itch.io

I missed some of the last update so my thoughts here are sort of a mix between then and this one (busy busy busy). 

Great quality of life stuff overall. Haven’t had any big stutters or mini freezes, only once when first firing the fibonacci strike (like it stalls for a sec and doesn’t play the full animation, but then afterwards works fine and plays the animation. So maybe not actually a stutter, but perhaps the animation isn’t triggering correctly on the first blast [Browser]). 

Solid UI feedback, especially confirmations; makes it easier to move faster but not over a cliff so to speak. Opening is much cleaner and more impactful (I know last time I missed the actual “opening” because of the tutorial section skipping it). And having the sandbox/Practice section I think helps when wanting to change up your strategy, but not have to test it in a story mission. And yes, being able to waive my flag and give up early so I can change it up is greatly appreciated (I may have forgotten to heal one of my ships from time to time and jump in like “oof”).

I also think the challenge feels more balanced. I feel like I still need to make smart decision but not having my knee caps blasted with space hammers for most minor mistakes.

I’m sure other things might come up as I’m playing, but I’d say this was a solid update.

From the feedback so far, clearer direction is high on the list of updates I need to do. I also want to play around with the interaction triggers a bit to make them easier/more intuitive. Thank you for playing and I appreciate the feedback!

I was gonna say, I found this intro much better (>▽<) !

I can't remember the exact point, it was either 1 before or RIGHT before fighting the boss in the 3rd level? > that I got the repair bug. If I get a chance to play it again before you do any updates, I'll see if it happens again. Might trigger whenever, I don't know to be honest. I also don't know if it happens in general or it is character specific. ...I killed Flinn... 

Also, did you update this week? Cause I did notice when I just peaked at the game again that the intro was different and this time I didn't choose the tutorial?

That makes sense with support ship. I did find myself using it as more of a mobile battery I moved between the other two ships.

Sounds like some solid update plans coming down the pipeline though!

Hints and guidance for sure will be included in the next update. Been brain storming on this a bit as I don't want to just put in like a generic RPG Maker quest log in (no shade to rpg maker). If I have to add one generic thing, I want to try and add something unique or a twist to it. Probably won't always work out, but I at least I want to give it a shot. 

All good data though! Thank you for playing and thank you for the feedback!

Played in Browser.

Interesting visuals, tutorial was pretty easy to understand and get moving quickly. This game felt like legit demo or clean vertical slice for a much bigger game. I was surprised how much I got out of it. Also, I didn’t know I couldn’t shoot overlapping my allies, my bad. Maybe the United Government are evil... Because I got one ship killed, it let me “repair” it from 0 after the mission, but in the next area it wasn’t available on screen to use. Maybe intentional, as later I unlocked a revive, but “repair” might be confusing for fallen ships if that was the intention. And I learned what ruefully means today! One of the ships is really hard to aim for not much reward it feels like = support tank alpha. Maybe intentional and it builds up later in the story, I just didn't notice much of a difference in damage vs the reward of getting it straight. Spaceship alpha1 would just auto attack and waste their turn when fighting the AA Defender and would continue to do it randomly afterward. Looking into it, might be registering clicks at the bottom of the screen between turns before the ui comes back for my turn; as I’m clicking through dialogue > it clicks an action. Might be nice if I can take back a mistake when still my turn or a way to quick wipe and start a run over when I know it’s already impossible to continue. Fibonacci strike also causes a brief stutter every time I use it (again, I was in browser, so maybe this is fine on the downloaded version). Overall had a lot more fun than I anticipated! Like I said, this felt like a demo to a much bigger game. I’ll be interested to follow the progress!

Looking at your questions,

• Game fun? Yes, at first it can seem like it’s going to be complicated, but once you get through the tutorial, it is actually pretty easy to pickup and play mission after mission.
• How catchy is the story? I only have a minor “opinion” from the beginning: 
  • 1) Can we get a little more setup on the main characters and the united government? Kinda give me more reason to care about these characters since it goes straight into this big battle with an alien space fleet who later challenge my allegiance to this “united government” (who I know nothing about currently. I could be bought!). Not much, just a brief window into understanding. 
  • 2) Take or leave this one, opinions alert: the opening scene/dialogue, “We peacefully protested against them but they started openly killing us to “set an example”.” ‘Peacefully protested’ might sound a little more current day way of phrasing it vs this advanced technological world/future and these people appear to be even more separated/regressed from it. So maybe some rephrasing and practice of reduction to more like, “We protested peacefully… They made an example of us.” I think because you already have the art visuals for dead people and blood, you could skip reiterating the “killing” and also make the topic more hesitant and remorseful. Sort of like, the pain hits harder when the reader/player has more they have to interpret from the context given. A person’s own imagination is more powerful and personal to them than anything we could write. Kinda like how in scary games or movies, not showing the monster or the whole monster has the person, experiencing it, filling in the blanks for what could be there. Very potent stuff. So for the darker moments in story, more visual clues and saying less can hit harder. Again, opinions, you’re the visionary at the end of the day and I can say, I think it has a good balance of dialogue <to> playing the game. Sort of leaves me on a cliff hanger for now until we see what comes next. The zoom out scale of the crazy overwhelming odds that was coming was impactful since, as the player, I know at this point how combat plays out and how insane it would be to fight this entire fleet. I did enjoy the raising of the stakes and can’t wait to see what crazy thing I’m thrown into next!

I like mecha games and the pilot point of view is some of my favorites. Overall I liked the environment and the scale of things. Made me feel more like I was piloting a mech. There was also enough enemy variety for this beginning zone to get a feel for things and exposure to different types of combat scenarios. At the start of the game, it would be nice to have a chance to play with the controls before being immediately thrown into combat. Maybe even just a quick callout over the radio to get you moving and then funnel you into the combat area and start things off where the game currently begins. There’s some fun concepts here and good potential as it becomes more refined.

Looking at your questions,

• Movement feels alright in general. When I press the sprint key once it activates sprinting and doing it again toggles it off. However, if I’m trying to flank back and forth, it toggles off when changing directional input. Feels a little jarring. Maybe something here could be tweaked? Like let me toggle sprint on/off regardless? Perhaps aiming is harder while running vs walking to balance it? And maybe none of that matters and you are already cooking up your own ideas.
• Combat felt somewhat janky to me. In some ways I feel this kinda works for a mech game with the more methodical movement of a big machine. The areas I found could use some help was the aiming in general. Up close, there’s generally no problem, but if you give me cannons I’m expecting to shoot farther out. The target reticle will show red, but that doesn’t mean I’ve actually got something fully in sights. I would fire the chain gun at a dude in one of the towers and it would just go right past him. And with the tanks, it would be nice if there was a way to aim better at a distance in a more tactical sense. I felt like I had to get much closer to enemies to be sure hits registered.
• Found confusion with the mouse controls at first. I think in a regular first person shooter it works as these are the controls most people are used to > aiming and shooting. However, with 2 guns, that are clearly labeled as right and left, having the mouse buttons backwards just mixes up which side I was using. Maybe some people prefer that, but maybe like a controls edit/rebind option for some of these things would help.

Short and sweet! There’s some areas where I’m not sure if I did it correctly (or the intended way) as I spammed the jump and swap buttons a bit on a part I had some trouble with. Got through all the same, so maybe I accidentally figured it out. The pacing felt pretty good and, from your devlog, allowing me (the player) to choose when to progress a cutscene I think was a good call. I don’t think it is always necessary in every game, but areas where reading is involved I think it is a benefit. Especially with pixel style text, as it can look a little “muddy” compared to the day-to-day type that people read. Sometimes it can take a sec when first getting into a game to adjust to a style not often seen daily.

Looking at your questions,

• I thought the levels made sense and there was only one in the middle that gave me some trouble. I could see the path I needed to take but wasn’t sure on the timing. Not a bad thing though as I feel games like this typically have that expected “Challenge” to them. I thinks it’s ok to have that bit of friction to engage the player. Feels more rewarding when you solve the puzzle.
• Story seems pretty straight forward and tells more without trying to explain too much. I could be wrong but I felt that it was portrayed as more philosophical perspective. So just saying enough feels right.
• Can’t say any dialogue feels abrupt on my end. I have to press a button to continue on, so I think that kinda prevents issues there. From your devlog, it looks like this was a purposeful change so I’d say it was a good call.

Thank you! Nothing wrong with reiterating on the improvements, even if it feels redundant. Helps determine what're real priorities. Those two areas will be touched on next. Direction I can do easily. Music and sounds will probably still take me a minute to play with as I'm still learning more of that skill. Glad everything else seems to be holding up. I'll still be cleaning up visuals later, but the direction at least. Thank you for playing and appreciate the feedback!

Yes indeed! I agree, needs more direction/help. Other than some basics I had planned, feedbacks so far lead me to believe I need to have some more direction in areas  - not just with visual clarity (job board) and UI elements. I will clean some of those things post jam before trying to add access to your ship. Hopefully I can get a fair bit done next update. And yes, sound is on the mind. The audio/music currently in the game is some cleaned up leftovers from a prior jam when I first made the game. I've been trying to teach myself music so I can have more range in the audio department (for music and sound effects that fit in the same game world). 

Some of the issues I have with audio (outside of making it) was trying to emulate a 3d audio effect, but you can't do actual 3d audio streams in browser directly - so I kinda had to fake it. I might just simplify it going forward if I get some music and other clearer sounds going. A lot of limits are self inflicted as I'm trying to support browser play while also squeezing the rock for as much polish as it will let me have. Learning a lot!

And thank you! I'm glad at least dialogue is holding up. Can't say I'm much of a writer. Devlogs are certainly making me practice more. Thank you for the feedback! 

Until the 7th!!

Completely agree! That's why I made a small note at the end of devlog about giving better direction. Like something in the UI and a mix of in world hints. Like the job board, some elements aren't final and need some better visuals > outside of hints. I may end up just going with a regular quest log later but wanted to see if there was a more creative way I could solve it instead. Just to be different. Some of the dialogue in the beginning to better lead the player after each moment. And yes, can't get on the ship yet. I do apologize. There's going to be added mechanics I want to teach the player when they get on - which is going to be a whole other small quest before you leave the port. Thanks for the feedback! It show's me some areas I need to clean up better and confirms some other thoughts I was having while working on this update. Much appreciated

working on a few bug fixes and some other fun chaos > that I will share in the 3/3 update later today. So yes, still uploading updates today!

Thank you! Hoping to make good progress before next update. May we each have a productive week!

Alright, little earlier than a whole week (I'll still give updates then), but just a small update here:

the "Good news everyone!":

Got most of the refactoring done, the rest left is waiting for when I can finish other features, got some of the jam feedback work done, and the new workflow tools are in place and making it much easier to work with the game.

Currently working on the "adding and updating of content". A new starting point/location where you can get more of an idea of the world and pick up the basics of getting around > so some more story there. I also want to rework the ship a bit and add more features to help you out.

the less good news:

Part of what I wanted to do was clean up the art and make more of it. The rub, if you will, being that I might have accidentally fillet my hand a bit (not game dev related) and holding a pencil or pen is just not going to happen this week; unless I develop super regeneration - which isn't likely but the chances are never 0%.

So, I'll probably get more into that next week as things heal up more and I can be more dexterous. Luckily, typing isn't as bad - just slower.

As such!

I'll still be giving a more formal (no clue what that looks like) update this Friday and will post some screenshots of some of the work done. Hoping by then too, I can start working on the art updates and have a public playable build by the end of the week > after this one.

Hope you are all doing well and wearing gloves

Thank you for the complement and more importantly the feedback!

I knew audio wouldn't be clean (I mean, I recorded all the sounds in like 5 mins running around with my phone and just raw grabbing anything that made sound) BUT, I will be redoing/cleaning up audio for sure. Hoping I get better at it with this project. 

Good to know about the camera angles. Not the first to get some confusion out of them, and having to play one's game over and over again, you really can't have the perfect "new player" experience; you know how the system works under the hood. But I also have some things in my camera tool to maybe ease some of that. Just didn't have time to test them for the jam.

I'll try my best! And again, thank you!

I can collect the stars, or I can chill with this (I'm assuming some kinda robot) and we just watch the stars come into view

It might seem like a small thing, but I do like the slow ramp of music from soft and quiet > to normal audio. Instead of just blasting you outright. I'm not always the best at audio stuff myself, so I found this to be an insightful reminder of the player audio experience. I usually end up adding sounds/music last, and for jams it's really easy to forget these things if rushing to the end. I will try to remember this chill experience for next time. 

Calm and gentle. It is a pretty short experience, but even in a longer game, having some calm moments can help ease out or back into a game without feeling overwhelmed. 

I cod do that :)

Making me have to build my cross hair at the beginning is just diabolical haha, best I could do was make $178. Never seeing my family at this rate. Those fish bones that go out on the far sides are what get ya. Too far to reach. I like the idea of bags of money as like a little boost to your cash. Maybe like some special items to help you recover some health if it was going to be a longer game. In the end, challenging  but fun experience for those who like a bit of it. A little more content and I could see this being a rage game for some people. I mean that as a compliment, if you've seen the types. 

Hopefully they at least offer a good life insurance policy for this job so my family will get at least something...

Took a sec to get a hang of the controls, definitely better in full screen for me (mouse kept jumping ship if I was yanking too hard). But I like the relaxing "your just fishin" vibes. It's very comfortable. This is something I could could see playing when you legit just want to relax from the daily grind for a bit. The learning curve, for me, felt like enough of a challenge to finally getting a hang of it. Kinda like fishing in real life I guess.  I did get too close to the nebula the first time and went screaming into space.

Also, what in the Dr. Seuss! I jest, it good. It's like this simple yet over engineered device that gives your little ship some character. Overall good time that I'd check out more of

Simple easy fun, enjoyed. If I could only have one extra thing, would be when the potential upgrades popup in the center to wait a sec before registering clicks. If my ship is in the center and I'm clicking away > once the upgrades popup > it registers where ever my mouse is at the time so I'm not sure what I'm picking. I didn't notice there was a menu until I was just shooting at the bottom of the screen when it popped up. Feedback aside, fun and easy to pick up!

visuals are cool, but was a little lost in the beginning on the input/output. I would also lose track of what planet I was on as they swirl around and I was analyzing another one. Would not change the planet rotations, I think it looks cool that way and makes sense for planning out a route for ever moving planets. Thankfully you have the Departing/Destination to help narrow it down

Alright, I thought I figured out a cheese strat for a sec, after the second room > if running out of time > I returned to the menu and quickly hit play afterwards and it would give me the value of 2 rooms done but with my clock time back to a min. I only got it to work once though haha so not much of a strat I guess. That mop will trip you up though if you drop near the door way. But overall solid (waste) experience!

I am grateful, thank you for playing! Very much just messing with things and, in spirit of the jam, trying not to worry about perfect and just see where it goes. There's probably some things I could do to help make navigating and interacting more clear post jam. Taking all the lessons learned with this one. I'd like to give this a little more polish and some more things to do later. No exact date when. A lot of code cleanup I want to do post jam before adding more content.

And now that I've had some recovery time after the jam (so tired), I will be going through the review que so I will definitely check your game out. Thank you for the feedback! 

I was thinking of what would look better after the jam, I chose this direction due to the time constraint. Like a 3d character with the art in popups or some kinda cut scene or an overall 2d style. I know I've seen some games that handle the 2d/3d contrast pretty well and will probably look at those for some further inspiration . Thank you for the feedback!

"I almost abandonned on week 2" - I am so sorry   

I had an idea for some kinda assist tracker to help let you know where about to look, but had it on the cutting board if I ran out of time. ...I ran out of time. But thank you for playing and for the feedback! I wanna clean it up some post jam later, so quest and camera stuff is on the list

Nicely done,

I did have some graphic glitching on the browser, but no issue with the downloaded version. Could also just be my computer.

The story is pretty..."Light Hearted" :D ...I'll see myself out...But, I did enjoy it, and the humor.

I did play through it multiple times to try the different choices. I don't think anything affects the ending, but the variety in flavor text was nice. 

I liked the art style and colors. The music also fit quite well.

I think my only "technical" feedback would be that - it would've been nice to have the interact & advance dialogue/choose controls -  be the same button/input.

Overall, this was still fun & I think it meets its themes pretty well.

I didn't mind the darker theming. Some areas were hard to understand where to go. Like If I go right, after leaving the house, the boss in the house with the maze is too hard to fight & seems like you need to trigger the main story quest before getting there anyway.

Some of the writing was hard to read, but not so much that I couldn't follow along.

Battles take way too long, especially with only being able to single-attack & wait for several enemies to cycle through.

I did like the artwork for the different characters. I also enjoyed having different endings at the end - based on your choice. I wasn't expecting it and did go through each one.

Glad it got some enjoyment, 

I did deliberate if I should've added a run button and put it into the "if we have enough time" list - then the jam got extended while I was out of town, lul. Oh well - I did add in an "intro skip" option with the extension, but that I felt I could do without breaking anything/adding new bugs.

Some of the slowness of things was kinda intentional  & some seemed to be a byproduct of trying to hinder Unity, to more accurately replicate limited hardware.  Learning how to do it was fun, but in my next project, I think I will go for a more modern/polished style.

Still, it was a lot of fun and added much to my utility belt. :)

I like the idea of this and that I can play along with my own dice rolls (instead of just an RNG script). Other than needing to be fleshed out some, the only things that currently probably need some fixing/polish are:

1. The UI/scaling of the screen could use some polish to make it fill the screen a little better. Maybe make the words/font a little bigger.

2. Menu seems to function just fine unless you click the blank button at the beginning. It clears all the information and soft locks you from doing anything without a hard reset (page refresh).

Again, I like the idea of this. Like having an always-ready Dungeon Master (currently allowing one to play alone without needing to wait for a DM to be ready). I know it is still kinda limited right now, but the potential is there.

Certainly, though I don't know when I'll be available/ready for the next jam. Kinda want to take a moment to reflect on this one and go over my mistakes. At least not until next month or later. But after that, I think I'd be up for another jam for sure.

The house by GOODBOI reminds me of the one in Howl's Moving Castle. In the valley with the pond. I think that's how I'd go, just pick a favorite spot and wait it out. Preferably with friends; if they're still online.

Also Submitting restricted/delayed. Couple of hours at most and it'll be done