First of all, I want to talk about the story of the game, which I personally enjoyed a lot. It’s really, really good and incredibly interesting, it even reminds me of our own world, where humanity keeps destroying more and more. But putting that sadness aside, the cutscenes were simply outstanding! I loved each one of them and the way the story is presented to us is very well done. I particularly liked the phrase at the end of the scenes, something like "may the mistakes of the past serve as lessons for the future."
The game’s scenery is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. The artwork is incredible, spectacular, and truly amazing! I really appreciated how you harmonized the colors and the overall elements. The music was also excellent, giving the feeling that everything is connected, even when we’re in different environments. I’m sure that was intentional, and you executed it wonderfully!
The gameplay is great too! The idea of creating your own powers is brilliant, and it becomes even more fun because we have to collect ingredients to use them. The powers are very creative, I particularly enjoyed the one that swaps the order of objects, it turned into a very interesting and well-designed puzzle. My browser even lagged a bit during that part (but that’s my PC’s fault, it’s exhausted from work haha). I believe it was due to the number of objects and executions happening in that area.
The game is exceptional, really well done! If you don’t mind, I’d like to offer a few suggestions to improve certain aspects (art and code):
Code Improvements:
- Adjust the player’s speed to a more moderate pace, making movement satisfying but not too fast.
- Try to reduce the number of items executing simultaneously on screen (like the power that swaps order), as it can consume a lot of memory.
- I noticed a small bug (I believe it’s a bug) in the level where we’re introduced to the power of swapping order. If we die falling into the hole on the left, we can’t collect the item to create the gravity power unless we reset the room with "R."
- In the menu, even though we can change the commands to our preferred buttons, it would be great to separate them by category. For example, the character movement commands are separated, but it would be better to arrange them in order like "left, up, right, down" to make it easier for players to identify which command they want to change.
Art Improvements:
- Increase the contrast of the text against the background. Yes, the harmony is lovely, but sometimes it’s necessary to enhance legibility.
- The hazards in the scenery follow the same idea. The harmony looks perfect, but there’s not much visual indication of what’s about to happen. For example, the crystals that shoot magic (I believe it’s magic) could change color briefly before firing, alerting the player to incoming danger. Another interesting example is the spikes on the ground, they could kick up a little dust or tremble slightly before rising to warn the player.
Congratulations on the game, it’s truly great!!! You all did an excellent job.
One last thing: for some reason, the computer version isn’t opening for me. I’d love to test it again without the lag I experienced. If it’s not too much trouble, could you upload it somewhere else and send me the link? Please don’t modify the current version for the Jam, as that would cause issues, maybe through Google Drive, for instance.