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Asterism's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity | #51 | 3.736 | 3.736 |
| Visuals | #76 | 3.621 | 3.621 |
| Overall | #77 | 3.506 | 3.506 |
| Theme | #84 | 3.391 | 3.391 |
| Audio | #102 | 3.207 | 3.207 |
| Fun | #110 | 3.230 | 3.230 |
| Approachability | #124 | 3.322 | 3.322 |
Ranked from 87 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Cool game. The graphics are very well-made for a game jam, and it looks more professional than most entries.
The game's visual profile and contrast seem in a pretty decent shape overall, with a few issues. In particular, the black/dark gray bullets are way too hard to see. I'd also like to see more visual communication of the enemy mechanics, since most of them aren't super obvious without taking the time to observe them closely.
The black hole mechanic is a cool idea and it plays all right, but I think it could be much better. The fact that bullets all the way on the opposite side of the arena seem to accelerate at about the same rate as those very close to the black hole feels very strange to me, and it's frustrating to have my bullets pulled so hard (making it harder to aim) even when a black hole is very far away. I'm also skeptical of the design pattern of giving the player such a powerful tool and then having some enemies that take it away--perhaps simply making them a more limited resource in the first place would be a better approach?
Smaller things:
It would be nice if the game paused while the controls were being displayed, or if you could display the controls while in the main menu. I was in a rush when I looked at them the first time, and missed, among other things, the fact that you can zoom out.
On that note, I'd recommend setting the default zoom level further back. It's quite hard to learn the enemies' mechanics when they're off-screen, which happens a lot unless you zoom out manually. I found the game much more confusing before I figured this out.
Wow, thank you so much breakfast avenger, this is an awesome post!
Those dark grey bullets are actually muuuch brighter and have a slight white glow in the downloadable version. We made a last minute webgl version and it lost a ton of visual effects for some reason. :( They are semi transparent because they are supposed to be the stealth bullets. This is why they also do so little damage :P Still heard though, still plan to improve this!
Yeah! I totally agree and spent a little bit of time trying to fix this. Ultimately it would have required a very different system that we didn't have time to re-write. As for having it taken away easier, I really hear this. I've heard this several times and will plan to change this.
Pause on controls! That's a fantastic idea and I can see it would provide a lot of value. Done! Same for the zoom!
Thanks so much for taking the time to write so much. This kind of review is AWESOME!
I spent too much time playing this. It's fun and really well made. Also those things that destroy my black holes are annoying but an interesting design choice and also well balanced so I think it just makes you think about what to kill first and that's good.
Oh man! Thanks, I'm super glad you liked it. That's a great compliment :) They are certainly mean to be annoying, but they will be tuned down a little bit. X)
Really cool. I love the creepy 3d on 2d visuals and the music is great. Nice job!
Awesome! I'm so glad you liked it :) Thanks for the feedback!
Thanks you! :)
I sunk sooo much time into this... Very good! :)
Thank you for your words!
kinda like a black hole? ;D
This is my favorite type of compliment! I'm super glad you had fun. Let us know what your high-score was, or better yet, post it in the gamejam discord if you really want to flex :D
This game is really fun, love the twist with the attractor force black hole so you can restore health, but also utilize it to hit enemies when you're on the other side of the circle. Overall very solid entry, great job!
Thanks Cocoa-Cream Games! I'm super happy you had fun and liked the black hole. Thanks for the feedback!
I really like the blackhole mechanics. I thought the black hole was too powerful, but I saw a ship that could destroy the black hole instantly. The blackhole range is kind of too far, I think, and I was hoping there would be an interaction if there were two black holes, but overall, it's a cool and unique mechanic.
Thanks for playing and for the detailed feedback! We appreciate, it will certainly help future polishing
Hi Kanbarudesu! Thanks for the feedback! We actually buffed the distance for the blackhole so you could potentially get a kill with it in the 0.5 seconds it takes for The Ward to destroy the blackhole. We also were planning an interaction with the blackholes and also the orange blackhole that The Graviton has. We thought it would be awesome if they exploded or made a megahole or something, but we ran out of time :(
Thanks for taking the time to give us feedback. We really appreciate it.
That was really disgusting aliens that I spawned. I have to eat my own s*** eh, lmao XD
Joke aside, this game was really well made and polished at its finest. It was really fun. Congrats guys! :D
Lol! Thank you!
"Polished" is such a great compliment! Thank you so much for stopping by and giving it a try. We really appreciate your feedback :)
Great game and awesome idea! The grapgics are unique!
Hey Sam! Nice to see you here! Thank you so much for stopping by, we super duper appreciate it!
Oh also my name is Alex, not Sam.
How embarrassing......... hi Alex...
It's okay! Just the most people stop on "Sam" and forget to read "Alexandros". It happens always. Lol.
Playing around with the gravity especially considering that your own bullets can hurt you makes it an interesting concept to play around with. This also brings a very nice additional level to the implementation of the theme. Most of the issues were noted below, so no point in me repeating those, anything else is a matter of polishing stuff up.
Hi Aki, thank you so much for stopping by and giving us your feedback. It's greatly appreciated!
Overall I liked it, it kept me engaged and the gravity effect feels a unique feature that should explored further. It is a very cool idea! My only gripe was with the controls, they just did not feel as tight as the could have been! Overall, good job!
Controls are the #1 thing on the todo list. Thank you for taking the time to check it out!
Super cool game, I loved playing as an alien and the gravity effect is pretty interesting. Great work!
Thanks ConradoClark, we are so happy that you enjoyed it!
A great game! Really love the whole dynamic with the black hole! Is like freaking cool :O I see a lot of potential for a lot more! is a really good idea!
Aw man! Thanks. This means a lot and we are very proud of the blackhole mechanic. Thank you for taking time out of your day to check out our game!
Thanks! we appreciate it!
This game really had me engaged, I had a lot fun playing it! Well done! :)
Thank you!
Awesome, I'm glad you liked it and thats a great compliment :)
That means a lot! thank you!
The black hole was fun to play with, graphics look nice too!
Hi MichaelsGameLab, thank you so much for stopping by and checking it out :) I'm glad you liked it.
Beautiful background and nice music! The black hole mechanic is creative.
The bullets trajectory with the black hole are a bit confusing and I would remove the snap back to the middle of the screen when the player stop music
Hi! Thanks for taking the time to try it out!
As for the snap-back, I didn't even notice that! Thanks!
Loved the visuals, the game is a great match to the themes. I felt like the song was almost good, it does have a space feel, but something was lacking.
I really liked the gravity aspect changing the trajectories, but felt like the black hole was abit underwhelming. But overall, very nice game!
Hi Endeavour! Thank you so much for your review and taking the time to play this.
Our music evolves over the first 10 waves, do you think this was too slow? If you have any specifics, it would be very welcome, we are eager to improve.
I actually agree on the blackhole! Funnily enough, we ended up nerfed the blackhole just before pushing the game out. We also mulled around with the idea of blackhole powerups so maybe stay tuned for some day! :D
Ah that must be it, I couldn't get past wave 7 but I felt it was a bit slow. Maybe speeding it a little bit might push it to the sweet spot
Ah, understood. This is EXACTLY why I love feedback. If we continue it, we will scale up waaay faster. Gotta get our player pumped up faster :D
Thanks for your reply! Over the waves, the music grows and more instruments are added and new parts of the music as well!
I like the juice, and I like to odd looking player model, the enemy verity was really nice!
The movement felt a bit weird, where if you let of of the button you would still go a bit, felt odd, but i got used to that so it was no biggie.
I love the idea of black holes changing the trajectory of the bullets, its a fun way of making an avoid ability!
Very nice submission, great job!
Hi Ne_mene. Thanks for taking the time to give us feedback, we always appreciate it. I'm glad you liked the blackhole. We're 100% plan to change the way the character feels, that's been the most consistent feedback, so thank you for being specific :)
I like this game. The visuals are impressive and the black hole is a neat idea. Gameplay feels clunky for some reason and it's a lot harder if you don't zoom out. Also I didn't like that my black holes were being destroyed so easily, but maybe after I adjust to the enemies it wouldn't be a problem.
Hi! I'm glad you enjoyed it, thank you for taking time out of your day to give it a shot. I definitely want to help it feel less clunky, we a ton of feedback on this and will be fixing it if we continue to develop. Thank you specifically for the feedback about blackholes. This isn't something I've heard from anyone, so it is very valuable because it was something I was concerned about during development.
Thank you again for taking the time. It is much appreciated! :)
I like the self damage and gravity mechanics, it makes the game unique
I'm not a big fan of the music tho, it has the potential to be good, but the piano has a very midi sound, it doesn't sound the best.
The bullet pattern can be frustrating to avoid because of the randomness created by the gravity mechanic but I guess it just takes time to get used to.
Hi Hellsnake :)
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the game. I will pass this feedback on to our music guy, every piece of input is valuable.
I did enjoy the game! I'm glad you listen to feedback! Hope it helps :)
Glad to hear! And yes! I listen to every single piece of feedback.
I realized I didn't respond to your frustration about bullet being hard to avoid sometimes. Do you think slowing them down a little would help? We gave the player a large health pool and pretty generous healing abilities because its near-impossible to avoid all bullets, but I want it to FEEL good, even if those stray bullets don't hit all that hard.
Yes, in most Bullet Hell games the bullet speed is really low, and the player hitbox very tiny (and often visible)
It makes avoiding patterns easier, and more precise
Thanks for your reply! For the "piano" I used Vital to create a synth and the melody. Is it too midi? I will listen again and try to make it sound better
Interesting idea what my bullet is my enemy. And great showing of warships. Each one is unique and memorable. But control is little jelly, not comfortable.
Great work.
Thanks for giving it a shot, much appreciated! Your feedback is appreciated.