itch.io

This is a decent start for a more fleshed-out title. I played it for a little bit and thought I’d give my initial thoughts from my session:

Good:

• A nice premise and art style.
• Controls were responsive..
• No game breaking bugs that I could spot gameplay-wise which is really good xD

Could be improved in the future to make it even better:

• Z-clipping on some of the tree roots was noticeable, just need moving around a little.
• Snapping for the background was not quite accurate, with either the model not snapped or the texture not seamless. The gap is notable though.
• Rocks in the environment on the water section was a little confusing, I initially though I could land on it and be safe. Found out the hard way that I wasn’t.
• Sound audio goes a long way to making the game more engaging.
• The jump felt a little floaty as if I had a little low gravity
• Vines killing all my velocity was a little off-putting. The snapping was manageable, but it would be good to have some velocity on the vine when I jump to it. It felt like it was stopping me each time I got to it.
• E for vine attach isn’t the best UX for input. I felt W would’ve worked better as my finger naturally hovered over that.
• Snakes floating off the edge of platforms was a little weird visually.
• The camera angle showing a little more ahead of the player would be a nice UX improvement.
• A little animation here and there would add a nice amount of polish.

Still a very good start. Keep it up :)

J,

So I’m just going to list off thing I found while playing, didn't have much time to play so didn't get far through the game but hopefully this is useful to y'all:

Suggestions

• Returning to the main menu shouldn't show the logo’s again, the logos should be only when a user first launches the game.
• When on the main menu for the first time, I feel the continue button shouldn’t be an option, as I’ve never made a save or played the game before, normally that would be disabled until the user had played the game once.
• The first cutscene is a bit odd as you are outside in the cutscene then somewhere inside when you start playing....
• The journal/read system text changes lines as its appearing. Try an alpha change on the characters instead and have the text set before hand, the jumping of the text is a bit jarring. 
  
• It took me a while to realise I had to press E again to close the window when reading something, maybe add a prompt for this? or a close button?
  
• Grappling works fine, though I would make it more obvious when the player can grapple. Always assume the player needs hand holding, essepecially when showing new mechanics. Take a look at Persona 5 Royal’s grappling UI, that game has a nice prompt & audio queue happen when the player is near a grapple location as well as button prompts when they can grapple in the world UI.
  
• Water is never introduced as harmful to the player until they fall in. Yea the robot should be a give away, but maybe a bit of dialogue or something point it out when near some of it would be good, only has to be once to let them know, some people won't pick that up right away in the river area. 
  
• Player death animations seem non-existent. Currently death is rather abrupt. I felt like there shouldn've also been a screen to let the player continue or go to menu or something. If not just a little loading screen instead of just ending up at the last checkpoint suddently. 
  
• Performance
  • For my system it was spotty at best, the interiors were mostly fine, but the outside was a bit of a struggle, some areas were okay others were not. Always worth playtesting on lower end hardware if you get some as you can assume better hardware will manage just fine if the low end can play it. 
    
  • GPU is an AMD R9 380 (4GB version), so take with a grain of salt if you're aiming for more modern requirements, its getting on a bit now xD
• Visuals
  • The water outside felt like it was moving a bit too fast… it didn't look natural (when looking form where the first cutscenes plays, down in the ocean area).
    
  • The grass abruptly turns to dirt path after the first grapple, it looks out of place.
  • Some visuals just pop into existence out of no-where. 
• You can run out of ammo in the tutorial, maybe don't have this be an issue so the user doesn't get soft locked.
• Some graphics settings in the settings menu would be nice xD
• The menu UI looks okay, but in some places it feels stretched to me. 

Bugs

• Subtitles are on by default when the toggle is set to off in the settings.
• The UI for the tutorial prompts is clearly stretched/pixelated, I’m assuming this is placeholder?
• When in the reading mode, you can still shoot & move the camera, when with the gun you can aim to move the camera during this state as well, shouldn’t I be locked out of all controls during this?
• Tutorial, when at the gun range, the prompt to change weapon doesn’t appear unless you shoot the right thing. The player can be easily soft-locked there (I was for 2 runs). This should be clearer!
  
• Camera keeps snapping in and out of zoom when a small piliar blocks the camera’s view. It should be ignore these objects and keeping the same zoom it had before. (Tutorial after the wall jump bit & on the scalfolding outside when reaching to the grapple bit). 
  
• Text popups, I felt the text should appear until after the panel had opened.
  
• When reading something new, the old text persists on screen for a while.
  
• Pressing E when not near anything shows the last log/thing read, is this intentional?
• Gun inconsistency
  • When shooting I feel that my shots are not registering most of the time.
    
  • Weapon 1 feels like it has a really wide burst
  • Weapons 3-4 were hard to shoot for me, don’t know if I’m missing something here.
• You can jump into the door window when at the gun range. 
• The melee bots in the tutorial have no collision.
  • Melee doesn't work, or atleast to a user in the tutorial it feels like it does nothing.
• The UI for weapon ammo doesn't change to show the currently selected ammo all the time, for me it stayed foruced on the first type even though it wasn't selected.
• When spamming dash, the SFX plays but the ability hasn't recharged yet.
• SFX like footseps are really quiet on the default audio settings.
• The UI in the menu's has the cog SFX looping, but the cog stops after a while. (In the option menu, pause menu works fine).
• I had a lot of screen-tearing when I played, is V-Sync on by default? Feels like its not.

PC spec’s

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800x (Stock Feq)
• RAM: 16GB DDR4 @ 3200Mhz
• GPU: AMD MSI R9 380 4GB
• Played at 1080p

I didn’t get to complete the game as I got stuck in the hospital level. So feedback is limited to those 2 area’s.

A TL:DW of my thoughts & some suggestions from the video above, this is gonna be a long list still, but I’m being honest on what the good bits were & I felt was missing or wrong with the game, so take this as a list to possibly work upon for the release build xD

Menu

• Laggy load of menu (probs the 3D scene bits), its best to hide the menu UI & all behind a black screen until its ready to avoid such an issue. If not then split the menu scene into multiple scenes and load them it bits instead of all at once.
• Controls on menu not clear to which is which, UI would be better in a traditional list style
  • It was unclear which keyboard keys controlled which actions, notably journal (which I didn’t open after I first used it, maybe have a use for it? I might have not gotten far enough & flashlight.
• Menu lacked controller support from what I could tell? you can check for this in both old and new Unity input systems I know xD
• No indication a controller was in use?
• Some menu text is blurry (are you using TMP? you should be xD default unity Text is terrible for scalable UI)
• The brightness slider had 0 effect for me as far as I could tell.
• Lack of esc option in all menu screens.
• Loading screens felt a little too frequent and didn't really give much to the player while they waited.

General

• When looking down, the player model lacked moving feet xD I could tell it was sliding around.
• Mouse sensitive was really high by default
• Mouse was visible in cutscenes, use Cursor.visible = false when in cutscenes xD
• Performance was mixed dependant on scenes, I left the FPS counter on so you can see in the video where it got bad for me.

Train Area

• Transition between train & hospital was a little weird in a gameplay/narrative style, I may have missed some story that linked it, but it was a bit of a jarring change of scenery.
• Particles & effects seems to really tank performance? either that or parts of the environment, needs a performance pass really.
• Performance was a bit low for a Unity game, possibly due to my GPU and/or Graphics API in use but it was not great given the hardware.
• The tutorial level took a while to figure out what I was meant to do, a lack of hints meant I was wandering for a while until I figured out the simon says.
• The laptop screen is the train scene was a bit dark compared to the light it was emitting in the environment. Maybe add a emission material / emissive colour to it so the screen brightness matches.
• The game as a whole was very dark, for my budget monitors I could see more of the monitor backlight than the game at the start. A little backlight would help mitigate that a bit.
• Some controls were very odd, the item interactions annoyed me the most as I constantly dropped my flashlight on the ground trying to exit some UI.
• The UI was okay, though I did get some popups stuck.
  • Could use some polish to make it fit the theme better
  • The dialogue text was okay, but sometimes was hard to read over what the player was looking at
  • Dialogue text would be better as a left to right read instead of a centered element in typewriter style.
  • Some UI context clues for using the hammer on the hospital door would’ve helped make that part clearer.
  • Some backspace text UI had inconsistent line breaks.
  • Inventory UI was a little large for the screen,, you could do a 50/50 split, with the slots on the left & the info on the right, giving the items a larger preview for the user to look at. The width between each slot was a bit annoying.
• Voice acting was good for the most part though some characters where better voiced than others.
• The food items in the train felt out of style with the rest of the train assets.
  • Might be the art pack used.
• One of the cases on the train was defying the laws of gravity on its side and took me out of the immersion a bit.
• Sound overall was pretty well implemented, though I will touch on this later
• Wire puzzle controls were a little unforgiving, maybe allow a little leeway, if you’re using raycasts maybe have the start/end points be a little larger so they are easier to hit.
• The door puzzle code only showed 3 numbers on the display yet I had to press 4! I think it should show 4 if 4 are needed.

Hospital Area

• The toolbox dialogue said there was a clue on the lid, yet it was on the side of the toolbox xD
• The maybe there is something around here that could break this prompt was annoying and stuck even past the door being opening when I returned to the area, maybe have it not run once the user has passed x point to not confuse them with old prompts.
• The horror was good here, the second jump scare actually got me good xD
• The second room (with the torso’s) got me lost for quite a while, some ways that might help to improve this:
  • Item sheens, have items occasionally sheen when the player is near them.
  • Larger hitboxes for items, so the user doesn’t have to be fully over the item to select it.
• The torso SFX could be spammed, it was funny but annoying after a while of being stuck.
• The glass on the doors didn’t react like glass, it lacked a lot of the see through it would have from further away.
• The sliding doors just vanish into the walls xD, maybe have a little bit poking out?
• I got stuck in the door puzzle, I though I needed to use the vent with the screwdriver to proceed, but couldn’t figure it out, then threw my items into the vent, which meant I couldn’t get them back as it ate them, so I left it there.

Closing Thoughts

That’s of it, obviously there is more in the video, but I think that’s the most if it xD Overall still a great project and well done for getting it this far xD as getting this far to the point of publishing to the world is an achievement in itself especially with a large team xD I hope this feedback is useful and I’ll happily play the full release as and when it comes out and provide an updated playthrough and feedback.

Thanks for playing, glad you liked the vibe we were going for xD

Thank you for playing! The game is completable from start to finish, so the lamp and switch issues shouldn't be an issue in theory. We did submit a patched build that fixed a few issues like these. I agree a tutorial would help, we just didn't get time to make one xD

Thanks for playing xD, I was very tempted to have the gnomes react to you or something, but I didn't get the time to add it in xD

Thanks for playing, glad you liked it xD We certainly had some idea's that didn't get into the final cut xD. 

Thanks for playing, glad you liked it xD, the gnomes are a team joke, referencing our entry from the first jam. Though I'd imagine they'd fit perfectly in the game as is xD Story was one thing we wanted to add a little of, but ran out of time xD

I really liked this one. I love stragergy games so this was something I found fun to play. Like Lunatic I struggled with what the end goal of the game was, I reached the castle and though that was it, so a little more on the level's goal on the intro popup would help xD. Still the art is aewsome and the game is very well polished. Well done, I'd certainly play this if it were a full title xD

Thanks for playing, glad you liked it xD

A hidden gem!

This is a really solid game, with a great execution of the theme. I loved how I had to choose carefully what upgrades I took and what I lost. The player and enemies are AWESOME!!!!, I loved them!!!! Such a cool design and they all play great and the animations were really good too!!!

A bit of a game break bug I found is that you can spam the gun like there is no tomorrow, which is easy with a double-click button on a mouse (I have a double click button on my mouse). Adding a cooldown after each shot will help fix that xD

Otherwise a really solid solid entry, Well done, I would love to see this go on to a full release, I'd play it xD

Thank you for playing, yea initially there was more of a mix between the two forms. We ended up simplifying it in order to have it all finished in time xD

I realy liked where this was going. The use of the theme is great, my reaction was legit "oh wow, I like that, thats a cool idea". 

Only a few things let this game down for me. The jumping was a little hard to get used to. I'm more used to game where you jump when you press the button, I got it was a hold and release eventually but I did die alot in the early game because of it. The art stlye was a little all over the place, I guess due to the assets used. It did "fit" but I could tell something was off. Though the character choice was super cool, I really liked the character avatar. Other than that the only other killer issue was that I could just endlessly spawn bots and litter my path. I felt like it should be restricted to make it more of a challenge. 

Still a really good entry that I had a lot of fun with, well done xD

I actually really enjoyed this one, the magnet mechanic was very well executed. It did take me a while to get the hang of it as it took me a bit to get that the walls were also deadly xD. I did feel the amount of particles were a little much as it made it hard to see the player when they may have the chance to escape their death but can't as they just can;t see anything xD. 

Still a very well polished solo entry, Well done xD

Loved the atmosphere here felt like I was right in the action. The visuals are great too. Did have some fun with the gameplay such as spinning around while walking xD The controls were a little clanky with you needing to stop to shoot/reload etc. Still a solid entry, good work xD

An interesting game xD I certainly liked where you were going with this game. I can tell you ended up a little short on time, with the level being mostly dev textures and the fact you can just walk around the side of the castle and see the floating shapes, as well as from a hole in the wall when you walk through the game on your left. I did spend like 5 mins trying to jump into that gap as it looked like I could reach it, only to find I couldn't. There was some great 2D & UI art in this, though the options menu kinda took me out of it with the visuble button over the art that I could clearly see. The art style is cool though I liked where it was going. Gameplay wise it is nice and simple to follow, though having to repeat huge sections at the speed the player moves did make we want to quit, so you may want to work on some checkpoints to avoid such a frustration. 

All that being said this is a solid entry for a solo participant. well done!

Thanks for playing, glad you liked our game xD

A nice idea and a great looking game. I don't know if was just my PC, but this game lags really badly on my end. (It could be my PC as I've had these issues before xD). I really liked the main mechanic of the bomb head and using it as a tool be leaving it behind. It certainly made for some interesting gameplay which can go a long way. The presentation side of things could use a little work. Having some screenshots and a setup itch page would help more person see this game xD Still great work for a solo entry, well done!

For a solo entry this is a very good game. I liked the switching between characters and the whloe atmosphere of the game. On my playthrough I kept going right, which had me repeating the same room over and over which did break the imersion of a dungeon, as the variety wasen't there. The gameplay for melee was a little hard to hit consistently without getting hit yourself. While as the mage you can just circle the room. 

The game certainly has potentional thought and the UI is great with some great transitions and effects. It is a well polished game and a solid entry. Well done!

Meow!!!!

Video game based on cats!!! Say no more!!!! xD

Loved the look of this game, though unreal helps with that a little. The build has light baking warnings which did break imersion a little. Found a few funny issues, like spamming the love button lots makes a rather hilarious sound effect stack. I did feel the game could've used a little more work, esspecially on the game loop at the end as I was sitting there saying to myself "now what" once I got the the vet with a load of cats. 

Still a great entry with a lot of potential xD

I had a nice little play of this this morning before I started work and foudn myself wanting to get back into it afterwards to see where it went xD. This is a lovely narrative game, and is still very playable gameplay wise which is good going since I knew you didn't have a programmer on the team xD.  Only downside I felt was that some dialogue bits went on a bit longer than I would've wanted, esspecially in the early game, but thats probs just me xD Would totally get a good rating from me if I could rate the game in the jam xD
~Jonathan

The controls are all arrow keys/WASD with enter to confirm. 

I've uploaded a new build with the normal graphics settings, let me know if that works for you xD

Ah, probs cause I made the builds with Vulkan rather than the normal export graphics API. I'll see about getting a fix up soon xD

A really solid and well designed little game xD Took a little while to figure out how to play it, a little in game tutorial would've helped there. Still great fun, might try and beat my record later on xD
~ Jonathan

For me it was Eggstavaganza xD, such a hard word to type quickyl xD

haha, I ran out of egg puns, but could've added an entire dictinoary if I wanted xD

Haha, there was a plan to have it so the player could kill everyone with the incinerator in the initial concept by doing that exact move! Glad you liked the game xD

Yea, there was a plan to have the basement be the tutorial level with no real challenges, but due to the time contraint the office levels were reduce to just 1, we were going have multiple floors xD

Glad you liked it xD, the gnome was an nod to our the first GJL jam that we added for a bit of fun xD

Glad you liked it, Yea like the previous commet, a cutscene skip would've been a good thing, we just ran out of time to add it. Thx for playing xD

Glad you liked it, Yea a cutscene skip would've been a good thing, we just ran out of time to add it. Thx for playing xD

Thx for playing, glad you like it! yea the movement on PC is a little janky, if you have an xbox controller it makes the movement a lot easier to deal with xD
~ J

Thx for playing! that was the kind of style we were going for xD glad you liked the idea xD. 

~ J

Glad you liked it xD

~ J

I like this one! love that your the commander of a force and you have to plan you moves to that your forces can defeat the enemies in the level. Loved the execution, a few things I suggest, the menu intro was cool, but a skip to end the animation straight to the end would help, as it's not quick xD. That and the tutorial could be a little more interactive to better explain the game. But given you worked alone on this, you did an amazing job to make what you have. Well Done!

Certainly a different experience, Not a huge amount ot it though. Would be nice if there was something that the user had to interact with to keep calm. Maybe with more things going off you'd have to press certain keys to remain calm and not have your day ruined. 

also the phone going off constantly was a good one, certainly stress me out, I really wanted to answer the call......xD

Thx for playing! glad you liked the idea xD. 

~ J

Nice to see an RTS game, man that brings me back (RTS games such as RA2, Emperor BFD were some of my childhood favourites xD). Nice work on this, it was a little unclear how the energy worked at first but I got the hand of it, though a thing to improve is the fact that I could just build outside the AI base, a build radius would stop that xD, that and the air force disappeared on attacking and tanks navigation got stuck now and then. Other than that its great, good work!

A little struggling to see how this fits the theme tbh. Yea you could say the time of day/the fact it is wheel chair racing and that disabled people should not be held back by their disabilities, but I don't see that being true. Likely due to this being a submission to another jam before this one with the theme "Unexpected". Would you mind listing what you changed for this jam if anything? cause to me it looks like a premade game honestly.... which feels a little unfair on other entries. Don't get me wrong, its a solid game and I like its look and how it plays...... But.......Obviously I could be totally wrong, but that is my two cents on your game.