Very very nice. It looks and sounds so good, the ambiance is perfect. I have a couple of nitpicks about how the game and controls feel, but it's globally a great entry. Well done!
Viewing post in The Saga Of Sir Thimb jam comments
It mostly have to do with combat/enemies/sword swings. I'm not a big fan of the fact neither your body nor your sword make "tangible" collisions with the enemies. It leads to me as a player often missing a hit and going straight through to the other side of the enemy. Does that make sense?
This could very well be a conscious design decision. If so I guess it just doesn't suit me (and there probably are people who like it better this way). Otherwise I think I'd try to give the hits a small amount of pushback to see if it feels better or not.
That's great feedback, thank you!
Because of the time constraints I did end up "settling" at a point especially with combat, as this was my first game that has really featured it. There's definitely a lot more that I would work into the slash system too. A little kickback would be really cool if I can figure it out! Loads of optimizations could and probably will be done to enemies/boss/general combat after the jam. Thanks again for the constructive response!
Other My Sweet Whomp member here, globally agreeing with my teammate : game just looks gorgeous, the mood achieved is super impressive, especially for a gameboy jam game. The little story and world are super charming too.
I also agree regarding the controls. I feel the jump is a bit rigid, nothing too bad since there is no demanding platforming sections, but a nice jump is always appreciated.
Regarding combat. adding to the pushback suggestion, a short hitfreeze (100ms) some flashing on the sprite receiving the hit, and possibly a subtle hitspark VFX would help a lot.
Regarding the combat mechanic in the game itself, I suppose that the time constraint forced you to get rid of a health system for the player, and I guess it's for the best if the alternative was frustrating deaths getting in the way of narration and mood. Still it makes me wonder what combat really brings in this situation, and if, for another project, it might be a good thing to start figuring out that mechanic before adding several enemies and a boss. ^^ Not always easy in jams when everything goes fast and everything seems equally important, I know too well.
Thanks very much for the in-depth response! All of the things you mentioned are areas worth improving for sure, and ones that are high on the list of things to consider! I didn't even make a health system as I felt it would add too much debugging for the jam period. It was probably a good thing XD. I got a lot of things to a state of "good enough" but I did aim to keep things simple enough so that adding it in later wouldn't be an issue.
I'm actually quite excited to hone the combat even more down the line and these are all excellent suggestions! We very much appreciate the comment and feedback!