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Rewind Bullethell's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #159 | 3.958 | 3.958 |
| Audio | #267 | 3.458 | 3.458 |
| Innovation | #379 | 3.375 | 3.375 |
| Overall | #380 | 3.417 | 3.417 |
| Graphics | #546 | 3.417 | 3.417 |
| Fun | #551 | 3.167 | 3.167 |
| Game Design | #656 | 3.125 | 3.125 |
Ranked from 24 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
In what way does your game fit the theme?
A bullethell shooter where players cant shoot back; the only way to fight back is to tag enemy bullets with your Amplifier and REWIND time to send the bullets back at the enemies :)
Did you write most of the code yourself and made all the assets from scratch?
Yes; all code, visual effects and sound effects are created by myself (Philip M)
Ship models use Starsparrow assets from asset store; Music by Anthony Tustin (free for non-commercial use).
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Comments
Bullethell games are always fun! I didn't read the part that you have to tag the bullets with your amplifier so the first few levels took a while (my mistake!), but perhaps there could also be something in-game that tells you how it works that you have to tag the bullets with the beam things on the side of your ship to change the color. The speed of the ship is good relative to the speed of bullets so you have enough time to dodge and movement works. I like that the ship color indicates what color bullets you need to kill it. Overall, very nicely done!
Here are some bugs that I encountered:
If you die while rewinding, the bullets can still go through the amplifier and kills the ships so you pass the level and can play again.
I couldn't figure out how to restart the level / gameplay after a loss so I had to restart the whole game for that.
Had fun playing.
Sound effect when enemy fire bullets would be nice
Over all. Nice work!
I really like this twist on the bullet hell genre. It makes the player focus heavily on dodging projectiles but encourages them to get close to them in order to progress. This is a really nice take on the theme and has a lot of potential for expansion with different projectile types and enemies that could be added. Great submission! I had a lot of fun playing it
Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
I'll review and rate your game later too :)
Cool mechanics! the implementation of the rewind is well executed. I reached the 3rd level and no enemy appeared. I think the game ended, or is it a bug? In the end, I loved the death's sound ahahahah Well done! I'll appreciate if you rate mine too ;)
Thanks for the feedback!
Hmm, that sounds like a bug, there are definitely meant to be enemies! I am aware of the bug which causes the player to respawn at the start of each level, and sometimes that means the player spawns right on an already active bullet :( is it possible that happened? (but even then the enemies should keep spawning after your death, so maybe you found another bug)
Haha making the death sounds was fun haha, glad you enjoyed them haha. I will definitely rate yours too and leave feedback.
I liked the game mechanic with amplifier, is quite unique. It was a bit hard for me to understand what the amplifier beams were. Maybe a different color/particles or a small indication in the "Get Ready" phase would have made it more clear. Also, add restart button, please!
Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah, I definitely intended to put both those things in (more indication of how to play and a restart button), alas I ran out of time and last minute bugs caused me to lose the restart mechanic. Alas, it was a learning experience of what I needed to work on earlier :)
I'll rate and review your game a bit later today too :) Thanks again!
I understand your game had to be reverted back to a previous version because of a game-breaking bug last minute, but it was still fun!
I definitely think it's an interesting concept, having to rewind the enemy's bullets back towards them after amplifying them. :)
Obviously there were a few bugs you already know about. Like not being able to restart after dying, and bullets not being destroyed after you complete a level so you end up dying as soon as the new level starts.
Wish we could've seen what the non-reverted version was. Great job anyways!
It was legitimately fun to play, I had so many close calls where bullets would almost touch me. It was stressful but fun!
Thanks so much for your feedback and time playing it :)
Yeah, was quite frustrating having something pop up last minute that meant I submitted something I wasn't as happy with; but oh well, that's a learning experience in itself: dont be working on core functionality 2 hours before the due date! :) hahaha
Glad to hear you were able to enjoy it despite its bugs :) I'll play through your game shortly :)
Nice concept, interesting using of rewind mechanic :)
Thanks! I just reviewed your game, I'll write some comments on your page! Well done!
Nice game, Writing a little small but everything else was great! Please rate mine too.
Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I'll definitely tweek the UI to work on smaller resolutions (like the WebGL window) next time :)
Will do! I might have to rate it tomorrow, its almost midnight here in Australia, but I promise I will get to it!
Done! Left some feedback on your page, I enjoyed it quite a lot! Just wish you had done something a bit cooler/more-creative with the theme; but overall the game was good!
Thanks!!
I enjoyed the game, the music and sound effects were intense not a bad thing at all but after a while I think it could get a bit much. A faster control would of been nicer I think but over all very nice submission :)
Thanks for the feedback! I'll try to get a bit of variation with the music next time, thanks for the time reviewing it!
A nice game! Found it a little too easy, though: marking a few dozen random bullets as yellow & rewinding seemed to always kill the enemies without much effort. Nonetheless, good job!
Thanks for the feedback! There are a couple of balance issues I probably need to look at. Would have been good if I got some variety in the bullet patterns too. What level did you get up to out of curiosity? If you get to the 5th level red enemies start coming (which require you to tag the bullets to red level), and the 10th has purple enemies I believe, with medium strength red ships.
The biggest problem was a bug I introduced in the last hour which makes you respawn in the middle at the start of each level, that's what's killed me more than the enemies itself :(
Anyway, thanks again for the play!
Ah, I see, guess I didn’t get further then 4 levels, then. The major problem is that when you rewind, both the enemy and the yellow bullet travel backwards in time exactly to the point when the enemy shot the bullet. Still it gets challenging with many enemies, so this isn’t a big problem, of course.
Yes, indeed that is a problem that I didn't quite nail, I didn't initially design it like that tbh; initially the enemies didn't rewind, only the bullets. But I found what was happening was the bullets would go back to their origin and most often not hit an enemy (because the enemies move up and down slightly too, if the bullet spawned at the front they de-materialised before they could even reach an enemy). I thought it would be quite frustrating for the player to wait for the rewind to unlock only to then miss a bunch of enemies, I found it was more enjoyable hitting the rewind button, having to dodge bullets in both directions, but then be paid off by destroying a bunch of enemies.
I wish I had started the game a few days earlier, I wouldn't have had the respawn bug and I could have made the difficulty curve a bit better.
Thanks again for the extra feedback :)
I'll review your game shortly :)
Very cool game. Interesting use of the rewind, making it kill their own sources! I had trouble dodging the returning bullets, but that may be just me rather than the game
Thanks for playing! I think I needed to work on the difficulty curve a bit, so thanks for the feedback! I find it easier to play my game with a controller (due to the analog stick rather than WASD, but its probably the difficulty curve more than anything).
I'll try to review your game shortly!
I enjoyed playing this game. The rewind function is really cool, at first I thought I had to dodge the returning bullets too :)
I guess with more time, can make it more easy to navigate etc.
I liked the music and art as well :)
Thanks! I appreciate the playthrough and the feedback!
You do have to dodge the returning bullets! They will kill you if you're in their way as they rewind. If they didn't then something went wrong hahaha.
Yes, I definitely needed just a tiny bit more time and I could have put a proper restart level in, and a tutorial of sorts. I joined the jam a bit late (i started on Wednesday) so I wish i had those extra couple of days, oh well, I'll have to manage my time better next time! :)
Thanks again for your feedback!
I needed a bit of time to figure out how to defeat an enemy. I liked that you had to dodge the bullets but if you just go to the left and stay there you never get hit by any bullet.
Thanks for playing! I appreciate the feedback!
Yeah, I definitely needed a tutorial explanation or at least a diagram to explain how the concept worked in general. But I appreciate you took the time to play anyway.
Hmm, I hadn't noticed that tactic! I think by level 3 onwards when the enemies get harder and start spraying more bullets the left might not be fully safe, but you're right, i think the enemy move waypoints are not quite far enough on the left side to be ideal. Thanks for the feedback!
I'll give your game a go tomorrow (it's almost midnight here in Australia) and give you some feedback too if I can :) Thanks again!
I enjoyed the game! I missed some kind of restart system and couldn't figure out how to damage the enemy, but really good idea and good game! Would appreciate if you could check out mine as well :)
Thanks for playing and providing feedback!
Yes, indeed the restart system is sorely missed :( I had to cut it at the last minute because it was bugging out, and i'm not happy with how it ended up, but alas, that's game jams! I also wanted to put some sort of tutorial, or at least diagram, for explanation of how to play, and I ran out of time for that too :'( sorry it was confusing (i knew it would be, I'll try to plan my time better next time)
To damage the enemy you need to amplify their shots and then use the rewind function to send the bullets back at the enemies. If you put the bullets through your amplifiers (the electric beams to the side of your ship) they will turn from white to yellow (and then if you keep moving back and forth through them they will turn to red then pink/purple). The shots need to be yellow to kill yellow enemies, red to kill red enemies and purple to kill purple enemies. You can amplify them on the way back too as theyre rewinding. The rewind function takes a bit of time to charge up, so you'll have to dodge and tag bullets until it's ready. Hope that helps you enjoy the game a bit more.
Yep! I'll definitely check it out! I'll have to do so tomorrow as its almost midnight here in Australia, but i'll put it on my to-do list :) Thanks again for the feedback and the playthrough!
Definitely gonna play it again now that I know! Good game and thanks :)
I really liked your game! I'll like to see more patterns when with the bullets so they are less predictable. The main mechanic is really interesting and fun. It was a little confusing at first but you get the hold of it pretty fast. I loved the music! It made me go so into the game. Congratulations!
Thanks! I really appreciate the playthrough and feedback! Yep, different bullet patterns were part of the plan, alas... i ran out of time haha. I'm glad you enjoyed it regardless though!
the thought of the game is very good.
using the amplifiers is nice. and art too.
despite few bugs, i think the game hold pretty well with core mechanic.
dodging during rewind is the best part which is great
i thank u a lot for rating mine though
the things that would i would suggest are
easy restart and a menu with other UI elements score and progress.
Thanks for the game and the comments!
Yeah, the UI could definitely use some work; I essentially ran out of time cause i somehow introduced a massive game-freezing bug about 2 hours before launch, and the only way i could figure out how to 'fix' it in time was to scrap the level restart and also meant the player restarted at origin each levels (which is unideal if a bullet is about to hit there...). Sigh, so frustrating, but the jam was a good experience anyway! Thanks again for the play!