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Rezydent1 year ago

It reminds me of those stories of netherland bikers, really nicely done. The timer is actually a great mechanic in that context and synergizes with the theme and gameplay. The problem with it though is that if you screw over early you can as well just restart.

I got to the level after the cat encounter. Jumping around on smaller tiles is too much for me. Still, being able to finish a level after time runs out is an 11/10 decision, as it allows player to take his time to practice the level that's problematic for the next playthrough. Was this intentional?

At first I didn't catch the shift mechanic until I tried my second playthrough. It would need a more forceful tutorial. Now I see that it's a lifesaver around vertically driving bikes and requirement for later levels.

The shift walk mechanic is useful but I'm not sure if I like it. It screws with player offset while estimating step distance. Normally if it was a grid based game it wouldn't be a problem, but now you have to adjust your position on the fly in combination with quick decision making around bikes and on the ships. The perspective doesn't help here, as it's hard to quickly tell how much I need to move the player.

The game looks really nice, but the shadows absolutely suck for this kind of game. Bike shadows will screw with my eyes and it's hard to tell where and how many bikes there are with peripheral vision.

I don't like bikes turning unpredictably. There should be at least some tell before that happens, otherwise every bike seems like something you shouldn't even stand close to in a wide radius. At least spawning is telegraphed.

It's hard to get used to the randomness because many levels are puzzle-like, but I like it that way. It's a beautiful chaos.

The car survival can be cheesed by positioning yourself around the edge just where you will need to go through. I would get filtered there otherwise.

I like it overall, good design all around. It probably needs some other failure state (while trying to leave the timer in) that wouldn't have me replay all those levels.

You should really add sounds, with doppler effect if possible. I can imagine the cacophony being kino.

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wjgreeter1 year ago

Thank you for playing. With the shadows, did you find that it was the bike shadows specifically that caused the eye strain? With the shift mechanic, I implemented that instead of sticking to a grid mostly because even if the player is on a grid when on the ground, once they jump on a boat with continuous movement they’re no longer moving on a grid. I’m trying to alleviate some of the perspective issues with the bike by adding more and more leniency, such as the ability to coyote jump backwards if you miss-time your jump at the ledge and are over the water, but I agree it would be much better if I could find a solution to the core issue of judging distance rather than adding all these bandaid solutions. I’m glad you enjoyed the chaos of the bikes, I actually already added a buffer where bikes pause when they’re about to turn and after they’ve turned and I’m experimenting with what timings work best. Lastly, when you say other failure states, what do you have in mind? Meaning failure states where you don’t restart a level when you die? I appreciate the feedback.

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Rezydent1 year ago

Eye strain might not be a good way to put it, it's more like something that screws with judgment when there are lots of bikes or I'm moving quickly on a boat. Shortening them away from 1:1 ratio or making them more transparent could work (bikes are thin so soft shadow is an intuitive justification to do that).

once they jump on a boat with continuous movement they’re no longer moving on a grid

Yeah, I noticed that boats screw with the offset before I noticed the shift mechanic. Grid movement in a puzzle game is usually a nightmare to do, but it's worth a try. Maybe you could manage fully unlocked movement too if falling into the water wasn't a thing.

As for failure states: The way I see it it's a game that I can take at short burst due to the difficulty and chaos, and picking the game up again is hard when there are all the same levels to replay while the randomness prevents me from being consistent. I mean that you could have some save points as in less levels but shorter day time (I'm not sure if there are currently any checkpoints further into the game). The pressure goes constantly up with the timer, difficulty and quickly learning new stages so a feel of relief could be refreshing. That's only a basic example though, and you could think of something more interesting.

...What if time of the day affected the levels?

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wjgreeter1 year ago

Save points are something I’ve considered, I’ve also thought of having taxi boats that spawn in at certain times of the day that let you skip sections and might take you to secret areas. I like the lowered shadow thickness for bikes too that’s definitely modifiable, thanks again for the advice!

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