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Shadow Boxer's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Artistic Style | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Cleverness | #1 | 5.000 | 5.000 |
| Theme | #653 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Playability | #804 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
Ranked from 1 rating. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Judge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- Had a few hiccups getting it to run in browser but resolved them. Hit boxes were pretty unclear and movement was not responsive. Jumping didn't do anything like what you'd expect, for me at least. Possibly a bug? I'm unsure. Beyond that, the theme was clever. Using shadow puppets as fighters really is clever. I would love for the 'filters' to have a visual effect in some ways. Without that it just feels like a bit of a tacked on way to check that box. Great, clear art style. Just like how you did with the puppets swapping out, maybe the filters could be another selection. Then the combination of fighter/filter produces unique combos. Much more intense than you'd do in a GameJam, for sure, but maybe for the future.
Did you include your Game Design Document as a Google Drive link?
Yes
Seriously... did you include your Game Design Document?
Yes
Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes
Tell us about your game!
Shadow Boxer is a melee combat game inspired by titles like Street Fighter and the formative experience of hanging out in your friends’ basements as an early-aughts preteen.
Word has spread among the neighborhood kids that if you can sneak out after dark and find your way to the basement of the house at the end of the cul-de-sac, you will gain entrance to a one-of-a-kind show. Our three performers – Maxwell, Glen, and Ellory – set up their flashlights, tape on light filters, and hang the curtains. Knuckles are cracked, fingers are stretched, and wrists are cocked. It’s time for the ultimate shadow puppet throwdown.
Pick your character, pick your power-ups, and brawl!
Extra Notes
Don't mix it up, ya. We're fighting in the shadows.
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Comments
La la la la la la la... this game is really sick. First of all the art is great, shadows + their moves + the hands too??? Insane. I like the music too, the track during character selection particularly goes hard. Overall this fighting game has a lot of depth already so I do hope you guys continue with it. An impressive entry, you guys should be proud of what you've made!
Thank you! Loads of feedback got us itchin to push updates. We’ll take it further for sure. Appreciate you spending some time with us 🙏
yoooooo fan of your work man, didn't realize you did the music and did a double take when I saw you responded! Would love to be able to hear the Shadow Boxer music in full somewhere ;) Keep up the awesome work!
The art is amazing! Super creative idea.
I agree with some of the other comments about hitboxes also the attacks that had forward movement felt really good compared to the ones that didn't move.
Great Job!
Thanks for your feedback and for playing! We’re definitely really excited to tune hitboxes and movement while we playtest and balance on the path to stream release :)
-Alex
Did a double take when I saw Fighting Game in the description. This is awesome!
:D we really bit off a lot! Thank you so much for playing and the kind words :)
-Alex
Damn, that art is amazing!
Initially I thought it'd be a rock paper scissor game with great art, didn't expect a whole ass fighting game :P
It was really good. Had a few small issues with some attacks' hitbox feeling wrong, and when jumping I'd sometimes end up "stuck" on top of my opponent. But apart from that it was great, and the ability to switch at will between all 3 forms at any point is great!
Agree on the hitboxes; we’ve been getting a lot of good suggestions on how to make the combat more intuitive, and that includes tuning those up. (Also, make it so you can’t get stuck on top of your opponent). Thank you for the feedback, the kind words, and for playing!
-Erica
Wonderful concept for a game. This really stands out creatively, I never would have thought of shadow puppets! The character artwork is fantastic. You know how in fighting games they just reskin a character or just recolor it? You could totally do something like that here, just have the same silhouette but have it be different animals or have different faces. Anyhow, this was a lot of fun, keep up the great work!
Thank you for playing and for the suggestion! If/when we add more characters and puppets, we’ll definitely need to be smart about it, so the reskin approach is interesting.
-Erica
I cannot believe y'all were so bold as to make an entire game featuring the hardest thing in the world to draw: hands.
It's SO GOOD! I love the concept, and I like the lighthearted execution and tone behind it. Amazing work!
Ellory Mains Rise UP.
Ha – appreciate your saying this! Though maybe the one thing harder than drawing hands is drawing feet. Perhaps we’ll save that for the sequel :)
-Erica
Such a brilliant concept.
The art is insanely creative, the setting is cool and the music is so quirky. This is a weird idea executed perfectly!
I was glad to see you will keep development going on it! If it ever releases on switch, I'm buying this instantly!
Love to see this!
Minor feedback: the fighting is a bit clunky and unresponsive at the moment and after I won 2-1 vs the CPU, there was a round 4 suddenly, even though there were only 2 circles to win.
Thank you for playing, and for the kind words, it means a lot!
The game is set up right now as a best of 5 and so the third dot would be filled at match end, but we can make that more clear for sure. And gameplay is first on the list once we recuperate :D
That's great to hear, good luck with it! :)
Very innovative concept, loved it! Looks really good, SFX and music top-notch! Right away the start menu was oozing with polish setting the bar high. Excellent work!
And nice to see a fellow Shadow Boxer :D
Dude your game is unhinged I love it. will have to go back and play more properly and leave ya a review! we briefly saw it and played around before we submitted. Thanks for playing our same name game and giving thoughts! :D
-Alex
Amazing Idea, and Brilliant Execution.
Music was a 10/10.
Made it fun to try out all characters to see how their "shadow puppets" worked!
Found that the swan was the best hahah love that dude.
<3 Swan is my fav too (Kirby main over here hehe). Literally got to fulfill a dream with this project, Swardy makes the best music!
Thank you for playing and sharing your thoughts!!
-Alex
Really cool game idea and great execution. Totally polished art and the music is very catchy. I love the nostalgic vibes and the whole premise. Great job, you guys!
Thank you!! <3
I loved the concept of the shadow puppets fighting in this game! I also liked the visuals of your game and the sounds that you made!
Some feedback I would give is that sometimes attacking doesn’t feel like it registers an attack because maybe the range is short. Maybe it is because the opponent blocks and if so, I think it would make the game better to give the player more feedback when they do so it doesn’t feel unfair (even when it is fair after all).
In any case, very good job on the game.
Having more feedback around hits, blocks, etc is definitely something we’d like to add. Thanks for playing and for your suggestions!
-Erica
I'm so impressed with the interpretation of the themes for this game.
Shadow boxing of course the common term for fighting your own shadow/sparring with it to practice boxing but flipped in a way that it's a genuine fighting game with shadow puppets that the characters transform between with their hands? 10/10 concept right there.
The SFX of the people doing all the noises was really funny and I imagined it was the characters who were doing the shadow puppets making them.
I also noticed a really subtle change in music depending on which character you chose, very cool little thing there.
The fighting itself was fine, kinda basic but it was still fun to jump around as shadow creatures in such a fun and light hearted way.
Thanks for taking the time to play and for the kind words. We were particularly excited about the audio so are all happy to hear that you noticed things like the music change on character select.
And there are definitely aspects of the combat that we’d like to improve. Hopefully soon in future versions!
-Erica
Everything is so great! I really had fun! It's so cute to play like a kid again and I loved the music <3
Thank you! Glad you had fun, that’s the most important part.
The concept of this game is so unique, a shadow puppet fighting game. I don't think I've seen anything like it before, and the idea of each character being able to swap between puppets is also really cool. I think a full game would really benefit from some music, and perhaps some more variation in the shadow's attacks!
Thank you for the kind thoughts and playing!!
Oh no! did you not get music?? it’s one of the best parts, Swardy designed it and there are 3 unique songs (1 with 3 variations for each character). Would you mind sharing which browser?
Oh I see that's strange, I'm using Opera GX, I'll try play the game again and I'll see if I have the same result.
I got the music this time, must have been a one-off issue :)
Love OperaGX, I used it all through dev on this game! Hope you enjoyed the music, Swardy crushed it.
The art is amazing. I really like the shadow interpretation. Really creative. I would like to see this polished a little bit more, perhaps combos and opponent performance.
Pros:
Unique and coherent art style, Fun thematic interpretation, Nice twist on traditional 2D fighters, sound work
Cons:
Some attacks are spam-able (perhaps a telegraph frame or two would work), block is unbreakable
Amazing thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! We agree and are excited to keep going on this one :D
-Alex
Very impressive art! Would love to see the gameplay more polished
Us too! Excited to keep working on it on the other side! Thanks for playing and sharing your thoughts <3
-Alex
Holy crap so good, creative theme as well. Only strange thing was the element thing. Otherwise game actually played really well and the art was also insanely good!
Yeah we agree, the elements aspect never felt the strongest, definitely something that needs a rework. Thanks for playing!! Appreciate the kind words :)
-Alex
I don't think the elements really needs a rework, I understand it was to try fit into the jam theme haha, we had to shoehorn shadow in ours as well. Post jam I'd love to see more of the base shadow boxing thing!
hehe yeah that’s kinda what I mean, maybe it doesn’t fit the game exactly :D We plan to!! Definitely a wonderful idea that wants to be explored more.
-Alex
This is amazing. Hilarious graphics and sound. Never seen anything like it. Great job!
Tried running in Chrome browser and it worked!
So, game presentation is really good. I especially like the sound effects.
Gameplay is on the simpler side. I’m not sure elemental effects contribute much, because you spend too much time recovering from being hit that it turns into a game of who can hit first. Especially since you can just hold block for the whole match arter getting some health advantage.
<3 thanks for playing!
Yeah the elements were pulled back quite a bit, it never felt like the strongest mechanic. We have plans to rework in the future. Definitely on the simple side of where we hope to be, our goal is to encourage the use of each shadow puppet to come up with combos. When played intentionally that way its quite a bit more complex! But balancing is the real key here to require and encourage that without being too punishing.
Thanks for your thoughts!!
-Alex
Stuck at this. Am I missing something?
Oh no! I assume the games is the focus or your browser? What browser?
Firefox. Tried with fullscreen and without.
UPD: works in Chrome.
Strange, we tried our best to test in various browsers and systems, curious what the issue was. Glad it worked for you, hope you have fun!
Turns out I attempted to improve something for chrome (Fullscreen pause menu) which didn’t even work in chrome and broke firefox entirely cause the one line of code errors out…. Maybe I don’t keep pushing late into the night?? lol…
-Alex