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(1 edit) (+1)

I think I've played enough of the game where I can provide proper feedback. There is a lot so I will section it off.

Keyboard Controls:

aside from what we've already discussed, I think 4 buttons for abilities is way too many to keep track of, especially once you add more complex enemies and weapons.

I think this can be simplified to just two buttons: shoot and glide. If you are willing to make a small sacrifice you can even narrow it to just shoot.

Air Jump: this can be bound to the spacebar 

Droid climb: this can can be bound to right/left + up while against a wall. 

Glide: if you're willing to sacrifice aiming up in the air, you can make it bound to up while in the air. Either way, it would feel more natural if you could press down while gliding to cancel it.

Also, it would be nice to have movement bound to WASD but that's just a personal preference.

Navigation

I respect your decision to not include a minimap, but as is the game is really hard to gage whether you're making progress or have even visited an area before. I have a few ideas on how to fix that.

You could add more unique landmarks to the map, like a giant derelict robot in the background. This would make players recognize the terrain better and know if they've been somewhere before.

You could alternatively add a way for players to mark areas if a player realizes they need to come back with a powerup. Similarly, you could mark the areas a player has been in some way, such as with fog that gets cleared or something.

If you're willing to compromise slightly on adding a map, you could only add a map that shows the overall world areas. No player marker, no details, just an overview of how each area connects to each other and how shows how many areas there are.

Progress

In open world games it is good to have an end goal to work towards so the game doesn't feel aimless. In Zelda: Breath of the Wild you always know where ganons castle is but you know you aren't powerful enough to take him on until you explore. This game could use something similar, because I have (what I believe to be) all the upgrades and have explored almost everywhere in the map but I couldn't find the boss.

Overall

This is an amazing game, especially for a game jam. It feels expansive, immersive, and is really well done. This is definitely my favorite game I've played so far and definitely the most ambitious. Keep working on this and you will have a really solid Metroidvania on your hands! Don't let my criticism be discouraging, I only took the time to write all the criticism because I enjoyed the game so much. Good job!

WOW thank you so much for this much feedback , this is so useful to me , the changes in the controls are a great idea. 

the idea with the landmarks was something i actually planed on doing , I wanted to add a dinosaur corpse where you find the miniature gun and some big tree on one of the floating islands but neither the art pack nor the time where on my side so I cut this Idea in expense for adding polish and SFX , 

for the goal or destination like ganons castle in botw  , I get where you are coming from but I think I have an idea for  story where the whole point is the aimlessness , but your also right because the player needs an objective to work towards , so maybe I can come up with something there . 

I also have a lot of Ideas for the better navigation , first  I need to redesign the upper part of the first area because it is very rushed and looks very samey all the time , there are also also almost no secrets to find and enemies are copy and pasted without reason , I also think the area is way to large , 

I thought about instead of adding a map , adding a system that can store screenshots and lets you take notes and also provides a description on where to find the place , 

I also want to add a way to upgrade savepoints to let you warp to and between upgraded ones 

another idea of mine was to include small RPG mechanics to encourage killing enemies , as well as a way to gain money and lose it after death but I'm not a hundred percent sure on that one , maybe something along those lines .

What I want to do now is rate other games of the jam with low ratings ( I'm currently on my quest to get every submissions to at least 3 ratings and give honest feedback ) , but after this rating phase I will keep on working on the game and maybe make it into a full one ( more full) 

Maybe i will make a devlog for sharing the development and giving other people the chance to give feedback or hand in ideas , the devlog will be in written form on the itch page and I also really want to make it into video form , because its something I've never done and I want to try it .

thank you so much for taking the time to play my game to 100% and writing this amazing critique  

(+1)

I really like your snapshot idea, it is a lot more natural and fitting than any of my suggestions, kudos! The finding places by description is also a good idea, but you would need to have very unique, descriptive areas for that but it seems like you're planning on that anyways. I think if you lean into the snapshot / memory / notes mechanic it'll definitely help the game find its own niche.

I think adding some sort of reward for killing enemies is a good idea, I was going to mention it but just forgot.

And nice, glad that you are helping out the games with no ratings, I've been doing the same! I look forward to following the development of your game after the jam