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AquaSurvivor's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Gameplay | #196 | 2.943 | 2.943 |
| Audio | #212 | 2.800 | 2.800 |
| Overall | #212 | 3.171 | 3.171 |
| Graphics | #215 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Authenticity (use of resolution) | #229 | 3.943 | 3.943 |
Ranked from 35 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Did you work in a team?
All your role are belong to me. This was a solo jam for me. As such, all the fun was mine, too. This was a good experience.
Was the resolution a challenge?
This was a much better experience than last year. That was a year of wrapping my head around what it meant to be a lowrez jam game. This year was another swing at it, with much better results around honoring not only a resolution, but the spirit behind it, namely pixel snapping, finite color pallets (long live the 2600!), and throwback audio. There are always more improvements to be made, but I am much closer to that mark this time around.
What did you learn?
I entered the jam this year to try to make up for what I consider an abysmal entry last year. My hope was to take the lessons I learned far too late last time around and apply them here. I think I got much closer to the mark I wanted to hit.
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Comments
had fun playing this
(Note: although I know of Vampire Survivor, I've never actually played it)
I had a good few minutes of fun with this, I enjoyed herding around the large group of enemies as I slowly went from overpowered to overwhelmed as the difficulty started curving upwards. :) As for negatives, it wasn't really clear to me how the enemies were different, and what my upgrades and attacks actually do, so I was kind of maneuvering around randomly, just trying to make sure I don't touch anything but the powerups (which were at first also difficult to discern as they kind of blend in with the rest of the artwork).
The audio was unfortunatly quite jarring so I had to turn it way down.
Overall a great effort for a beginner!
Interesting take on the Vampire Survivors formula, these games often don't have a traversal goal. Decent enemy variety and I like how they freely mix together. Upgrades are nice and feel useful, having a lot of speed really helps. The way certain elements move and rotate takes them off a strict 64x grid, although all the spritework is within that resolution.
Thanks, good feedback.
On the rotation, true. There were a couple prefabs that I missed when turning off the facing property. Certainly the rotation that is present isn’t needed and doesn’t add much except for fractional pixels.
This is a solid minimalistic take on VS! Come to think of it, an aquatic setting makes a lot of sense for this kind of gameplay. Made it to the end, but I want to keep playing to find out about all the upgrades the game has to offer! If I had one nit to pick, it might be that I found the giant damage numbers a bit superfluous at this resolution. A very enjoyable entry, great work!
Hey, thanks for those nice words. I would love to continue to explore level variants as well as general balancing. I like the damage numbers as feedback, but entirely agree that they are too big. If I do this next year, no typography might have to be a goal (or me just being better at creating small resolution font usage).
If you are serious about takes on VS, I’m working with a group on a VS’esque project (entirely different code base, engine, not minimalist, etc). We will be looking for good play testers and constructive feedback. Lemme know if you are interested.
I’m not a hardcore VS fan, but I enjoy that kind of game casually. I’ll be happy to give you feedback on your other project if you let me know how to get in touch with you (preferably email).
This game was fun! I really liked the sprites and trying to avoid all the fish during the rushes.
Nice this was a lot of fun to figure out what those updates do…. I just had fun cruising around and leveling up… before I eventually realized that I was supposed to follow the yellow triangle… Well I made it :) Good job!
Smooth graphics and cool gameplay :)
The sound was as little loud here, but idk if it was just with me, but other than that good job! :D
Ja, would have been nice to have gotten the volume controls in. You never can tell how loud somebody’s base system level is. Thanks for taking a swim.
Cool game, had fun
Nice! I succumbed to fish rushes but I had a good time doing it. Good all-round fun, congrats!
Honestly I played a lot but didn't win, I'll give it another try some other time. It is certainly a fun game, it has this addictive Vampire Survivors quality. The music was annoying to me at first, but I got used to it and it's kinda fitting. Good job!
I’ve been messing with the spawning waves and DPS/HP balance a bit since the posting window closed. The DPS is out of what with what’s up here now, leading to the ever growing mob. Getting the balance into a better spot is a fun problem. Glad to hear that the music faded to your background layer :) It is a bit abrasive.
I did it \o/ my strat was to farm a few levels until there were too many "friends" to control, then sprint to the new land. its all so chaotic like an old atari game ^^ great game!
Excellent, glad you made it out alive :) Thanks for coming by!
Nice solid game which picks up in intensity as you level up. The music is absolutely beautiful! I wonder if you're willing to make the soundtrack available for download, that would be really cool.
The graphics I thought were a little bit hard to make out, and it would've been better to have some kind of explanation as to what the weapons are. Also since the game is supposed to be underwater, maybe it could be an idea to make player motion more swim-like instead of walk-like if you get what I mean.
There seems to be quite a few fans of Vampire survivors around! good mechanics readdapting the ones from that game… maybe a more solid wave structure could help a bit as thit right now just feels like a mob distance minimizer algorithm at work. Graphics ar functional but there’s not a big contrast from enemies to actual pick-ups so sometimes it’s easy to miss picakbles or identify if that’s one or not… maybe going for something more clashing with the palette could help identify those. Overall a nice entry, fun to play, so good job!
Hey, thanks. That’s good feedback. I definitely agree with the wave mechanics. There are waves and timing, but they are pretty simple at this point. I’ve done some tuning and balancing to try to reduce the mob size. Like Vampire, there should be more things that you can mow down and stop worrying about as much. With this current itch version, the DPS vs. HP isn’t balanced well and you end up with a growing mob. Thanks again for coming by, there sure are a lot of submission to go around.
Its fun to have a mob following, i do wish that i had more things i could do as the player because i feel like i can only run and pray.
Ja, I’ve been working on game balance since the submission deadline came and went. There is still running :), but it isn’t as hopeless.
There's something about running from a mob of fish that gets you going :D
Nice game. I had fun. Unfortunately the upgrades aren't obvious on what they do.
My original concept for low rez jam 2022 was a vampire survivors like game. I changed the concept in the end, but it's interesting to see what it could have been like if I stuck with my original idea.
Thanks and I totally agree - I wish I could have figured out how to convey, given the real estate, what the upgrade did for you.
Nice game, the upgrade system was cool and I liked the enemy variety as well. Always nice to play a game with an ending as well. I think the upgrades could have been better explained though. Maybe that's the idea but I would always just select them at random and hope for the best.
Thanks for coming by. The upgrades, yes, I agree. It would have been great to have some in-game explanation. I just could not figure out what would work with the real estate available. I could put it outside the game in the description, for sure, but that’s a drag.
Well done on your submission and redemption :)
Intense gameplay!
Thanks for coming by! Redemption, at least a little bit, has a nice sweet after taste to it :)
This game is fun, I like upgrading my charater and seeing them become stronger.
Thanks. I’m glad you noticed the improvements. I’d love to have had a couple days just to tweak and balance the game. That’s a lot of fun in its own right.