The main reflection mechanic worked pretty well, but I didn't like the platforming mechanics
So, here's some ideas to make first perso platforming more fluid :
- Air friction : when the player lets go of the control keys, they should stop pretty quickly while in the air. This is to correct for overshoots easier, basically when a players jumps to far they simply have to stop pressing forward at the right time to land on the platform.
- More air control : most first person platforming games give the player a lot of control over their momentum while moving. You cut down almost all acceleration while in the air, meaning I had to guess the right speed and angle before leaving the ground and couldn't really correct my trajectory.
- Single press jump : unless it's extremely justified, most first player platforming games will use a single height jump, accessible by pressing the button, no need to hold down to gain height. In 2D games, this concept is useful because you can clearly see the height between your character and the ground, allowing you to precisely adjust. You don't have that kind of visibility in first person, so asking your players to guess the correct height won't work.
VERY strong entry for this game jam, it's a shame not many people played it. It's very hard but it's rewarding, feels very fun and well balanced. I got to stage 9.
At first, the asteroid looked like minable gold so I attacked them
Very fun concept & executed pretty well, except for the lack of a checkpoint which kinda killed the whole game for me. The idea is funny though and I enjoy the game's fast pacing
There's just enough to do between dodging, keeping up with the color switch and trying to grab powerups to keep the brain busy for a few minutes, good job, I was engaged !
The level design was pretty good, although I got a bit lost sometimes because the checkpoints were a bit too far and disorienting from the place I fell down.
I think the movement could need some work, the character falls very fast once he reaches the apex so it feels very stiff and "springy", for example the way to cross a large gap is actually to jump the highest possible to compensate for the fast falling movement.
I don't think the movement is poorly designed or "feels bad" per se, however it does feel somewhat at odds with what you were going for. A slow moving character who's going deep into themselves should probably have overall slower vertical movement, for example. Though this specific solution is subjective, I think that keeping in mind that in a platformer, the way a character moves actually tells you a lot about its personality and can evoke specific feelings will help you a lot when making this kind of atmostpheric / narrative platformers. The slow horizontal speed, for example, was a nice touch.
The sound design and atmosphere works, although I would say the soundsteps repeating always in the same sequence got a bit repetitive after a while. Maybe randomize them a bit ?
Anyway, great game, I just wanted to give some constructive feedback, hope it's useful !
Gotcha, yeah I can definitely feel the trials & error part, it's a bit too precise, I think we could've gotten away with larger hurtboxes on reflected bullets.
Many thanks for taking the time to write extended feedback, that's much appreciated
The bar mechanics were a late addition, it's part of the score system, everytime it runs out you get a score penalty, and you can see your score at the end (there are 16th waves). I wish we could've made it more clear, but we ran out of time (fun fact, ryokugin didn't sleep at all this weekend so the score feature was built while he was half asleep on his bed, telling me what and where to code. Yes, he did code blindfolded. We also fixed at least 2 bugs in this configuration)
Thanks a lot for playing ! I'm really happy you had fun :D
Do you mind elaborating on what felt clunky about the controls ?
Just so you know, there is a score system, but it's a bit hidden. If you beat the 16th wave, you get a score based on the amount of times you let the bar (at the bottom of the screen) run out. But we should've made that more explicit
Thanks a lot for the compliments and feedback ! I'm glad you had fun messing with the robots :3
Just so you know, there is actually a score system, but it's a bit hidden (we didn't have a lot of time to implement it). After the 16th wave, you get your score and a tip on how to improve it ! (Basically, whenever you let the bar at the bottom of the screeen run out, you get a score penalty. If you manage to finish the game without letting it run out once you're a god)
Congrats on your first jam ! Having multiple enemy types was a nice ambition. I didn't understand the difference between the two types of shot.
I think the next thing you should focus on is adding more gamefeel, screenshake & enemy flash would be my first thought for this kind of game. Graphics are nice
very fun first person platformer. First person platformers are rare. I have beaten the game.
The main mechanic is very cool and looks really good once you start going through the levels quickly. However I think some nice things could have been done to make the game a bit easier :
- A proper introduction of the mechanic, and the fact you need to collect 2 pieces in each level.
- A checkpoint once you get at least one piece.
- Some work on level design and / or graphics to avoid platform disappearing into each other due to the textureless 2D look.
- Less "hardcore minecraft parkour" level design (like the second to last level) and more free flowing fun stuff or puzzle stuff like the tower level. I think there is something uniquely fun about piecing together a mental map of the level while using black / white dots as resources.
- work on the buffer auto jump system, sometimes I held on spacebar a little bit too long and I jumped twice when I didn't want to. I don't think the buffer should apply when you're jumping on a platform higher than you are.
- Platforms that bring you back to the start should wait for you
Didn't work well for me, I would've loved a downloadable. The navigator (chrome) didn't catch my mouse properly so it was hard to look around.
I don't really like screamers and horror stuff so it's not really a game for me. But it's awesome ! I love underwater stuff, subnautica is my fav game, and you managed to catch some of its magic there with very achievable effects. Great job.
This kind of game is absolutely beautiful to me, please keep making stuff like this.
Some aspects in the executions could be improved:
- A menu, ability to take the mouse off the window, and to close the game would be nice.
- While I appreciate (and love) the bold sound design, I think it was mixed a bit too loudly and hurt my head.
- I have a similar opinion about the visuals, something made me dizzy I don't know exactly why. I think there was a lot of camera bobbing when walking. And the flashlight, while a cool design, ended up hurting my eyes.
- I couldn't find the computer password so I probably missed a good chunk of the game.
We had some ideas like that, but we didn't have time to implement everything unfortunately. Some way to freeze your light/dark balance would be great indeed. We had an idea for a sorcerer type enemy that would mess up your karma, "cursing" you to gain a lot of light / shadow over time, and be able to flip existing enemy's karma.
Unfortunately the current game balance doesn't really allow for that but who knows if we expand the game a bit we'll revamp some stuff and focus more on karma being a resource.
I found 2 of the toys but got too spooked to continue, which I think is a great compliment !
Great experience, flows well, looks great !! I'll just say the difference between interactable items and decor wasn't clear, and I kept hoping for a second permanent light.
Oh ok I see ! And some tiles you can only turn on in some of the colors, right ?
Now I see the concept.
I will say that no matter what, repeating the same level several times will unfortunately risk being frustrating. What happened to me was I died, and then I respawned on a tile of the wrong color so I died immediately again.
With that said, good job on the game. Both platforming part feel good to play, which is impressive considering the ambitious scale of the project for a solo gamejam. I think you're taking the right lesson from this about clean design.
Tougher part imo about work in a gamejam is having a clear well defined project from the start. Because it's never like that, second tougher part is being able to kill your children and relocate your effort when it's necessary. So congrats for that and delivering on a complete game !
To make more complete criticism, and obviously I don't want to sound harsh or anything :
- The base idea is interesting and could be expanded upon with a cool mechanic forcing you to retreat to the shadows and pick the right time to turn the lights off (maybe with enemies) ? But I think it also works as is, except for the respawning crumbs (they do take away at the main idea because you can just stay at the same place and spam on / off).
- I think the main thing you should focus on now is gamefeel and graphics. For example, because the character has no acceleration, it feels bland to move around. Similarly, nothing really happens when you collect crumbs, it would've been fun if there was a bit of freeze and screenshake for example (note : I only make action games so I might be biased towards screenshake), which could be easy to implement. Overall, I'd suggest looking into gamefeel theory and how to make simple things feel better.
Congrats on a successful jam entry ! Even though it's small, it's also charming, and feels complete for a first solo project (there's a menu, a story and everything, I can't say that about my first lol).
on testament's "return to hand boost" : it interacts weirdly with her card that gets played as a boost and sustained as an after. Basically you get both the boost AND it gets back to the hand, while not showing that you got the boost
Auto healing between rounds is a nice suggestion, we could've made an easy mode.
It would've required some thought though, because it would render a lot of player upgrades useless (all the upgrades that heal of give you passive Regen would have to be reworked).
Thank you so much for playing and enjoying our game !
The main mechanic wasn't fun for me, at all. There's no player agency, basically you roll and hope to get the correct symbol. It was wayyy too feast or famine. Either I get the correct roll, or I get nothing.
Beside the game design issue, the game is very well made and impressive for a short gamejam.
I loved the graphics & audio. This is a very well polished entry ! Congrats !
The color palettes are a nice touch for a jam game.
I think the robots could be moving a bit faster. I got softlocked due to a bug in level 3 when the bot dug down, they couldn't fall past the last removeable block
Gameplay worked, but it wasn't clear what I should be doing, without explanation and extra polish (removing debug mode, having a menu etc) it makes the game feel incomplete & like it lacks direction. To be clear, I don't think it does, but that's how it feels.
With that said it looks like there is good potential, the mood / lore is very unique & cool too. Congrats !
A ton of fun. Feels like a fully polished game. Insane work.
The mechanics felt unique and challenging in a new way. Optimising your equipment to land one shots was extremely satisfying.
Only thing I didn't love was the lack of information on elemental effets / weaknesses. It forced me to try stuff on the fly, which made the preparation part of each round less useful.
Fun game. I didn't love the sword length mechanic, because there was no real reason to ever craft inferior items. If the fight is doable, just farm.
This creates some mandatory farming that I think could've been avoided. Or, I think, it would've felt better if there wasn't a fake choice alongside it (game design is weird as a discipline)
Hi everyone, we accidentaly deleted the page... Now it's back up but all the comments are gone ! Sorry if you commented, please know that you have been read (I read all comments within 1h of their posting).
This was one of the best games I've ever played coming from a game jam, period.
Musics were great. Game was very precisely in-sync with the music, which is not the experience I have from most rhythm games I've played (even those that are fully produced).
The game is incredibly polished, tutorials are an awesome inclusion, esp for a jam game.
I played until I was an export, that was a fun little game.
I didn't love the random haggling mechanic, but I must admit it's pretty exciting. The loading between the screens was a bit long, making the game not as fluid. Still, all these mechanics that I find individually clunky combined into a nice experience.
It's very interesting for me as a game designer to play games like these for this reason. Fun can be found in clunkiness. In theory, you should have consequences for player failure other than losing time. But here, I think it serves to improve immersion as a management game. (In this case, failure is mismanaging your inventory so you have to go back to the store, or missing an haggle).
With that said I still didn't play all the way through because of these game mechanics issues I had.
Permanently losing inventory space due to leftover shields & swords that you cannot sell anymore because you've upgraded is pretty feel bad.
Huge congrat on a first successful jam game, you focus on the essentials in pushing a playable, polished game.
