intro instructions are nice, but should be skippable (unless they were and I just didn't notice)
For the movement queue, it seemed like horizontal movement had precedence over vertical (tapping 'W' while 'A' is held will make the player continue to move left whereas tapping 'A' while 'W' is held makes the player move left once and then continue moving up which is probably the desired result) I think it would be better if priority were always given to the input that was pressed down most recently when multiple buttons are held
The way pickups sway back and forth makes their hitboxes pretty variable. not sure if this is intentional. Also, should an anchor be able to spawn on top of a pearl?
I think it would be nice to have some sort of visual distinction between pearls on the ground and ones you've just picked up (like a trail as they move towards the score ui)
It seems a few people had a similar issue with holding multiple buttons down at once, so I'll try to look into it. For the pearls, I'll try to add a transparency or other visual effect so it isn't confusing. Thanks for the feedback mate, I appreciate it!
I like the idea of this game! Seems to be pretty cool. However the game was running really really slow on my machine, almost unplayable. It was probably something on my end (I'm on linux using wine). But the music was nice and I think this would be pretty fun if I could play it at the proper speed
Sorry to hear you had bad performance mate. I'll try to optimize it some, and I should have a Mac and Linux version available come the next demo/full release. Thanks for trying it out anyhow!
Nice and chill game but I would go with less bright background color so that moving enemies are easier to see, don't need to be solid black like pacman but orange levels are highly tiring on the eyes which isn't what the game should be, also I would square all of the characters including player and diver guys, think of it like bubble bobble sprites, they clearly fit in a square so there's no guesswork if someone's about to hit you or not. Also slowest speed is bit too slow but it's not that much of an issue, still could add something for it like one time limited boost per level or something.
A pretty fun time. At least more fun than I've had with the Pacman formula since debating whether that Goth Pacman from Ghostly Adventures was packing Stripper Boots.
I agree with the general consensus that the SFX are a bit shrill, never hurts to tear out a bit of the treble. But otherwise, Pacman But You Can Suckerpunch The Ghosts isn't a bad time at all.
Works well and looks interesting. Be careful with the sound effects, however, and maybe some subtle visual hints to where the "cells" actually are would be good. Took me a while to realize I could pick up the shrimps too.
Controller support was added, but not tested, so play with controller at your own risk. If you want to play with keyboard and have a controller plugged in, you will need to unplug the controller.
Fun game! Would've been a bit easier to get started if the controls were posted here -- didn't know you could attack for a couple of levels.
One thing to consider -- certain buttons override others, but it's not always clear which ones. For example, when I was moving up, if I pressed left a fraction of a second before removing my finger from up, then my character continued moving up.
Really dig the music and sound effects. Collecting those pearls is very comforting.
- The game doesn't seem to use the mouse. Maybe hide the mouse cursor while the window is active.
- It would be nice if the game showed the How to play / controls screen/esc menu on your first run
- Some of the obstacles seem much larger than they visually appear. Darkening the tiles beneath obstacles so that it's clear what's walkable and what isn't might help the player better judge distance.
- Font on score screen is really hard to read
- Jellyfish can spawn on the player
- Anchor making the player slower until they pick up sushi feels kinda' rough, maybe time limit on that
- It is very unclear at first whether or not the shrimp gun has X shots or X time. Maybe add countdown
- Unclear if any of the enemies do anything differently
- Auto pause on window focus lost would be cool
- Can only punch 1 jellyfish at a time even if they are stacked
- Sparkling pearl quits flashing after one animation cycle. Not sure if intended
- It'd be cool if pearls that were obscured by powerups could be shown as transparent silhouettes above the powerup
- Fish enemies can walk offscreen using the bridge
Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! I put the controls on the itch.io page, so I guess I should put them as a comment on this page too. I'll try to push out a new version with some of your proposed fixes today, since a lot of these can be really quickly done. I'll respond with all the fixes I make, too. Again, thank you so much, I probably would have never caught on to these myself.
I changed as much as I could given your feedback and others' in the time I have allotted today. I posted the changelog separately so other people could see it too. Thanks again mate.
I really dig the artstyle - it's cute, charming and easy to read. The music is A+, relaxing, interesting enough to grab my attention, yet not distracting despite that. Took me a few seconds to realize you could hold down the WASD keys to control your movement direction as opposed to tapping them, but from there it was smooth sailing (pun intended.) The visual distinction between the speed powerups/powerdowns is great and made it immediately clear to me that one of them should be avoided, although I walked into one of the powerdowns anyway to see what would happen.
The only real critical feedback I can give is that it took me a little bit to figure out how to start the game from the initial high score screen.
Thank you so much man, I appreciate the feedback. I can't believe I didn't think to add a "Press Spacebar to begin" text on the title screen! I'll definitely add that. As for the movement being hold rather than tap, I do plan to add an option to tap a direction to be queued so you don't need to hold a direction the whole time, so hopefully later builds will feel more comfortable to play! Cheers mate!
The music and pickup sfx really goes together. Once I got the hang of it, it played pretty smoothly too. It might be unfeasible, but I think it could use some kind of action queue. The windows to move/turn are a bit tight, and if you press it a bit too early, you just keep going straight. I just end up holding a direction key constantly. Though if that's intended gameplay, then ignore what I said. Also I thought it was mildly amusing that enemies can leave on the raft thing.
Thank you for the feedback mate! That was the intended gameplay, but I definitely can add a feature where the game will "hold" the button for you after you press it. I'll mess around with it after Demo Day.
Really fun demo. It's pacman but with more enemy variety which is really interesting. The player is very fast. The slow down items can help gain more control at the cost of slowing down which is a nice trade off. The transitions to new levels are really nice with the graphics fitting the game. The music also fits perfectly with the animations in between levels. The only thing I can really say is to put the name and controls on the main scene before you start the game, but other than that this is extremely solid. If you do update the game, add more enemies, they are pretty fun to fight against. Here is my current high score. I'll have to play a bit more.
Hahaha, the player being way too fast was actually only for debug purposes, which I accidentally left in. I reuploaded the game with the player moving much slower. The accidental original build had the player move 4 pixels per frame, now it moves 1 pixel per frame, with the sushi being able to bring you up to 2 pixels per frame. Hope that fix makes it better, but if you do prefer the faster movement, I'll add it back in. As for enemies, I have over 4 more already fully implemented, and I should have more enemies, powerups, and even a boss level or two added in the final release version. I'm shooting for at least 30-50 levels come release. Thanks so much for playing mate, I'm glad you liked it!
Comments
638750
Fun arcadey game with nice art and music.
good game. I enjoyed.
It seems a few people had a similar issue with holding multiple buttons down at once, so I'll try to look into it. For the pearls, I'll try to add a transparency or other visual effect so it isn't confusing. Thanks for the feedback mate, I appreciate it!
I like the idea of this game! Seems to be pretty cool. However the game was running really really slow on my machine, almost unplayable. It was probably something on my end (I'm on linux using wine). But the music was nice and I think this would be pretty fun if I could play it at the proper speed
Sorry to hear you had bad performance mate. I'll try to optimize it some, and I should have a Mac and Linux version available come the next demo/full release. Thanks for trying it out anyhow!
Nice and chill game but I would go with less bright background color so that moving enemies are easier to see, don't need to be solid black like pacman but orange levels are highly tiring on the eyes which isn't what the game should be, also I would square all of the characters including player and diver guys, think of it like bubble bobble sprites, they clearly fit in a square so there's no guesswork if someone's about to hit you or not. Also slowest speed is bit too slow but it's not that much of an issue, still could add something for it like one time limited boost per level or something.
A pretty fun time. At least more fun than I've had with the Pacman formula since debating whether that Goth Pacman from Ghostly Adventures was packing Stripper Boots.
I agree with the general consensus that the SFX are a bit shrill, never hurts to tear out a bit of the treble. But otherwise, Pacman But You Can Suckerpunch The Ghosts isn't a bad time at all.
Works well and looks interesting. Be careful with the sound effects, however, and maybe some subtle visual hints to where the "cells" actually are would be good. Took me a while to realize I could pick up the shrimps too.
Changelog:
Thanks for playing, and thank you to everyone who's given me feedback so far! I feel like the game has improved so much over just the past day.
Controls:
WASD - move in the four directions
J/Space - attack
ESC - pause
1 and 2 - volume down and up (Music)
3 and 4 - volume down and up (SFX)
Controller support was added, but not tested, so play with controller at your own risk. If you want to play with keyboard and have a controller plugged in, you will need to unplug the controller.
Fun game! Would've been a bit easier to get started if the controls were posted here -- didn't know you could attack for a couple of levels.
One thing to consider -- certain buttons override others, but it's not always clear which ones. For example, when I was moving up, if I pressed left a fraction of a second before removing my finger from up, then my character continued moving up.
Really dig the music and sound effects. Collecting those pearls is very comforting.
Gave the demo a try!
Some observations:
- The game doesn't seem to use the mouse. Maybe hide the mouse cursor while the window is active.
- It would be nice if the game showed the How to play / controls screen/esc menu on your first run
- Some of the obstacles seem much larger than they visually appear. Darkening the tiles beneath obstacles so that it's clear what's walkable and what isn't might help the player better judge distance.
- Font on score screen is really hard to read
- Jellyfish can spawn on the player
- Anchor making the player slower until they pick up sushi feels kinda' rough, maybe time limit on that
- It is very unclear at first whether or not the shrimp gun has X shots or X time. Maybe add countdown
- Unclear if any of the enemies do anything differently
- Auto pause on window focus lost would be cool
- Can only punch 1 jellyfish at a time even if they are stacked
- Sparkling pearl quits flashing after one animation cycle. Not sure if intended
- It'd be cool if pearls that were obscured by powerups could be shown as transparent silhouettes above the powerup
- Fish enemies can walk offscreen using the bridge
- Extra life at 1,000,000 points would be neat
- Warp tunnel idea is cool
- Not sure how to exit the game
Ended up with a high score of 1276350
Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! I put the controls on the itch.io page, so I guess I should put them as a comment on this page too. I'll try to push out a new version with some of your proposed fixes today, since a lot of these can be really quickly done. I'll respond with all the fixes I make, too. Again, thank you so much, I probably would have never caught on to these myself.
I changed as much as I could given your feedback and others' in the time I have allotted today. I posted the changelog separately so other people could see it too. Thanks again mate.
I really dig the artstyle - it's cute, charming and easy to read. The music is A+, relaxing, interesting enough to grab my attention, yet not distracting despite that. Took me a few seconds to realize you could hold down the WASD keys to control your movement direction as opposed to tapping them, but from there it was smooth sailing (pun intended.) The visual distinction between the speed powerups/powerdowns is great and made it immediately clear to me that one of them should be avoided, although I walked into one of the powerdowns anyway to see what would happen.
The only real critical feedback I can give is that it took me a little bit to figure out how to start the game from the initial high score screen.
Thank you so much man, I appreciate the feedback. I can't believe I didn't think to add a "Press Spacebar to begin" text on the title screen! I'll definitely add that.
As for the movement being hold rather than tap, I do plan to add an option to tap a direction to be queued so you don't need to hold a direction the whole time, so hopefully later builds will feel more comfortable to play! Cheers mate!
The music and pickup sfx really goes together. Once I got the hang of it, it played pretty smoothly too. It might be unfeasible, but I think it could use some kind of action queue. The windows to move/turn are a bit tight, and if you press it a bit too early, you just keep going straight. I just end up holding a direction key constantly. Though if that's intended gameplay, then ignore what I said. Also I thought it was mildly amusing that enemies can leave on the raft thing.
Thank you for the feedback mate! That was the intended gameplay, but I definitely can add a feature where the game will "hold" the button for you after you press it. I'll mess around with it after Demo Day.
Hahaha, the player being way too fast was actually only for debug purposes, which I accidentally left in. I reuploaded the game with the player moving much slower. The accidental original build had the player move 4 pixels per frame, now it moves 1 pixel per frame, with the sushi being able to bring you up to 2 pixels per frame. Hope that fix makes it better, but if you do prefer the faster movement, I'll add it back in.
As for enemies, I have over 4 more already fully implemented, and I should have more enemies, powerups, and even a boss level or two added in the final release version. I'm shooting for at least 30-50 levels come release.
Thanks so much for playing mate, I'm glad you liked it!