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Pouchie The Cat | Alpha 0.5's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall Fun | #9 | 4.429 | 4.429 |
| Sound/Music | #31 | 3.857 | 3.857 |
| Art / Graphics | #36 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Controls / UI | #54 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
Ranked from 7 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Genre #1
Action
Shooter | Platformer | Slasher | Beat em Up | Base Defense | Survival | Racing
Rating #2
Family Friendly
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Comments
I played this game on my stream (VOD).
I'd watch someone else play the game on their stream so I had some sense of what to expect. However, I turned out to be way worse at platformers. My daughter, who is much better at Mario, did better than me. Overall, we enjoyed playing the game.
I don't know if having limited lives is necessary for the game though. I understand that in retro games (like Mario) there are limited lives, but running out of lives would be really sad and would stop me from replaying everything.
Another comment I had was that the jumping felt a bit strange at times. I tried to run and jump, and sometimes I went farther than other times. It almost felt like I could control the jump in mid-air and land short sometimes, which caused many deaths :)
Sen covered your game check the VOD for her feedback. :D Welcome to the Quest! Your game is the first one. 23:38 Pouchie The Cat | Alpha 0.5
I had a good laugh with the intro :)
One thing that kind of caught me by surprise is that I expected to step the story dialogue with Z instead of X.
I also noticed that the collision between me and the enemies, sometimes, behaved in a kind of odd way, with me getting hurt in situations an Italian plumber wouldn't.
With some polish here and there, this could be a great plataformer! As it is, it's almost there, but the small issues kind of creep up quite fast.
If you ever consider a Mac version and need a tester, please ping me - I got machines from different eras.
Game is cute, albeit a little janky. Strangely, I'm fine with the jank--it gives the game an extra challenge/quirk! I like the art style and the old timey feel as well.
I'm surprised there isn't a catnip powerup. 🤣
Break a few crates after getting the mallet. You'll find some catnip.
Here's The AnimationVoice playthru of your game if interested: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2224754339
Hello! Welcome to Feedback Quest 7! My name's Hythrain and I'm one of the hosts and one of the streamers for this event! This feedback is being written live as I stream your game! If you're interested in seeing my live reaction, let me know and I can send you a link to the VOD once it's posted to YouTube!
So my normal approach for any game in these events is simple: I get the game, make sure it's not a virus, then play it with as little information on how to play as possible. This way, I can judge how intuitively someone can figure out the game. Only if it's obvious that I need to read more will I do so. I note this so you can get a sense where some of these feedback comes from. In addition, I want to note that feedback and rating are different; don't use this feedback to gauge what I'll rate, nor should you view my rating as entirely indicative of my feedback.
Right off the bat, this game made me chuckle with how goofy it was. The old cartoon style works nicely.
That said, there were some issues I felt should be brought up as they'll help improve the game quality.
For starters, there's how fast the player falls. This combined with the control scheme can make it hard to land properly. This is made worse by issues with landing on corners: on enemies, landing on the end will bounce you away. On land, you don't get your footing and slip off. This can make it frustrating for players.
Second, I noticed a few spots where there should have been coins to telegraph a blind fall but there weren't any. There absolutely should be another pass to ensure none exist.
Third, while the wall jump mechanic is cool, I find that if adjacent walls aren't close enough, you can't gain any height. This is because the ability to gain and lose vertical momentum is much higher than horizontal momentum. In addition, before it's explained that you can wall jump it can just come off like a bug. My suggestions for fixing these are to make a new sprite that is used when sliding down a wall and to have the game force some horizontal momentum when jumping off the wall. You're already requiring the player to hold the direction away from the wall, so this should make larger gaps in walls be usable.
Lastly, I felt like the enemies with spikes on their backs should be kill-able with the mallet. I know the mushrooms are what's intended to be the enemy you kill with the mallet, but considering you can still kill them with a jump and escape the spores in the air I don't think it works as well.
Edit: I forgot! One thing I'd like to see is for the music to lean heavily into the old cartoon theme. The use of those old timey public domain bits was perfect, but then the music for stages just doesn't fit.
I can't wait to see more of this! I love Pouchie! XD
Hello, thanks for the feedback! I've been looking at your suggestions for improvement, and do have some responses to add some context, and some future plans for improvement:
So first of all the biggest issue in the game: The Gravity. I've actually been testing and re-testing the gravity of late, trying to come up with a gravity system that works well for Pouchie. The issue previously was that the gravity wasn't strong enough, and people were complaining about the game being too floaty over on Newgrounds. So now I have the opposite problem, lol. I'm going to keep trying to tweak the gravity until I have something that's a healthy middle ground. Changing the gravity also means I need to adjust Pouchie's jumpforce so that he doesn't jump past his set jump height. I'll use that opportunity to adjust the wall jumps.
When it comes to the suggestion of making sprites to indicate wall jumping: A friend of mine had actually offered to make all new sprites for Pouchie that would be better art quality than what I made, and so I've refrained from making extra sprites while waiting for the updated character sprite. That being said, since I don't know when those sprites will be ready, I might end up making those extra frames myself, in the current art style.
Coins to indicate safe fall zones: I do admit that I should better layout certain fall zones. I've fallen into the trap of overplaying my game, so I know where most of the danger zones are by heart that I instinctively avoid them. I will do more to indicate safer zones going forward.
Crys-Tortles being unkillable: The reason I made them resistant to the mallet was mainly that I wanted an enemy that Pouchie straight up can't damage, because it's shell is too powerful, forcing players to have strategize around avoiding direct confrontation with it. I still want to stand by that idea, but I may make a change in the future, that hitting them with the mallet will actually flip them over, and they'll become kickable like cannonballs.
Music: I agree with you that some of the music doesn't fit the aesthetic of the game. In fact, the main theme for the first seven levels has been placeholder music from the very start. It's been a challenge finding music that gives off cartoon showtune vibes while also matching the pixel platformer aesthetic of the game, and that song in particular has been one I've been eager to replace. I've tried making my own music, and in fact, all of the music for World 2 was made by myself. Hopefully in the future, I'll find music that better suits that section of the game.
I will continue to work on and improve Pouchie The Cat to make it the best version of itself. Thank you for the feedback!
Hythrain's playthrough VOD for your game. :D 28:54 Pouchie The Cat | Alpha 0.5
Spending a bit of time to catch up on the backlog of replies I need to make.
Here's a suggestion: find a platformer where you think the gravity is perfect and where the player avatar is about the same size as Pouchie. Then aim to replicate THAT. For example, maybe a Castlevania game?
I 100% understand holding off while waiting on better graphics. That's fine in my book. :)
I think the reason the unkillable enemy gets me is because it's at the exact same time that you introduce the hammer, and it feels more appropriate that you'd need it for the shell creature than for the mushroom.
Regarding music, I guess it depends on the aim of the game. If you're going for a 1920s cartoon feel, I'd say go digging around for royalty free stuff.
Game has a nice look to it with the black and white cartoon style, and I think the music compliments it really well. The platforming works well, and offer a good challenge without feeling unfair. One thing I'm not sure if it's intended or not though is the momentum when you are in the air. If you let go of the movement key, Pouchi plummets straight down instead of keeping some forward momentum, which I'm not really used to in platformers. Other than that, I had a good time playing.
I like the opening, the characters are fun and their animations are good