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Duckcell's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Devlog | #2 | 3.813 | 3.813 |
| Gameplay/Fun | #4 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Theme | #5 | 2.813 | 2.813 |
| Overall | #5 | 2.913 | 2.913 |
| Graphics/Art | #9 | 2.563 | 2.563 |
| Audio | #11 | 2.375 | 2.375 |
Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Game Engine / Tools
Stencyl
Devlog link
https://thefaz.itch.io/duckcell/devlog/335600/duckcell-postmortem
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Comments
Gameplay/Fun (4.5 stars) - a pretty by-the-books scrolling shooter. Starts to get challenging at level 4 or 5, and it's pretty entertaining overall
Graphics/Art (4.5 stars) - a consistent, cartoony, cute style throughout
Audio (3 stars) - servicable, but the music gets a bit grating after a while (especially because the shooting is almost, but not quite, on tempo)
Theme (5 stars) - the player gets enhanced as they go from level to level, and you can see the previous levels on the screen as you "zoom in" -- nice touch! The little prompts telling you how you got enhanced are also nice.
Devlog (5 stars) -- looks like you did a ton of work, and all by yourself!
Wow, this game is nice…
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Thank you for putting this game out here so we could play it! Let me start by saying I loved your DevLog and being able to follow through not only some of the steps you took, but also your thought process (great job on a first solo entry!). I enjoyed the simplicity of the game and my only major complaint is that, since it was in a web page, when I used the arrow keys to move the character my screen would also scroll. I would recommend using WASD to move the character and the left and right arrows to rotate where the character is shooting. Thank you!
Nice game, I have rated it … Please rate my game too…
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I think the rotation and zoom mechanics were great ideas. I also like how there is progression and the levels get harder as you go on. A one shot kill for the player is a bit difficult, but I thought it made it a fun challenge!
Nice little 😉 game. Also the fact that you made all of it yourself and with Stencyl is admirable.
Gameplay
The rotating shoot mechanism works well for the game. Also no button smasher because there is already shooting for you. Although that also takes away bit of gameplay by not having to shoot yourself in time.
One hit one kill is challenging, but also annoying if you have to go back to level 1 when you already have finished that level 😅. The first levels are fairly simple but you have to go through them again and it is not that fast. Some kind of waypoint system might have been useful.
Enemies are getting harder and harder so you have to pay more attention instead of just shooting everywhere like in the first levels. Yet you try every time to get further and that is a good sign for a game.
Graphics
Simple but effective for the game. It all fits together. And all self made.
Audio
There is music and sound effects and that is always better than no sound. Some more variety would have been nice though. They are simple tones. Maybe for an update.
Theme
Upgrades fit in. Enemies getting stronger too.
Devlog
Good comprehensive devlog with images . This shows well the working methods and insights into the game development. Nice!
All in all a fun mini shooter 🙂!
I'm glad to see someone went with the enhance/zoom interpretation of the theme. I was drawn to that but couldn't figure out something - going deeper fighting bacteria is a cool idea! Difficulty is rather swingy and punishing with only one hit kills - I had runs where the second zoom seemed to take forever, and one where the whole screen was covered in enemies and i was able to basically instantly move onto the third. I think it's on the fourth one where the green guys start showing up? I think there's something interesting in the idea of a an enemy like them, where shooting them is something you're actively trying not to do with a ship that constantly shoots. Their unkillable offspring aren't visually distinct enough to sell that they can't be hit - unless they were supposed to be killable, in which case they definitely weren't working right. I didn't last long enough on the last level to see if anything had changed there.
Audio-wise the music got real repetitive real fast, with just two measures repeating the whole time? I think there was a missed opportunity for something cool by syncing the constantly-firing gun with the music, using its sound as part of the track. The enemy death sound's a little noisy/scratchy for me.
Art was fine, though the shape of the ship makes it kinda hard to judge exactly where your hitbox is - not that I was eager to test that out, with the one hit kills.
Anyway, this is a really solid entry overall and I love how you used the theme!
On retrospective having 2/3rds of the enemy spawns randomly become the background decoration was NOT a good idea haha.
The music is kind of really bad; going in I knew - music's my worse aspect, I need to make something passable and make the rest of the game good enough to compensate. Overall - I agree with all your points there'; thank you!
Good Game
Some feedback would be to increase the viewport size a bit and change up the spawning mechanism there were times at which my whole screen got filled with bateria
Very nice game, is the first time i see this kind of game with the rotation option, very well and usefull.
And that devlog is very good x3
Nice mechanic with the rotating gun, not seen that anywhere really , worked quite well too. Great work on the devlog also
cool concept, the zooming in thing wasn't so obvious while playing tho (i didn't even notice that before reading the devlog), liked the art style.
(also the constant shooting sound is a bit annoying)