IMPORTANT
After some chat with the developers, we found out that the game wasn’t looking quite right in full screen (which is why some of the points of my critique [health bar and idol counter] are no longer relevant as they ARE indeed implemented but I just wasn’t able to see them when I was playing). They’ve adjusted the viewport size on the site. I’m going to recommend that if you see this before playing: use the BLUE FULL-SCREEN BUTTON and not the semi-transparent one.
I’ve given this game a go; here’s my critique:
Let’s get this out of the way: for a jam game, it’s nice on almost all of its fronts. The only issue I immediately find is that the main character doesn’t have any animations which is a bummer because you spend most of your time with the main character so I think giving it some life should have been a priority.
The combat feels OK, it only has what’s essential but it does the job. The only nitpick I have about it is that the bats need to be nerfed because their bullets travel too far, too fast, and go through walls. They are waaaaay too strong (considering they’re just a bat)!
The power-ups are amazing; they really change the way you move around the map and feel good to use. My favorite is the claws, which make the movement become more aerial and it definitely feels like the game experience is heightened when you grab it. The other enhancements are OK too, but the claws… THE CLAWS!
On the other hand, there are some problems caused by game design decisions that I found out in my 30-ish minute run through the game:
- First, it’s not exactly evident that the maze is rotating, there are just a few landmarks that indicate this, and they’re easily missed; I only noticed when the MC mentioned it and then I thought (a-ha, so that’s how this game fits the theme). I’m sure the “Theme” rating will suffer because of this; in my opinion, a lot of players are going to miss it.
- Second, it seems that the idols are a crucial part of completing the game (I didn’t get them all; I gave up) but they’re not given the importance they should receive. Maybe adding a counter of how many idols you’re missing [easy] or an arrow that points you to the general direction of the nearest idol [not so easy] would have given the game a purpose because as it is right now it’s just aimlessly wandering throughout the maze and stumbling upon idols from time to time while battling enemies.
- Third, a health bar would have been nice. There is a health system but no UI to display it; it’s fine, I’m sure it’s missing because you lacked time to implement it, but considering that the health is a game mechanic that you are always using, it should have been a priority. The game would have benefited from it by increasing the stakes when you’re low on health and making you aware of it.
- Fourth, this game punishes unnecessarily hard. If you die, you lose all the idols that you grabbed in that run and I don’t get why this decision was made (or maybe it was a bug?). It makes it kinda frustrating to die and not just an “aw, bummer, I died” moment which is not a good thing to experiment in a game [the frustration part]. This sense is accentuated by the lack of direction/purpose and the lack of a health bar. Plus, it demotivates the player from taking any risks because “you die = you lose all the progress you did in this rotation”.
All in all, these are forgivable issues because it’s just a jam game! My critique was solely aimed at the game design decisions and not the quality of the game. This was fun to play for the most part and I think this is a great jam entry when you see it as a whole!
Excellent work!