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Insect Symphony's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #813 | 3.532 | 3.532 |
| Originality | #832 | 3.654 | 3.654 |
| Presentation | #933 | 3.615 | 3.615 |
| Fun | #983 | 3.327 | 3.327 |
Ranked from 52 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?
The game revolves around joining and keeping your musicians together to complete their song.
Did your team create the vast majority of the art during the 48 hours?
Yes
We created the vast majority of the art during the game jam
Did your team create the vast majority of the music during the 48 hours?
Yes
We created the vast majority of the music during the game jam
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Comments
I noticed the dynamic and adaptive music and I loved it! That stuff is so cool and you did it seamlessly really well.
Game is basic, but still fun. The only thing I think is worth mentioning for criticism is the final wave could have used a radar since I couldn't see all four posts at the same time while protecting my bugs.
I don't have any education in music but the balance of the music felt way off. Maybe it's just my headphones but the lower notes were just wayy stronger than everything else, painfully loud even that I had to reduce the volume significantly. Even still they were loud.
All that aside, I absolutely love your game and I'd love to see more. It is my favorite thing when the music track is dynamic, reacting to the player's choices.
The instruments being layered on top of each other was a brilliant idea. Because the game had very simple and concise "escort" missions, they did not feel like a chore, and added a neat little story element to the game. Once all instruments were collected, I think the game became a little hard and dependent on luck. The problem was that sometimes, no matter what you did, there was no way to stop all the bats that were attacking the orchestra. On my first playthrough, this really bit me hard, and I failed because of it. I understand that its a tall order for a jam game, but the end sequence really needs some sort of smarter bat spawning system to make it feel fair.
Overall, it was a cute little game, and I liked it :)
Joining together music layers and musicians was was a good idea :) very creative
Everyting was so smooth and fun. Instead of using arrow keys, targeting with mouse and left click to shoot would be better. Congrats!
This was awesome!!! Layered music is awesome and this game did it really really well and it definitely added to the drama and the anticipation leading up to a performance!! The two stages of gameplay were unexpected and a nice challenge! Gave the game a lot to work towards! Great job and fun game with great music!
I really enjoyed that the music got more complete when you brought in the musicians. The last stage felt a bit unfair as you could barely see where the enemies came from.
It felt really epic though, that it went to a stage segment after getting the friends.
Very fun! also very hard
The concept of adding to the music on progress is awesome. Adds a lot of motivation and anticipation to the game.
Fun game and I love how the music progressed each time you picked up a band member. I think one thing that could have been better would be to allow the player to shoot in eight directions instead of 4. The way it currently is makes you have to line up with the enemies which feels quite clunky. But overall a fun game!
I found this game fun. I think a key thing to make this better would be to only have the instruments that were being played by the bugs in the music. Then as you brought them on stage the song would get more and more full.
Yeah! Initially we thought about designing weird alien looking robot insect things with all sorts of crazy stuff in their design to justify the sounds you hear - but ended up with the simple solution for lack of time.
Aaand I went overboard with the music when it could've easily been a simple 8 or 16-bit style tune. I'd like to keep exploring this idea as my limited experience with these projects evolve.
Thanks for the insight! <3
Really sweet game.
Would love to see some progression such as bringing new members to band attracts new types of enemies. During the final phase, I think a zoomed out camera would make the fight more fair and feel more epic.
Great work, keep it up.
Thank you!
If we ever go back to this project I'm sure there'd be many such small things I'd like to explore with this premise.
Yes, the final section is a bit too extreme, I hope we get to tweak it.
I got confused about what to do at the start and accidentally got killed. But once I knew what's going on, it was very fun to play, I couldn't stop throwing rocks it was satisfying lol! The background music giving me suspense chill!
What would I love to see is if you can throw rocks diagonally. It was a bit awkward having to move while knowing the bats are directly diagonal to you. Nonetheless, it was good!
Thank you! <3
Yeah, we could've done a better job at communicating the first thing to do - that was a lack of playtesting with others.
I agree about diagonal shooting, but our available time wasn't enough to polish a lot of stuff.
What an amazing concept! I love the idea and execution behind this, slowly assembling a band and hearing the instruments kicking in... Really feels great! And when you reunite everyone, and start defending their stands, like some sort of maestro! (Which also you're fencing against the non-talented filthy bats)
The only issue that I have with this game is that the colors could have worked well with some dedicated color palette and more contrast between some characters and the background. I had a really bad time finding the ant player because he blends with the background so easily and I have kind of a poor bad sight, so took me a while to recognize him.
Thanks!!
Haha, believe it or not but some graphic tweaks I proposed would make it all look muddier, so kudos to Zeg for standing pro-colorful saturated visuals. A dedicated color palette would be really interesting, but we didn't thought about it at all, haha.
So cute! I just want all my buddies to be able to jam together! The combat is very binding of isaac-esque, and I love that. Fun game and great art!
Thank you! <3
Really good game but pretty hard.
This is difficult but really addicting, my best was three bugs
Other than the start being confusing escort mission at the start which everyone has already mentioned, the game is also way more difficult than it should have been (could just be I suck though), after the escort part, you need to be standing in the middle of the stage for obvious reason, and when that happens visibility of what enemies are coming is just way too bad, you have maybe 1 or 2 seconds window to kill each one after you saw them. And this includes time you need to move, aim, and spam the fire button.
So I definitely suggest you increase the size of the camera, other than that, having any indicator of how much the song left would be helpful, I was actually doubting if the song would end or if it just goes on to infinity until I actually beat the game so. Also, the holes acting as walls is just off, cause they kinda implies you could fall down, could had just have walls there.
Thanks for the insights!
Yes. The first section is super easy and the final one is ballbustingly hard - but doable if you're sure of what you're doing (like being ALWAYS on the move and spamming rocks). That's what lack of proper playtesting breeds.
I agree with all of your suggestions.
Very good the music as it is evolving is really good only missing diagonal shooting and making the holes a bit more visible
Thanks for the insights! ^^'
The amount of BASS in the soundtrack is killing my subwoofer :D But I really liked the idea and the aesthetics of old flash games!
Yeah, I did notice the sound distortion in-game, but I wasn't able to fix it on time for reasons. The mix is a bit compromised. Thanks for playing! Vintro/ZeGGamer is the man.