Yay, I found the wrench! Somehow both relaxing and panic inducing, lol.
What kept me engaged with this game was the sense of exploration. I imagine a lot of people would get frustrated and lost, but the fun for me was carefully keeping everything mapped in my head.
I rated this game very highly very early in the jam and just realized I didn't leave a comment!
Praise:
Color pallet is top-notch (and really meshes with the beer theme), sound is top-notch, animations are top-notch.... The tutorial was perfect and simple.
A lot of the games in the jam can be quite complex and the tutorials are overwhelming. Also, the tutorial here was just plainly charming. It gets you in a good mood to play the game with the cute introduction to the characters. I literally called my girlfriend over when I read "This is pitcher!" because I needed her to see him.
Feedback:
Not much! The only thing that kept it from being perfectly enjoyable was the set character speed. As a Frogger enthusiast, I did wish I could speed up my gameplay to match my dodging skills.
The full picture is... I started to dabble in game design and programming when I was 11 back in the macromedia flash days, but never really published a finished project. (I just can't believe it's been 19 years since then!)
It's always been my dream, but I got caught up in an engineering career. I recently decided to take at least a year career break from that to really take a crack at publishing indie games for a while.
Given how long that detour was to get here, I can't even convey how much all the positivity I've received in this jam means to me. : )
Easily the most polished game in the jam. Very professional , and groovy music, just, great job. I also must praise the detailed tutorial because I'm sure it was a lot of work, and it is really necessary for gameplay this complex.
The gameplay was more hit or miss with me, mainly due to three factors:
1. I didn't feel there was much of a reason for me to select one trap configuration over another, so it felt kind of arbitrary.
2. I feel having direct control over the trap switching would be more enjoyable. There were times an enemy would require me to go over the lever to lay a bubble, as an enemy was very slowly going through the trap area.
3. Gameplay loop felt quite slow (personal preference), with not enough variation or difficulty to keep it spicy.
Anyways, I followed you to check out your other games sometime. : )
Thank you for the review! Since I have so much fun working on this project, I wanted to let everyone know I have added ten new levels with a new bubble mechanic I had wanted to include originally. : )
I see you are very busy rating as many games as possible, Karma Squad! Still, if you are interested I have added ten new levels with a bubble mechanic I had to leave out on the original. : )
Thank you sincerely for taking the time to play and leave a review. I'm letting everyone know, in case they are interested, I have added ten new levels including a new bubble mechanic I had to cut before.
Thank you for taking the time to play my game! I'd like to let you know there are ten new levels with a new bubble mechanic and a new final level if you are interested >:).
Since you had the courage to defeat all the levels, I'd like to let you know there are ten new levels with a new bubble mechanic and a new final level >:).
Thank you for the kind words! I have added some things to help with the difficulty, and ten more levels with new mechanics if you are interested in trying it out. : )
Thank you, if you are interested, I have added ten new levels involving a new bubble type that had to be cut from the original submission to expand both the puzzle and platforming mechanics. : )
Thank you for your review! If you are interested, I have added ten new levels involving a new bubble type that had to be cut from the original submission. : )
Unfortunately art is my bottleneck without help : ). I would like everyone who enjoyed the mechanics that I have added ten new levels involving a new bubble type that had to be cut from the original submission. : )
I'm sure you have gotten your fill of my game, but I wanted to let everyone know: I have added ten new levels involving a new bubble type that had to be cut from the original submission due to level creation time. : )
If you are interested, I have added ten new levels involving a new bubble type that had to be cut from the original submission due to level creation time. : )
In addition, I have just added ten new levels involving a new bubble type that had to be cut from the original submission due to level creation time. : )
If you are interested, I have added ten new levels involving a new bubble type that had to be cut from the original submission due to level creation time. : )
Thank you! If you are interested, I have added ten new levels involving a new bubble type that had to be cut from the original submission due to level creation time.
If you are interested, I have added ten new levels involving a new bubble type that had to be cut from the original submission due to level creation time.
And there is a new final level if you're game. : )
Thank you! If you are interested, I have added ten new levels involving a new bubble type that had to be cut from the original submission due to level creation time. : )
Thank you! If you are interested, I have added ten new levels involving a new bubble type that had to be cut from the original submission due to level creation time. : )
Then you replay and realize you can speed-run the earlier puzzles by just dashing ;). Thanks for beating all the levels. I know the last two levels especially have been tough on people : D.
Thanks for your comments on the level design. I've never really taken a project to a point where I needed to design levels, so it was quite exciting. I joke about it, but I have consumed a lot of video essays on level design and player experience over the years and I was hoping they didn't fail me : ).
That said, there are still so many levels and additional features I still wanted to add! Like, bubbles that automatically pop and bounce you when they land, special ground that doesn't pop red-type bubbles, etc. : )
Felt like playing again this morning, only died 5 times, I'm getting better!
Since it has so much potential I felt I could add some finer feedback:
There is a spot in the second level, near the first enemy, where there is a ledge below. I saw this ledge and thought to drop down to avoid the enemy, and going near the ledge killed me. I assume this was below a certain height that is programmed to trigger death, but it was really unexpected because you took the time to put the ledge there.
Now I realize the design intends for me to shoot through the enemy with the shuriken so I wanted to add something on that: Having to monitor the shuriken indicator in the top right can really take the player out of the focused, flow state that the nice music and platforming creates for them. It is usually better to have that kind of indicator near or on the player character itself because that is where the player's eyes are focused. An example of this is Celeste's dash which is indicated in the form of the character's hair color. Something even simpler like putting the indicator near the player would achieve the same effect though with less work and explaining. : )
So, thank to you, I made some changes to the game!
(Reordered the levels by difficulty, added a couple more levels to explain the dash mechanics (want to make more tomorrow), and added a key to skip levels if the player gets too stuck so everyone can enjoy the full game.)
Since you got stuck, I wanted to let you know of some changes I just made for tonight:
Reordered the levels by difficulty, added a couple more levels to explain the dash mechanics (want to make more tomorrow), and added a key to skip levels if the player gets too stuck so everyone can enjoy the full game.
Thank you, I appreciate your help. There are gamepad bindings as well but WebGL can be fickle. They are working now from my side, but I can't guarantee they will work for everyone. Still, I put the bindings in the description on the controls.
I also want to let everyone who gave feedback on the difficulty I have made some other changes already:
Reordered the levels by difficulty, added a couple more levels to explain the dash mechanics (want to make more tomorrow), and added a key to skip levels if the player gets too stuck so everyone can enjoy the full game.
P.S. When I play-test I use the shift and space bindings myself now. They felt awkward to me at first but I get the appeal now : ).
Since it sounds like you got stuck, I wanted to let you know of some changes I just made for tonight:
Reordered the levels by difficulty, added a couple more levels to explain the dash mechanics (want to make more tomorrow), and added a key to skip levels if the player gets too stuck so everyone can enjoy the full game.
In case you didn't get to enjoy the full game due to the difficulty, I've made some changes:
Reordered the levels by difficulty, added a couple more levels to explain the dash mechanics (want to make more tomorrow), and added a key to skip levels if the player gets too stuck so everyone can enjoy the full game.
