The art and sfx are really well done! Music is nice too. The game mechanic is neat, but to be honest I think I felt more frustration from the boomerang than anything.
Even at full camera size since I cant see the whole map I need to explore, but due to having to restart the level when I run out of lives I feel like im being discouraged to explore. Maybe consider adding the option to decouple view from boomerang so the player can look around the map without having to fly there?
Is disabling the liver system let me have infinite lives or just "one live"? Cause when I disabled it it ment that when I hit something the first time I already get sent back to beginning. It would also I think be nice to have some sort of visible lives counter. Maybe you have some visual trick for it like the slowdown bar being around the boomerang, but I didn't catch it then.
Once I figured out im moving the "rotation centre point" instead of the boomerang itself, the gameplay got a bit easier, but (at least for me) the boomerang spinning around was a source of constant unease as I worried it will move into a wall I didnt notice once the centre is stationary. Its fine when moving since your guidelines do a really god job there! Though I did feel like I spend more time just waiting for it to get in position to throw than anything.
Didnt run into any glitches,
Maybe add a tutorial text saying you can "throw" the boomerang once its been thrown. Going into the game knowing nothing I though maybe I need to wait for it to return and id move around as the thrower guy.
Sorry, game is just not for me I think. If others are liking please just ignore my opinion.
Thank you for trying out the demo! We understand that a very core issue with the game currently is helping players understand the gameplay mechanic, that being the center of the boomerang's movement, and how that relates to traversing and clearing stages while keeping the rotation in mind and working around that as the challenge.
When it comes to the camera, most of the levels are designed around exploring and figuring out how to progress through the stages, so seeing the whole stage ruins that experience in our eyes. That being said there are definitely some areas in the game where it can be confusing where exactly to go, but we feel that does incentivize playing through levels again to get better times since they'll know the proper path to take.
The lives system in the settings menu disables lives as a gameplay mechanic, mainly for "purists" but also to let people play through the game to get the levels' treasures, which requires going through the stage without losing a single life. In the future we will definitely make that more clear to the player, or possibly change that system in general.
Handling the boomerang's spinning and rotation is definitely the trickiest part of the game, a gameplay tip we'd like to teach players intuitively is that if you keep on moving the boomerang you have less of a chance to hit a wall when stationary, because if you let the boomerang sit still for too long, you're basically expanding its hitbox to the entire rotation. We definitely understand that it's a very weird mechanic to get used to.
And yeah, we have noticed through playtesting and people playing the demo most people don't realize the game revolves around moving the boomerang and not the guy himself, but we found for most people they understand that within 15 seconds of the game, but I will agree it's not very clear.
Once again I'd like to thank you for sharing your thoughts on the game! Airstralian definitely isn't for everyone, but that being said it means a lot that you tried out the demo and gave us some good observations and feedback. Thank you for the wishes and we hope we can make the game as great as it can be!
really fun, my only feedback is that at times it can be frustrating because you throw it correctly and avoid obstacles but it actually spinning around a point when it stops feels unfair. because then suddenly its hitting edges and sending you back, i suppose with time you learn but theres no real way of knowing big that radius is and if your spin was good or not.
graphically i would remove rocks, because i for the longest though those were obstacles. in other words, more separation between the objects.
The boomerang constantly rotates around at a constant speed; this is intentional as it helps you line up throws around obstacles, and keeps you on your toes indeed. If you stand still, you can see what the radius of the rotation is, but we might add an option to display it.
About the rocks, one tip is that obstacles always have shadows - big ones. These should always be visible as long as you have the quality settings set to Medium or higher (the game isn't that performance-heavy I believe, so we recommend just setting it to Ultra).
The presentation is really nice, definitely one of the better looking games in this Demo Day. Some notes:
It was a bit too dark in some places, I couldn't see that I'm aiming my boomerang right into an obstacle until it got close enough to illuminate the area
I can throw the boomerang further than the camera lets me see - a few times I threw it far right into a wall. I think you could have the camera extend into the direction the player intends to throw, so when the boomerang is stationary you can look around
No sense of direction in the levels, I had no idea where I'm supposed to go and exploring is always risky, as I could just ram into things by accident
The slowdown mechanic should be introduced as soon as possible, it's nearly necessary to play well
I don't think there's a point in having a life system, for the completionists you already have the timer to punish mistakes
I made it to level 6 before quitting so it not sure how valid this is, but it felt kind of repetitive, just slowly going to places to push buttons. I hope there will be things to whack with the boomerang later
Now with all that said, it was still pretty fun and has potential. I will look forward to it on next Demo Day
By the way, are you aiming for a mobile release as well? I thought it would be perfect for mobile, but then the right click was introduced, so not sure how that would work on a phone.
I wanted to ask a bit more about some of the things that you listed and try to answer some of the issues:
- Could I ask which areas were too dark for you? I know we don't have a brightness setting in the game, but I feel as though World 1 has no real dark areas - or at least it shouldn't.
- Did you try adjusting the camera zoom slider in the settings? By default it's set to the halfway point, because that's what we thought might be most comfortable for people, but if you set it to 12 you should always be able to see the point where your boomerang will end up in any throw. You can throw again while the boomerang is moving if you need to avoid hitting walls, too.
- The goal in each level is to reach the finish line. Which levels caused the most confusion? Exploring becomes more commonplace in later levels, as you get more comfortable with the game mechanics, but as a tip, you can always look for the gear chains to find the objectives.
- You can use slowdown from the first level, but I suppose you mean the tutorial should be there too.
- If you find the lives system more annoying than helpful, you can disable it in the settings. I'm not sure I understand your comment about completionists though.
- Some new mechanics are introduced as early as level 8.
Thanks again for playing! We're considering looking into a phone version after we've made our pc release.
I went back to the game to see where the issues were:
I think the darkness was in level 5, went to the right, then launched myself upwards into an obstacle that I didn't realize was there
Tried adjusting camera, didn't know that was an option. It does make things better
I got that the goal was going to the right until I reach the exit, but I think it was level 6 where I went a bit forward, saw a lot of closed doors and pathways and didn't know where to start. However, this is mitigated by wider camera as well so it might not be a problem
Yes, for slowdown I meant that there should be at least a brief mention of it near the start
Regarding lives, I meant that hitting a wall is already punished by losing time so I felt like getting sent back to the start was unnecessary. It's good that it can be disabled though, in that case there's no need to change it unless an overwhelming majority of people dislike it
I really like the core mechanic of the boomerang throw! It's just the right level of 'airy' and it has a small enough cone of possible paths to go through to allow for accurate timing to get to where you want to go. This would be a great mobile game as well as PC game, which is what I assume you're going for.
A few comments:
- You should remove the brown rocks and trees, or at least make them pop less. I struggle with figuring out what were the walls and what were garnishes. There should be more contrast.
- I too would get confused on what the failure state was. I like having 3 attempts before I have to restart the level, but I was confused on that even. Maybe add to the UI number of hits you're allowed before you have to restart, and make the restart more obvious that it is happening.
- About obstacles, the main way to recognise them is that they're always black and have a long shadow - these might not appear if your graphic settings are set to below Medium, so we recommend setting them above that. Ultra should be fine, as in theory the game does not require too much to run well.
- You should be able to see the ammount of lives left on top of your boomerang when you hit an obstacle; was it not there for some reason?
it was a cool game i eespecially liked 1-9 because it had a lil nook u could go thru to skip part of the level,
my only complaint is that it took a while to know that bumping is the thing that kills you and what objects that u can bump into, and even when u know they are still a bit hard to see
Obstacles are generally always black and have a long shadow, but we've realised these might not show up if the game is being run on a graphical setting lower than Medium. We recommend playing on Ultra as the game should not require a high end PC to run.
I'm a fan of these interesting movement mechanics. I really like how you have the course of the boomerang displayed. It's certainly cool and has potential.
There were a few things that really confused me, though. What is the failstate exactly? It felt like sometimes, my boomerang would hit something and just go back a little bit. Sometimes it would go all the way back to the aussie. If it flew over a pit, that was a fail, which I don't understand why. It also felt more like I was just grinding the boomerang forward one step at a time. The fact that the boomerang kind of "hovers" at random points is also unexpected. When I think of throwing a boomerang, and with these cool movement mechanics, I imagine myself lining up and making a sweet ass shot that curves around some obstacles, gets the gems, and then safely makes it back to me. The step-by-step movement had me feeling more like I was just shuffling an unwieldy little vehicle through a maze than throwing a boomerang.
Something wasn't quite clicking for me. I wasn't really seeing the "right" thing to do aside from blunder forth. You have a great mechanic, I think it just needs a bit better messaging.
The game has a lives system that is on by default, but you can turn it off in the settings if you prefer. What the lives system does is that every time you hit an obstacle it sends you back to the last safe spot you threw the boomerang from so long as you have lives left. You can see how many lives you have when you hit an obstacle - they show up above the boomerang, and the one you just lost blinks out. Essentially, you can hit obstacles 4 times before being sent back.
Obstacles are generally black and cast a long shadow, as if going all the way up to the ceiling. We've noticed shadows might not display if the graphic settings on the launcher are set to lower than Medium, so I recommend setting them to anything above that, or straight up Ultra - the game shouldn't require too much to run at these settings, but let me know if that's not the case.
I don't understand what you mean by "kind of hovers at random points", could you elaborate?
Comments
The art and sfx are really well done! Music is nice too. The game mechanic is neat, but to be honest I think I felt more frustration from the boomerang than anything.
Even at full camera size since I cant see the whole map I need to explore, but due to having to restart the level when I run out of lives I feel like im being discouraged to explore. Maybe consider adding the option to decouple view from boomerang so the player can look around the map without having to fly there?
Is disabling the liver system let me have infinite lives or just "one live"? Cause when I disabled it it ment that when I hit something the first time I already get sent back to beginning. It would also I think be nice to have some sort of visible lives counter. Maybe you have some visual trick for it like the slowdown bar being around the boomerang, but I didn't catch it then.
Once I figured out im moving the "rotation centre point" instead of the boomerang itself, the gameplay got a bit easier, but (at least for me) the boomerang spinning around was a source of constant unease as I worried it will move into a wall I didnt notice once the centre is stationary. Its fine when moving since your guidelines do a really god job there! Though I did feel like I spend more time just waiting for it to get in position to throw than anything.
Didnt run into any glitches,
Maybe add a tutorial text saying you can "throw" the boomerang once its been thrown. Going into the game knowing nothing I though maybe I need to wait for it to return and id move around as the thrower guy.
Sorry, game is just not for me I think. If others are liking please just ignore my opinion.
Thanks for the demo, and good luck with the game!
Thank you for trying out the demo! We understand that a very core issue with the game currently is helping players understand the gameplay mechanic, that being the center of the boomerang's movement, and how that relates to traversing and clearing stages while keeping the rotation in mind and working around that as the challenge.
When it comes to the camera, most of the levels are designed around exploring and figuring out how to progress through the stages, so seeing the whole stage ruins that experience in our eyes. That being said there are definitely some areas in the game where it can be confusing where exactly to go, but we feel that does incentivize playing through levels again to get better times since they'll know the proper path to take.
The lives system in the settings menu disables lives as a gameplay mechanic, mainly for "purists" but also to let people play through the game to get the levels' treasures, which requires going through the stage without losing a single life. In the future we will definitely make that more clear to the player, or possibly change that system in general.
Handling the boomerang's spinning and rotation is definitely the trickiest part of the game, a gameplay tip we'd like to teach players intuitively is that if you keep on moving the boomerang you have less of a chance to hit a wall when stationary, because if you let the boomerang sit still for too long, you're basically expanding its hitbox to the entire rotation. We definitely understand that it's a very weird mechanic to get used to.
And yeah, we have noticed through playtesting and people playing the demo most people don't realize the game revolves around moving the boomerang and not the guy himself, but we found for most people they understand that within 15 seconds of the game, but I will agree it's not very clear.
Once again I'd like to thank you for sharing your thoughts on the game! Airstralian definitely isn't for everyone, but that being said it means a lot that you tried out the demo and gave us some good observations and feedback. Thank you for the wishes and we hope we can make the game as great as it can be!
-T
really fun, my only feedback is that at times it can be frustrating because you throw it correctly and avoid obstacles but it actually spinning around a point when it stops feels unfair. because then suddenly its hitting edges and sending you back, i suppose with time you learn but theres no real way of knowing big that radius is and if your spin was good or not.
graphically i would remove rocks, because i for the longest though those were obstacles. in other words, more separation between the objects.
Thanks for playing!
The boomerang constantly rotates around at a constant speed; this is intentional as it helps you line up throws around obstacles, and keeps you on your toes indeed. If you stand still, you can see what the radius of the rotation is, but we might add an option to display it.
About the rocks, one tip is that obstacles always have shadows - big ones. These should always be visible as long as you have the quality settings set to Medium or higher (the game isn't that performance-heavy I believe, so we recommend just setting it to Ultra).
The presentation is really nice, definitely one of the better looking games in this Demo Day. Some notes:
Now with all that said, it was still pretty fun and has potential. I will look forward to it on next Demo Day
By the way, are you aiming for a mobile release as well? I thought it would be perfect for mobile, but then the right click was introduced, so not sure how that would work on a phone.
Hey, thanks for playing!
I wanted to ask a bit more about some of the things that you listed and try to answer some of the issues:
- Could I ask which areas were too dark for you? I know we don't have a brightness setting in the game, but I feel as though World 1 has no real dark areas - or at least it shouldn't.
- Did you try adjusting the camera zoom slider in the settings? By default it's set to the halfway point, because that's what we thought might be most comfortable for people, but if you set it to 12 you should always be able to see the point where your boomerang will end up in any throw. You can throw again while the boomerang is moving if you need to avoid hitting walls, too.
- The goal in each level is to reach the finish line. Which levels caused the most confusion? Exploring becomes more commonplace in later levels, as you get more comfortable with the game mechanics, but as a tip, you can always look for the gear chains to find the objectives.
- You can use slowdown from the first level, but I suppose you mean the tutorial should be there too.
- If you find the lives system more annoying than helpful, you can disable it in the settings. I'm not sure I understand your comment about completionists though.
- Some new mechanics are introduced as early as level 8.
Thanks again for playing! We're considering looking into a phone version after we've made our pc release.
-J
I went back to the game to see where the issues were:
Really fun, it has a bunch of details and everything is well made. The music was top notch as well.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks for playing!
I really like the core mechanic of the boomerang throw! It's just the right level of 'airy' and it has a small enough cone of possible paths to go through to allow for accurate timing to get to where you want to go. This would be a great mobile game as well as PC game, which is what I assume you're going for.
A few comments:
- You should remove the brown rocks and trees, or at least make them pop less. I struggle with figuring out what were the walls and what were garnishes. There should be more contrast.
- I too would get confused on what the failure state was. I like having 3 attempts before I have to restart the level, but I was confused on that even. Maybe add to the UI number of hits you're allowed before you have to restart, and make the restart more obvious that it is happening.
Overall its solid, I could see this working.
Thanks for playing the demo!
- About obstacles, the main way to recognise them is that they're always black and have a long shadow - these might not appear if your graphic settings are set to below Medium, so we recommend setting them above that. Ultra should be fine, as in theory the game does not require too much to run well.
- You should be able to see the ammount of lives left on top of your boomerang when you hit an obstacle; was it not there for some reason?
it was a cool game i eespecially liked 1-9 because it had a lil nook u could go thru to skip part of the level,
my only complaint is that it took a while to know that bumping is the thing that kills you and what objects that u can bump into, and even when u know they are still a bit hard to see
Thanks for trying the demo out!
Obstacles are generally always black and have a long shadow, but we've realised these might not show up if the game is being run on a graphical setting lower than Medium. We recommend playing on Ultra as the game should not require a high end PC to run.
I'm a fan of these interesting movement mechanics. I really like how you have the course of the boomerang displayed. It's certainly cool and has potential.
There were a few things that really confused me, though. What is the failstate exactly? It felt like sometimes, my boomerang would hit something and just go back a little bit. Sometimes it would go all the way back to the aussie. If it flew over a pit, that was a fail, which I don't understand why. It also felt more like I was just grinding the boomerang forward one step at a time. The fact that the boomerang kind of "hovers" at random points is also unexpected. When I think of throwing a boomerang, and with these cool movement mechanics, I imagine myself lining up and making a sweet ass shot that curves around some obstacles, gets the gems, and then safely makes it back to me. The step-by-step movement had me feeling more like I was just shuffling an unwieldy little vehicle through a maze than throwing a boomerang.
Something wasn't quite clicking for me. I wasn't really seeing the "right" thing to do aside from blunder forth. You have a great mechanic, I think it just needs a bit better messaging.
Thanks for playing!
The game has a lives system that is on by default, but you can turn it off in the settings if you prefer. What the lives system does is that every time you hit an obstacle it sends you back to the last safe spot you threw the boomerang from so long as you have lives left. You can see how many lives you have when you hit an obstacle - they show up above the boomerang, and the one you just lost blinks out. Essentially, you can hit obstacles 4 times before being sent back.
Obstacles are generally black and cast a long shadow, as if going all the way up to the ceiling. We've noticed shadows might not display if the graphic settings on the launcher are set to lower than Medium, so I recommend setting them to anything above that, or straight up Ultra - the game shouldn't require too much to run at these settings, but let me know if that's not the case.
I don't understand what you mean by "kind of hovers at random points", could you elaborate?
I didn't see the lives, and I think I was a little addle-brained from playing so many demos. I'm gonna try it out again later today.