One more thing I noticed are the hearts that move from one place to another:
When you first get close to them they move to the other spot. When you then get close to the new spot, they teleport back to the original spot and have the animation again
In addition to my previous comment I found a few more things I'm note sure are intended:
The game is fun to play and I enjoyed the mechanics. The only thing that's somewhat annoying is the timing needed to do the higher jumps. I suggest looking at https://gmtk.itch.io/platformer-toolkit, especially the part about input assists. I think having the player be able to press jump slightly before hitting the ground would make this feel better
I like the game, I'd just like to see some kind of tutorial or written explanation of what does what. The basic concept of clicking symbols and having them appear at the bottom is easy enough. It took me some time to understand that I only need three of a kind in the bottom bar and that they don't have to be right next to eachother. Also, I'd like to see an explanation of the power-ups. The only way to know what they actually do is by using them, which isn't the best.
Keep it up and continue making great games like this!
The game and leveldesign is fun. There are, however, some things I noticed.
For one, the jumping feels weird. When hitting the head at a platform, the player does not directly fall down. It feels like the jumping arc gets completed, which leads to delay between hitting the platform above and falling down. Another thing I noticed was that sometimes the player can get stuck in weird places (see image). This can be resolved by walking left/right, but it still is annoying.
The animations are played constantly. I suggest pausing them when the player does not move.
Since this is a platformer, I always suggest looking at this game if you haven't yet: https://gmtk.itch.io/platformer-toolkit
It explains the basics of character control in platformer games.
All on all, keep up the good work and never stop learning something new!
The platformer controls are nice and it overall feels smooth.
There are two things I noticed though:
1. The left enemy walks to the right, turns around and then walks on until infinity. Maybe have him move left and right constantly like the one on the right
2. The background. You already have a background that can be scaled endlessly to the left and the right, so make use of that. The top and bottom can just be filled up with colored rectangles.
While I encourage you to make another game as you said in you description, I'd suggest you first try to make more of this game. The main reason I suggest this is so you can learn to stick to one project for longer and maybe learn to plan ahead more in the future. If you notice your code can hardly be altered now, this can be a lessen for you in the future. Even if it is easy for you, you learn to go back to code you have written before and make changes.
No matter which you do, keep at it and don't stop learning. I'd be happy to play either the updated version or your pong in the future!
I played this game a few rounds and the gameplay and game mechanics are neat.
One thing I noticed is the time it takes to load after dying or winning. The game freezes for a short amount of time before the menu is displayed. For context, I played the browser version, not the one to download.
Another thing that happened was that a chicken got spawned right next to the player in one instance, so I instantly lost a heart. Maybe alter the spawn mechanic so the first room can't have a chicken.
Thirdly, and this is just my own opinion, it sometimes feels long to wander around aimlessly and randomly stumble into the goal. To change this, maybe you could add a gradient to the color, so it changes toward the goal. This would at least give some sort of direction. To combat the fact that this would make the game easier, you could increase the spawn rate of enemies the closer you get to the exit. To then still have the player explore the rest of the dungeon, maybe scatter around power-ups they can collect to have it easier on their way to the goal.
Having multiple types of enemies could also lead to a more interesting gameplay.
I see great potential in this game and I'd enjoy to see it grow
The game is intriguing, and I like the mechanic of having to redirect the laser to hit the enemies from behind. One thing I find slightly annoying is the path finding. Often times, the enemies get stuck at obstacles and don't walk towards the player. Also, in the end, it can be time consuming to find the last few enemies. With better path finding, this problem should be solved. Another solution would be to have an arrow point to the closest enemies when there are only a few left.
All in all great job, the things I mentioned are merely quality of life ideas
While the game initialy is fun to play, it quickly becomes boring due to there being no raise in difficulty. To combat this, maybe decrease the frequency of platforms spawning or randomize the heights more. Moving platforms or dangers could also increase the fun.
As for the art, it is quite nice. The only thing is the fact that the player teleports to the other side of the screen if you exit on one side. If the player already shows on both sides of the screen when you are cut off will probably look better.
All in all good game with great potential! Keep up the good work
You also said you accept ideas. I have some, if you want:
- Bouncy Platform: A platform that acts like a trampoline, that automatically bounces you up when you jump on it
- Weak Platform: A platform that slowly moves downward when you stand on it
- Ice Platform: A platform with almost no friction
- Disappearing Platform: A platform that disappears when you jump off of it
- Pairs: A pair of platforms where only one has a hitbox. Which one it is changes when you jump on one
If you want to work with timing:
- Platforms that periodically appear/disappear/teleport
- Magnets that periodically rotate
Another thing that could make for interesting level designs would be something like a gravity switcher
After the update, playing the game is fun. The different types of platforms and dangers are a nice combination.
One thing I noticed is that if you fall from a greater height onto a magnet's to side, you still die.
Another thing I think would be good is the player automatically following the platforms when moving side to side.
If you want the extra movement space with the side walls, maybe make them so the character does not fully disappear but rather leave a small part of it visible.
Also, while the character movement generally feels nice, there is this game on itch.io explaining a lot about platformer controls, if you want to look at it: https://gmtk.itch.io/platformer-toolkit
The game is fun to play, but I have two ideas to make it better:
1. Explain what the powerups do:
Currently, the only way to know what a powerup does is by bying it. A short text or even just a name would be nice to have.
2. The Font
This is a small problem in my opinion, but the font makes the numbers look weird
The game generally is fun to play, but there are some issues:
1. When replaying, the orbs and the score don't reset and somehow in level 2 you get stuck. Neither the red wall surrounding the portal nor the blue wall to the last two orbs get removed when killing all enemies and collecting the one reachable orb.
2. Some enemies, like the one in level 2 on the platorm, get teleported to the left when shooting it
3. When using the jump pad, it feels weird to just be teleported to the to instead of jumping
I have tried to play this game both in the browser and the downloaded version, and in both cases I am unable to jump.
I have tried to press every button on my keyboard, but no success. Is there something I missed?
Also, I recognize the player can't move too far to the left or right. This seems to be right when the player's hitbox exits the window. I'd suggest changing it so the player fully stays within the bounds of the screen.
The game is fun to play, but one thing about the character control is kind of annoying. Correctly finding the timing to jump off the edge is tricky, for the time duration in which to jump is rather small. https://gmtk.itch.io/platformer-toolkit is a good explanation of how to properly tweak character control in a platformer for it to feel nice to use.
Thank you I'll check that out.
The game itself is fun, I just don't like the controls. I think having either just the arrow keys (left right for moving, up for jumping) or using wasd (a for left, d for right, w or space to jump) would be better than to mix arrow keys with space. It is my opinion, but that feels weird to use.
Since this is a platformer, you could also have a look at this, which is a game here on itch.io to explain the fundamentals of platformer player control.
This is a fun little game. One thing I noticed is that is feels a bit janky when going out one side of the screen ans coming back in from the other side. I think this is due to the circle not being rendered when overlaping. To solve this you could make a 3x3 grid of circles that move along with the player, just spaced by the height and width of the screen.
Also, if you reach critical mass, you could implore into a black hole and become a galaxy, like a level 2
You might want to change the size of the background image to fit the whole screen. In my case, there is a grey strip on the right side of the screen.
To automaticly reset the player when falling, you could check if the y coordinate is either lower than 0 or higher than the screen height, depending on the origin of 0,0. In the same process, you could solve it for when you get shoved out the left side of the screen.
Something that could be fun too would be if there might sometimes be two platforms ontop of eachother