Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
A jam submission

Automatonics (playtest version)View game page

Shooting platformer game inspered by classic games, such as kirby, mega man and the super mario series.
Submitted by BasicShapes — 7 days, 10 hours before the deadline
Add to collection

Play game

Automatonics (playtest version)'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Sound/Music#64.3334.333
Overall Fun#84.3334.333
Art / Graphics#164.0004.000
Controls / UI#213.3333.333

Ranked from 3 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

If you have competed before, how has your game changed?
The in-game systems, power-ups, upgrades and HUD/UI have been heavily modified from the game version that had been submitted for Feedback Quest 4.

Game Genre

Action

Shooter | Platformer | Slasher | Beat em Up | Base Defense | Survival | Racing

Genre #2

None

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Comments

Submitted

Can you please select the target system (Windows) for your Downloadables? Otherwise the itch app refuses to install these files.

Developer(+1)

Sorry about the issue. It's fixed now. 

Thank you 

Submitted(+1)

Hey, your key art doesn't do your game justice. Everything actually looks much more beautiful and stylish in the game itself!

The visual style of the game is great, I love it. The only downside would be, it struggles with visual language sometimes. Certain level elements blend too much with the background, sometimes it is hard to tell a wall from a decorative background element. This also goes for projectiles passing through some obstacles but being stopped by others, in a seemingly random fashion.

Controls are great and smooth. Enemy attack and movement patterns leaves desire to have directional attack options (firing at certain angles, up and down, not only left-right). Also, I wanted to find a proper combination of dashing and dodging enemy attack - especially on tough drone battles at the end of the level - and I feel like sometimes avoiding damage wasn't possible at all. No matter how quick I was, there is a number of situations where I felt like getting hit is unavoidable. You might want to look into that. It would't be a huge problem, but extremely satisfying if done right. 

The tutorial helps a lot to understand what's going in the game, but I would advice to space everything out a little. It's hard to pull off properly (and I'm guilty of overlooking tutorial issues myself :) ), but you could entertain new players much better if you would integrate all those hints into levels more seamlessly, letting the player actually get to the game as fast as possible, only showing them when they are absolutely necessary to progress (dash over a pit, shoot to fight off a monster, etc.). I must say you did a good job presenting in the way it is, though.

Sometimes, it necessary to die to actually return to a previous part of the level to collect something instead of going for exit portal. Once again, not a huge problem, a lot of other games do that too - but felt like a little bit of an oversight for me.

I played through ~4 levels and I love it so far. Keep up the good work!

Developer(+1)

Hi, Servelat.

I am very happy to see that you liked the game visual style. I appreciate the feedback regarding mismatch between the key art and the game art-style, as it is the very first impression for the game. The key art improvement will definetely be a priority for future versions. The visual language struggles can be improved for the next versions of the game, I can see how the background elements can blend too much with interacting elements.

Some aspects are overlooked during the game development, and the matching of the dashing and dodging when fighting enemies might be one of them. I can see how it can be dissatisfying to not be able to have proper pattern or combinations of in-game abilities, that can be mastered to give the player an advantage when fighting tougher enemies. I really appreciate this feedback, as it can definetely help to make Automatonics a better game overall.

Regarding the tutorial, I really like your suggestion, although I think it would be much more complex to implement the hints into the levels as the player progress through the game. But I do see how it would create a much improved player experience, it is definely something of great value that I will keep in mind.

Thank you very much for playing the game and providing such useful feedback. I hope you can play the future versions of Automatonics.

Submitted

Hey, your key art doesn't do your game justice. Everything actually looks much more beautiful and stylish in the game itself!

The visual style of the game is great, I love it. The only downside would be, it struggles with visual language sometimes. Certain level elements blend too much with the background, sometimes it is hard to tell a wall from a decorative background element. This also goes for projectiles passing through some obstacles but being stopped by others, in a seemingly random fashion.

Controls are great and smooth. Enemy attack and movement patterns leaves desire to have directional attack options (firing at certain angles, up and down, not only left-right). Also, I wanted to find a proper combination of dashing and dodging enemy attack - especially on tough drone battles at the end of the level - and I feel like sometimes avoiding damage wasn't possible at all. No matter how quick I was, there is a number of situations where I felt like getting hit is unavoidable. You might want to look into that. It would't be a huge problem, but extremely satisfying if done right. 

The tutorial helps a lot to understand what's going in the game, but I would advice to space everything out a little. It's hard to pull off properly (and I'm guilty of overlooking tutorial issues myself :) ), but you could entertain new players much better if you would integrate all those hints into levels more seamlessly, letting the player actually get to the game as fast as possible, only showing them when they are absolutely necessary to progress (dash over a pit, shoot to fight off a monster, etc.). I must say you did a good job presenting in the way it is, though.

Sometimes, it necessary to die to actually return to a previous part of the level to collect something instead of going for exit portal. Once again, not a huge problem, a lot of other games do that too - but felt like a little bit of an oversight for me.

I played through ~4 levels and I love it so far. Keep up the good work!

(+1)

Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 5!

Playing through, I immediately felt like I had a better idea of what I was doing and what was going on compared to last time. I went through a few of the levels, having fun with my jumping and shooting while noting things that I felt should be covered.

One thing that was brought up already was the loss of keys upon death after a checkpoint. While collectibles stay, keys are lost and the player is forced to restart from the hub (not even just the level) to go back and get them.

Another thing was crumbling blocks vanishing from just touching them but not walking on them. While they do respawn, this can lead to some confusion from players and they may not realize until later that they respawn.

I had a point in one stage where I tried to kill myself on a spiked wall and ended up in the wall. That was fun. XD

Finally, one particular behaviour that I dislike from this, even though some of the games that are inspiring you did this, was that flying enemies could pass through walls if attacking you. I personally think they should be forced to fly around, both for consistency and to make a better challenge to the player. When enemies just beeline for you, you can usually move back and eventually get an easy shot on them.

I can't wait to see more! :D

Developer

Hi, hythrain.

Thank you very much for taking the time to play Automatonics again. I am very glad that you had fun playing the game, that means a lot as a feedback.

Your overall feedback for the game is very detailed and specific, I appreciate it a lot. I am definetely going to work on changing the loss of keys upon death and the crumbling blocks, I can see how the current design can be frustating for the player.

I also appreciate the flying enemies feedback. I must admit I overlooked how this feature could affect the player experience. I am sure there must be a better solution to be studied for future versions.

Again, thank you very much for taking the time to play Automatonics and providing such detailed feedback. Hope you can play the next versions.

Deleted post
Developer(+1)

Thank you very much for taking the time to play Automatonics.

I just watched your gameplay on the youtube link provided, it provided really helpful feedback. Cannot thank you enough.

Definetely going take a look at the points mentioned to try and improve the game.

Deleted post