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Orb Hero's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Ease of Learning | #5 | 3.917 | 4.091 |
Engagement | #15 | 2.785 | 2.909 |
Sound | #18 | 1.828 | 1.909 |
Spectator Appeal | #18 | 2.524 | 2.636 |
Visuals | #19 | 2.089 | 2.182 |
Overall | #19 | 2.437 | 2.545 |
Overall | #19 | 2.597 | 2.712 |
Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
I feel like rolling ball games are still kinda underexplored, so it's always nice to see someone playing around in the space. The ball feels weighty and has good momentum, which is a good start!
However, it's missing something that's very key to these kinds of games - the ball's physics. If I park the ball on the slope and let go of the controls, the ball just sits there. It feels really unnatural, and I feel like the ball should roll down the slope. Once that kind of behavior is in, I think it opens up a lot in terms of more interesting environments - rolling down longer slopes to build up speed and launch off a ramp or spring, slides and corkscrews and pinball-style bumpers, etc. There's a lot that could be done in this space or added to make the environment overall more interactable and interesting. A lot of the features scattered around the environment feel pretty samey, and I think it's because of these kinds of physics limitations that interacting with each different thing doesn't end up feeling very different.
Who up playing with their orb
I dunno what it is, I've always loved games where you roll a ball around. marble blast, marble it up, MONKEY BALL THE GOAT! Something about them just hit different, and I can see the influence here super clearly. While I think you have a great start, there is some missing oomph that I think you could add to make the game really shine.
Big thing, I couldn't move the camera on keyboard, and I could only move the camera with a controller. Unless I messed something up (Very real possibility, mind you) I couldn't find a controller configuration that DIDNT block me from using a certain aspect of the controls. Beyond that, I feel like the game was lacking in the sound department. having even just a sound for when the ball is rolling normally would do wonders for the game feel and really tie things together. I feel the ball moved pretty responsively and had a pretty solid feel and weight to it, which made navigating feel pretty good, which is honestly the hardest and most important part to get right. Seeing how the scene is static, the skill ceiling is pretty low, which makes it sort of a hard sell as an arcade experience. I think maybe a bigger, perhaps procedural course might make things a bit more spontaneous and lend to that arcade-y feel more? Just spitballing at this point.
Anyway, you have a great start here! If you iron out some of the kinks, you'll have something even cooler!
Controls don't really speak to an arcade game, and while running around and picking things up is fun for a short time, it's not particularly replayable.