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Starrs Magic BBQ (Jam Entry)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Cleverness | #755 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Playability | #804 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
| Theme | #1330 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
| Artistic Style | #1697 | 2.000 | 2.000 |
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.
- The combat only confused me because nothing worked when fighting enemies until after picking up any fallen spices, but sometimes it wasn't fully visible on screen depending on where you were moving around. The background art and characters were nicely done, though the music was a tad loud and unless I was missing something, I didn't see options to change this. And while the backstory was creative, I'm still trying to understand where it related back to the theme.
Did you include your Game Design Document as a Google Drive link?
Yes
Seriously... did you include your Game Design Document?
Yes I did! In 2 places!
Is your game set to Public so we can see it?
Yes
Tell us about your game!
Game taking the concepts of alchemy and applying them to BBQ cooking flavouring to infuse weapons with buffs to take on a shadow corporation wiping out flavour.
Controls shown on main menu. Bugs described in description.
Extra Notes
First real game attempt. First HTML5 attempt
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Comments
I love the idea but the spice thing kinda needs work because its pretty difficult to differentiate between what some of the spices(usually the powdered spices one) do to the weapon, i think a great way to improve the weapon already pre set instead of having to get it at the start of each cycle (might also fix the "changing weapon in main menu at launch crash") then adding things on top of the already pre set weapon to make it stronger.
The execution of everything is not bad,the controls are good, the "moving up and down" is easily detectable, and the hitbox are not too janky (though the funny thing about the attacks i think it has a "ranged" hurtbox rather than "melee")
overall its not bad, i think the scope needs to be smaller tbh this could be a great game if there are simpler stats to upgrade like only having atk, def and spd and some actually visible upgrades
The hand drawn art is charming as heckkkkk. Very lovely. The variety of mechanics is really impressive and fun! Great game!
Does it have bugs? Yes.
Do I like it? YES!
Really fun concept! Mixing pieces to "rub" on your "meat" (Weapon) ahahah, I like the hand-drawn art and the summoning grill. I find this hilarious in his own way.
Thank you very much I'm really glad you enjoyed it!
Hey, checked out this game!
I like that you have to walk towards where you want to access in the menu. It's a cute decision that also gets the player a litle more into the controls! I also really like that the characters and items are drawn on paper. I know it can be really tough to put that on game and make it all look nice, so extra points for that!
One thing I noticed is that the music in the starting screen isn't looping seamlessly, so it could be a nice point to refine. The music itself is really good, though!
Another thing is, when you start the game, a small popup with text shows up on screen. I think it shows up a bit too quickly, so it's tough to read what it says. Also, if you press the pause button while that is on screen and then unpause, the game crashes.
If you press pause during combat, the game doesn't pause and some objects seem to flash in the background, appearing and disappearing super quickly.
The sound effects feel nice! I also thought the arrow minigame was really neat and the text accompanying it made me chuckle, it was funny. The general music of the game is really pleasant to listen to as well.
Haven't seen a lot of games in the jam so far with a Streets of Rage inspired gameplay, so this was a nice change of pace. Especially considering this is your first game, there's a lot that you do here. I thought it was a charming game and I can see that the time constraint probably affected a lot of intended mechanics. Combining the spices for your food weapons is a funny and interesting concept though, and it'd be interesting to see the game a little more fleshed out. Cool game! Keep making stuff!
Thank you for the kind words.
I hadnt seen/tested for a couple of those bugs so thank you I will add them to my list to try and fix.
Appreciate all the encouragement and the aim is to continue to refine and expand this project.
I'm glad the childish joke has amused so many people.
As soon as Alchemy was in the running for a choice we came up for the premise to this game and have had a lot of fun with the concept. Trying to add something unique to such a well established genre such as Streets of Rage would be hard and we knew we wouldnt have the time or experience to make the combat as satisfying as that game so we felt our weapon crafting would be a nice twist along with the pseudo-3D effect of scaling the characters relevant to their Y value.
Thanks again for the constructive comments it will help us moving forward and encouraging to hear when people have enjoyed aspects of what we have made.
This game is an absolutely mess.
And I love it haha. Gotcha there with the opening line didn't I? Seriously though besides the minor bugs of hitting the wrong button in the wrong menu there's some solid systems and mechanics in here.
I had a little chuckle at the rub your meat section, because hehehe my brain is a child apparently. The combat works well I just wish the enemies did something other than stand there menacingly doing nothing at you.
Would be cool to see this expanded and to actually build custom weapons with stats. I enjoyed the spice mashing minigame managed to almost fill it and got 13 bonus spice (whatever that means?) and 1 shot the enemies.
The hand draw artwork is super cute and I can imagine a lot of effort must have gone into doing that.
Genuinely fun little game that would be cool to see expanded on in the future.
Thank you for taking the time to comment it is really appreciated.
Yes the menacing enemies didnt get their arms and weapons attached to them due to time management on my part.
We do plan to get this to a more playable state with arms and sausage rolls intact as well as a few levels and a boss fight.
Thank you again for playing and I'm glad you enjoyed what we managed to create.
I love the whole concept of spicing up your weapons and fighting against corporations to preserve flavor lol. Moving the character around to start the game in the start menu is also great. However I think the game could do better with better key binding. The enter key is sometimes used instead of the space key and it's a bit confusing.
I totally agree.
We need to spend more time on the control settings and also make them customisable.
Thank you for the feedback.
The art is so bad, but so awesome! Wish the whole scene was all drawn. The gameplay also feels good to play and I really like the downtime minigames, great work keep it up!
Fun game if you get additional explanation, has potential.
Apart from the bugs you already know about:
It seems the player doesn't take damage
Enemies can drop their spice below where you can pick it up
Enemies only drop one kind of spice? What's the point in adding spices if you only have one option?
Artstyle is probably your game's strongest point. Unique and charming. Gameplay is confusing and difficult to understand, but once you do it feels repetitive and without purpose. Like, what does each minigame effect on my weapon? Music is okay, just feels a bit busy.
No idea how you managed to raw-code HTML5, that's bonkers to me.
Hopefully I gave a bit more action-able feedback, more than just "This good."
Thank you for the response!
Yes there was an issue with the enemy arms and weapons I ran out of time fixing.
They drop multiple spices but only 3 sprites are used and it repeats the same. There should have been names but I didnt get there.
The position of the spice is an odd one and I added it to my list to fix thank you.
The aim is to eventually expand it and have things more apparent and explained. The minigames buff the stats from the spices.
Also not hard-coded in HTML5. I used GameMaker and used the HTML5 export which threw up new challenges.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this. It will definitely be used when we continue the development.
This art is really cool and unique! I love the perspective of the main gameplay area. The weapons upgrade minigame is also a nice touch. Great work!
Thank you. Really appreciate the kind words!
I'm struggling to figure this out. I can't do anything in the first inventory menu. No buttons seem to be responsive until I quit.
Does pressing the start button or keyboard equivelant not take you further?
Just gave it a go. Try the Escape key. Sorry should have added better instructions.
There is meant to be stuff to select but it started messing up generating it on the first attempt.
I did end up figuring it out. It was because I was playing in fullscreen so the escape key was conflicting. After hitting it a few times it worked. I did like the game. It was simple and I can see where you were going with the sword upgrade mini-games. Any chance to beat my meat. I especially loved the "paper doll" aesthetic of the enemies. It's unique compared to all the pixel art you typically see.
Thank you for the kind words. I am actually really happy with the blend of the graphics. With a lot more time I think it has the chance to feel a lot better but I am so happy to hear you had fun with it.