Wow. Wow wow wow wow. This is (so far) my FAVORITE 2023 jam game! It's also the best take so far on the "you make the level" concept.
I'm glad you guys kept the scope very tight to work on making a fun game rather than a "all style no substance" game. The placing and removing blocks is so intuitive and it's so fun trying to make a path for the player while also removing blocks to try and stock up.
I also love the upgrade concept as it kept me replaying to try and get the most upgraded I could get!
Although, this is where the biggest problem is, as it is totally unbalanced when you upgrade yourself enough. At a certain point, as long as you collect upgrades every once in a while, you just never run out of health or blocks.
Another problem is that once you get pushed back, there's no way to catch up with the screen.
However, what you've got is a great concept with great execution. I would love to see the concept fully fleshed out and expanded. I hope you had fun making it!
Viewing post in Poly Dash (GMTK 2023) jam comments
Man, not gonna lie, this comment made my day. Even called my friend Cyrille (Game Designer) to tell him to check it out. 🤣
We're really glad you've appreciated our game man! 😁
Indeed in 2 days, we decided to keep the scope tight because, there were only 2 of us, a Game Designer and a Programmer. Sure, I'm good at pixel art but if I spend too much time on it, who's gonna code the game? Looking at those facts, going for the gameplay 1st approach was our goal. A lot of efforts were focused on this block placement mechanism and the player's AI so, we're glad it felt good to you! 😁
About the upgrades, indeed it deserves more balancing 😂. That was the latest addition to the game so, maybe with more time we could add more upgrades and balance it properly! A lot of stuff was scrapped due to time constraints 😅 . Cyrille even wanted to have the player being able to place different kinds of blocks, each with different effects (cool idea!)... but this one didn't make the cut.
I didn't mention this during the competition since I thought it would be too hard to make with the time constraints but I also think that a multiplayer option would be amazing and could make the game even better than it is right now!
Still, we're glad you enjoyed the game and you really encourage us to develop it further! Thanks for the feedback! 😁
Ha! I'm glad. You guys deserve it!
I think what impresses me most with the game is that I never died (with one exception where he glitched out and wouldn't jump) because the AI didn't do what it was supposed to. It was extremely consistent how it would work so when you die it never feels unfair.
Also, I didn't even think of having different types of blocks! That is such a great idea, and another reason I would love to see this expanded on.
Good luck! I really think you have a shot at making it far!