Fun game! Nice art and cool music!

Oh, it had quite the pacing! I read it was the first game for your team members, and it’s working quite well!

What I liked:

• how boss elements combine and are indicated by the mix of colors in the boss warpers
• combining dodge and attacks into dash
• you can tune your own difficulty by choosing to use the healing circle or not, between bosses and during the bosses (for instance you could start Easy by using it every time, Medium by using it only between bosses, Hard by recovering only 2 HP between bosses and Very Hard by not using it at all)
• game page explains only to deal damage to boss, there is also a little demonstration at the beginning

What I had issues with:

• even with the explanations and the spinning light demo at the beginning, I didn’t connect information together: dashing through the spinning light felt very different in the actual context of a boss vs doing it peacefully in the hub. In fact I didn’t even notice the laser attack at first, only when doing it with an actual boss. Unfortunately you’d require a proper “boss tutorial” to demonstrate that and that requires some time to put in place (we didn’t have one either, but entry Vertiga has a good one)
• I also didn’t get what the green circle was doing at first since you start at full heath in the hub. Fortunately it becomes clearer later (before I got hurt, I thought I had to stay in the green circle to spawn the spinning lights and trigger the attack)
• I have no control on how spinning lights spawn and I spend a lot of time circling around the boss looking for one. They don’t seem to spawn at regular periods like Spin On, or maybe they do at the opposite location in the arena and disappear before I have time to reach them
• so having an arena much bigger than the screen is an issue to spot these spinning lights, and also to see the boss actually spawning projectiles. We also had a circular arena in our game and we had camera scrolling initially but we changed the zoom so player could always see the boss, it was important to also predict the boss spinning attack incoming. In Vertiga you don’t see the whole arena but because most attack patterns are symmetrical by angle, you don’t lose much info, and most importantly you see the boss (you only miss the part of the arena on the sides and behind the boss)
• in the last boss, red projectiles are not contrasted enough with the dark red background (we also need to make our projectiles brighter in our game)

Suggestions:

• reward player with a nearby spinning light to deal damage after either a fixed period of time (like Spin On) or when dashing through a certain amount of projectiles (to encourage risk-reward) or when dashing through special, colored projectiles (requires attention and precision)

Art remarks:

• I see pixel art sprites but considering how big they are and how they are rotated, it could probably have been “HD” / digitally painted everywhere

Nice game! I enjoyed it quite a lot.

I like the visuals, very interesting artstyle, its very unique, the gameplay is fun and works nicely, I like the mechanics overal, I rate graphics, fun, control and music the most, but all is great really, the representation of nature is awesome, also, if you have some time, please, rate my game too, thanks!!!

The cohesion between a game about being in balance with nature and the entirely passive defensive playstyle is really cool stuff. I liked the simplicity of all the movement and mechanics, and I actually found that all the moves that all the bosses had were very well balanced around the simplicity of my movement options. The color language was also very clean and clear so it was just immediately apparent what the green circle did without any tutorializing whatsoever which is a huge plus

Theres a lot to like in this. I though the mechanics were easy to pick up and there was enough environmental storytelling that I could work out the mechanics and what I needed to do. I thought some of the boss attacks were not well balanced, as one mistiming and you would instantly die e.g. the rock boss could snare you then hit you 4 times straight away. Given the rest of the attacks seemed balance, it made the experience sometimes feel unfair.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere, and the fact that music changes during a battle. It vas a very original take on fighting a boss.

It was a calming experience to get a fight with the boss and this was an interesting experience :-)

• the design is quite original
• controls seem fine to me. Dash feels right
• I found the constant spinning of the background disorienting
• not sure if I miss something but is the "attack" circle random (in terms of spawn location and timing)?
  • I fought jelly twice. I had 5 circles in a row in one run but 2 in another; a lot of searching and waiting

I think the game has potentials. Good job.

This game controlled very nicely and felt super satisfying to avoid obstacles.

The boss design was good, but the arena design seemed strange to me. To maximize my chance of finding attacks and healing I had to position myself somewhere that I couldn't really see the boss. A large number of the attacks didn't seem to really originate from the boss, and when they did, the attack incentivized me being far enough out from the boss that I could no longer see it.

I really enjoyed the music, but the mixing made it sound a bit muddy.

The art was perfect for what you created. Just enough detail to be interesting but still maintain the simplistic design.

I know some of the stuff I said was critical, but I really did enjoy this one quite a bit. You did an excellent job!

This was a fun game with a very good movement system. It did take me a quick moment to figure out the core mechanics but once I understood them, I had a good time. I also found it a little difficult to find the spinning lights I was supposed to dash through so maybe try either making the map smaller or adding an indicator. Otherwise it's a great game and I'm excited to see where it goes from here! Good work!

The movement was tight and fun to use

my only gripe is the bosses reused moves but that's a small nitpick cause it was really fun

Pretty cool game!! It's hard to find anything that could ruin the experience. The only thing I'd say is that the game really needs clearer tutorials for the core mechanics, but even without them, it's still possible to figure things out, which is great. A pretty unique gameplay experience in this jam—I really enjoyed it! Great work!

Cute game! I have no complaints about this one, my only comments is that maybe there could be an indicator to show the current attack's circle position? I also think that the healing pool could may be there for a short period, then sometimes reappears, sometimes vanishing.. Also I think all the snare attacks are too powerful XD just are some nitpicks of me, the game is nonetheless great and you guys nailed it! Well done!

Great  game. Had trouble figuring out the mechanics at first. Really cool twist on how to attack the boss. The rock boss projectiles is op though. Good job overall.

Really enjoyed the mechanics, wasn't quite able to beat the tornado, cloud attack need nerfs lol. Nice game tho, well made!

What do the green circles do? I had some trouble figuring it out!

Very unique way to damage bosses!

Art and sound are great too.

I wish the player had more freedom of movement

Overall, a very unique and fun game.

Very challenging game, great stuff. It took me a minute to figure out how to do damage and what the green healing circles did but that's my fault cause I forget to read the description! The earth guy cooked me many times. I wish that if you inputted no movement commands and clicked the dash button it would dash forward. that way I could wait for an obstacle to go by and then instantly dash where my guy it facing but that is a very small nit pick that is probably only me. Overall really fun game!