Too much of a platformlet to solve most of the puzzles. On the graphics and sound side, reminds me a lot of flash games I played years ago. If that's what you're going for, good job.
Spikes are a little unforgiving, despite the many times I landed in them I was never able to get out and inevitably lost all 3 lives. The level of zoom made it hard to see what was coming, but maybe that's intentional for the puzzles.
Seems like a solid puzzle platformer, for those with more skill than me.
Seeing players stumble in the same places is great feedback. The spikes are supposed to be absolutely unforgiving so that players learn to play slowly and carefully around them, which in hindsight is the exact reason why that first spike pit is overkill. Guess I'll have to work on the difficulty curve.
I rolled around the first level quite a bit collecting stars and apples. The speed and movement have a good feeling above most precision platformers where running and jumping is your limit. However on the flipside I think limiting the character to small spaces such as caves hinders the best aspect of this game by stopping all momentum over and over again. I like the spinning platforms and honestly would put them before the harsh spike pit, speaking of the spike pit it is very large and such an annoying obstacle to be in the start where you have to keep attempting it after you die at any point. When you land in the spikes you are always going to die, despite having 3 hitpoints, so either allow players to recover from spikes easier or give them 1 hitpoint like more precision platformers. I also think zooming out would help the overall feel, as being so zoomed in feels constricting. I like the look of the game and collecting things is fun overall. What are your plans for the game next?
Thanks for playing. I consider this demo a great success because its goal was to test what works and what doesn't. I think one big mistake I made is trying to combine trial-and-error type games with games with large branching levels without implementing any compatibility between the two making it mandatory to replay sections over and over. Good thing I had the idea to hit the players with all the extremes before I went ahead with building the rest of the levels.
The spikes only take one life because they are coded to throw you out if you just roll in from the side. They only kill you if you jump into them which is why that first "puzzle" was a big suck.
I guess I'll add more logical clarity because what I wanted was for players to only fuck themselves over if they aren't paying attention, not to reset their progress for every mistake
managed to get a score in the 20s and also got wedged in a rock. I think this is pretty fun but the spikes are super unforgiving and the player seems just a little to slow.
The biggest thing I have to say is the physical are really weird. Since you are forced in a ball, slopes makes what is made to be easy to get up places (like smaller parts with golden stars) so annoying to get out of since you need momentum and it's lost so quickly. You can take damage right after getting hit, which makes the starting puzzle of jumping on a bolder and moving it annoying with how easy it is to die. I feel like that type of thing shouldn't ever be in a first level let alone the first challenge. Like pic related, it's possible to get soft locked or later on in a smaller cave, if you loose momentum which is easy, you are forced to go into a spike pit. The graphics and music are great just please fix the physics.
Thank you, this is one part great feedback on the physics but also one part you misunderstanding the game. Most of the parts that stumped you aren't design mistakes - they're puzzles you didn't solve or intentional obstacles that shouldn't be crossable. I made sure to avoid making puzzles that solve themselves, because those are something I wouldn't want to play. I'll work on tweaking the movement physics.
I'll try to play a bit more later to see if it was me missing something or not at times. But yeah, the momentum feels a bit off with how fast it goes away.
Comments
I got filtered.
Too much of a platformlet to solve most of the puzzles. On the graphics and sound side, reminds me a lot of flash games I played years ago. If that's what you're going for, good job.
Spikes are a little unforgiving, despite the many times I landed in them I was never able to get out and inevitably lost all 3 lives. The level of zoom made it hard to see what was coming, but maybe that's intentional for the puzzles.
Seems like a solid puzzle platformer, for those with more skill than me.
Seeing players stumble in the same places is great feedback. The spikes are supposed to be absolutely unforgiving so that players learn to play slowly and carefully around them, which in hindsight is the exact reason why that first spike pit is overkill. Guess I'll have to work on the difficulty curve.
Heads up, I streamed your game a bit, and the recording of the stream can be found here:
I rolled around the first level quite a bit collecting stars and apples. The speed and movement have a good feeling above most precision platformers where running and jumping is your limit. However on the flipside I think limiting the character to small spaces such as caves hinders the best aspect of this game by stopping all momentum over and over again. I like the spinning platforms and honestly would put them before the harsh spike pit, speaking of the spike pit it is very large and such an annoying obstacle to be in the start where you have to keep attempting it after you die at any point. When you land in the spikes you are always going to die, despite having 3 hitpoints, so either allow players to recover from spikes easier or give them 1 hitpoint like more precision platformers. I also think zooming out would help the overall feel, as being so zoomed in feels constricting. I like the look of the game and collecting things is fun overall. What are your plans for the game next?
Thanks for playing. I consider this demo a great success because its goal was to test what works and what doesn't. I think one big mistake I made is trying to combine trial-and-error type games with games with large branching levels without implementing any compatibility between the two making it mandatory to replay sections over and over. Good thing I had the idea to hit the players with all the extremes before I went ahead with building the rest of the levels.
The spikes only take one life because they are coded to throw you out if you just roll in from the side. They only kill you if you jump into them which is why that first "puzzle" was a big suck.
I guess I'll add more logical clarity because what I wanted was for players to only fuck themselves over if they aren't paying attention, not to reset their progress for every mistake
Sounds good. I didn't mean to be a harsh critic so I'm glad you are taking steps to improve it. Can't wait to see more!
managed to get a score in the 20s and also got wedged in a rock. I think this is pretty fun but the spikes are super unforgiving and the player seems just a little to slow.
Bet you can't beat my high score of 3. :)
he rolls / 10
The biggest thing I have to say is the physical are really weird. Since you are forced in a ball, slopes makes what is made to be easy to get up places (like smaller parts with golden stars) so annoying to get out of since you need momentum and it's lost so quickly. You can take damage right after getting hit, which makes the starting puzzle of jumping on a bolder and moving it annoying with how easy it is to die. I feel like that type of thing shouldn't ever be in a first level let alone the first challenge. Like pic related, it's possible to get soft locked or later on in a smaller cave, if you loose momentum which is easy, you are forced to go into a spike pit. The graphics and music are great just please fix the physics.
Thank you, this is one part great feedback on the physics but also one part you misunderstanding the game. Most of the parts that stumped you aren't design mistakes - they're puzzles you didn't solve or intentional obstacles that shouldn't be crossable. I made sure to avoid making puzzles that solve themselves, because those are something I wouldn't want to play. I'll work on tweaking the movement physics.
I'll try to play a bit more later to see if it was me missing something or not at times. But yeah, the momentum feels a bit off with how fast it goes away.