To Be Continued

by Melon Kid

Hey there Melon Kid, thanks for submitting a project to the 2022 IGMC. I'm Drifty and I was asked to judge your game in round three of the IGMC 2022 game jam. Here's some feedback about your project.

I liked the title screen music. It's a pleasant waltz and it sets an inviting tone.

Interesting setting and character design. It's like a mish-mash of several different anime and cartoons came together to fight in a last man standing battle arena showdown that takes place in purgatory.

The writing is funny and the game doesn't take itself too serious but isn't a complete joke either. Nice job skirting that line.

The battle music doesn't loop very well and it starts and stops abruptly in at least one of the battles.

Great action sequencing, battle sequencing, use of animations and sound effects. The combat is very fun and interesting.

You've created a fun-tastic experience and I applaud you! This is one of my favorite entries of the entire competition. 

Congratulations on making it to round three of the 2022 IGMC, I look forward to seeing what you work on next.

-Drifty

I loved this game! Every character is unique and different from the others, and their portraits are awesome! After all, I wanted more time with the characters: the main cast was incredibly charming!
The "after death characters" situation is also interesting, it's a nice ground to see all different types of character interact with each other! Specifically, I really appreciated that dialogues were always interesting, and the jokes about their different genres and clichés are incredible!
Maybe only the ending seemed a bit rushed, but I understand a month for making a game is not much.

The battle system was nice, it's simple but it can lead to different strategy to play. Some battles were similar to others, but I really appreciated the "feel" of lots of them!

The maps and sprites/battlesprites graphics sadly won't hold up to the other parts of the game, they doesn't fit well with the portraits, which are amazing!
This game really deserves some adjustments to that compartment, but even like that it doesn't influence the complete experience, which as I said it was incredible.

I'll end with a personal hope: this concept is really cool just to be used for a short game. I'm hoping in the future it may become a full-fledged game, or even it may go with "seasons" of different characters. XD

A tourney in the afterlife where the prize is your life? This reminded me of another entry in IGMC called Rivals Beyond made by my brother. o:

This game was a very charming battle arena thingie, where characters have tons of personality.

The art was rough and made for the game, but I will always prefer that over using pretty tiles made for general use. Rough with personal touches always appeals to me. The character face art was extremely well done and the most impressive assets made for this.

The gameplay was not ever too challenging and just let you play with the mechanics. I enjoyed this aspect. I was really amused by characters having difficult personalities determining how they fought at first. And the character's movesets were all inspired off their personalities. It really showed.

I found it funny how each character was a trope, very aware that they were a trope, and kind of bitter about it. It almost delves into a territory where I find it makes too much of a science out of writing, but I still thought it was all funny and clever.

I kind of wish the game had a little more complete ending. It was too cliffhanger-y for my taste. The actual story behind it was good, but it makes the game feel more of a demo than a complete thing, which the game DID feel complete to me before that. It's a minor gripe.

The UI was pretty rough and sometimes off centered... but I have suffered from this in previous IGMCs and feel your pain. A month to make a game is very little haha.

I would also advise against using mouse for exclusive stuff (it was just flavor text in this case) unless there is good reason. I played on my TV with controller haha.

Overall, it was a well done battle arena full of whacky tropes who are aware that they are tropes. It does the afterlife story in a way you are amused, not depressed. I had a good time. I wish you all the best of luck!

First of all, I start by saying that I find the title brilliant! I really like the idea and the gameplay behind, above all I love that some character traits are defined by their skills. On an aesthetic level, I guess it was fun to conceive all these different character designs and I think it's also a big selling point for this entry. Overall you did an amazing job, kudos! :)

The art is absolutely the selling point for this game! The maps and HUD are kept simple so that the face graphics of the characters can shine. The contrast between the super detailed face images and the almost flat-feeling battlers / sprites was a little jarring, but considering how long art takes, I imagine that was likely a jam time constraint thing more than anything.

The narrative is well-contained within this experience, even despite the name being "To Be Continued" (and after playing, the title's link to the story -- and the theme of the IGMC -- is obvious). The humor and the super meta nature of the story are not for me, personally, and because of that, I had a hard time engaging with it, but it was competently written, and I can see why others who prefer this type of thing would really love it. 

I will say that the hardest thing for me to grapple with was differentiating between the characters, outside of Neli. To me, they all came off as too similar in personality, always antagonizing each other and just generally being one big cranky conglomerate. If it was just one character with that sort of personality, I think it would have a better overall effect and allow each of the characters to shine through and find a unique personality outside of the general snarkiness that blends them all together.

The battles were well balanced, and I liked the animations / action sequencing within the battles! I also enjoyed the different battle music that was used throughout. Since so much of the game is spent in the battles, having unique themes was a really good idea to keep the battles from all blending together.

Congrats to you and your team for putting out a well-packaged, completed experience and good luck with IGMC! :)

Such a unique concept executed so well. The writing is great, the art style is beautiful and the gameplay is fun. I was able to connect with the main cast in such a short amount of time. The gameplay was just challenging enough to stay fresh but not so challenging that it was too hard to play. Overall a great experience. 

Had high expectations going in and you guys really delivered! I just love how distinct all the fights feel, it really feels like fighting people from other worlds.

I love the battle system and the animate battler!The artwork is beautiful!

Heyho Melon! You were at the stream but I’m leaving this here for posterity.

• +Overall great!
• +The hook on the story and setting was well done.
• +It does a good job characterizing the main cast.
• +Marr does a good job being a shitheel XD You initially (by powers of protagonistship) are on his side, but quickly learn he sucks.
• +The in-comabt interactions were great, and such a rare thing to see.
• +The fights were balanced overall and the skillset had just enough complexity not to be boring, but not hard either.
• +The art, especially faces, was good, though some felt a bit rough, probably from time constraints.
• +Music (custom) was fitting and I never felt like it was out of place.
• +The ending was very sweet and I'm glad it did not go in a more grimdark direction.
• +I would love a longer game in this concept and learning more about the characters and where they come from, the theme is very appealing.
• -The art on some of the faces is a bit too dark, some lighter contrast points would help a lot, especially in the darker portraits.
• -The polish on the UI was not very good, which is understandable, but a better UI and presentation of combat hud would be great.

 Great job within the time you had, 5 stars!

This was lovely. I love the concept and the characters! Both personality and design. Wonderful work telling a contained story. I would love to learn more about the characters and to have seen a bit more character development out of Marr, but Neli and Z make up for it. Good work!

I really like this concept, it was very fun to play and the music is really amazing!

Great dialogue and really cute/funny characters. I'm not usually into battle-centric games but this was fun and not brutal lol. Got real emotional at one point, kudos to the writer~

I love it! The artwork is beautiful, the story was amazingly written and the music felt so nostalgic! 

A really good looking battle arena game with a solid and well written story. One of my favorites I've played so far for sure.

Played the game on my youtube channel, i only played 30mins but it was still a fun experience

Truly the best 1 hour i ever spent on anything. The characters are really lovable, the art is amazing, the writing is everything you'd ever want it to be and the battle system is really fun! It really shows how much passion and hard work went into this by the team and i advise everyone to give it a go.

5/5 : Wish the experience never ended

Great concept, the visuals are stunning

The writing is great and the battles were actually really fun. When I die I wanna punch people.