Play game
Grapple Blast!'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Innovation | #15 | 3.868 | 3.868 |
| Fun | #16 | 3.921 | 3.921 |
| Overall | #17 | 3.900 | 3.900 |
| Game Design | #21 | 3.921 | 3.921 |
| Theme | #43 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Art Direction | #67 | 3.789 | 3.789 |
Ranked from 38 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Challenging and different at the same time... I guess that's good! I just feel the camera could be a little far away so we could see a little bit more. Other than that, solid game! Congrats!
Thank for playing, rating and commenting! I will check out your game as well.
Is there any other feedback you would like to communicate to the team?
WOW what an experience this was! This was a really fun game. I want this to be one of the winners. There were a few bugs, like you could win while being dead BUT, IT WAS FUN AS HELL.
The art with the lighting, the sound effects and the music, the concept and the level design is all so top-notch. You could literally add more levels, add a couple more mechanics, patch up some bugs and sell this game lol
Good job A+ game!
Wow, that's some high praise there. I don't even know if I believe our game should win overall :), but hopefully do somewhat well. I am glad that we entertained you with our game.
Is there anything specific you would like us to change or improve? We are open to feedback from players, anything.
Also, what bugs did you encounter, specifically? Thanks in advance.
Well, one bug was that you could win while you were dead. So if you died but also reached the finish line before you spawn, you can move on to the next level. You could also use your grapple hook while dead too. There was also a spot in level 11 towards the goal where you could go out of bounds and get respawned even though it did not look like it was out of bounds. Not sure how to explain it, but you know the tiny rocks that you can grapple and hook around in a circular motion? There was one of those rocks on the top side of the stage close to the green portal that if you hooked on to it and went to the portal, you would go out of bounds.
Overall the game is great and I can't think of something to change. Only to keep working on it and add more levels/enemies to the game.
You guys made a great game and should be proud of it!
very cool game, I found the level 2 kind of hard xD
slow mo mecanic is awesome, I liked using all learned at the end to detroy enemies and fly and bouncing around. Taking enemies proyectile and throw them back felt so good
Sometimes the line gets crazy with the targets and sometimes bounce on the blue lines
Thank you for taking the time to play, rate and comment on our game.
I appreciate the feedback - what specifically do you think made level 2 difficult? How many levels did you complete? Were there are any other levels you found too difficult or suddenly hard?
Yeah, there is an infrequent bug with the grapple, unforunately we didn't have enough time to fix it, but I appreciate you sticking with the game despite it. Hopefully it didn't bother you too often.
I played all the levels! I think level 2 is kind on hard because is kind of long and all the spikes, we just get to known the slow mo mecanic and there are a lot of rooms with spikes and hazards, then the next levels feels easy and short, maybe you just need to move it to a later level. The rest of the levels feel more balanced acording to the level number.
I also find the mecanic to return enemy proyectiles really cool! I would like to see more of it but I understand that you guys didn't had enough time to add a lot of levels.
Pretty solid game! I like the movement as it feels fluid and a bit chaotic which I like. I also like that the player can grab and redirect the enemy bullets back at them. I thought the slow down time mechanic was pretty useful as well. I had a good time playing, great job!
Thank you for taking the time to play, rate, and comment! I appreciate your kind words. I am glad you got to the very end, so that you could see the combat part of the game too, I know it can be difficult to get through all the levels.
Do you have any specific feedback for the team? Do you have any concerns regarding difficulty or pacing?
I enjoyed your game as well, and hopefully my feedback was helpful.
I would say the game is somewhat difficult but adding things like the slowdown mechanic, etc really helped. Also, I think a variety of power-ups or abilities to unlock would both help the difficulty but also motivate the player to get further.
Interesting game! The visuals and music are great! As for level design, level 4 feels a little out of place after beating level 3 as the difficulty curve skyrocketed after introducing a brand new mechanic. I personally had a rough time trying to complete level 4 as there was also a bug that closes the paths before I can even enter through them. Besides the difficulty curve, this is a very solid game and I enjoyed playing!
Thank you for checking out the game and leaving feedback!
Sorry about your experience with level 4. I was telling myself that I always have issues with difficulty spikes in game jams, and I did again lol.
The purpose of level 4 was to teach you the slow motion mechanic, and using the slow motion mechanic correctly should make the level a lot easier, but I completely agree that it was out of place. There should have been another level or two leading up to it, where we introduced the slow motion more gradually, and perhaps I should have framed level 4 as a boss fight of sorts, to allow the difficulty to make sense.
I had a great time with your game too, and I hope my feedback was helpful there. Is there any other feedback you would like to communicate to the team about Grapple Blast?
Also, because of how hard level 4 was, I have to ask: how far did you get (did you finish)? And how was the pacing of the game after beating level 4?
This game is awesome! I loved the grapple mechanics and how they are used differently in the game as you progress. Great progression, Level 4 and the last level were pretty high in difficulty for me but it could be because im not good at the game haha Music fit nice, level design is done really well, grappling mechanics are pretty well implemented. Overall it was a fun experience! Great job to everyone who worked on the game!
Ryan, thank you so much for checking it out, commenting and rating. Definitely level 4 is a bit of a hike in difficulty, although the point of that level is to teach you to use slow motion, which should make it easier, but I agree with you that it should be adjusted or moved later in the game. I would love to know if there is anything you think we should change or improve going forward?
Played your game.Almost completed the all levels.In level 4 i discovered the bug.If I hold down the mouse button on the laser then i stuck in the starting place because the laser becomes a wall. And I can shoot the hook when im died.Nice music,likedthe hook mechanic.
Awesome, thanks for playing! I enjoyed your game as well!
If I may ask, which level did you get stuck on / not complete?
Sorry to hear about the bug. Do you have any other feedback you would like to give to help us improve?
I dont completed the last level.I saw the finish and dont wanted to complete the entire level again.Maybe in so big levels needs to be a checkpoint somewhere.On some other feedback - i dont know maybe the slowdown mechanic does not works as i expected.When i cling to the wall the slowdown stops the work and i need again to activate it.
Thanks for your feedback. Your are right, the slowdown disables when you use your grapple. This is intentional. We wanted it to have a feel like the game "superhot" where time slows down or stops when you are not moving, but when you move, time moves too. We think the game would be too slow paced, easy and boring if you could slowdown even during the grapple.
Glad that you got to the last level. That is our only combat focused level, so I am glad you got to play it, but it is difficult for sure. What did you think about the pull and throwing the bullets mechanic? Did it make sense to you?
Hmm, i dont know so there is throwing bullets mechanic).This mechanic is hard to discover, in most times i tryed to avoid the enemy bullets.
Nice game! I always love a grappling hook haha. The slow mo felt good too. The shake effect when you hit the wall was impactful. I would say that the difficulty ramps up pretty quickly. I was already having a hard time on level 4.
Thank you for checking out my game and rating. I really enjoyed your game too!
I think that's a fair criticism, level 4 is a step up in difficulty from previous levels. I think it becomes much easier when you constantly use the slow motion, but even then it is a step up from level 3.
Initially, we were not sure how early or late we wanted to introduce the slow motion, so we made level 4 but were not sure where it would be placed. Later, we decided that introducing slow motion early would give the player a better chance in other levels, where slow motion was not required, but it would make the player much easier to control. Its hard to say what the right decision was, but I agree with your feedback, good catch.
In your experience, did you get used to using the slow motion mechanic (space) pretty soon during or after level 4? Or do you feel like the onboarding process for that can be improved? We went with a more hands off approach of just showing the button prompts, but I understand some may want a more thorough tutorial.
How far did you get?
Sorry for the long message, I appreciate your feedback.
Nice game, i really enjoy it! The puzzles are very well done and the progression is very good.
Thank you! Did you have any feedback pertaining to what we could change or improve going forward?
I had fun playing your game too!
No problem! Well the only problem i had was a bug where when i threw the grappling hook it went through the walls and i could be out of the map and the second time i played it, in the second level i think it was, that when i tried to go through the first door sometimes it closed and didn't let me pass. Thats the only problem but doesnt cut the fun of the game. Sorry for my english, its really bad haha
Great game loved the slow motion and the mechanic is well executed!
Good job!
Thank you so much!
Would love to hear from you if there is anything you would like to see us change or improve?
Enjoyed your game as well!
Really good job. Love the look and feel. Add some puzzles and you've got something great
Wow, thanks! Definitely, the plan was to add some more puzzles, but we just ran out of time.
We wanted to make a puzzle where you have all the walls rotaing in unison, but rotating 90 only when you hit the wall. So you have to rotate wall A to get wall B to rotate, and get other objects to rotate, and so on. Unfortunately we ran out of time.
We also wanted to add a variety of bullet spread patterns to the enemies to give it more of a bullet hell feel.
I will check out your game too!
Really liked your game there bud!
I was after each level; "mmmm . i can do this faster" ! So addictive which is always a good sign for me!
Great job loved the visuals!
Wow, addictive? Thank you! It was definitely an iterative process and having two weekends to work on it helped.
For the art, our main artist had a limited time window so we did the best we could making temporary art as programmers. Glad you liked it, nonetheless.
Your game was great too!
Easly one of the most fun games I've tried so far in the jam! The mechanics are solid yet a bit overdone in my opinion but still the implementation is what made it so fun and you should be proud of that!
Thank you so much!
I also really appreciate your criticism. Can you expand on what mechanics are overdone, so that we can improve?
I will try out your game too!
That music! So good!
From the moment you open the game being greeted by that wonderful bop! It really suits the game well. I really love the way you handled the grapple mechanic, adding in pulling as default and rotate on the various space orb things.
No real criticism from me other than that there are a few bugs pertaining to the UI and as others have said being able to do things when already dead. Frankly neither took away from the experience whatsoever.
All in all great job chief! :D
Glad that you liked the game and the music, will tell our composer all about it. I will also check out your game.
I want to clarify on the UI bug - the percent shown in the level shows your progress throughout the entire game, not that single level.
Yeah, should have disabled things when you were dead, good catch.
Enjoyed playing your game too.
I think your game is very interactive and the right level of intense, I love the audio I think its implemented perfectly, however there are a couple UI bugs for example on level 4 it said I was 25 percent though the level no matter where I was, Another bug I noticed is the fact I could slow down time even after I died. one last criticism I have is the theme as I kind of got what you were going for but don't feel it was very clear, overall I thought the game was a lot of fun, I loved bouncing around the levels like a lunatic and really like how the main character looks. Great job :)
Thanks! I will check out your game too.
I want to clarify that the percent bar / progress bar is for the entire game. So level 4 out of 12 would put you at 1/4th of the game, or 25%. Sorry if it wasn't clear, I tried to make it clear by saying "of the full journey" under the bar.
Being able to slowdown after you died is definitely a bug, and sounds hilarious :)
Our thought process was you connecting to your environment is your way to traverse levels. Also, later on when you discover the pull and throw ability, you connect yourself to bullets to have a fighting chance
Enjoyed playing your game too.
Everything is better in space! Pretty cool movement mechanics, it felt very satisfying to zip around the levels. Music and SFX were fitting. Let's hope the speedrunning community picks up on it :)
Cool puzzle design, it was fun to play. Minor complaint: quitting the game with ESC should be possible if you force fullscreen. Other than that awesome entry to the game jam!
Thanks! I will check out your game too.
Yeah the ESC is an oversight, good catch.
You played Knallkrebs already and left valuable feedback!
Cool space game
Thanks! I will check out your game too.
Enjoyed playing your game too.
This is cool! You should have released a WebGL version! Downloadable games don't get enough love and attention as the web ones :(
Enjoyed playing your game too.
Great Game!