Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
(+2)

I was really excited to play this one after seeing the footage of it in development on discord. And while I really liked the final product it does have some flaws I feel I should point out. And it should be noted I only mention these because they're the same flaws my games have had (or have tbh), and I've submitted now 4 FPS games to SBIG. I don't expect all of these to have been addressed, but just suggestions for future FPS games if you do any.

  • The players main weapon is projectile based and has bullet spread, but the enemy projectiles for the most part have zero spread. This is especially noticeable with the flying enemies and turrets, but it's annoying because it feels like even if leading your shots it's hard to get a hit on enemies at a medium distance. And with the turrets there's a hard limit on how close you can get to them since they're on the ceiling. I've come to vastly prefer the Halo method of the player having hitscan weapons that may or may not have bullet spread, and enemies have slower moving projectile weapons that the player can dodge if they're moving. And it felt to me like I was dodging 1 out of 10 shots even at full speed.
  • Enemy explosive projectiles are very hard to see, in fact I rarely ever see them before I hear/feel the explosion.
  • The rocket launcher having bullet drop, but also splash damage is a bit much. It felt like the rocket launcher did more damage to me at times than enemies. I suspect this is the reason why the launcher doesn't do more damage to enemies. Or at least, splash damage affecting the player is why the rocket launcher in my game doesn't do more damage lol.
  • The reloading of the weapons, specifically the SMG are a bit too slow. And also something I discovered is the shooting flows much better if you have the weapons automatically reload if the player tries to fire while the gun is empty.
  • There should probably be more health pickups in the combat areas, I had to finish the game on baby mode because I died so quickly. This is something I discovered to be an issue in my game as well.
  • The damage feedback on enemies could be improved, while I can tell if I'm hitting them with the machine gun from the impact noises, it's hard to tell how damaged they are. Maybe some smoke coming off them at half health could do the trick. This wouldn't be an issue if they went down in a few shots, but their high health combined with poor accuracy of the weapons, at times I found myself dumping two clips into some enemies.
  • Turning is really awkward and slow, a great addition (to the frankly already pretty extensive movement logic) would be a power brake of some sort. Like holding spacebar brings the palyer to a screeching halt and allows for faster turns or something like that.
  • The unalive command specifically (though frankly all the controls) should be placed in-game somehow, even if just in the pause menu. Because I didn't know I could get past the Roller enemy that blocked me into a shipping container.


But back to the positives because there's also a lot to like!

The enemy variety is pretty nice, you have stationary turrets, flying enemies, tanks with  multiple weapon types, and an even tankier roller enemy that just barrels towards the player. You have two distinct weapon types, in-game lore, and in one case even a non-violent solution to an enemy (which I discovered before even seeing the enemy)! Also that ending cutscene had some really nice "So Bad It's Good" energy!

I also liked all the little details like the newspaper in the beginning, the actually rolling wheels on the wheelchair, the in-world radios playing music, all of that was awesome!

There's some great stuff here, just a bit warped by awkward controls and difficulty.

Great work overall though!

(+2)

First of all thanks for the giant great review:) About your notes in order:

  • The enemies apart from turrets actually have a lot more bulletspread than the player. Ig all of the enemies only shoot so close to the player that their spread is unnoticeable. They also just snap onto the player, and the bullets are so fast that it's hard to dodge anything. I wanted to make the giant turret have basically 0 inaccuracy because otherwise the player could just "run" past, but ig that change got carried to all of the other turrets as well... I didnt really spend any time thinking about the bulletspread, but ig if the player can clearly see that they are missing just because of rng, they will just get annoyed:D
  • The explosive enemies were basically the last thing i made (i made this game from end to start), so i didnt really polish them that much and they just ended up as one more enemy that snaps onto you.
  • The rockets start with an initial velocity and get some forward acceleration on the way, i struggled with finding a good balance of those values where the rocket isnt too fast but also doesnt fall into the ground instantly... I should have just made it accelerate upwards a bit so that it can fly slowly and still not fall instantly.
  • The reload speeds just comes from how i animated them, thats just the speed the animations ended up with, i didnt think about it at all:D When writing the gun script i thought that i need to implement an autoreload toggle for the ai, of course i thought that if the ai auto reloads, then the player has to naturally reload themselves...
  • The way you can pick up health whilst moving at fullspeed in the first roller fight was pretty cool, i should have had more of that. When making baby mode i had a small hope that the game was too difficult, just so everyone had to listen to a baby crying. I guess my wish was fulfilled:D
  • Some smoke/sparks for the enemies would have been cool, i did make the rollers start smoking but i didnt expand that idea to all of the enemies
  • I should have put all of the controls into the pause menu or smthing. That screenshot is golden, thats what i assumed would happen but never did when i playtested:D

Thanks again for playing through the entire game, i should really start figuring out a way to make games that arent way too difficult... The awkward controls are probably the biggest reason why my games are so hard. I have no clue how i keep coming up with this garbage lol, i think if i ever join a game jam again i need to make a game where the controls are actually normal...

(also sorry for the word salad, i tried to clean it up a bit but its still ass:D)

(+1)

I appreciate the full response!

I kinda assumed some of them were just left the way they were due to time, and some just kinda slip the mind. I've had both happen to me too.

Balancing is a hard thing in a jam, I mean I've had people say my games are either too easy or way too difficult.

In any case I'm excited to see what you come up with next time!

(+1)

For the rockets, you should just make them fall slower since they have fins, which give them an upward force and make them fly straighter due to Bernoulli's principle or something. (Don't quote on me, though. I am no expert of aerodynamics.