| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Fun | #28 | 4.222 | 4.222 |
| Overall | #60 | 4.111 | 4.111 |
| Presentation | #92 | 4.361 | 4.361 |
| Originality | #1357 | 3.389 | 3.389 |
Ranked from 36 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does your game fit the theme?
Your ship's piloting system has been heavily damaged during a battle and now you can only move by boosting and "drifting" around. The result of this is a "dash" that can be both an offensive and a defensive manoeuvre.
Did your team create the art for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
We created all art during the game jam
Did your team create the audio for this game during the 48 hour time slot?
We created all audio during the game jam
I love this. Lots of good design ideas that were executed well. The dash that's used for movement/defense/offense is brilliant. The shooting feels just right, the 3 shot burst is nice. The bosses were unique and not overwhelming.
I also have to say I absolutely love the art, and it's what made me wanna check out your game in particular. Getting some vibe of old DOS games from it (and I mean that in a good way!)
I can see myself playing a full version of this with more challenge.
This is probably the most fun game in the jam for me, extremly well done. The art is amazing and so is the music, I can see this game being expanded upon and releasing it as a full game.
This game was really well done! The music was a bit underwhelming, which is understandable for a Game Jam game. but if this game was polished up with more levels/ideas and a better soundtrack, it would be something I would buy and really enjoy.
Really polished entry, I've seen a lot of games with intentionally slippery controls but yours is the only one where that's actually something you can work around properly.
Controls aside, I felt like the game was a bit on the easy side. It's still impressive that you managed to have so many bosses for the jam.
The downwell inspired graphics are great. But I think you can utilize colors more. You can have separate colors for enemies/parts that require dash attack/shooting to destroy.
The BGM is a bit lacking but the SFX was totally on point.
Overall, great job!
Thanks for your feedback and suggestions.
You're absolutely right about the color coding.
I'm definitely experimenting with colors a bit more for the next build.
I like when games go full "show don't tell" and hopefully I'll find a way to achieve with this color palette.
The idea (at its core at least) is having red enemies being weaker to dash attack, while white ones are "neutral", so you can shoot them down by conventional means (preferably), but they're not immune to dashing.
I'm also thinking of adding 4th color to the palette.
The reason this time is more on the aesthetic side however, rather than gameplay (for now at least).
I blame the game "Hell is Other Demons", which I highly suggest if you enjoyed "Downwell" (for both gameplay and look).
Thanks again for playing.
Fantastic game. Very well polished and the art style is very nice as well. This is another title that I could see becoming a full release in the future!
Really well done. Presentation was top notch and the enemy and boss designs were amazing. It was very fun overall. I feel that the bosses went down a little too quickly though. All of them amounted to the same strategy as well. Still, this was a really good game for the amount of time in the jam and I had a lot of fun with it. Great job overall man :)
Thank you.
I tried to make bosses go down as fast as possible because of the jam-nature of this game, as I wanted the whole experience to last a mere couple of minutes.
Still, that doesn't change the fact that you're right.
I'm in fact planning a couple of twists and turns on the formula, so bosses and levels feel a bit more varied and less same-y.
Thanks for playing and for your much appreciated feedback!
This was absolutely amazing! I can't believe you made this in the span of 2 days. Probably the most fun I had today.
This game is veeeery polished. The visual style is striking, the movement mechanics feel good and it's satisfying to complete each level. My main problem is some noises that are too loud such as the lasers, but other that that, fantastic game!
Really cool game! The dual purpose of the dash move is great. I managed to beat all of the bosses up to the tentacle monster that runs behind you.
Love it! Color scheme was really intuitive in letting me know what to hit/avoid with bullets or dash. Great job!
Great game! Had a lot of fun and it was right in my alley! I love Downwell and I would love to play something from you! Please finish/expand this game, so I can play more! :D
Amazing work. I love the dash mechanic. What a surprising amount of content! It kind of reminded me of Gradius, but with a Celeste dash. Boss designs were super cool too. Great job.
Played it to the end and enjoyed all of it.
It looks great and is extremely fun, so full marks there - however I didn't really ever feel even a bit out of control, this probably controls better than a considerable amount of commercial releases even. The closest thing was the inertia/drifting, but even so it can often be more helpful than harmful.
Either way, this is an absurdly amazing one, congrats on the submission!
I actually watched you play it on your live stream and it greatly helped putting things into perspective.
First of all, thanks for playing (again, sorry of the lackluster music).
I couldn't really answer during the stream (it felt weird to keep talking about my game while you were playing others) but I feel it does fit the theme. Admittedly it's a bit of a stretch as the idea is basically "I can't control my ship like I'm used to", with the added effect of inertia/drifting, so maybe it's more of a "twist on classic controls" rather than completely "out of control".
Either way, thank you again very much for playing and I'm glad you enjoyed it.
REALLY elegant use of the theme - remove a key control from shoot-em-up games (movement) while still giving the player enough to keep fighting. Loved the retro graphics and the difficulty curve. Well done :)
Thanks for playing and glad you enjoyed.
Oof, I was adding screenshake mere minutes (well, about 90 minutes actually, but I tend to mess things up) before the headline but I didn't ant to take any risk so I submitted the game as it was. Definitely the first thing I'm adding when I work again on this project.
Thanks again!
I think you were too harsh on yourself and massively undersold this game in the description.
Because this game was really fun! The pacing was good and the difficulty increase was great. I love how the dash mechanic worked, and served more than one purpose than just movement. And how you balanced out both shooting and dashing abilities. Well done!
You should probably cut yourself some slack, because it's just a game jam, this is plenty for 48 hours.
Awesome game! I loved the boss fights and the dash felt really good and juicy.
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