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Team Horsehead5 years ago

I'm conflicted about this game, because I want to like it a lot, but I also kind of hate it. It's really smart, and there's a lot of good design. But at the same time it's SO frustrating to play, with the challenges giving you absolutely zero room for error, and requiring that you often beat several in one room, where any one of them you could slip up because of a button press being a frame or two early/late.

You're so close to having an absolutely incredible game, but I got so angry I couldn't finish it (I died almost 100 times on the Coin Reflexes one, and just gave up on Shooty Bois). If you split some of those harder challenges into multiple rooms so you didn't need to do them all in a row, and made some of the jumps/gaps a bit more lenient it would be a lot less annoying I think. 

It's one thing losing a level because of pressing the wrong thing, but so much more annoying doing the exact same thing ten times in a row and it only working once because there's only one or two frames that the right input will get you through. The player has already learned what you've been trying to teach them, but they have to keep doing it over and over to get that lucky run where everything lines up.

The other thing is that a LOT of these levels require timing perfectly with the other slimes jumping, and because they don't telegraph that, I found myself just running into them 5-10 times in a row until I just happened to get the right timing. It didn't feel like a skill thing, it felt like a luck thing.

I'm really sorry for focusing on the negative, because I really love so much about this game, but playing it I just mostly felt frustrated and angry. It's so close to being amazing, just needs a bit of balancing. I've given you a good rating, because everything apart from the frustration is great.

The characters, the art style, the smart use of abilities, the fact that you can pause time to think about what to do next - it's all really great.  Also it's a great use of the theme. If it could just be a bit less punishing I think this would've got a full 15 from me.

- Joe

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Zman1105 years ago(+1)

Thank you so much for the well thought out comment! I Take NO offense what so ever as I agree 100%! Rushing the level design a bit resulted in some of the frustrating challenges, but a few tweaks that I have already implemented in a new version makes the game feel SOOO much better.  (I'mma talk about some not as excuses, just because I want to share my own gripes with my game haha!)

First of all, I found that by clamping the max vertical downward speed really helps make those falling sections more reasonable. It was something I wanted to do in the first place, but never got around to doing so (mainly because I forgot whoops!) It makes the player feel like they have more control when pausing instead of pausing and feeling like the game moves them down way farther than it should.

I also agree that the levels have too many challenges and dying hurts when you were so close to the end and have to go through the gauntlet all over again. I have been toying around with checkpoints and the game already feels so much less traumatizing.

On the point of the slime jump timing could you elaborate? Their jumps are not random but are fixed on a singular timer. If they feel weird or out of sync I would love to know so I can tweak their design! It's something I wanted to tweak more anyways, I just didn't have time.

I seriously appreciate the good rating and I also seriously appreciate you bringing up the negatives! It helps me become a better dev and improve this game! I would love to expand on it and make it something that is tight, smooth and fun! This helps tremendously! Again, thank you!

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Team Horsehead5 years ago

"On the point of the slime jump timing could you elaborate? "

Sure thing! They're on a timer, but because they pause it's hard to tell when they're going to start jumping again. So I can count a second in my head, but if I count 0.9 seconds or 1.1 seconds then I just run straight into the slime, or jump right over it. If it maybe squished a bit half a second before jumping to telegraph the upcoming jump. 

Mario 3D World deals with this by putting it into the music, with the beeps signalling that things are going to change and a colour pulse as well. Without that I think those levels would be next to impossible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDq1uoC36Z8

I actually found getting the timing right easier on Shooty Bois because of the laser pulse, I knew every second pulse the slime would jump so could prepare. Without that consistent timing for me to get in sync with, it just felt like random chance whether the timing would be right.

It sounds like you already knew a lot of these things already, and have improved it which is good to hear! I'll play it after the jam when you update it, because I'd love to complete it. You also solved the design challenge that we didn't in our game with the multiple abilities. We ended up going multiple characters but you found a way to make it work with "only one" character still.

- Joe

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Zman1105 years ago(+1)

Oh wow a visual queue would work perfectly for that! I see what you mean! Maybe squish down a bit like they are ready to spring and get a little darker or something! Maybe even put a little charging up a jump sound effect for good measure.

My idea actually started out as being multiple characters as well! I forget the exact moment it evolved into abilities, but I was always using these colors in the placeholder sprites and I thought "Huh, maybe the character just changes colors with the ability instead" Then I came up with the slime idea because usually they are pretty colorful fellas haha. Don't sell yourself short because your characters had a lot of charm! I really liked your approach!

Thanks for detailing what you meant! I'm inspired so I'll probably work on that enemy mechanic tonight!

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