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Mechapede's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Innovation | #15 | 4.154 | 4.154 |
| Audio | #35 | 3.808 | 3.808 |
| Overall | #36 | 3.808 | 3.808 |
| Graphics | #38 | 4.077 | 4.077 |
| Theme interpretation | #41 | 4.038 | 4.038 |
| Gameplay | #69 | 3.462 | 3.462 |
Ranked from 26 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
GitHub repository URL:
https://github.com/crlprk/Github-Game-Off-2021
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Comments
Impressive! Nice graphic and beautiful movement. Turning around is a bit difficult
Thank you!
What would have made turning easier for you? Lower turning speed? Or perhaps less sensitive controls?
I am not sure it is just the controls, I think I have a hard time seeing where is the direction of movement when the head is at an angle, perhaps slowing down the turning speed might be something to try. Sorry, it is a vague feedback, I feel there is something not convenient but I can't exactly point to what is it.
Very interesting game with a very unique upgrading system! The movement is really fun, but at times a bit hard to control, especially at the boss fight. Didn't expect the boss to be able to take me down in one hit, especially since the rest of the enemies didn't seem to do any damage, but it did, which was a surprise. P.S. My game crashed at the very end when I was defeated by the ant queen.
Thank you for the feedback!
Movement is something I'm gathering feedback on. What would have made the movement a bit easier to handle for you?
I haven't been able to recreate a crash at the end, would you be able to detail what kind of situation you were in?
I think the turning speed could have been less extreme. I was swiveling like a drunk centipede xD Also not a fan of bouncing the walls.
Hmm... I cannot remember exactly, it's been a while. I should have taken a screenshot, my bad. The short of it is that I died by the ant queen, then a popup came up with a very long list of gibberish, then the game crashed.
Nice entry! I liked the idea of adding new weapons in the centipede.
Well done!
Thank you!
I love the style and designs but I think the character control is a little bit hard. despite that very good game well done.
Thank you very much!
The controls are something I'm collecting feedback on. What, in particular, did you find the most difficult? What would have improved the ease of use?
I think turning fast makes the game a little bit hard. it feels like I lose control at some point.
One of the best games I've played! I have finished the game and enjoyed playing every second of it!
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it.
Very unique game. I love the idea of building yourself to be longer and longer with different weapons, and I like the idea of that essentially being your lifebar as well.
The controls are very hard. You really have to take your time and turn your head before you can walk, especially if you're in an enclosed space where bouncing off walls is likely. And you can't easily walk around while attaching new body segments either, so there's a lot of time during the game when you're not moving. And like, that's not a bad thing, it's cool to have a shooter where you have to take things slow... but when enemies can shoot at you before you even see them on-screen, the slow movement makes the game really difficult.
Love the visuals, love the sounds!
Thank you for the feedback!
I've noticed the game in general is a bit difficult to play and have received lots of feedback on it. Is there anything in particular that would have helped with making the game a bit less difficult and more smooth?
The easiest thing would be to get rid of the tank controls - just have eight movement directions from WASD, and disable the bouncing off walls thing. And make it so that you can just walk into body segments to attach them, though the mouse option would still be there.
However, in essence, you ARE a literal tank, so tank controls do make a lot of sense. So I think it's probably better to keep the slow movement and reduce the difficulty on the enemies - lower their vision distance by a lot so you have time to prepare and not get ambushed by a bunch of enemies (currently they can see farther than the player can which is a bit ridiculous), and lower the amount of damage they deal to your segments.
Like, it depends on what game feel you want, I would say... do you want a fast-paced action dungeon crawler, or do you want a game where the player feels like a big, lumbering, nigh-unbeatable monster?
Sweet game! Loved the uniqueness of it, even if it did take a while to get used to. I think my only real complaint with the mechanics is the way you bounce off of walls but otherwise very polished game, great visuals and great sounds. Very well done!
Thank you!
Yeah, the wall bounce seems to be a bit controversial and seems like something I could work on after the jam is over. I've gotten a lot of feedback on it, but in particular, is there anything that would have made the movement a bit easier for you?
Gosh yeah tough question… I guess it felt random because I never completely figured out how it worked, but maybe a “perfect” reflection or just riding along the wall would work. Or I could stop whining and learn how to play it the way it is! :)
I'm super impressed with everything about this game. The unique movement, the graphics, the weapon variations, it's all extremely fun and great! It did take me a bit to get a hang of moving the centipede around, but I had a blast. I even ended up playing the game twice to explore rooms I hadn't gone in yet.
Though, I think that there could be less weapons? Or maybe a bit more balance of the damage output? After going to the central room, picking up the machine gun, and then going to the north most room and picking up all the guns there, the game becomes a breeze to get through. I didn't even need the laser weapon that can be found later on to beat the final boss. This didn't detract from my experience but I thought you might want some feedback. All in all, a great game, good job!
Thank you for the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Yeah, balancing the damage output and health was really hard to do because depending on the player and playstyle, you can either be super overpowered or very very underpowered. I balanced the playthrough for the jam assuming that most players would have a bit of trouble with maneuvering the centipede, but in the end, I couldn't strike a perfect balance for damage and health.
I'm thinking after the jam is over, I could change up the levels a little bit and try to balance a bit more for a proper finished release.
Really cool entry! I like how you approached it! Was it me or were there no health bars? I had no idea if I was damaging enemies as there seemed to be no feedback! Sometimes when I got caught between two walls, I didn't know what was happening because it would bounce between! With some things like that ironed out this could be even more AMAZINNNNNNNG !! Because it has a great foundation for an awesome game.
Thanks for the helpful feedback!
I really wanted to make a custom health bar system that showed individual body part health and etc, but I ran out of time before I could implement it. Maybe something to implement after the jam.
The wall bounce is something I got a lot of feedback on, and there are lots of things I could improve upon in that area. Perhaps even just changing the level design to not have tight corridors would have helped.
I think this is the best game I've checked so far. Really like the battle and laser gun is so EPIC.
Thank you so much!
Haha, the laser was my favorite too. In the debug builds, I had them laying around everywhere because it was just so much fun to shoot.
Very interesting! After getting use to the controls, the visual of the growing bug is very nice!
Would it be possible to get the killed bugs as new parts of the millipede?
Congrats!
Thanks!
I originally did have the killed bugs drop body parts, but I couldn't quite get a balance between overall health and damage output. It seemed to be a bit overpowered to have each bug drop a body part. Maybe that's an idea I could come back to after the jam is over.
This is a very fun game at heart. I like the idea that you can build up your centipede by attaching parts to the body, and losing them when you get hit.
Thank you for the kind words!
Nice concept. I always like collecting and building up stats. The movement was quite hard getting used to. Maybe dial down the sensitivity of the head turning or something. Great concept :)
Thanks!
The movement seems to be a bit difficult for most people. I'll be sure to take all the feedback from the jam and improve on it afterward.
Coming from the "Rate and Share" discord thread :)
Wow, LOVE the music!
And you did a great job with the movement of the mech. Very smooth while running through the hallways.
The wall bouncing took a bit to get used to.
Awesome game!
Hey! I saw and rated your game from there too!
Thanks for the feedback, hopefully in a future build I can improve upon the overall movement of the game, especially the wall bounce. It seems like that's the core issue of difficulty.
Really enjoyed my playthrough, movement took a little time to get used too as I found myself bouncing off walls and suddenly i'm spun in a wild direction but defo gave it a good difficulty curve to learn from!
Thank you!
Yeah, after getting some feedback, I've noticed that people find the movement pretty difficult. Perhaps in a future build after the jam, I could improve upon the movement to make it a bit easier for new players.
Fun! I really enjoyed growing my millipede with the different components, and having each component shoot differently. It was rather difficult to control the millipede though, maybe instead of 'a' and 'd' turning left and right, they can be used to move the millipede left on the screen?
Thanks for the feedback!
My original prototype for the game was actually just a snake clone with shooting, which is the reason for the left and right turning controls. Perhaps it would have been better to change directions completely
Good work, I am a sucker for bullet hell type games so this was a cool one to play. I found the thing most limiting to my enjoyment of this game was the movement. I played it for a pretty extended period of time and was wondering if experience would help me better control the mech, but it did not. I think if you make the steering a bit more 'snappy' and responsive rather than having some latency when turning would make the game much more user-friendly. Also, the auto-bounce on walls sometimes let to frustrating situations when I would get trapped in a corridor (I believe in the room before the boss there are some tight pathways on the perimeter). My intuition expected the ability to reverse, maybe that's an option open for your consideration?
I really enjoyed the mechanic of dragging and dropping weapons onto your mech. It's passively increases your time to die while also giving you an edge against some of the tougher enemies, so that was really well done. All in all, good job!
Thank you for the feedback!
The movement was something I messed around with for a while, but couldn't get a perfect solution by the deadline. Perhaps in a later patch when the jam is over I can try to update it a bit more.
Would you say that the movement would be easier without the wall bounce at all? During my playtests, I found that without it I would be unable to move in certain situations after hitting a corner. Perhaps a backward movement option would have solved that problem.
I honestly think that the wall-bounce wouldn't be an issue at all if steering was a bit easier. I think the issue I was running into is that I would bounce off an enemy -> bounce off a wall -> now all of a sudden I'm going backwards -> try to turn around -> bounce off another wall... you get the idea.. But yeah, reverse might be a good option with steering that represents the inverse of forward steering: like how a car turns in reverse.
Hmm, I see, thanks for the suggestion.
I guess this wasn't something I realized in my playtests because I played my own game too much and got too experienced with the movement haha.
Hahaa yeah, we all do it! It's really hard to recreate or imagine what a new player feels like when you've spent so much time playing and testing your game :)
I love the background art, the lighting, all the lasers, and even the sounds! It would be nice if the gameplay were more tactical, but I have no clue how you would do that, sorry for the unhelpful suggestion. I wanted to add in centipede movement to an enemy in my game, but sadly ran outta time, so it's nice to see it working so well here!
A funny side note:
Classic webgl, fitting right in on the bug theme:
Don't worry, the game was playable after I reloaded. I experienced so many WebGL issues, I had to rewrite my entire camera system -_-
Thanks for the review! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I originally wanted to have a variety of levels with different body part types but didn't have enough time to implement all of my ideas. I underestimated how difficult a solo game jam would be.
I get you with the WebGL issues, I had to rebuild my game so many times because it just wouldn't launch haha.
Game is well done. Movement is too difficult, tho, and HP bars would be a great improve. Overall, I liked it!
Thanks for the review!
I really wanted to add a special hp bar system that would track each body part's health, but I couldn't fit it in on time before the deadline.
Would it be possible to know which specific parts of the movement were difficult and what changes would make it easier?
I guess I underestimated the difficulty after playtesting my own game so many times. I guess I got used to it.
Well, it might also be that i'm really used to move with wasd (when top-down), instead of w to advance and a, d to rotate.
Maybe with more playtime it gets easier as you said.
This is really original, well done. In tight space it is extremely hard to maneuver and see what is going on.
Thank you!
I see that the movement was a bit difficult overall. Do you have any suggestions to make it easier to maneuver?