Game's Take on the Theme
Primarily, the theme is addressed via the game's arena, which is a wheel that spins faster and faster. But also, many elements of the UI work with rotations or orbit systems. The order of the bosses is random, so they rotate. Many attacks use rotations, etc.
Did your team make the majority of the art and music during the jam?
I did all the code, graphic assets and music. I recorded some of the sounds (notably the bosses' voices), the rest came from "pixabay" and a little from "la sonotheque" and some were modified on Audacity.
If not, please link to any asset packs or resources used here.
https://pixabay.com/ https://lasonotheque.org/
Pretty good game! I think some of the RNG attacks can be a bit unfair, but most of the other attacks I found being fun difficult. I'd suggest giving some bosses less HP especially when they're a bit harder to hit (like Face) and that there's maybe more of a transition between going from vulnerable to harmful (though I admit, it's probably fine as a way to punish greedy players who aren't looking at the timer like me heh).
But yah, this is one of the way better games of the jam.
Yes, there are probably a few attacks that need to be rebalanced :D
Have you played the game several times? The number of HP of the bosses depends on the order in which they appear. If the face appears first, it won't have much HP; if it appears last, it will have a lot. I realize that this is a rather artificial way of increasing the difficulty. Fortunately, it's not the only method I use :)
As for the hourglass and the transition between vulnerable and invulnerable, I'm actually thinking of adding a few sound and perhaps visual signals (although this doesn't mean you don't have to look at the hourglass for the more cautious ^^).
Anyway, thank you very much for your comment and feedback :D
Ooo I see about the health thing. I guess it is a bit tricky. As each boss is vulnerable in different ways that means their HP holds a different difficulty value. Like Magic Hat is practically free to hit and Crazy Cat is harder and can hurt you by comparison. So increasing HP to some bosses is way harder and to others meaningless. I'd generally say it's better to focus more on other aspects of difficulty as well and let the bosses be short if you are good. Though if wanting to do HP increases, then I'd say each boss should have their own Base HP & HP Scaling.
Really awesome game design, I really enjoyed the sounds and the unique take on the theme. The cat was so difficult but it felt great to beat it!
Oh, have you tried the game several times, or just once? For me, the cat is one of the easiest bosses (even if it's hard to hit when it's vulnerable). And people generally find themselves in more difficulty against the fish or the face. But as the order of the bosses is random, they get harder and harder depending on the order in which they appear. If the cat appears first, it would be pretty straightforward; if it appears last, it would be much tougher!
Anyway, thank you very much for your comment :D
I love this one so much! This game is very entertaining and fun. I love the aesthetic and how creative all the bosses are. It's just a bit confusing, especially when trying to see where your character is. Overall, an amazing game!
Great take on the theme! The animations are full of personality, and the game has a high level of polish. It’s tough but fair, though some feedback before bosses become undamageable again would be helpful. I had a lot of fun, great job!
Very interesting and unique idea, which is simple but challenging! The bosses are very well designed, really unexpected and surprise. I found that it is quite hard to see the player sometimes, maybe it will be useful if using different color for the player or some indicator to highlight the player. Overall a very polished and fun game!
Really good use of such a simple mechanic, each boss has it's own unique way that interacts with it, making the fights pretty interesting and memorable. It's more of a nitpick than anything, but I think a sound effect or visual indicator on the boss for when the damaging phase is about to end would be nice, I'm usually too focused on hitting the boss to notice how much time is left on the hourglass and occasionally take damage cause of it (skill issue).
It's a very well made game that I had a lot of fun playing. And the subtle music changes were a nice touch. Great job!
Thanks a lot :D
Indeed, I got a lot of feedback that it was hard to concentrate on the game and the interface at the same time. Personally, I eventually got the skill from playing my own game, but hey, I'm the dev of the game! So that's not very objective xD
I was actually thinking, after the jam, of adding a few more indicators to warn the player^^
WOW! This game was POLISHED!
I really enjoyed this experience and every aspect had so many little details that were a joy to find. It fel like a game that was incredibly simple to understand but had more and more depth the more you looked into it.
The general premise of the mechnic was interesting, but i felt like you really, really leant into the designs of the bosses to explore that central mechnic in unique and interesting ways. It really made something that i assumed was simple into a deep and rich mechanic. The little bits of polish in the platform jiggle and sound effects also helped sell it.
I loved the way the boss's were presented in the little capsule machine. Each boss had its own personality that was realised in its unique move set and gorgeous animations. The graphics in general were great and the whole thing had a really well implemented style that was incredibly effective. It was just very cohesive, everything had its place and was used to great effect. It was playful and bouncy and just lovelye to look at whist still being accesable (and even invcluding accesability options in too!)
The sound design worked well with everything from the slightly ominous and mysterious music to the punchy sfx and the little half chatter noises. It really was the bow on an already outstandingly presented package.
This felt like a masterclass in creating something apporachable but deep, simple but complex and beautiful but approachable. and above all else it was really fun.
Absolutley amazing work, top marks, loved it!
In fact, when you find a game mechanic that hasn't been done before (as far as I know), or has been done very little, it allows for a lot of inventiveness later on :D I was like a kid in a playroom thinking: what the hell can I do with everything I've got on hand :D
In any case, I'm delighted that you enjoyed the game :D
Thanks for your comment and the top marks ❤
I don't have many pointers, A game with this good execution doesn't even feel like it was made in one month, it is simply wonderful, with nice bosses, original concept, great music and sound effects, stylish UI and the list goes on and on.
some small complaints are that some of the boss projectiles take too long to de-spawn cluttering the screen too much with no chance to escape when another attack follows up,
and some projectiles spawned too quickly (the jokers chain start) or on top of the player (like the face`s sweat on the upper side of the circle), also Imo the pips required to make a boss vulnerable increase too much by the end.
there are also a lot of small things to compliment, such as the color choices and others. I won't get into detail else I will be here for quite a while!
games great!
For sure one of the finalists!
Thank you very much for your feedback :D
I have to say that I usually participate in the Trijam, so I'm used to doing games in 3 hours (or almost^^). So if I'm given a month to create, I've got time to have fun xD
Yes, the screen is sometimes very overloaded with projectiles. For many of them (like cards or magic hat stars), succeeding in making the boss vulnerable makes these projectiles innocuous. But for the last bosses, it's actually quite complicated. After the jam, I'll try to balance things out a bit :D
Anyway, thank you very much for your compliments ❤
hello fellow construct 3 developer that made a game with a pufferfish boss, great game haha!
very simple and fun! I like how obvious it was when I can hit the boss. Lots of low graphic games have a hard time with that but simply making it blue was a good idea. The main mechanic felt really smooth
Thank you very much for your comment :D
I really like the minimalist aesthetic, and I like it when the gameplay is obvious. I've included a tutorial just in case, but the idea is that I'd like the game to be able to do without it. So, I thought the simplest thing would be for a color code to say: Red hurts, Blue is vulnerable, Yellow activates, White is neutral.
Only for the winged heart was I unsure what to do. I didn't want to add an extra color, and using yellow didn't really satisfy me either, so that's why you can change your style in the game settings.
And it's also great fun to create graphics with such a color constraint.
Anyway, thanks again for playing and commenting ❤
Very cool execution of the game an a unique one for sure. Like how responsive the little guy was to jump around. Some of the attacks that the face boss did were a bit hard to see though. overall really cool!
Thanks a lot!
Yes, the face is quite a difficult boss! By dint of playing it, I found ways to sneak between his attacks, but I'm not a good example since I'm the developer xD!
You also have to be careful when he's vulnerable not to face the red parts of his face. Not only does it hurt, but it also changes the element currently vulnerable. It's a boss that requires caution.
This game is superb plain and simple, like everything about it just WORKS. The main mechanic is beautifully simple, and the way you designed all of these bosses around it to play with this mechanic in unique and incredibly challenging ways is a genuine triumph in game design. This game is so tough, but completely fair, and because of how much fun it is and the volume of satisfying feedback there is, loss of progress after losing never felt frustrating for a second for me. The aesthetic here is a really engaging piece of minimalist horror that's accentuated by the eerie music, which really ties everything together. Fantastic job here you absolutely killed it
Wow! thanks for the glowing review ^^ ❤
I'm really glad the difficulty of the game isn't an issue :D
And I'm also very happy that you enjoyed the music. The slightly strange side, sometimes even a little dissonant, is something that seems to make my style in spite of myself, ahah! But I'm very proud of it :)
this is a really cool idea really well executed, Love the feel of it, very responsive. each boss is unique and very cool, that stasis of the whole game, one screen, nothing ever leaves or appears, you have the pinball machine there the whole time, its really cool.
Wow! I really enjoyed this one. The implementation is super unique but still have an intuitive control scheme, which many games tend to struggle with. I also liked the change in music with the fish to match a tropical vibe. Really great attention to detail. Excellent work overall!
Thank you very much for your comment ^^
I was really worried that the game and the controls wouldn't be intuitive, but reading the comments, I'm reassured on this subject :)
As for the music, the fish is perhaps the one I struggled with the most. I wanted the music to represent the fish when it's small and when it's big. It took me a while to find the right instruments, but thanks to the help of chat (I created the game live), I ended up settling on two instruments to represent it: a muted trumpet for the big fish (which sounds a bit like an old investigative film) and steel drums, which bring out that slightly tropical, imaginary aquatic feel.
I liked the game and the mechanics. I just didn't like the fish, haha, what a tough creature.
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