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MAN'S BEST FRIEND's itch.io pageJudge feedback
Judge feedback is anonymous.
- It’s a fantastic short game with really interesting mechanics. The theme is well implemented, the music heightens the intense atmosphere, and the sound effects add personality to the different enemy types. The quick-time events felt meaningful and kept me in a constant state of suspense. Playing as the Skeleton, Goblin, or Orc (?) with different attack patterns was engaging, though I feel the Skeleton could use some tweaks. Its weapon hovers a bit further from the character, making it extremely difficult to hit close targets. The GDD is exceptionally well-documented, but the Development Timeline could be improved. Formatting it as a table might make it clearer and easier to follow. Overall, I had a lot of fun playing this game, and I’m excited to see how it evolves!
Link to your Game Design Doc on Google Drive.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a8WcHYmqxHJNZ37xzmzt7Jiqv5QpZVsdl5kJlZnL6_Y/edit?tab=t.0
Have you checked that your GDD is publicly accessible ?
Yes
Is your game set to public on itch.io so we can see it?
Yes
Summarise your game!
Man's Best Friend is a fast-paced game about possessing enemies and protecting your (completely clueless) knight companion by finishing Quick Time Inputs (QTE) and using the fluid movement system to get around.
Please explain how your game fits the theme:
In MBF, the primary way of dealing damage/killing enemies is YOU. The player. By taking over the vessel enemies and harnessing their capabilities, you can soon be able to grow your ally team by splitting your symbiote and such. The player is the only one keeping the Knight and the Symbiote alive.
Is there anything you'd like the judges to pay particular attention to?
The core gameplay mechanics.
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Comments
The art and music are nice, and the sound effects are very satisfying! I like the button animations in the menu as well, it's a nice touch. The same can be said for the tutorial, which is well put together and takes you step by step through the controls.
I quite like the concept of the QTE's to possess an enemy. The enemies having different movesets and damage also helps with making the player excited to try possessing different enemies. I did notice that split possessing can be a bit tricky, since it seems the spawn point of the "possession bullet" is a bit far away from the character. So, when there's an enemy right next to you, you can't split possess them because your bullet spawns past the enemy.
The split posssession mechanic might be a little too op, I'd say. With it, you can "pacify" any of the normal enemies (and "pacifying" all of them will also let you go to the next stage). I saw one of the comments talking about how they took damage from the boss and I was initially confused, since I hadn't taken any. It turns out that it was because I was split possessing the boss' minions instead of directly possessing them. Split possessing them made it so I didn't have to deal with the QTE's, didn't take any damage, and could just focus on not walking on the dark spots while waiting for my possession bullets to recharge.
This also meant that in my run, I never felt the need to heal because I didn't really take any damage, nor did I ever feel like I was in danger. So the split possession mechanic could maybe use a tweak or two to make it harder or not as op in some way. Maybe some sort of timer so that the enemies don't stay split-possessed forever.
I think the game could've used some sort of "You win" screen as well, since in my run, I played and got to the boss more than 4 times, waiting to see if there was some sort of ending.
With all of this being said, I'd like to emphasize that the concept is very interesting. The possession through the QTE system works very well, and I think the split possession could be very interesting in the context of, say, you trying to possess a tough enemy while having split-possessed minions protecting you from other enemies that are trying to stop you. This concept opens up a lot of different possibilities and I do think it was well implemented in this.
The controls also feel very tight and fun to use and the different enemies feel fun to play. There's quite a bit of thought put into this, and for a solo project, this couldn't have been easy. It feels extremely polished, and I had a good time playing around with the possession mechanics. Very well done!
(also, nice reference to Sonic Unleashed, love that game)
Thank you so much! It's always great to have positive feedback and criticism as well. And yes, Sonic Unleashed was a main inspiration for this game haha.
Really liked this game! The QuickTimes were super cool! I loved the possession mechanic. Neat music! It took me a bit to figure out the boss, once I figured out oh I need to possess the little guys it made a lot of sense!
Love it! Good job y'all!
Thanks so much!!
Played for a while and this is actually quite nice! The pacing is very good, almost no downtime when playing. I love the QTEs for possessing an enemy, which although not difficult at all, it really needs your attention to do so in a quick and efficient manner. Besides, I don't think any game I've played implements this kind of mechanics too, so kudos for that. The music is also quite nice and is a good addition to the game.
Maybe I am playing the game wrong, but I can't seem to defeat the final boss no matter how hard I've tried. The one thing in that fight that frustrates me the most is that you are somehow taking damage when possessing the thing the boss spawned. And I don't see any way to effectively damage the boss. It's feels also a bit unfair when normally possessing an enemy you are not taking damage. Yes, you can bring in a possessed enemy from the last level, but the damage they deal barely outpaces how the knight takes stupid damage on his own.
But besides that, I think this is quite an underrated entry, and I do like it a lot. Please keep up the good work and I am looking forward for the next one!