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Blitzkraft's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Gameplay | #26 | 3.824 | 3.824 |
| Audio | #31 | 3.784 | 3.784 |
| Overall | #56 | 3.725 | 3.725 |
| Graphics | #84 | 3.765 | 3.765 |
| Theme interpretation | #259 | 2.784 | 2.784 |
| Innovation | #283 | 2.569 | 2.569 |
Ranked from 51 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
GitHub repository URL
https://github.com/Lanyard31/GameOff2023
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Comments
Nice shooter, but it did feel a bit bland.
Visually it was okay, It could've been better. Music was bumpin tho.
Shooting was satisfactory for some weapons while for the others, it lacked that certain power.
Upgrades actually felt like they did something although I didn't like that you need to empty your current gun to move onto the next. A weapon switch option like many others shooters would have been okay or have all the weapons laid out in the starting zone and let the player pick whichever they want.
Ai bots were just some obstacles tbh. They would move towards you but that it. They wouldn't shoot from far away (or shoot at all) which made the game very easy.
Thanks for playing, Jango! Ideally I wanted it so that the player could find and swap out weapons (as well as components) as the game went on, but I did not have time to build all of that and give the game more of a distinct identity.
One of the best I've played in this Jam so far. It's super polished and a I think it could get published on a store, once refined here and there. :) Very well done! And also, I like a lot the interpretation of the theme :) Just out of curiosity, is there any feature you had to cut due to time or other constraints? I've opened the topic "The Features Cemetery" and would appreciate a contribute from you :)
Thank you! A store! That's very kind. It's tempting to push it further and try that, but man also... what a competitive genre. I'd need some kind of unique and compelling twist to make it stand a chance, I think. Of course I had dozens of ideas that ended up getting cut, I just made a little post in your thread about that. Thanks for playing!
Fun shooter! I liked the upgrade mechanic and I thought the shooting mechanics and enemy explosions were satisfying! I thought the gun cycling was interesting, but I was really confused by it at first - I wasn't sure if it was broken or if it was intended to work that way. Also, the first door didn't open for me for some reason (windows build), so I thought I was stuck - but I was able to walk through it. I think this is a really good base game though, and I thought the boss was really funny. Nice work!
Pew pew pew! That's my motto. Maybe I should have tutorialized the weapon cycling in game... but I kinda thought it was simple enough that players would get used to it soon enough. Thanks for mentioning the visual door bug, I have that fixed on my local machine, but for fairness' sake I won't be releasing any updates until this prolonged rating period is finally through. Thanks for playing!
It was fun and exciting to play. The visual style looks cool and futuristic.
I had some problems with the movement, I got stuck and couldn't move until I jumped or pressed another key. Also, sometimes when I tried to upgrade my weapon, it glitched and restarted the upgrade's animation itself. Besides that, when I was moving and started shooting, I couldn't move. I don't know if this was made on purpose, but I spent most of the time jumping and shooting while I was moving to avoid this.
At last, It might be a bug, but when I came with the boss, It didn't do anything. I just shot it, and the game ended.
I enjoyed the weapon upgrades; however, I think it could be better if you were able to swap between weapons by yourself instead of automatically swapping when the ammo runs out. I didn't know that there was a sniper after the laser until I played it for the second time.
Overall, I think this is a great game! I can see your effort and the result of a well-done work.
Those are very strange movement and input bugs you described. No, none of that is intended and I haven't seen or heard about any of that behavior before. Honestly, I'm impressed you stuck with it, that sounds frustrating.
Were you playing in WebGL? That can cause some weird issues, especially with mouse sensitivity, because of how it buffers frames. I would recommend trying out the Windows build if you run Windows, this game is frankly just a bit too much for most Browsers, but I put it up there anyways for convenience sake.
I played the windows version. Maybe it's because my keyboard. I'll try to play it on another device.
Edit: Yup, it was my keyboard. I played it on my laptop and it moves well. I think it's time to buy a new keyboard.
Ah, okay. You really had me scratching my head with that one.
Just so happens that I also had to replace my keyboard while developing this title. The Right Arrow key didn't register input anymore, which once I understood what was happening, didn't seem like the hugest deal, but I found it made coding pretty much impossible.
I had a blast playing this game! Love the arcade-like shooting mechanics and the different available guns as it kept things fresh. The art style is great and consistent throughout which gives the game a pretty polished look. I feel like the character could be a bit faster as I find the traversal a bit slow. But I still had a really enjoyable experience. Great job!
Thanks for your kind words, Sparrow! I also really enjoyed your game. 😃
that was really fun to play and the art is great!
Thanks!
Controls feel great, the different guns are a fun twist, and I like the upgrade system. Nicely done!
Thanks Anders!
Fun game! It's refreshing to see a good 3D game in this jam as this is one of the few which is actually quite polished! Also, it feels great to move around and shoot! :)
Thanks Merphin. I always put special effort into my visuals, feedback, and polish, I think they matter WAY more to regular players than many devs account for and can overshadow other aspects of Games that designers can tend to get hung up on. But before aesthetics, I try to follow the "Mario" principle of making sure movement feels good and spend a few days getting the character controller feeling more or less just right in a basically empty room with a few blocks to jump around on. Then I build the rest of the game around that movement. Thanks for playing!
Gameplay is fun, audio is nice, good job!
Thank you! Very kind 🙏
Overall enjoyed the game and printer boss was funny. UI was slick and I like the fonts.
While music was good too but sound balance was off. I could not hear the sound effects over the music and shooting.
I think level design did not match the current game play mechanics. What do I mean? AI would not react if the distance is big until they got shoot and the open areas were a lot. On the contrary AI from upper levels rush down when I walk under of them. When robots died their gears would fall down to lower levels. Because I could not hear robots walking sound they could also come behind me sneakily. I could just find a part on the level where robots could not walk and pick them slowly.
A long corridor type level with corners would hide the current weaknesses of the game. Also you could implement a laser wall coming from behind to force the player move forward in time. Like resident evil movie you are in a corridor but the laser is coming from behind and very very slow.
Gun mechanics were great but I would change 2 things.
When shooting and/or missing I would use the the gears we collected slightly so if player does not want to use a weapon they could not just stop and empty the clip.
I would make upgrade part faster.
More enemy types clearly would be better but I guess time was not enough. I would at least expected that big enemy would explode and kill the small ones near them.
I enjoyed the game and even expecting more levels to fully upgrade my weapons.
Thanks for the insightful comment. I think you've got a really good point about the level design. I kind of put myself in a bind because besides the weapon scaling, I wanted one of my uses of the theme to be "Scale"ing a tower, which meant upward movement in every level. I thought it'd be cute because Towers are such a game design staple, but it proved to have more thorny entanglements than I expected. Here's some.
I had a similar idea about a rising red forcefield to force the player to hurry on upwards, but I discarded it as potentially overdesigning. Like, is it really a problem that a player can take their time, as in a great many single-player games? That being said, I do like the idea of more robots being added to the room as time ticks on, maybe even increasingly difficult ones (offering increased rewards) but that's a significant change and would probably necessitate scrapping Web support. We'll have to see about that.
Thanks for the feedback, Xentios. Glad you found the game enjoyable.
Dang, this game just feels so good to play. Bangin' music, good sound effects, satisfying gameplay loop, simple but easy to read and appealing visuals. Excellent job - tons of polish for a monthlong jam.
I see what you're going for with the weapon switching. It's potentially a cool mechanic to remove the player's weapon swapping agency. But I think it needs some tweaking. I only got to use the pulse gun and the shotgun for most levels, and I barely saw the sniper rifle. I also didn't have to vary my strategy at all based on the weapon. I think it'd be improved if 1. the weapon order was random 2. you have to swap weapons every time you run out of ammo, even if you upgrade them 3. there's a bigger difference between weapon types. Maybe the laser gun is weaker but sets enemies on fire, or the sniper rifle penetrates multiple enemies. And, it's cliche and inaccurate, but the shotgun only deals damage up close and makes you get dangerously close to enemies.
Thanks snooty! Glad you enjoyed your time here. The game is supposed to save which gun you have equipped at the end of one room and carry it over to the next one, so the rotation continues where it left off. Unfortunately, it's not doing that correctly and instead resetting to your first gun, which means you see those first two way more than I intended. Ah well, Jam Games, that's how it goes.
I was thinking the same thing about special effects/abilities for guns and I totally agree about it, it was of course the kind of thing where I ended up having to pare down the system just to release on time. The shotgun does have damage falloff and doesn't work at range though, that's already in there, some clichés are must-haves. :)
Nice game, the weapon mechanics took a some time to be understood, and the final boss did nothing but it was a neat experience
Many thanks, Ira.
Awesome game. It was so much fun using the different kinds of guns. The music was great too. Nice job!
Thank you!
Great game!!! The gameplay feels so good! You nailed it :)
I just thought that the waves were somewhat "easysh" to handle because they were mostly in line and I could kill one by one just shooting and walking backward. Maybe, adding a wave variation that could try to surround you or something could be a thing.
Good job!
Good idea! I love how the waves in Vampire Survivors will lull you into a sense of security, then throw something unexpected at you, like a whole clustered mob of fast-moving bats or whatever. This game could probably use some of that. Thanks for playing. 😄
Hey, I remember playing your Udder Chaos game last year!
This game was great! I played it to the end. I loved the cohesive vibe of the whole game. The music, enemies, graphics, it all fits so well! I really liked how the weapons get cycled automatically. It forces you to try them all and play a little differently each time.
The boss reveal was amazing. Unexpected and hilarious. I did wish the boss was more of a challenge. Although, in my head, I think it is fitting that the boss doesn’t do anything, just like the seemingly always breaking version that I have at home. :)
Great work on this game, it was a lot of fun!
Udder Chaos was my first game in 3D, can you believe that? 😳 You eat a donut at the end that is literally my Blender Donut from the famous Blender Guru's tutorial series. I went "ludicrous" for my game design there to help me take it less seriously, which worked out. I know I played/rated your game last year because it looks familiar, but it seems I didn't leave a comment. Don't know why.
Glad you liked the weapon cycling, I knew going in that it would be divisive, but I wanted to try something else out. I always end up to sticking to one boring standby in FPS games if they let me (the sniper rifle with the best scope), and I think it's just awful in the genre when I run out of all my ammo and therefore lose all my meaningful player verbs and have to just run around helplessly, so I wanted to do a novel design that solves those issues.
I might tweak it in an update 🤔 currently thinking about something like allowing players to rotate ahead with R if they have another charged gun. Of course I'd then display all the guns in the UI as well as their corresponding energy levels, which would begin rapidly reloading a few seconds after being switched away from. I'm worried it's too much clutter / info / complication though. At least I'm forced to have a few more weeks to think about it before we can update anyways.
Glad you enjoyed the unexpected/hilarious moment too, definitely another risk haha. At first I thought about giving some combat or maybe some lines there begging for mercy, but I personally thought it would be funnier if people reacted like, "WTF? Is this broken? OMG of course its broken!" It seems you got the joke entirely. Your game was also hilarious, challenging just the right amount, and very fun. Easily one my jam favorites so far. Looking forward to whatever you (and your partner) put out there next, you clearly have the skills to head to Steam if you ask me.
I love that the donut in Udder Chaos was your Blender Donut. That’s a great little tidbit. :)
The game was solid and polished. I liked the gun upgrades, everything meshed together, and unlike many gamejam games, there were no glitches or bugs I could find! I think my only real complaint is that, right now, there isn't a ton of depth to the game. Most of the strategy is point and shoot while slowly walking backwards, and the different weapons don't really make you need to alter that strategy. Still a great game and I made sure to give you a great score!
Yeah, that back up and shoot (or in a best case scenario, circle-strafing) is one of those problems that seems to plague FPS's, mine included. Doom 2016 famously managed to solve it with their "get in close and quick for extra bonuses" system, I considered something like that, with having the Gears blink out and then disappear, but I didn't like it at all, it just felt unnecessarily punishing. I do think if there were enemies shooting back at you, you would be forced into cover a bit more, which adds dynamism, that's an obvious add. What do you think? I would love to hear your thoughts on how you think the strategic depth could be improved-- what weapon or system designs might encourage more forward/aggressive play?
I think the two major ways I'd approach it is through:
1) Changing up the weapons so their projectiles travel differently. Maybe change the lazer into a flamethrower that is close range, but hits a bunch of enemies at once. Or maybe have one gun that is objectively the best, but has almost no ammo. Things like that can change things up a lot. Other than that-
2) I think you were spot on about varying the challenges enemies provide. I'd design weapons that you actively think are fun and with great feedback, and then make enemies while thinking how they'd interact with each weapon type. In the flamethrower example, you can have a swarming enemy with a ton of low health weapons the flamethrower hard counters.
Anyways, I don't play a lot of shooters, so my ideas are probably not the best, but that's the best I got as far as ideas go!
Haha, if I had added one more weapon in the timeframe, it actually would have been a flamethrower. It's already in the code, partially. Great minds think alike, I guess.
This is like Ratchet and Clank with Synthwave.
Gameplay: Pleasant movement, weapons, animations, everything felt clean. You have to look around a lot because enemies can sneak up on you. Cons: Enemies move towards you in a straight line and there's no variety in their attacks. The weapons feel nice to use and responsive, but I would prefer being able to experiment with different weapons and switch back and forth at will rather than having... the computer... dictate it for me. One of the tanky enemies managed to properly corner me so I couldn't move, but its attacks weren't connecting and I just shot it to pieces.
The final boss was a hilarious surprise. It was really tough though. I barely managed to defeat it.
Graphics: Textures are clean and animations are superb. Having all these enemies waddle towards me like ducklings is funny.
Audio: The synthwave music is gorgeous. The sound played on picking up gears is even more satisfying than the one Ratchet and Clank uses somehow.
Overall a delight to play.
Screenshots:
What's around the corner?
HELLO MY NAME IS BOB IT'S A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU HOW ARE YOU DOING
Better Sprocket Sound Effects than Ratchet & Clank! Hold on, I'm putting that on my resumé. As I mentioned in another comment, I actually spent a good amount of time on that specific SFX, layering in several different tasty sounds and effects; the key addition imo was the sound of a coin being flipped. *Pinnngg!* Just makes it all work. I knew this SFX was crucial for making my whole satisfaction loop of piñatas popping and gathering their bits of candied loot to work.
Would've loved to boost/expand the AI, but it might be a tricky balance because I think the genre here is "ego shooter", like Serious Sam, more about numbers of explosions than outwitting an enemy. Although those buggers do manage to sneak up on me too somehow, and their boss certainly has a high opinion of themselves. Probably more varied enemy types would've still been good, but there's also... everything... else to do. Like tweaking one's Sprocket Sound Effects. Gotta have priorities.
Thanks for the great screenshots. I might use one for the game's page. Do you mind?
Why is the soundtrack so dang good?
I had no choice. 😔 It had to kick major ass.
Death Screen? What Death Screen? In all the time I developed and playtested this game, I never once saw it. 😎 Booyah.
Hehehe. NEW WORLD RECORD BABY. 2:40. I saved 16 seconds in a day.
OMG dude you're too much. This had me grinning ear-to-ear. With the little speedrun card up in the corner lololol! Amazing. Somebody call Summoning Salt right away, this is becoming a Saga.
Will No One Dare to Dethrone this Man?!?
Hahaha I would love some competition.