Link to VOD:
(will be live at 9pm EST)Visually, this game is amazing. I really love the graphic design for it, and I think it's solid. Soundtrack feels good as well, not overwhelming. This game however could use some work to really make it shine. I had a lot of laughs while playing, but it's very clearly in the earlier stages of development (and that's fine, that just means feedback is easier to incorporate).
First and foremost, I'd like a button tutorial. It took me just pushing buttons at random to realize that the right joystick would let me control the camera angle, and that's HUGE for some of these puzzles. Knowing ahead of time which buttons do what would be nice--even if it's just a little pop-up that maps them out for you.
Speaking of that camera angle, the fact that the camera spins when you get on top of certain moving objects is funny for about 0.5 seconds, and then it's nauseating. Plus, since you have to keep moving usually once you get off said moving object, you don't have the ability to readjust your camera angle and that's a struggle, too. Please make it so the camera itself doesn't spin with the character when the character goes for a ride on said moving objects, the fate of all of us gamers with even an iota of motion sickness relies on this. 💜
The levels, while fun, do not seem to go in a linear pattern for how much skill it takes to complete them. I definitely think this deserves a rework overall. Some of the earlier levels felt particularly difficult, and then the level after could be completed with two jumps and easily avoiding an object. So instead of getting progressively more difficult, it felt more like a wave of ups-and-downs on difficulty.
In order to help the player know where Dave is going to land, having a shadow under our fine feathered friend at all times would really help. That way I could see where I'm aiming as I make jumps to tiny little platforms.
Similarly, some of the platforms that explode need to be a bit more forgiving with timing to get to the next spot, or give you more of a boost. At least one person in my chat watching me struggle with a level said they would have flat out given up on trying to get the timing, and I think that is important to note. You want it to be difficult, but you don't want it to feel unforgiving.
Thankfully though, since the levels are not super long and you can see them start-to-finish, it's not too painful to be sent back to the beginning over and over again. If the levels were any longer, this wouldn't be the case. So if you do decide to add in longer levels as the player progresses, adding in readily spaced checkpoints will also be a good idea so that the player doesn't always go back to square one upon a misstep.
I know this game is early in development, but I would highly suggest adding in a color blind mode for it. I'm pretty sure anyone who is blue and/or yellow color blind would not be able to play this game. I know my father struggles with these colors (yellows are all beige/white for him, and blues are all gray/white), which would mean he would not be able to see this game well enough to play it. Anyone similar to him would also struggle. So adding in that accessibility component would be really helpful to appealing to a wider audience overall.
This one is nit-picky, but I also think adding a space between "level" and the level number would visually be good--especially since the lowercase "L" and the "1" look so similar. Or use a dash (ie level-1) to make a visual distinction.
Despite it being rough around the edges as far as gameplay goes though, it's an enjoyable game thus far. I could see myself playing a lot of this game, especially if you were able to get it into Steam with leaderboards shared among your friends? Oh boy, the competitiveness between my friends and I that we could have in this game would be AMAZING. We already get super competitive with the leaderboards for Super Hexagon, so this would be a fun one to add to our mix.