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BLOOD in the SKY: DEAD OR ALIVE's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #5 | 4.167 | 4.167 |
| Originality | #7 | 4.333 | 4.333 |
| Fun Factor | #9 | 3.917 | 3.917 |
| Visuals | #14 | 4.083 | 4.083 |
| Audio | #16 | 3.583 | 3.583 |
Ranked from 12 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Is your game a video game or a physical game?
video game
Was your game made solo or in a team?
team - Sean: Programming, Michael: Artwork, IAN: Writing & character portraits
Did you use any third party assets, if yes what assets did you use?
"Rising Tide (faster)" - Kevin MacLeod
Did you choose from one (or more) of the optional secondary themes?
all of them!
Does your game contain 18+ content (Nudity, Gore, Language)?
no 18+ content
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Comments
This is a super cool game, i love turn based combat games and i think the build your own mech theme, is one of the most fun things about mechs.
The biggest problem is, that for a game with this complexity you need to have a tutorial. You need to ease the player into all the things that are possible, because it’s way to overwhelming otherwise. At the start i get presented with every single piece that i can choose, and at that point i’m completely lost what to do. Then i’m getting even more confused because certain parts don’t even fit my mech. So i ended up loosing the first 4 rounds just because i had no idea how to build, or even how combat works.
And combat is just another thing where the complexity gets a hold of you. Once you get it, it’s very simple, but until that point i have no clue what’s happening, what all the icons mean, etc etc.
And then i can even modify the shape of my mech, which is very cool, but i also didn’t get in the beginning at all. And the big problem is, to do this effectively, i need to know what parts exist and how they would fit on it. There needs to be a better way of teaching the player how each of these systems work.
So i only fully got it, before the last fight, which was fun, and then the game was already over, so that’s kind of sad, when you miss out of most of the fun.
The combat can also feel quite a bit tidious. For one, there is the overview dialogue, which i didn’t have any use for, which just is completely in the way and a annoying dialogue to click away. I feel like this could have been easily just put in the background window, without forcing me to see it. Especially, because when i scan something and discover something, then i want to look what it is via mouse hover, but the dialogue prevents this, which is obstructing gameplay quite a bit.
Then there are the options, where you need to constantly click and move the mouse, which is also quite annoying. I wish there was just a key i could press for each category, so lets say 1 for shoot, 2 for scan, 3 for shield, enter for confirm, so that i don’t need to do so much tidious mouse actions.
Then there is the shield, which can only be enabled fully or not at all, where each other action is a 1 energy consuming thing in comparison, i dunno why this was done for it as well?
So i absolutely love this concept, there is so much depths in it, but there is alot of friction in the core gameplay loop (fighting) that make it way less enjoyable.
Thanks for the feedback! Just curious, did you read the how-to-play guide in game?
I looked at it mostly for the controls, which was already plenty to remember. In general when i jump into a game, the last thing i want to do is having to read pages of text in order to understand how it works, that not very enjoyable. The problem here is not really, that the information is nowhere to be found, but rather that it’s too much information at once. I mean you have descriptions for all the items as well, but in the first round this is just too much to take in. I’m trying to get to the gist, of what i need to do in general, bevore i dive into specifics.
Great fully-developed game, superbly done!
This kicks ass. Love the music. Love the concept. Love the aesthetic. Bravo y'all.
I think I was doing everything wrong, but I really appreciate how novel the gameplay mechanics are. Everything looks beautiful too.
Pretty fun Battleship style game. I really enjoyed it and did beat it. I think some of the mechanics can be rebalanced a bit but overall pretty good. Shields can be a bit too powerful, maybe they should take up 2 heat per attack blocked. I wish the mechs were a bit larger and that you would get more money while playing. I wanted to test out different builds but ended up using the one heat sink cause it gave the most for real cheap. I used the 5 slot gun piece most of the time as well. Later ended up using the single slot cockpit cause I could take a shield or two and not worry most of the time. I think the joint pieces are really cool and add a lot because instead of sniping joints, you might have to worry about extra pieces which is pretty cool. Though... I'm not sure if the extra joint pieces worked just right or not. You could place them anywhere in the limb but I feel that shouldn't be how they work. I still ended up sniping limbs to find where the cockpit was cause everything else breaks if the joints have been shot. Also, please click the Itch box to allow Fullscreen.
Ya'll were nice enough to add some combat in here mech hanger simulator ;p
Some real quality game and great premise. I think the combat however could use a bit more tinkering with as the shield mechanic is highly overpowered for both you and your opponent.
A really fun twist on battleship! Loved the strategy but wow that small cockpit was a nightmare to fight against, still really fun. Also loved that story, that was so unexpected and funny!