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(+1)

Heyo, i just tried this game on the computer i told you. It works very well ! It slows down in bigger areas but that's entirely my computer's fault.

This is a work of love and it shows. Everything is very intentional and from the very second you start the game, you know what you're getting into. I've got a Windows XP 2000 indie game vibe. Both in a good, and in a bad way.

The games created back then were from passionate developers doing their thing in their own corner and sharing their work with the world when they wanted to. That's waht you're doing too. I can see myself spending some time in this world you crafted, vibing to the fantastic music -it is fantastic!- and letting my eyes wander onto your lovingly crafted sprites. Keep doing your thing, you're doing it wonderfully! All in all, my short experience so far was that of an "hommage" to an area of older platformers which were more demanding of the player's time and skills.

One thing i didn't think would be of so much importance to me is the difficulty: your game is challenging, in many places even frustrating. The controls, ennemy and platform placement don't allow for much maneuvering and if you don't jump on that bird at its very peak altitude, you won't get further and fall to your death, instantly punished. This wouldn't be such a problem if, say, the screen was a little more zoomed in and i could see the pixels i am supposed to be bouncing off of, or if i could recover easily in the earlier levels. I don't mind a little challenge, but i felt most of the platforming was tedious precision jumping that made me squint at the screen, rather than enjoy the challenges i was put through. The jump/bounce/falling curve is really odd to me as i was expecting it to carry the momentum from going left to right but it seems to stop and slowly accelerate when you press the direction key, which makes most of the jumps unnatural, to me at least.

The way Bobo is controlled in your game -unfortunately, for me- is very "dated". The characters isn't very reactive, moves slowly, and jumps awkwardly. Combined with unforgiving platforming, it makes for tedious challenges that require discipline and precision, and that is not easy to enjoy for its own sake. In a way, this forces you to be fully focused onto the game, because you don't instantly get how to master Bobo right away.

Now, i think i'm trying to be critical of the mechanics of your game, but this is not what really matters here i feel, is it? I like your game, and i like that you're making it. I can enjoy the world you built and appreciate the time you put into it. In the end, i just don't think this is a game for me.

(2 edits)

I am happy that you enjoyed the art direction of my game. 

 I am not completely sure if I understood your criticism. It would be easier to understand it if I knew how far you got. I put a lot of thought in the physics and could explain every little decision but from the sound of it the issue might be that you maybe only played 30 minutes or so and didn't even get to the point where you collect the running- and jumpingupgrades. That would be an easy explanation  because I purposefully designed the game in a way that you feel much more agile with every upgrade (and until the end you constantly learn new things)  and I took some risks to achieve this. It might be the case that you judged this aspect too early but I can't tell, perhaps it's really just not your cup of tea and I wouldn't be angry if that was the case. The zoom of the game is on purpose as well, the first reason is that it is the same zoom as most modern Jump'N'Runs use (Mario included)  and the second one is that later in the game you can run really fast and you need to see enemys early enough to react to them.

It would be helpful if you could tell me how far you got 

and by strange jumping controls did you mean the fact  that Bobo instantly  stops when you don't press any direction instead of the slippery weightoriented physics of super mario?

I thank you for your feedback and I hope  it doesn't  come across as impolite that I try to discuss this.

(+1)

No, not impolite at all, don't worry.

I wouldn't say i only played 30 minutes, i think i played for an hour or so. Or maybe it just *felt* longer, idk. But i didn't get neither the jump or run power-ups as you thought, yeah. See, i might be the one being impolite for not having played so much of your game !

I can understand building your game so that evey upgrade feels deserved and empowering, but i still think the movement without these two upgrades i'm supposed to get later is too hard to master, too tight. At least for me. What made me let quit the game on my first playthrough was when i was getting the pieces of Heart after having climbed down from the vines in the sky, not so long after getting that ability. The level-design made it look like i had to get all the heart pieces, which led me into what seemed like 20 more minutes of play without those jump and run power-ups i was expecting impatiently. I didn't want to get through another 20 minutes of slow progression through small gauntlets.
Don't get me wrong, having no jump in a platformer is very interesteing and i can see you tried (successfully) to provide interesting situations without the ability to jump. But that jump is such a basic ability nowadays, i felt so incapacitated comapred to other games, and the narrative didn't provide any hint as to when or even *if* i would even get that ability... all of that tried my luck a bit too far that evening. And i can see a good portion of others get impatient too.
Maybe if i had some other active ability to compensate for that... the climbing ability was a good idea ! but not really creative, as you can only climb on pre-set vines...

ok ok i'm getting too far.

I'll stop writing my thoughts now because clearly i haven't gone too far into the game for now. I did want to give it another go, play through another session to see where i could get too and if i could find more enjoyment in the following levels. So I'll get back to you when i have more time with your game ;)

(3 edits)

Now I know where you are. You don't have to do it the slow way, the first running-abilty is in a room next to the room with the life-containers it should even be marked on the map with a blinking red light. And you don't have to collect all life-containers but I strongly recommend it because the first boss is near and after the boss you will learn to jump and soon reach the next world with different music and setting. But thats not even scratching the surface of what you can discover and learn .  


I hope you will like my game better after that but I can't guarantee it. It's still a matter of taste even so I can assure you that I tried my best to make an enjoyable game but I didn't care too much for conventions and sometimes broke rules of game design on purpose and that might not be for everyone.


You could try the 30FPS Mode. You can activate it by pressing '3' on your keyboard.  It might be that your game is running too slow. The 30FPS mode is much lighter on the hardware.