Post by Mandelbrot Studios in QuarterBACK jam comments

Brackeys Jam 2020.2 » Entries » QuarterBACK

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First, the menu is amazing! You've got audio options and controls! We didn't have the time to include our controls into the game. But the audio options don't seem to work, though.

The graphics are cool and the music is alright. It makes for a nice little puzzle game.

So the controls are very fast, which makes it hard to control your character in these tiny levels. Maybe bigger levels could help as well?

You definitely need to work on a tutorial. When I got to the first level where I had to rewind, it was quite overwhelming. I also only realized later, that you can hold to throw faster. Well, and I never figured out how to jump higher, as some levels look like I need a double jump. I also quit the game on the level with the things that hold your ball, because I didn't figure out how to make the jump. And then I couldn't try again because you don't have a save system.

The levels are also too difficult, but maybe you just need to balance out the difficulty curve. But on the first level where you need to rewind, you've got so little time. It took me 5 minutes to finish it with 0.01 time remaining. Playtesting is quintessential for getting the difficulty of puzzles right.

A good puzzle is all about figuring out the solution. That's when it's interesting. Of course only if you eventually figure out the solution. But when you have the solution, it should be effortlessly to execute it, or at least as effortless as possible. But too often it took me more time trying to execute the solution instead of figuring it out.

And here's something that I REALLY appreciate. A quick retry feature. If you have to repeat the same 10 steps every time to try again a game can get very frustrating, but with the quick reload it's effortlessly to try again. I probably would have finished your game wasn't it for the puzzle that I got stuck on and the non-existent save system.

But once I got past the steep learning curve, it was really fun! Your mechanic is great. It's really fun to play around with it, and that is really good for a game. I can see a lot of potential here.

Overall, I think you have a pretty cool idea and game. It definitely has potential!

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Lotyss3 years ago

I started very late the game jam, so I made the tutorial in a rush haha. In fact, you have a wall jump and when you catch the ball you character do a second jump. In the hook level, you have to throw the ball to the hook, jump and catch it, and for the second hook you have to use wall jump.

I had made the choice to make a challenging platform and puzzle game. When the player start a new level, I wanted him to think "oh my god it's impossible" and when he tries and sees the solution he thinks " I finally can do it". Then he finishes the level with 0.2 time remaining and says "Yeah I did It !". (I don't know if what I'm saying is understandable) Anyway, I totally messed up haha. Thank you very much for your advices about puzzle games and the difficulty. I will definitely add a better tutorial, and I will balance out the difficulty curve. (I tested my game alone and more I played the better I got, now I can finish the game easily and it didn't help me haha).

I'm glad you like the game, despite this big difficulty problem! Your feedback is really helpful !

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Mandelbrot Studios3 years ago

I'm always glad if I can help!

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moocow173 years ago

I'm going to slightly disagree with part of this review.

I was also tempted to say that a puzzle game should be about figuring out the solution, not trying to execute it. I've said the same thing for lots of other people's games, because, well, usually its true. Puzzle games should be: about figuring out the solution (not executing it), they should have one answer (not multiple), should present all the information up front (not revealed as you progress through the puzzle) and in most cases not time-constrained (this sort of comes back into the point on figuring out the solution rather than executing it). This game essentially does none of that :P In general I find the words 'puzzle-platformer' should be treated with suspicion :P

But I feel like this game is a bit different, its not really a puzzle game, therefore those rules don't really apply. It has puzzle elements in terms of figuring out how you're going to get the ball to all the enemies in time and how you will plan out the multiple character's runs, but I think ultimately its a skill based platformer style game, with light puzzle aspects, in the vain of Super Meatboy, rather than a puzzle game.

Like Super Meatboy, it gives you the flexibility to create your own solution rather than presenting a puzzle with a correct answer, it's more freeform than a puzzle game. This is the only entry in the game jam I've played through twice because I wanted to see what other ways I could solve each level; whether I could do them in less throws/less time etc. That's also an indicator it's not a puzzle game, because in a puzzle game once you've beaten a level there is no point in going back, you've done the solution and know how its done.

All that being said, yeah, I agree with most other things you said; the first level of having clones is a bit tight time-wise for an introductory level (i did it on my 5th try with 0.5 seconds left, but that's probably still a bit hard for a level teaching a concept) , and it took me a bit of time to realise that the captured balls was used as a double jump (which was a bit of a eureka!/duh! moment for me :P ). A level system would have been great, it did have a quick retry system though...

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