Soo, after playing it last night and for like 3hrs today this game easily consumes focus and losing track of time! The learning curve is really fun, the areas I had to repeat a lot due to dying/running out of time I managed to get really fluid at completing; which was an awesome feeling.
The game's visuals are amazing! I love the animations (particularly when you move around as the ghost). I think the traps have been well designed and you can tell the levels have been thoughtfully constructed and play tested. Plus the audio is great, it's subtle but does a lot for setting the atmosphere of the game. You can feel the effort put in to this!
I haven't managed to beat the game yet, just because I had to take a break. But after getting to stage 6 (I think?) I have the following comments :
- Save and continue: This would be really nice/important, since when I had to get off it was a debate about whether I wanted to go through the previous 5 levels again [I know you've listed this on the whats coming, just flagging as a priority in my eyes]
- Red Spike Up Time: Because of the pace of the game there were times where I felt the red spikes, after I passed them, stayed up slightly too long. It was particularly noticeable with the square motions where you have to go over the same spike you land on to start the movement. The spikes stage up so long that if you try to do a full "circle" you hit the first spike. And given pace of the game I found it had to look ahead, so it took me ages to realise corners are a safe spot, and I only found that out because I miss press and didn't die. (Could just be my opinion but I kept wanting spikes to drop quicker breaking the fluidity/vibe a little)
- Checkpoints + difficulty: I think as I mentioned last night still stands. I enjoy playing it is right now, which i think I'd called it "hard" mode. Just needs the save option. But, would definitely benefit players overall.
- The timer: There is something about this mechanic I like and don't like. I thought about and what I've come up with is:
- The timer mechanic is fun to challenge the user when they know what to do, but it makes it really hard to learn what to do. Stage 5 emphasized this to me where I ended up getting to the last manouvre and took a screenshot so I could learn what to do, since I didnt have enough time for proper look-ahead due to the timer.
- The timer I think should be placed in the difficulties/y above hard I feel or give players the ability to analyse the level prior (refer to next point) - Stage 5 & 6 made me want a way to see the whole level to answer things like "how big is the level?" "how long will this take me?" "where is the key?" "what path am I meant to take?" etc. Particularly where the key is and to see where I have to go with the key. Some ideas I thought of, a) a way to toggle to see the whole map, or b) at the start of a map you do a cinematic wave over the level (Which also helps highlight the importance of the keys to players early). Combine either of those with a visual spot on the map which players can know is the goal location (disabled until you get the key). I think b would look nice, you could possibly do both - just some ideas.
Very well crafted! I've added it to my list of favourites from the jam and will make sure I finish the final level. I'm looking forward to the QoL updates, difficulties and more levels ^.^