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A jam submission

SunflaredView game page

Precision action game inspired by Pong
Submitted by mardenn — 7 hours, 52 minutes before the deadline
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Sunflared's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Potential for Post-Production#123.8884.600
Gameplay / Fun Factor#203.0433.600
Likelihood to make money#202.8743.400
Art / Aesthetic#213.2123.800
Music & Sound#232.8743.400
Overall#233.1783.760

Ranked from 5 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Did you submit to all previous sprint jams?

Yes

Was this made by a team or a solo jammer?

Solo

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

It's been really cool to watch this project from start to finish, and to see all the changes you've made based on feedback over the various iterations. I think this is easily the most playable version yet. I think aside from me still struggling to wrap my head around the way the ball will move (this is definitely a me problem, you've done a lot to make this way more understandable), my major feedback here is that my hands are exhausted from playing this game. Controller support or a more ergonomic keyboard layout would be appreciated (and after writing that sentence I felt like an idiot and went back to see if the arrow keys work and they do, so great! but the tutorial text still says use WASD to move so ya). I got to the room with the bull and the turkey this time, so I'm making progress.

My one other piece of feedback is a hit animation or something on the player, and maybe a knockback. That bull is ruthless.

But otherwise, very good job on pushing through to the end!

Developer

Thank you! I planned on having remappable controls, but there just wasn't enough time. Agreed, I think I should add some knockback or animation when the player is hit (and maybe the enemies too). Really appreciate all of your feedback throughout the phases!

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

It's a cool concept, and I had a lot of fun running around trying to shoot the sun sphere at the various birds, turtles, and dogs. I couldn't get very far though because it's really hard to control the ball. If pulling the ball made it start following you again, that might make it easier to control? Or if it kept doing damage even after bouncing. Or if you could control the direction of the push a little easier, it would make it easier to time your attacks. Heck maybe even just being able to whack the ball in a specific direction with the mouse would make the bounce control easier. (Like deflecting bullets with melee weapons in Nuclear Throne).

I did run into a bug where the ball wouldn't move after I pressed space, it would keep changing color and getting stronger, but since it wouldn't move I never got to hit anything. It went away after I restarted the game and I was able to play normally.

But overall super cool idea, cool aesthetic, and I would love to see more. I think it's got a lot of potential if you're able to fine-tune the core gameplay a bit and make controlling the ball easier.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for the feedback! Your suggestions gave me some new ideas. I'll head back into the lab and experiment with ways to improve the experience with the ball. Also, I'll see if I can track down the bug.

Yeah, the game is focused on positioning and timing in relation to the player, orb, and the enemies. I'm trying to design it so that attacks with the ball are dependent on the player's position. I'm still going to explore in that design space for now, so it looks like I won't be making a million dollars yet haha

(+1)

I'm convinced this game will just never be for me, and that's ok. By which I mean, I find the central gameplay loop to be frustrating in itself for reasons I think I mentioned last phase (ball stops doing damage after touching a wall, feels finicky to control in tight situations, etc). It's a combination of little things that, combined with escalating difficulty (and my own memories of how similar weapons, like the disk in Tron 2.0, typically work), absolutely drives me insane from the options I want to have available and don't. I'm skipping most of my other feedback then and only mentioning what I liked, cause everything else I've seen seems perfectly fine for the existing design.


>What was your favorite moment or aspect?

I like the added color changing for when the orb is active as a weapon, and the push-your-luck aspect communicated by leaving the orb out without recalling it and letting the color change further. Not sure if the push your luck element was in earlier builds, but I can definitely tell now.

Developer(+1)

Thanks for playing! Yeah, I can definitely see how it can be frustrating and I'm continuing to work on improving it.

I'm glad you noticed it! It was in the previous build too, but I don't think I communicated it that clearly so I added more visual feedback. I wanted to incentivize making plans/plays around how the orb is bouncing around rather than the player always pulling the orb for the perfect angle.