Woah! It's really challenging! I was surprised how much! :D
Simple rules, very good level design, beautiful art style... It's outstandingly mature submission for a game jam! Made it to the second world!
What I was lacking:
- some cozy music in the background, maybe some wind blowing sounds... Other than that SFX is in place!
What I think you could work out better for a full release:
- It's very challenging and I didn't have any breaks between levels. I completed first world and felt genuine exhaustion.
- I like the challenge in game, but got frustrated at 1-10. When I finally figured it out I didn't feel accomplished - I felt rather "oh God, it was so simple.. what a stupid level" kind of feeling (which was of course reflection of myself :D) THE POINT IS - It most likely means that this game is too hard for younger audience (which could be targeted by looking at graphics).
- By looking at color palette and the miniature I expected a really chilled-out experience. I wanted to relax after work. Well... It wasn't really relaxing :D So there's a dissonance... Don't take me wrong - I think that the level design is brilliant and these are great puzzles that this game needs... Maybe letting a player just enjoy flying for a couple of beginning levels (or in-between harder puzzles... or in a separate mode like Easy mode) would be a good idea? For instance I felt satisfied when I managed to get height of 6 (woah! I can do that!) - it's funny that it's one of the stronger memories that stayed with me after playing this game.
All of above could be resolved to some extent with e.g. levels with more than one route to complete... just so the player (i.e. I) do not feel stupid all the time ;)
Viewing post in Panda and Crow: A Paraglide Puzzle jam comments
Harnaś, thank you so so much for this extensive and helpful feedback!
What resonated especially with me is that this could be a relaxing game that could be more focused on sensation and exploration of a cute world (which then would be especially well paired with cute relaxing music).
One idea I might explore is to see if I can either use procedural map generation to create an endless stream of beautiful cute dioramas or to create a large world up front and allow players to glide around more freely.
I have deliberately used deception in my level design in levels like 1-10. I am sorry that I have made you feel dumb and exhausted. :D Overall, I did find it hard to make levels that are not too easy or too hard. I think it is safe to say that I have made the game too difficult and need to make progression easier.
This being my first puzzle, I was quite surprised how little tweaks to the game's rules would have an immense impact what kinds of levels one can express in that resulting "puzzle language." For example, my girlfriend is annoyed about the mechanic that you first sink before the lift of a cloud is applied, which means that you cannot U-Turn under a cloud if you have an elevation of less than 3. In a way it's not realistic or intuitive. When I changed the game to add the movement sink and the cloud lift into one, sevreal levels completely fell apart as you could basically choose your height freely and then travel across the map.
Have you seen or used the help button? If so, have you found it useful?
Without spoiler, have you clicked the "Watch Tutorial" button in the "You've run out of lives" screen?
Congrats on making it to the second world. And thanks again for playing and your input!
Just to make it clear - I think that the puzzles that you designed are very good! It's not trivial to make such a level that it feels natural but has only one way to solve it (which is not obvious from the get go). It's just the fact that if you make them one-by-one it starts to become overwhelming. Players need some room to breathe (I believe Zack talked about it in one of the episodes... maybe the one about pacing? I'm not sure).
I also understand what you say about the tweaks. On one hand - I'm on your girlfriend's side on this one. Dropping by 2 to be lifted by 4 was not intuitive and felt more like an issue than a deliberate feature. On the other hand - yes. Changing this rule would require you to redesign your levels. I guess that's a bit of a drawback of puzzle games - level design is tightly coupled to game mechanics. That being said - maybe correct process of developing such a game is to get extensive (and I mean EXTENSIVE) feedback and playtests on core game mechanics (is it fun to begin with) before you design more than a handful of levels? I don't know, just thinking out loud.
And don't be sorry for making me feel dumb. This is something I need to live with :D (By saying that I wanted to emphasize that with puzzle games you typically aim to evoke feeling of accomplishment... yet, paradoxically, if puzzle is challenging you can evoke frustration instead. On the other hand you can evoke boredom if there is little to no challenge... I guess it's a tough nut to crack! And you did amazing job, especially that the most feedback for you game was related to mechanics or visuals rather than level design!)
Anyways - to answer your questions.
Yes, I did use the help button and I found it helpful. I liked that the help was a clue rather than a level walkthrough.
I did not click the "watch tutorial" button, sorry :D Mostly because I felt like clicking the second button and getting 1 life back was faster.