I think the overworld-to-bullet hell aspect is very interesting and works well conceptually. However, I had a pretty hard time with the moment to moment gameplay of navigating in the bullet hell environment while accounting for drift and avoiding shooting the keys I was attempting to collect. I realize that type of difficulty was intended, I just think it went a little overboard. Otherwise, it felt pretty solid!
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Drifter's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio | #22 | 3.438 | 3.438 |
| Originality | #29 | 3.625 | 3.625 |
| Overall | #62 | 2.938 | 2.938 |
| Visuals | #71 | 2.750 | 2.750 |
| Fun Factor | #79 | 2.375 | 2.375 |
Ranked from 16 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?
Solo
Did you use any third party assets, if yes what assets did you use?
Yes, my friend Raijū made music for the game. I also used third-party assets for sound effects and fonts, the full credits are in-game
Did you choose from one (or more) of the optional secondary themes?
Cosmonaut (the game takes place with the protagonist drifting through space) and Signal Failure (the boundaries of the game are called the "signal area", which the player can leave for a game over)
Does your game contain 18+ content (Nudity, Gore, Language)?
None
Comments
Thanks for reviewing my game, CrimsonBulb!
Looking back, I feel like those two mechanics made the gameplay unfairly hard. I initially intended the game to just be difficult as a challenging danmaku, but the velocity mechanic (which actually isn't present in danmaku games for good reason) and the destroyable collectibles made it so players had to focus on too much at once, which hindered the experience.
Other than that, I'm glad you felt it was a solid experience! Thanks again for checking out my game!
The concept is really cool, you did a great job with the music and sound design to set the atmosphere. Feels like an old school game. With a bit of polish and balancing this could have a lot of potential for a larger scope project. The game description also does a great job of setting the mood.
Love and hate certain aspects of this. Because of the atmosphere, I had to play through to the end. I spent 40 minutes to do so. Would've just given up in frustration if the mood wasn't so interesting.
First 10 minutes were fun, I almost won my first run. I thought I had softlocked myself because I blew up all the items and needed one more key. Then I discovered the secret of attacking a colony to farm them for keys. Sadly I died, and spent the next several runs in frustration as I got more and more impatient. When I finally got a winning run, it was a lucky seed and I got it in probably less than 2 minutes.
A lot of the same sentiment as below re: combat
- I'm okay with having a ton of bullets fly at me, but having to do that and also not shoot the items is a huge pain in the ass. I think if we want to maintain breakable collectables, something more tactical/puzzle like would fare better than bullet hell where I have to watch where I'm moving and where I'm shooting at the same time
- On the flip side, if the collectibles are indestructible, you could probably lean more into the bullet hell aspect, and make it harder
- The braking is cool, but feels very unintuitive because it's an instant full stop. Might've balanced better with the acceleration by having a decellaration
Overall really great concept. Love the encounter area/exploration, but absolutely hate the item hostage bullet spam portions.
Submitted
Robo RevolutionThanks for the in-depth review! I'm glad you enjoyed the atmosphere of the game, that part is my favorite aspect of the game as well!
I also appreciate you telling me how your gameplay experience went, it helps a lot to see how your run in particular went. I do feel like the destroyable collectibles hindered many player's experiences (I like your use of the term "item hostage"), especially since the player has to frequently shift focus between dodging bullets and shooting enemies while avoiding shooting limited collectibles. The velocity definitely has to change as well, since it didn't fit well in a danmaku.
I appreciate that you were willing to play 40 minutes of my game, though! I'm glad you found the atmosphere interesting enough to keep you motivated. Have a great rest of the jam, gloriousclover!
Indeed. If the items were to block off certain regions for shooting would be okay, but having them weave back and forth with the enemy targets felt sadistic ;)
Want to re-emphasize again how well you set the mood with the writing and the music. The game page black background green text was simple but effective. I look forward to seeing how you integrate some of those aspects into a bigger project in the future.
By the way, have you ever heard of Guardian Legend? It combined top down Zelda-ish elements with SHMUP sequences. It also had a really cool omnipresent mood of mystery since you were exploring a planet with a dead civilization. This game gives me similar vibes.
That's a good idea with the items. If I remade this game, the items would be something I would definitely implement differently (I'd probably scrap destroying items entirely since items disappear anyway when you collect them). Thanks again for taking the time to review though and even telling me what you liked about the game, I appreciate it!
Also, I've never heard of Guardian Legend before, I'll be sure to check it out!
This game has such interesting vibes! The music was on-point, kinda of a weird/out-of-place kinda thing, really good.
It is a tough game, but I enjoyed the exploration so much. The fact that it is procedurally generated was the cherry on top, I love this kind of stuff.
The bullet hell aspect of the game would work a bit better if your movement had no acceleration, but there were some ways around it (such as going to the very borders of the screen without actually leaving them, which seemed to work as a "safety spot")
One other thing that I found pretty interesting/unique was the actual transition to a different "scene" when exploring or fighting, like in JRPGs where you have a battle scene and a map scene.
Super unique and interesting overall. Great job!
Submitted
The Void MoonThanks again for playing my game, Thinker! I'm glad you enjoyed the exploration! I've never done seed-based generation games before, so I'm glad you found it fun! Looking back, though, I agree that the danmaku probably shouldn't have had the same "floating" elements as the overworld did, although I'm glad you were still able to have fun playing. Thanks again for the review, I hope you enjoy the rest of the jam!
Interesting little shooter game. I like all the detail in-game and the music. Very tough to get items with a lot of enemies in it. A mini-map could be helpful in the overworld. Might want to tone down the bullet count on some enemies because they really fill the screen and with how floaty movement is, it can be very difficult to maneuver. And I understand the game mechanics are meant to be tough along with the floaty movement.
Submitted
Suits TDI love that eerie feeling of the mech floating around in unexplored space in the beginning. The sounds and the ever decreasing fuel add a lot to that feeling as well. I think the shooting segments would benefit from a bit more responsive controls and stronger feedback for when player/enemies get hit.
All in all this is a cool game concept and I'd love to see the exploration side expanded upon. It is definitely my favorite bit of the game!
Submitted
Blastingbot 2: Signal HullabalooVery cool concept !
I like the multiple perspectives where you go sidescrolling/more zoomed up when exploring key locations. This really felt like an original sci-fi take on the legend of zelda 2 formula.
The floatey space physics are also a nice touch, and i liked the fact that you counter balanced this by having a button to stabilize and stop your inertia when needed.
Music wise this sound great, and it perfectly complements the atmosphere of space exploration with that slight touch of survival mixed in.
Small issues i had were, that the powerups should not be shootable i.m.o, as the game already has quite some difficulty i feel that having the powerups destroyable when they mostly appear in areas where you fight is a bit much. Finding the keys for the station’s quest is also a bit vague right now, the game would benefit greatly from a minimap or some sort of guidance to help search for them.
Other than these this was a fun time, good job :)
Submitted
Radar RaidersThank you for your feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed the game for the most part! I wanted the player to feel like they were floating through space with the velocity mechanic, while also being able to let them stop and move slower to avoid leaving the signal zone and dodge bullets better.
The reason why I was thinking of having destroyable projectiles was because I didn't want the player to be able to spam-click enemies without consequence, but I can see how it makes the game way more difficult. There are probably other ways I can do this better in the future (like making a heat/cooldown mechanic). Also, I agree that making a minimap or some other navigational system would help gameplay. I would've wanted to do something like that, but I ran out of time.
Anyway, thank you again for playing my game, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the jam!
For one, the space aesthetic really gels well with the overall vibe and UI design of it all. I really liked the ambiance you went with for the game. The mission based clues you get when you hit gameover is a nice touch, especially for a project of this scale made in 2 weeks or less.
Now, I know you said that this game was intentionally designed to be difficult, I get that part. But the whole seed space thing can feel a little jank due to the gravity/pressure like movement. The way you had to shoot using the mouse can be a bit of a learning curve. I was able to get through it, though I wasn't able to get to the win condition because the bullet hell dodging can be a bit of an annoying factor to get through and I'm not very good at bullet hell, I must admit.
Overall, I feel like the design really catches the eye and I find the design of the mech cute,the clunky controls may have dampened my experience a bit but not bad enough for me to be frustrated.
Thank you for your review, I'm glad you enjoyed the aesthetic and UI! I tried to base it on how it would look in an old computer terminal or something that would be seen in the cockpit of a mech. I'm also glad you liked the game over messages, I felt like it would be good to give the player some help for such a difficult game.
I can see how the velocity-based movement makes the bullet hell/danmaku aspect of the game more difficult, though. I thought it would be interesting to have the player dodge bullets while still simulating space movement, but almost all danmaku games keep the player in place so they can dodge bullets better, and keeping a player's velocity amplifies the difficulty to an unnecessary level.
But anyway, thank you again for trying my game out, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the MechJam!
Some very unique ideas in this, I appreciate how much work you have put into it. Well done!
Submitted
HeavyGrade Warrior
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