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(+1)

Excellent progress since last time I played (4-6 months ago I believe). The game already has a really strong perspective, which is awesome. That's often the hardest part for most games to develop. You very clearly know what the game is trying to be about, and lean into it. That's perfect. To get from where the game is now, to the finished product, I think there are a few questions that need to be answered.

Firstly, what is the actual play pattern you want for someone sitting down to play your game? Currently, when you die you just go back to the menu. To compensate, it seems like you've given the player a huge amount of health, relative to the damage you take. I think this is really the major piece that needs to be figured out. There are so many options here, and how you answer the question will really be what ties the game together. If it's going to be a linear set of levels, there needs to be a lot of messaging around what level you're on, when you complete a level, where you are trying to get to, etc... And then the death system should really tie into that. You could also do a sort of hub area, with spokes you complete. 

Second, I feel that there is a bit of a mechanical hodgepodge going on. Which for a game with this level of chaos happening, isn't great. Things like levitating while you're shooting something are cool, but when lots of things are happening, it kind of gets lost in the mix. My hunch, correct me if I'm wrong, is that these sorts of mechanics are added when it feels like "something is missing". But generally, the missing part is more related to point #1, rather than any problem with the movement mechanic itself.

Personally, I think a more clear and simple relationship between the player, the gun, and the walls should be established. Once those three things have a well defined, easily parse-able and learn-able relationship, you can start playing with them to find the depth. The pattern for ascending in a level is currently somewhere between MMX wall climbing, shooting enemies (potentially above you), shooting the ground, jumping, and creating a pile of shells. Basically, I think some elegance is in order here. There is a mismatch between the pacing of the game and the complexity.

Also, I think the camera could be improved. It has a lot of "discontinuous" movements, like every time you jump. It jerks and jitters around quite a bit. A smooth continuous lerp towards the player would be far better, I think, because the movement is generally quite slow. Every discontinuity in the camera displaces your aim and your visual comprehension of the scene.

Anyway, it's great work overall. I think if you get the play pattern sorted out, refine the mechanics a bit more, you will have an awesome and successful game. All the other pieces are in place.

Thanks a lot, those are great points. I even forgot that I can die in the game because of how rarely it happens.

For the second point taking levitating as an example it's trying to unify two contradictory playstyles - shooting from distance and close combat, where both are undesired when overused. It's a mechanic that requires practice to fully utilize, but I want to be sure that everything key press reliant is mentioned in the first stage.

Do you think I could solve the pacing problem by stretching and smoothing out the mechanic introduction over more levels or it's a core design problem?

(+1)

I suppose I consider it more of a core design problem. But not a major one, rather a very fixable one. The odd part about it now, in my opinion, is that the natural inclination is that shooting down will make you go up. But in this case, you shoot up and that prevents you from going down. It kind of breaks the mental model of "the gun has force that pushes against my character". I would try to hold that concept as a central premise, and then build upon it. Imagine if shooting an enemy below you pushed you up more than shooting the ground. That is the sort of thing that can really emerge, and the player can add it on top of their understanding. Like, "ok my gun pushes me away. lets try shooting down. oh cool, that makes me go up! now let me try hovering with it and shooting an enemy below. oh wow, that makes me really go up!". That is the type of coherent system that is fun to experiment, and learn the nuances of.

Also, because it is a side-view game with gravity, going upwards is an extremely common need. It really should be quite simple and smooth to happen, and be easy to accomplish almost immediately for any reasonable player. That's because it's simply not fun to be floundering around trying to "move up". Mastering that doesn't feel good, because it's not cool or flashy or that interesting. Imagine in a 3D game, if climbing a ladder required some timing mini-game, and if you messed up a little bit, you crashed back to the ground. On this point, I would honestly consider just making it so that shooting down make you move up. There is a lot of play in such a system, because when you are trying to "super jump" with your machine gun, you're not shooting enemies. Also, it leans into the theme of "never stop shooting". There could be a lot of play and nuance in such a system, like, at what point after you jump is it optimal to start shooting? How little time can I spend shooting and still get to where I am aiming? 

Thanks, that's a really good explanation. Levitating not being consistent really got me thinking.

I won't agree on the climbing though. If you meant wall jumping then it shouldn't be a problem on its own (or at least I'm getting mixed feedback now) and there is a lot to master on top of being flashy. Over-reliance on shooting to move up is exactly what got me negative feedback and for a good reason.

(+1)

I made a pretty classic feedback mistake, of suggesting a solution instead of just trying to clarify the problems. The problem is that it's frustrating to ascend. I leave it in your capable hands how to resolve that.