The dice really didn’t fit the game’s theme. I get the feeling you wanted to make a military game, and then just added dice. Perhaps the game would have felt more coherent if it was like a toy war? Like the tank minigame in Wii Play (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orLxrg51xL8).
The main character often aims at the wrong thing. I assume he aims at the nearest thing? I think the game would feel much better if he could just shoot in the direction he was facing. Another idea is to make the player aim with the mouse.
The tanks just plopping out from breaks the immersion. Make tanks appear outside the viewable area.
It’s annoying when two dice appear at the same position. One fix could be to make the dice move if there already is a dice at that place.
You did a good job with the sound effects overall, but I wish that some things that lacked sound effects had them. For example: Picking up the dice, My guy taking damage and the energy ball.
Overall good work though! I liked the main idea with combining strategy and luck to get the best rewards.
I wonder if the combo system is the best it could be. The dice behaves deterministically, with it just counting up. This leads me to believe that the player is supposed to time the pressing so they can get a combo. If that’s the idea, I have two issues with it. Firstly, you can only press space when the dice is touching the ground, making it hard to time the number on the dice with touching the ground. Secondly, it can be hard to read what the dice says when it’s spinning so fast. Maybe just have a number that doesn’t rotate?
Still, the game was pretty fun. I agree if bfulche’s comments as well.
Hey this was I pretty cool game! Here are my thoughts:
The art varies greatly in quality, and the inconsistency makes the game look worse than if the art were more coherent. The wizard looks great though, and if every piece of the graphics looked as good as him, this would be a pretty great looking game.
The controls on the map are a bit floaty. They work for the purpose of just moving around, but I wish the character decelerated a bit faster.
I see you like Paper Mario! You have an interesting idea for the combat system, but the execution could be improved. Just having a random roll of the dice is not very fun (check out this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qfFEP_-LkI). I think that you used the randomess good in some cases though, like how the sequence of buttons to press is randomized. One idea for improving the combat system is letting the player choose the attack and then the minigame is chosen based on that (like in Paper Mario).
While in combat, the player doesn’t get enough feedback from the game. I wanna see something that indicates how much I did, like a flash and a big number. It’s also unclear how my execution of the minigames is correlated to how much damage i recieve/give.
I might sound critical, but I overall found the experience enjoyable! It was fun seeking out the enemies and killing them all, and the minigames were still pretty fun. Good work!
I think that there are several areas for improving this game. The largest one being how the character moves. When he jumps, he should move like an arc, not teleporting up and then just falling. I recommend you check out Platformer Toolkit (https://gmtk.itch.io/platformer-toolkit) by Mark to get some ideas.
The horizontal movement doesn’t feel that good either. I suggest you having Diceman accelerate so it takes like a second to get up to full speed. Now he’s moving instantly, which makes him feel like he has no mass.
It’s also a bit too easy to die (no pun intended) in this game. You have no look ahead while moving, so all of the enemies seem to pop up from nowhere. You’ve already made the camera follow the player, so just make sure you increase how far you can be from the border before the camera starts moving.
Your game still has some strengths! You did a great job designing Diceman. He’s really cute! And I find it impressive that you did all the programming, music, graphics, writing, voice acting and design by yourself. Good job!
It is hard to know what each card does. I took a while to figure it out. Maybe have some effects. Like maybe cover the screen in hearts while healing? This is something you’ll have to playtest.
I wish there was more of a sense of progression. Why are we fighting these animals?
There is no real strategy for the player to use. I just redraw the cards until I can use heal enough times. And then attack. There are no interesting decisions for the player.
I think that this idea need quite some more work to function properly. Try making this game on paper, and let a friend play it. This will make it faster for you to find an idea that works before starting to code.
I agree with SMURF_GAMES on every point. I would like to add that it is a bit hard to remeber what obstacle requires what number. I wish that there was like a legend in game telling you all the time, or perhaps the sides of the dice could be color coded to match the obstacles.
I like this take on the golf genre. Using the eyes of the dice is a clever way too show how many flicks you have left.
I would have liked some music, sound effects and better graphics, but you already know that, and I’m glad you spent most of the time on the gameplay.
While golf is clearly the inspiration, I think the game would be better if you didn’t have to wait for the dice to stop completly. I found myself clicking in frustration for the dice to stop. One idea could be to say that if the dice’s speed is below a certain threshold, you still get to flick the dice.
With all of that said: This is great for a first game jam game!
I couldn’t get very far in the game, sadly. I got stuck at the “thermometer” going up and down. There was a “roll” button, but nothing seemed to happen when i pressed it.
I think the game overall is a bit complicated, and you get kinda overwhelmed when you start playing.
I think some of the art is really good, while some of it is passable. My guess is that you used some free assets, and some you drew yourself. I think you should’ve stuck to one, since the clash between the art styles make the game uglier than any of the art styles separately.
And finally: I did see the hidden amogus easter egg ;)
Yeah, I agree that there could be a combination of mini-game and story that meshed together better. Your idea is pretty good!
My original idea was that you were playing as a kid staying up late, with you mother telling you to go to bed. And the game was about getting to the next level in an MMO before she came in to pull the plug on your computer. This wasn’t dramatic enough, so I changed it to what the game is now. I think I should have thought it through even more, but I still think this is better than my original idea. But at least you now know why there is an energy drink next to the computer ;)
I’m glad you noticed the sprite effects, as I spent too much time on them. What can I say? I’m glad we’re learning about linear interpolation and sine curves in my university courses courses haha.
Again: Thank you for playing and giving me advice about how the game could be improved.
I like the controls in the game. The speed is good and you feel cool whizzing around
I liked the variation in the characters and how it forced you to clear the level in different ways. It was also fun to “cheat”, like jumping up on the walls and explore the world.
I wish there were more sound effects and music.
Why are the enemies amogus haha?
I want more levels! But the level you have shows the premise well.
I don’t think the light effect from the stack of chips makes sense thematically, or add anything to the gameplay. I would remove the effect, or make levels where you need to use it. Maybe have some levels that are dark?
The chip has some weird movement. Considering that each level is only one screen in size, the jump is way too high. The player also slows down a bit too slow for my taste. It feels like I’m on ice. I recommend checking out GMTK’s “Platformer Toolkit” (https://gmtk.itch.io/platformer-toolkit).
I wish there was more stuff you know? Maybe a story (why are the chips alive?). Some music would be cool too. But you already know that.
I'm sad you didn't have time to make more of the game, because I think you really nailed the movement of the character. He's fast, but not too fast. I also like how the camera smoothly follows the cursor.
I'm also a fan of how the environment looks. Excellent choice of colors and the "skull walls" are cute.
This is a great foundations for a twin stick shooter.
- I wish there was some lounge/jazz music to go along. Would fit with the casino vibe.
- The combination of luck and strategy and just reflexes is very clever. I like how you can take as much time as you want to think about what you want to do before throwing the ball.
- Cool scoring system.
Overall great work. Can't believe only 4 people rated it so far. A real hidden gem.
Hmm. I'm not sure what to do in this game. I managed to walk around the room with the little aliens following me, but what am I supposed to do. I tried pressing all the keys and the mouse, but nothing seems to happens. How do I play??
- The mechanic of choosing between 10 or 25 points is not very interesting. The blue button has an expected value of (2/6)*10=3.33, and the red one has (1/6)*25=4.17. This means that it's always advantageous to choose the red button, which makes it an uninteresting decision.
- I get that the sliders for choosing the movement of the dice is supposed to make player skills more important, but the relation between the sliders and the outcome of the dice is too difficult to predict. Perhaps it would be more engaging to let the player control the dice while moving.
- The music is a bit goofy, and I don't think that fits very well with the rest of the game. Maybe if the game was trying to be a bit goofy overall, but not as it is now.
I will say that I think this game has the potential to be much greater. Good work!
- The art style is really cute. Definitely the best executed part of this game. Special shoutout to the bear haha.
- The dialogue is pretty funny too. Keep the clever writing coming :)
- I have two issues with the combat system. First: it's way too slow. We don't need to see a long animation for every roll. It should be like max 2 seconds, maybe shorter. I get that the idea is that you control the dice, but it gets a bit tedious, and the dice is a bit too hard to manouver. Secondly: It is not very engaging to have the combat mostly decided by luck. I recommend you checking out Marks video on randomess to get a better idea of what i mean:
Hi Armaan and Avinash! These are my thoughts after playing your game:
- While the characters are cute, they don't really mesh together. I think this is a risk with using ready made assets. I recommend trying to do the art yourselves next time, or perhaps spending a bit more time finding resources that fit together better.
- It is not very clear exactly how the game works. Perhaps you could have a little instruction screen in the game?
- The character jumps way too high! I recommend checking out Mark's "Platformer Toolkit" https://gmtk.itch.io/platformer-toolkit for some ideas on how to improve it.
- I think it's always important to let the player know what their goals are. While playing your game, I get no such idea. Is it just to survive? For how long, in that case? If it is about surviving, maybe split it into rounds like the raids in Minecraft.
- It's a bit hard to know how the weapons work. Maybe make it so you only have one weapon, but with different ammo, but make that weapon really fun to use.
This is a great effort for a first game jam game. I hope I'll see you joining again next year :)
- I wish there were a few more sound effects. Like a big "BANG" while firing the gun
- The idea of just rolling dice to get ammo is not very deep. My strategy was to run to cover once I ran out of ammo and then rolled my dice a few times. I wish there was more depth, like maybe using two dice at once for a greater reward. Or maybe use a system like Mario Kart, where you have a higher chance of getting good items if you have low health.
- The controls were really good. I liked how fast you run.
- It seems like the bullet shoots a bit too high when I zoom in with the gun.
Thank you for taking the time to play my game and to write such in depth feedback! Here are some thoughts after thinking about it for a while:
- I did try to voice act the lines myself, but since this was a solo project and I'm not the best voice actor, I figured that no voice acting was better than bad voice acting. Nevertheless, I agree that some good voice acting would have improved the game.
- I agree with you other criticisms of the story. Maybe a better theme would be like a criticism of how pay to get money NFT games work, where the voice is your boss threatening you or something. I dunno haha.
- Multiple endings would be cool, but I figured it was better use of my time to create one good story rather than several crappy ones. If I had more time, I might have included multiple endings.
Regarding the randomness: The drops of the golden dice is actually 100% deterministic, since i wanted complete control of the pacing (meaning that it is impossible to win, which I think fits with the quote at the end). I wish I used that control a little better, since I think the game is a bit too slow. I would probably make it about 30% shorter.
Again: thank you for giving me so honest feedback. It is very appreciated.
- I like the idea of the art style, but I am a big fan of Paper Mario sooooo.
- It took a while until the enemies reached me. I wasnt sure what the point of the game was until after a few minutes. Maybe make the arena smaller?
- I never got the sense that i damaged the enemies with my dice. Perhaps there could be a little animation of the enemies getting flat after getting attacked?
- The idea of selecting the probabilites of getting certain powerups is cool. Maybe develop that further?
This game was a bit too difficult for me haha, but I really enjoyed the concept. Just wish there was some cool music too.
I will say that you did a great job with the menus. Too many jam games don't have good menus, but yours were excellent. They were easy to navigate and gave me all the options I looked for.
- I wish there was more of a theme to the game. Like maybe the levels could look more like hotel lobbies or something.
- Nice enemy variety. I thought the game was gonna go on forever with no changes at first, so the cacti and especially the boss fight was a great surprise.
- The movement of the character is a bit choppy. Perhaps you could have the character accelerate for a short while before getting to full speed, (like Mark talked about in Platformers Toolkit).
