Hey :) Thanks for the game, here are some thoughts. Overall, I must say I found it pretty boring for different reasons :
- The gameplay is not in sync with the music, and actually nothing is. Seeing what you've done, there are definitely some improvements that you would have been able to do about it. I suggest you look at these videos : Audio Visualization - Unity/C# Tutorial [Part 0 - Result] - YouTube that talk about audio visualization in Unity, and explain things that are actually simple and can be used in games such as yours :)
- It lacks soooo much colors and feedback ! When I destroy a cube, I want to see it being obliterated, I suppose you know about Beat Saber :p so you know the cubes are cut and thrown away which feels great, here there are just a few particles and the cubes disappears. So if it's just for scoring, I have no real interest in destroying the cubes. The UI is white, I wish it was more flashy or with some neons, that the combo text bursts a lot of colors when getting a bigger combo, etc. this is would have make the game a whole lot fun, because this kind of game is just here for visual and audio pleasure, so you have to put everything on it.
- About audio, as already mentioned, the music not in sync is the main issue. But I also think the musics do not really fit, they're not fast paced enough, there are not loud enough drums so that I can bang my head while bursting cubes, and that's a shame. You can start with a slow music for the tutorial, but you need to quickly rise up the pace. Also, when losing combo or missing a cube, you can play with audio mixer effects like low pass to add lot of juice in your game audio.
- About the tutorial, it was good though I would have prefered the tutorial to make me destroy a cube, and do it again until I do it correctly. It would have probably been a bit harder/longer to do, but definitely better !
- I wish there was a liiiiittle bit more than just cubes coming one by one. Maybe some long cubes that requires to keep the key pressed, or cubes coming in pair. Not random pairs, that could be hard and frustrating, but sometimes a left/right or up/down pair, just so that the player feels he's doing something hard and getting better.
Other than that, let's not forget the fact that you made this game alone, despite using some already existing assets but that's perfectly fine, and it's really good ! You have polished menu animations and an animated tutorials, a fully working gameplay loop, and even if I said lots of negative things, you just have to tweak a lot the speed of the game and add more feedback, which should be technically fairly easy to do though it can take some it, and it would be really great to play ! And I would play it again with pleasure if you do so :)
Hope my feedback will be of any help !
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Yes for my first solo game jam I am very proud and satisfied with the result.
No honestly this is the best feedback I could ask for, you need someone to say this to actually improve it.
The timing it to a rhythm I thought would have been really hard which is why I left it out in case I didn't finish in time.
I was worried by adding too much juice and stuff that I would reduce the visual clarity of the game and hence make it hard to see the boxes. But I think through this I made it not quite juicy enough.
Also when it comes to UI and particles I was really struggling to get this to work as I had initially planned for it as it's juicy. The combo would have exploded with particles as you say. But when I tried making a ring for it, the distance from it to the camera warped it slightly so it was more of a sideways oval. Do you know how I can get the particles to actually be on the canvas with the UI?
I also planned to slice the meshes like Beatsaber but didn't have time for that.
What did you think of the sfx as that was my first time ever making any?
Yes I can see why it can get boring quickly as the only motivations for the player here are to beat their own score and also to enjoy the feeling of it/aesthetics. I would have liked a high score system or leaderboard from friends and stuff to add more motivation, and also different levels of songs and the percentage that the player got correct. So that way completionists would be motivated to max out every level, etc.
Seriously appreciate the feedback!
You can actually be proud :) the game is far from perfect as I said, but hey, it's a game made alone in 8 days and it's already great. Solo jams are hard. Otherwise, glad to read that you thought of UI particles, adding more juice and stuff, and you're definitely right about the fact that it should not reduce the clarity of the game, so knowing that, I'm sure you can work on something great without making it a complete visual mess :D About the UI particles, indeed it's a bit annoying to do. I've already used this package that works really well, just needs to learn it a little bit, it comes with a demo scene so it's fairly easy : mob-sakai/ParticleEffectForUGUI: Render particle effect in UnityUI(uGUI). Maskable, sortable, and no extra Camera/RenderTexture/Canvas. (github.com)
The SFX did not bother me, I was mostly focused on the music to be perfectly honest, but if I did not pay any attention to them, this may not be a bad point.
And you're welcome :) Feel free to ask me if you need any help!