This game is a very interesting puzzle game that definitely builds onto itself very well. The addition of a different ways to use and manipulate your hearts is really cool. The level design is also put together well for the most part. I enjoy how each level made me think in a different way. It was very stimulating. However, there were several instances where the level design felt more punishing than rewarding. My particular problem is with level 2. There was a section with 2 rows of spikes and a small cap in the middle (featured in the bottom left of the screenshot). Until I figured out I could run over both without being damaged by both, I constantly would stop in the middle, and would have a tiny pixel on one of the spikes and would keep dying. If you were to make the "invulnerability frames" more noticeable (the player flashes) and extend the invulnerability frames a half a second, then that experience wouldn't of been so grueling. I think I played level 2 10 times. Also, in the screenshot, if the player picks up a key before he gets to this key in the locked room, it becomes impossible for the player to pick up that key. It may have been intentional or just an oversight, but either way, it's really annoying to be forced to play a level completely over again (especially this one since i found level 2 to be the most frustrating) just because he picked up a key in the wrong order. Other than those complaints, this was a really well designed puzzle game, good job!
Viewing post in What Are Hearts? jam comments
Thankyou for such an incredibly in depth comment ^_^ I've had someone speak about the key problem before. You don't actually need to restart, but what you do need to do is a little unclear. If you shoot, you can clear your inventory of keys (in doing so you send each key back to the place where it was originally collected) and then you are free to collect the keys in the right order. This mechanics is perhaps a little unclear. Ive made a note, so when I revisit this game, I will look into a way of showing this to the player. I think that will require a crafty bit of level design ... we shall see.
I'm very glad you liked it and if you have any other ideas I'm all ears :D