Professional looking artwork! I just wish there was gameplay!
Viewing post in A NEON night jam comments
Sorry I was really running out of time and l couldn't write anything about how does the game work or anything about it and has to submmit it with just a name and the folder just before the last second. I even saw the timer goes to negative and thought I didn't make it.
I have just finish writing down everything about my game under the desciption. If you still interested I really hope you can go through my game again. But before any of that I really just want to thank you for willing to download a game without any image or desciption. And even if you miss the gameplay you still willing to leave a comment about my game. Im genuinely grateful about that. If I were you I would just glance through and that's it, there is really no words that can explan how I am feeling right now... I have been working on this since the first day of the announcement. Over the past three days I didn't even sleep for five hours and has been staying awake for more than 30 hours just hoping to finish everything before deadline. This may just be a comment but your comment genuine made me cry...thank you for playing my game. There is a lot stuff couldn't make it in to the game, I could have done more stuff if I had more time. But all of those are already over. And I am just really really happy the someone have seen my game. So once again. Thank you.
Thank you for playing my game.
First off, I am extremely sorry for the insensitive comment that I made earlier. I truly apologize, and after replaying your game, I realize how much work and thought went into it, and how much FUN it is!
In my first playthough, I mostly ran across the ground and played with the neon blast, admiring the well drawn sprites and nice lighting in the process, but I was very confused on what to do, and if there was more content. I tried to climb the left wall, but had no success, so I thought that that was the end of the game and that you just didn't have enough time to add more before the jam submission period, so I stopped playing.
Then, a day later, I saw your comment. I can relate to how you're feeling about the time crunch and not being able to add everything that you wanted, as I too worked till the last minutes of the jam submission period adding things to my game. So, I decided to redownload your game and give it another playthrough, and boy was I very surprised!
I don't know what was wrong with me on the first playthrough (maybe it was because I was running on 0 hours of sleep), but I figured out how to get on top of the leftmost building using the neon blaster (which I tried the first playthrough, but I think I just thought that you couldnt get up there, and I think my timing of the neon blast was off), and it's not even hard to do! After that I jumped from building to building, exploring the world, and essentially was just blown away that I wasn't able to experience this on the first playthrough. And, after learning that there is a dash in the game from your updated game page, I made it to the end of the game, and it was a fun experience platforming across the rooftops!
I also wrote down some notes on the game during my second playthrough, and thought I would share them, in case you were planning to continue the game, or even for your next game.
Things I really liked about the game.
- Visuals are really good. The lighting looks cool. The text animation looks great, and the player animations are very smooth.
- Movement mechanics are very fun to use, and work very well for traversing the level. I really like walljumping with a mix of neon blasting and dashing, as it allows you to climb walls that you thought you thought were unclimbable.
- The double dash is an awesome reward. I won't spoil how to get it, but its really cool that it requires a challenge to get to it.
- Reexploring the world after the double dash is a great way for the player to rethink their surroundings and explore more.
- Experience no bugs, besides the poster under the green neon sign, but you already addressed that in your game page.
Some suggestions.
- Invert dash direction to align with neon blaster (unless you're going for a more difficult execution for wall climbing). When wallclimbing, I would jump to the wall, neon blast downwards, jump off the wall, neon blast downwards again, and then quickly move my mouse to where I want to dash, which felt very unintuitive at first. I feel like if the dash direction was the same as the neon blast, it would make it easier to wallclimb, but perhaps it might make it more unintuitive to dash if you were only dashing at first (as I was only neon blasting at first).
- Faster charge rate for ability usage (perhaps only when you're on the floor). I found myself using all of the abilities and depleting the meters, and when I wanted to continue exploring, I would have to wait awhile for the meters to recharge.
- More responsive jump. Alot of times I would jump across a platform and try to jump to another platform but the jump did not register and I would fall to the ground. I noticed that there is a delay after landing that you have to wait for in order for the game to check if you are jumping. I prefer being able to spam jump rather than having a delay to wait for.
Again, I am sorry for the insensitive comment. I really just thought that it was unfinished, and so I wrote the game off early. I'm glad to be wrong and loved replaying it, especially running and jumping across the rooftops. I will continue to play and see if I missed any secrets, even after seeing the end. I wish you luck on your future development prospects, and would love to see more of this game if you continue to work on it after the jam, or anything else you may create! And for you and me both, we should probably take better care next time and not push ourselves so hard on the next jam (that means no overnights!). Later!
Thank you for revisiting the game! about your suggestions, there are some reasons behind why did I make it like that.
Maneuvering with blaster is not easy because the blaster was meant to be a weapon, the recoil jump is a "side effect" of the attack. But because no enemy was in the game there for recoil jump became its current main purpose. Since it is a weapon, it should shot forward. But I think I can make it if you hold shift you will shot the opposite side of your mouse, so it is easier to use the recoil after a dash. And the recoil also links to future implementation of player customization, where if you have a tall and buffier character you have less recoil on you and if you have a short and thin character like the current protagonist, the recoil will push you further.
The natural recharge rate was intentionally lowered to encourage player to seek for light source to regen. This also link to how and where I place a light source. During the implementation, I realise that the light source became a strong attraction to the player on both visually and mechanically. You might notice that on ground and first floor of buildings I'm more clustered giving me more room to decorate the lower area and for players to quickly regenerate if they fall to the ground floor. And light source from third floor to upward are indicating possible route to jump onward. If I didn't put any light source there player might not even realize there is a platform you can jump onto. The color of the light source also hint some possible route, if you follow the blue light from the left building, you can get to the final point by dashing across roof. If you follow the green light from bottom of the hotel building, you can use the balcony to climb up. I have wanted to make a red route to go from right too but couldn't make it cause out of time.
The jump lag was there to leave room for a ground roll mechanic to compensate the lack of fall damage. My idea was if you click ctrl in the right timing you will perform a ground roll in to crouch position. The crouch mechanic was also planed because of light and enemies I thought of adding a stealth gameplay where crouching let's you stay stealth easier and when you dash and attacks you will emit light and make you easier to spot. But since there is no enemy in game currently and the crouch state will require me to draw extra sprite and add player state for it, that why I am saving it for future implementation yet the jump lag are still there.