and well done. I died before I managed to see the third stage, but the transition between the first and second stages was also really nice -- just when I was starting to wonder if that was all there was, stage 2 kicked in, the music ramped up and the color changed, and it really re-energized it.

It’s also just generally pretty fun! I didn’t run into any frustrations at all in the controls or anything, it all felt really slick.

My main criticism is the difficulty curve; I think stage 1 dragged on for a little too long, and had me get really complacent since I was basically only fighting one enemy at a time. Then suddenly when stage 2 opens up and the difficulty really spikes--enemies get a whole lot harder, their attacks become more numerous etc. The damage values also feel a bit off; for stage one most hits would only dent a tiny fraction of my health, but then in stage 2 there are enemies that can kill you almost instantly and with very little warning. If they telegraphed their attacks a bit (I know it’s a bit too much to ask for a 2 week project, but hypothetically) it might help with that. 

Finally, maybe a bit more clarity about progress; how many enemies to kill before the next stage, something like that. In all though, I thought this was really really good!