Post by Ramen Sea in Cranium Collector jam comments

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Hoo boy loved it! I think you got a solid prototype here for a full featured game.

The game reminded me of a blend of Shank and Hoplite in a weird sorta way.

Great animations, how did you do them?
I love that you take your enemies weapons. I loved that throwing my weapon got rid of it. Gave the game a real sense of threat and struggle and thus it heightened the action.
I struggled with the combat a bit. Its a game jam so balancing these things out is hard. I think if you were to take this game further I would settle on a few key enemies and balance each of those enemies so the player can always engage each enemy without taking damage. With each of those enemies having very unique attack profiles that mesh with each other well. Then construct the levels out of the composition of those character types. (See Hoplite for a good example of this)
The game felt like it needed a progression system of some kind. Again its a game jam so I understand the time constraints. But a Hoplite or Vampire Survivor like progression system would fit well IMO.
I ABSOLUTELY loved that enemies were effected by the spikes. I love when games have enemies effected by the same things the player is. Its hard to do so its awesome when you see it!

Overall excellent job!

Thanks man :)

For animation I used Unity's 2D animation rigging package (as art is my weaker area) which makes it a lot easier for me to animate as I can use key frame rather than frame by frame 2D pixel animation
- The set up can be a bit tedious though as you have to separate your character into layers, rig it, and in the end of the day it's still animation which is always hard to get right.
Wanted more weapons to be honest and wanted you to be able to cash your weapons in at the skull too if you wanted to. for more points (adding to the collection theme) sadly time is finite.
Combat and movement was definitely something I wanted to work a bit more on, as I really like simple but scalable combat system. I released this game ( Acquisition) with a friend 2 year ago. and what I achieved with the combat and movement there I was very happy about. As it was simple to learn hard to master. Where as for this jam it was both hard to master and learn.
- For enemies I had planned to have one main type, but then have the weapons they are holding dictate their behavior. Essentially every thing player can do the enemies should be able to do too, so the player has to adapt to their equipment. Had a ranged weapon and couple different melee type in mind. but again time.
Progression would had been nice, but I think I kinda went for an endless ararcade like kinda game for the jam. If I was to develop it further I'd change it up a fair bit I think.

Appreciate your feedback thanks alot :)