Really cool game. Really clever concept and a good amount of gaming time. Only had troubles when I had to go down. Pressing DOWN+JUMP seem to work once but if I have several platforms to climb down and pressing DOWN+JUMP+JUMP+JUMP doesn't seem to do the trick. I had to release down and make the combination again in order to proceed. Minor issue, though.
Cool concept and nice visual particle effect. I only missed some kind of a progression through the levels. Maybe some boundaries on the bat's power (like energy bar), time limit or enemies would have made the next levels more challenging.
Yeah, lack of system communication is what appears to be the biggest issue of the game. I've already talked too much about it in the other comments so I'm just gonna nod quitely here :) .
As for Monkey Island, it's obvious that it's a big inspiration. But at the same time we didn't want to make the game feel like a rip off but actually make something fresh and new. In our case: "guess which argument is best for a certain mood". And "find out which argument triggers the mood more".
I realize now that the topic we chose is kind of tricky. I saw that some people don't take it as a satire and didn't see that the stereotypes were exaggerated and intentional. Which I guess would be evaded if there was more time for writing and thinking. And making the characters even more flat and comic. So point taken.
But this is actually an interesting casus. Where is the exact line beyond which it's not ok to make games (or any kind of media actually) about something? I agree it's all about the message you're trying to give and the way you execute that. I've seen some movies and games touching way more controversial themes and doing it so brilliantly that you end up with a positive message and a learnt lesson in the end. And I remember the ancient quarrel about "violence in games leads to violence in real life". I'm personally againts taboo topics and putting boundaries on creative content as long as there is a meaningful message behind the author's intentions (carefully and properly translated to the audience of course) and there are no offensive intentions against someone. Can't really put my thoughts into just a few sentences as this is a deep and controversial subject as well. But yeah, I'd definitely be careful next time I'm touching a theme like this.
Thanks for playing and giving feedback. Btw, it is a multyplayer game :D
Didn't really get the idea with the rating of the damage. You mean like a server where people are watching and giving rates to whom handles the fight more properly? Might be fun idea but I guess it'll be a totally different thing then : ) Right now it's more of a Hearthstone type of thing.
Thanks very much for detailed feedback! It gave me a lot to think about. Here are some quick comments on my side:
DESIGN: Thanks for the good words. The general idea was to mash up Monkey Island's dialolgue insult swordfighting with turn based tactical damage system. I totally agree that the system should be giving a little more feedback to the novice player (and that's what will do in the postjam version). But the main goal was to learn the game basics through at least several playthroughs (especially if two people are playing it 1v1). I know that in the jam people will be giving it one or two tries, but in long term we wanted to make a lasting experience with a big replayability factor.
THEME: Will think about your feedback and when we add some intro and more context I'll make sure that it looks more of a satire (which is our main intention).
Had a little rough time getting a hold of the system. but then the gameplay flowed naturally. Would suggest some difficulty curve. After nailing the controls there was no problem for me to run forever. Each 20-30 steps happening something new would definitely freshen up things. Otherwise I liked the idea.
Cool concept with the sound puzzle. Has potential to turn into something better if more puzzles are added. Right now it's kind of short. But I like the minimal style and the ambient music.
Nice and simple (just like asteroids). I like the reverse idea. It's a little on the easy side, though. Didn't had much challenge and never died during my playthrough.
I'd suggest making the "fuel getting" harder. For example, not every crash gives you fuel. When you break a big square it explodes into little ones, but among them could be let's say green squares which are the "fuel" ones you need to break. And it will be good if you have a difficulty curve so the gameplay doesn't get repetitive.
Makes perfect sense. That was the first thing that came to my mind after the deadline. The game has a system but it's not perfectly translated you the player and thus feels a bit random. I would put markers giving you the amount of damage you dealt or negated on each turn if we make a second build. Thanks for feedback.
Cool idea. Finally putting those worms ninja rope skills for something : ) Only negative feedback I could give is about that harsh learning curve in the level design the others mentioned.
Good job. Nicely polished and executed. Simple, yet hooking. Those big lobster things actually scared the hell out of me while I was playing. 5 for game feel and difficulty progression.
I really liked how polished this game is. Played till the end of it. Having in mind that you raised the bar high, here are a couple of good hearted comments for what could have been even better:
- skippable dialogue is always preferable no matter how good the VA is
- enemies were a little on the easy side. didn't have to stealth even for a second. if they have a little more punishing AI (like following you if they see you) and even harder enemies on the next levels (with faster bullets) "crawling" might become more crucial than to just go into shafts and duck below beams. You could actually use it for more stealthy tactics when enemies are hard to outrun.
- boss battle was cool. but some how the boss stopped attacking me at one point and I just had to wait for the beam for 2 mins to kill him. Probably a bug.
Besides that I'm amazed by the polish made for 48 hours. For that you get a five!
Cool idea. Has the potential to turn into a great puzzle game.
I have one suggestion, though, which would have made the game more appealing to me: reduce the action element. Right now, I could beat all the enemy bots just with fast moving and lots of shooting. And for me the whole idea of this puzzle game is to outsmart them. For example, you can make the bots kill you instantly if you cross their line of view. Which will require you to think carefully where you step and in the end appear on their side where it's safe to step and shoot them. This could give you a lot more potential to design your levels more challenging.
Having said that I really liked the concept. Good job.
Yeah. Same attack can deal different amount of damage depending on your enemy's mood. So making an insult could deal great amount of damage on a stressed person but would be useless if the person is calm. Apologizing is good against certain attacks but useless against other atacks.
At first we intentionally hid the amount damage each attack deals (and each defense negates). By the time I realise that it's too hardcore and the system logic is hard to be guessed with a few plays it was already too late :)
