Judge feedback

Judge feedback is anonymous and shown in a random order.

• Wow, what an ambitious and creative project! Multiple mechanics, boss fights, and a whole story with characters? That's all very impressive, and I love to see projects like this in a game jam. There are some rough edges I'll get into, but I'd like to say from the start that the passion and creativity easily outshine them, making this one of my favorite projects. Everything from the title screen to the credits oozes personality and creativity, and I love it. And my god, can we talk about the title screen!? I was so pumped after opening up the game. More so than any entry, I was hooked as soon as the project started. The music, the animation, all of it is well executed with so much charm. Also, the seamless transition from menu to dialogue to gameplay was truly impressive. 10/10 title screen, fantastic job. So, how are the mechanics? Well, not perfect, but definitely good yet still in need of polish. To start, I think the beginning section is far too difficult. Intense? For sure, but that can be achieved without rapidly assaulting the player with explosives in the first level. I did think the method you're supposed to use to dodge them was clever, although I couldn't figure it out at first and felt frustrated the first time playing (I though you were meant to dodge the explosion itself, but the trick is to move in front of the bombs when you can, and jump over them right as they hit the ground otherwise). It's a bit too much to figure out for an opening level. And, unfortunately, my sentiments about the platforming section are very similar. It's much too difficult, and the boss fight that comes after is the same. For introductory sections to these mechanics, there isn't enough room for the player to make mistakes and learn. A lot of my deaths felt unavoidable, and the slow jumping didn't help. I can see a lot of promise here, mechanically speaking. The variety in enemies is great, the boss battle itself is creative and was still very fun despite being way too difficult. But the bugs (ladders practically break the game for some reason, player projectiles often don't register a hit, and player damage is often not registered also), clunky movement, and ramped up difficulty really bring down the experience, unfortunately. Despite this, I will say it is impressive you got such an ambitious project to the state its in in such a short period of time. It is mechanically clunky, but still mostly playable, and the game has a lot of aesthetic polish. Like I said in the first section, the passion and creativity still outshine the flaws in my opinion. With some focus on the game's mechanics as well as bugfixing, I think this could easily be a wonderful game through and through. For now, I give it a 7/10. I really want to rate it higher, but I simply can't even beat the first world due to difficulty and clunkiness. Edit: I forgot to mention this, but ditch the voice acting. What she's saying in japanese in no way matches the text, and to anyone who notices that (or, frankly, anyone who knows the spoken dialogue was way too short to match in the first place) will find it very off putting and confusing. Having a short exclamatory phrase in japanese while dialogue progresses is fine, but the problem arises when you are using clips of fully articulated sentences when you don't have a real japanese voice actor. Maybe just giver her a simple "Ohayo!" sound bite or something instead as an exclamatory phrase when dialogue starts, or just ditch it entirely. Edit 2: Also, you should definitely add a 'crouch' feature as another way of dodging attacks.
• THIS IS AMAZING! Reminds me of Sonic! Only thing: I didn't know how to start the game from the menu; I saw the "press button to start" button, but when I pressed any button, it didn't start. Also, I can't figure out how to get to the next dialogue!
• I am not sure what to say about this game, I doesn't grew up with the news and I never played these kind of game in my childhood, the only complaint I have is, there is too much levels. For me personally, 1 is enough. Fath11: 3/5 🐢: 5/5 character is Fath11: no turtle, don't say it!