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(1 edit)

Wow okay this game is crunchy for sure, like cool crunchy like a taco but regardless crunchy.  First off a few questions I got, why is there a notepad system for this game? Why is there a rotating display launcher system that opens the new scenes in a new window? Why when I start the game do I get another window showing me all these stats wouldnt you just have the game in one window one scene and then load the next scene instead and render stats on a togglable tab button or something?

Alright that's enough questions here's my thoughts on what I liked/wanted changes for:

Fun/Gameplay:

I'm not sure id call this game fun but I definitely wouldn't call it boring if anything I might say that this game lacks substance or has pacing issues other than not fun.  From what I can tell the gameplay loop is that you spawn in and explore a pseudo randomly generated dungeon (well done on this btw looks like you took tiles and made the map generate off of those I think) and look around for the nearest wizard to kill you (most likely) of which there were only two types I managed to see because of how much I suck at this game being the red wizard and blue wizard. From the games screenshots it looks like there is more wizards to end my run but I never got far enough to see them which could either fall on the game is too difficult for a casual player or I just really suck at games. Both could be totally true so all id say is rebalancing the games combat system would be an important thing to look at for future builds. As per the many comments on this game It looks like some wizards need a nerf of which I agree. I also think bullet size needs a nerf as they seem about 50% too large.  its up to you to make those changes and see how your player base feels about them to really nail down that good feeling while playing the game. 

The blue wizard insta-killed me but I'm not too worried as this is just a jam build balancing of a game is hard when you are the only person looking at it.

I see a lot of comments here abut how you should add a ranged attack and honestly I tend to disagree, and here's why:

Being up close and dodging bullets is sick and considering from what else ive read is that this plugin you use (you 100% do not need to use plugins and can code bullet logic yourself in Godot) doesn't allow it why not instead allow the player to parry the projectile back at the enemy. Replace the wifi attack or whatever it is supposed to be and throw in a sword asset that you swing on hit. If you perfect parry the bullet gets reflected back and poof problem solved. As for it needing a target you could totally just ray cast it (https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/physics/ray-casting.html) with its current velocity and throw some logic on there that if it hits an enemy it does some damage or whatever. Again I am unsure how this plugin works and I wrote my own bullet logic (my bullets don't function anything like yours so maybe its more complicated for you) 

Visual:

This game is pretty pixelated which is fine the art here is nothing to write home about but its not some terrible quick drawing I can tell you spent some time on the assets used for the game.  Style wise this game totally has an identity crisis. The menus look like a completely different game in comparison to the actual game. I cant place the menu slider thing I'm looking at but it does have a retro feel, however the idea that its all bright and blue where as the game is dark and dungeony so there is some visual clash.  In terms of actually being in game the tiny cobblestones or bricks or  whatever feel a bit too small  for easier readability but I'm not one to judge my tile set consisted of one boring tile so this is still a plus but might need some small tweaks for sure.  Also the dungeons feel a bit disconnected with the sprites for the wizards. The wizard sprites are fine I just think they need to match their environment a bit more, kind of like if you color grade a video so the colors don't look off the same needs to happen here. Since the general theme of these dungeons is kind of muted it might be a good idea to desaturate some of the colors of the wizards and see if that still causes visual clash. Another thing I wanted to point out is that dungeons feel pretty empty other than enemies maybe I didn't get far enough or see enough but maybe some ground clutter or dead wizards or something could really sell that you are in a dungeon.

I want to touch on the whole opening a new window thing, and to be frank it feels like you discovered it was a feature in Godot and wrapped your game around including it as many times as you can. I'm not against opening a new window but consider how its used and does it really aid player experience? I think the best example of opening more windows as a feature that is well executed is how oneshot does this by making their puzzle based around this new borderless window piece of paper that interacts with the main game see screenshot below:


So to wrap up opening new windows in the game feels unnecessary in its current state when you could just load the scenes in a chain or loop.  main menu -> main game -> fail/win screen -> back to main menu 

If it is a feature you do really like you need to learn how to optimize the loading time so players stop complaining about it, or not whatever its a jam build.

Audio:

I feel like the music in the main menu is far too repetitive of a chord progression if that is even the case I'm not much a music person so I cant exactly tell other than its just too repetitive/simple to be interesting enough for me. 

Theme:

While this game is for sure a bullet hell im not sure if it has consequences per say but then again I didn't get very far into the game so maybe I just missed it, and for that reason I don't have much to say here.


Overall:

Itemfinity is a neat idea on a traditional bullet hell game mixed in with some rougelike dungeons. Nothing it does past its menu system and constant opening of windows is really shining as a cool mechanic or brings others to say "You got to play this game because of xyz feature" However given the time frame of this jam and what this game came out to be id say you did a decent enough job of adding features and making a solid game that functions which you can be proud of.  I hope none of this feedback comes off as too harsh or mean which is not my intent whatsoever I think the fact you made a submission is beyond good.

the stats are in another window since i didnt want to clutter the main screen area but some people like the window thing so an option to toggle it is probably a good tradeoff. also the launcher is more just because i wanted to have a side-thing where you can read about how to play without making it part of the core gameplay loop and the notes are for taking notes of things like where to go on certain areas since its all pre-made chunks randomly loaded. also i dont really play bullet hells so i was unaware of the fact that large bullets are not good but that is something else i can tweak and dying to reds is a skill issue but blues are just kinda op. definitely not a bad idea with adding things lying around and desaturating the wizards but having them saturated also helps with visibility in my eyes and i do currently think that i should place more items around the map aswell. also you are kinda right about the window thing but its more about learning about it in my other game and i despise that oneshot puzzle and how tedious it was. the launcher is not part of the actual game itself but more just a file opener that i downloaded and tweaked a little. the consequence is that items are your health so when you take damage you lose an item and i kinda wanted to add a particle that shows the item falling off of you but i didnt have the time. i quite literally cannot do anything about the loading time btw since every time it loads an enemy it creates a new shader and multimesh and if i try to pre-assign those things it breaks the plugin. im nowhere near a good musician so all the music is pretty basic but the main menu music is a lot simpler than the game track since you arent meant to be in the menus for long. and no i cannot code bullets myself i am very not good at coding it was in this project that i learned that you can do export_enum at all this is my third godot game ever. i will probably add the dark circle from the gameplay onto the menu or smth. if i knew how i would have added actual lighting but like i said before its my third godot game ;-; this reply is all over the place but parrying sounds kinda possible maybe and pretty cool but i dont enjoy working on this game at all so i probably will just leave it to rot but yeah the main menu is a completely different program that just runs the files in the files folder or opens a link for the manual. if i didnt have school all week the game would have probably been a lot more thought out with more potential randomized areas and items all around and better balancing but i have 0 connections to anyone who might be willing to playtest and i suck at bullet hells and honestly just assumed my difficulty would be standard. if i do work on it again i will probably update the tileset to have bends in corners tho and also the other feedback comment i left on the game. i did not open itch intending to write an essay in response to yours but i did and have to do other things now so im cutting myself off and thanks for the feedback