I only played the first 5 level due to time constraints. The art style is cute and the sounds are good enough.
The beginning of the game introduces too many mechanics too quickly. I found myself getting overwhelmed a bit. Basic movement mostly works, but occasionally the character would just stop unable to move in a certain direction and I would have to fiddle around a bit until they would move in the correct direction again.
I managed to softlock myself in the 5th level as I missed the first two targets and was unable to go back and get them, and reloading the level put me back at the later checkpoint so I couldn't restart it. Most puzzles on the level reset fully, but some are required to be done in order to navigate the level, so if you die in a certain spot you end up having to do a puzzle more than once to progress. The checkpoints are in some very rough places too, often placed before transitions to other parts of the level.
I encountered a bug on the world map that would cause me to drift around without putting in any inputs, it eventually started working properly, but it was very annoying. Finally, the loading screens were very long.
I know you've been working on this game for a while, so I don't want to be too mean. I streamed the game and someone suggested I send you the video for feedback, so here:
I played all levels up to Forest Sokoban, I quit there after dying twice after taking this checkpoint but still had to start over from the checkpoint before it. I don't know what you consider WIP or not in the game so I'll give feedback as if it's all complete.
After downloading the game and starting the first time no matter what graphics options you set in the launcher its reset to the lowest resolution and gfx preset. Have to restart the game again to make it work.
Pressing E to zoom does not work. Pressing P pauses the game and zooms out, can't zoom back in again until you die.
No restart button in the pause menu.
All the music is great.
Tutorial has some spelling/grammar errors:
The health bar looks weird. Why a bar when health is in small integers? Why is there black space after the heart? Why is the heart placed after the number tick when you're at full? Why is the distances between the numbers different?
Needs more feedback on getting hurt. SFX, screenshake for example, maybe some particles.
Performance on the world map seems pretty bad. ~65 FPS with a 3070 on ultra settings, which is fine but it makes me wonder how it's on worse computers. Movement feels way too sluggish too there, like there's heavy input delay.
A completed level does not get a checkmark or something on the map.
Bokube moves by rolling of course so its just really odd when he drags something and just slides along the ground. Maybe his hands could hold onto the object and keep rolling with just his body?
Always dying on falling down can be quite punishing. As you have a HP system already perhaps you should just lose 1 HP in regular water and get teleported back to where you came from. Although that might introduce a lot of sequence break abuse possibilities...
What instakills you vs hurts you seems pretty arbitrary. On one map a spiky roller migh instakill you and in other places just hurt you.
Rising lava killing you looks really weird as it doesn't touch you, why not have it go slightly above ground when it stats killing you?
It should be a lot more visible when lava is frozen.
The "checkpoint keys" will sometimes get stuck as completed in the UI, pic below is right after starting the level. Need to turn off the game and restart to reset it.
The raycast showing the "ghost Boku" when dashing is really inconsistent. It frequently clips through objects and also gets stuck on things you can dash through. I'm guessing its done with a raycast but it should really be a boxcast as you move on a grid, things you can dash through such as blue enemies should be on a different collision layer and not block it.
I think you should try to introduce how you can put objects in the cannons and into teleporters somehow. Its not obvious that it's a mechanic. Also this interaction is really weird: https://files.catbox.moe/ctydjf.webm
Jumping into horizontal buttons feels and looks really weird, like its not intended. Especially how you clip into these things: https://files.catbox.moe/5d0wxh.webm
In general enemies feel really janky and buggy. Phasing through solid objects as they feel like or killing themselves suddenly, or just not hurting you at all. Very unclear hitboxes. Some of their animations look like they're having seizures. The cannon ones probably being the biggest offender. Here are a few examples of what I encountered:
I think these should be spiders but they look more like upside-down bears to me, also not with 8 limbs but two arms and legs. Maybe its just me...
Hitboxes feel pretty jank all around, I would think being on a grid would make it pretty clear but its not at all. For example you can have a spike impale you and be perfectly fine:
And sometimes it can look like you're dashing next to an enemy for example but you hit them anyway.
Puzzle cubes (especially those with buttons) feel really weird with how they can kill enemies too. There's just a spike on top of them but somehow they kill things on adjacent grid positions. If they at least had some sort of animation like an energy beam shooting out of it to kill enemies or something it would make some sense.
Other than all that a major problem is with the difficulty curve of the game and how mechanics are (not) introduced. From what I played the curve is completely flat, granted there is a lot more levels than what I played so maybe it becomes way harder later, with you getting tossed into huge levels with stuff and mechanics everywhere, its really confusing at first. I don't know why the very first levels are so huge. In my opinion the first ones should be tiny and linear, introducing one mechanic at a time. Making large levels later is perfectly fine, but even some forest levels felt easier and clearer than in the first world. Coins should be used more (again at least in the first levels) to guide the player where to go. Here's a little example of how I think an early level could be, with the entire level being in the screenshot and coins going through the air where the yellow line is. Basically baby difficulty.
Also the camera can be really annoying at times with things occluding your view all the time and you need to adjust it constantly to see.
All in all if you fix the jank, bugs, and better difficulty curve/way of introducing mechanics you have a solid game.
Comments
I only played the first 5 level due to time constraints. The art style is cute and the sounds are good enough.
The beginning of the game introduces too many mechanics too quickly. I found myself getting overwhelmed a bit. Basic movement mostly works, but occasionally the character would just stop unable to move in a certain direction and I would have to fiddle around a bit until they would move in the correct direction again.
I managed to softlock myself in the 5th level as I missed the first two targets and was unable to go back and get them, and reloading the level put me back at the later checkpoint so I couldn't restart it. Most puzzles on the level reset fully, but some are required to be done in order to navigate the level, so if you die in a certain spot you end up having to do a puzzle more than once to progress. The checkpoints are in some very rough places too, often placed before transitions to other parts of the level.
I encountered a bug on the world map that would cause me to drift around without putting in any inputs, it eventually started working properly, but it was very annoying. Finally, the loading screens were very long.
I know you've been working on this game for a while, so I don't want to be too mean. I streamed the game and someone suggested I send you the video for feedback, so here:
Hopefully it helps.I played all levels up to Forest Sokoban, I quit there after dying twice after taking this checkpoint but still had to start over from the checkpoint before it. I don't know what you consider WIP or not in the game so I'll give feedback as if it's all complete.
After downloading the game and starting the first time no matter what graphics options you set in the launcher its reset to the lowest resolution and gfx preset. Have to restart the game again to make it work.
Pressing E to zoom does not work. Pressing P pauses the game and zooms out, can't zoom back in again until you die.
No restart button in the pause menu.
All the music is great.
Tutorial has some spelling/grammar errors:
The health bar looks weird. Why a bar when health is in small integers? Why is there black space after the heart? Why is the heart placed after the number tick when you're at full? Why is the distances between the numbers different?
Needs more feedback on getting hurt. SFX, screenshake for example, maybe some particles.
Performance on the world map seems pretty bad. ~65 FPS with a 3070 on ultra settings, which is fine but it makes me wonder how it's on worse computers. Movement feels way too sluggish too there, like there's heavy input delay.
A completed level does not get a checkmark or something on the map.
Bokube moves by rolling of course so its just really odd when he drags something and just slides along the ground. Maybe his hands could hold onto the object and keep rolling with just his body?
Always dying on falling down can be quite punishing. As you have a HP system already perhaps you should just lose 1 HP in regular water and get teleported back to where you came from. Although that might introduce a lot of sequence break abuse possibilities...
What instakills you vs hurts you seems pretty arbitrary. On one map a spiky roller migh instakill you and in other places just hurt you.
Rising lava killing you looks really weird as it doesn't touch you, why not have it go slightly above ground when it stats killing you?
It should be a lot more visible when lava is frozen.
The "checkpoint keys" will sometimes get stuck as completed in the UI, pic below is right after starting the level. Need to turn off the game and restart to reset it.
The raycast showing the "ghost Boku" when dashing is really inconsistent. It frequently clips through objects and also gets stuck on things you can dash through. I'm guessing its done with a raycast but it should really be a boxcast as you move on a grid, things you can dash through such as blue enemies should be on a different collision layer and not block it.
Example of how it can screw you over: https://files.catbox.moe/rmz6g2.webm
Example 2: https://files.catbox.moe/3bg1bp.webm
No collision here: https://files.catbox.moe/l96qt0.webm
I think you should try to introduce how you can put objects in the cannons and into teleporters somehow. Its not obvious that it's a mechanic. Also this interaction is really weird: https://files.catbox.moe/ctydjf.webm
Jumping into horizontal buttons feels and looks really weird, like its not intended. Especially how you clip into these things: https://files.catbox.moe/5d0wxh.webm
https://files.catbox.moe/pb2fri.webm
I doubt this is intended: https://files.catbox.moe/aubg1s.webm
In general enemies feel really janky and buggy. Phasing through solid objects as they feel like or killing themselves suddenly, or just not hurting you at all. Very unclear hitboxes. Some of their animations look like they're having seizures. The cannon ones probably being the biggest offender. Here are a few examples of what I encountered:
https://files.catbox.moe/zp8n9s.webm
https://files.catbox.moe/kq6qk9.webm
https://files.catbox.moe/x7ic95.webm
https://files.catbox.moe/trhksi.webm
https://files.catbox.moe/memczh.webm
https://files.catbox.moe/qh9o00.webm
https://files.catbox.moe/dom0k2.webm
https://files.catbox.moe/fflb5u.webm
I think these should be spiders but they look more like upside-down bears to me, also not with 8 limbs but two arms and legs. Maybe its just me...
Hitboxes feel pretty jank all around, I would think being on a grid would make it pretty clear but its not at all. For example you can have a spike impale you and be perfectly fine:
And sometimes it can look like you're dashing next to an enemy for example but you hit them anyway.
Puzzle cubes (especially those with buttons) feel really weird with how they can kill enemies too. There's just a spike on top of them but somehow they kill things on adjacent grid positions. If they at least had some sort of animation like an energy beam shooting out of it to kill enemies or something it would make some sense.
Other than all that a major problem is with the difficulty curve of the game and how mechanics are (not) introduced. From what I played the curve is completely flat, granted there is a lot more levels than what I played so maybe it becomes way harder later, with you getting tossed into huge levels with stuff and mechanics everywhere, its really confusing at first. I don't know why the very first levels are so huge. In my opinion the first ones should be tiny and linear, introducing one mechanic at a time. Making large levels later is perfectly fine, but even some forest levels felt easier and clearer than in the first world. Coins should be used more (again at least in the first levels) to guide the player where to go. Here's a little example of how I think an early level could be, with the entire level being in the screenshot and coins going through the air where the yellow line is. Basically baby difficulty.
Also the camera can be really annoying at times with things occluding your view all the time and you need to adjust it constantly to see.
All in all if you fix the jank, bugs, and better difficulty curve/way of introducing mechanics you have a solid game.