Not at all! You achieved the intended experience. I just released the first game I ever worked on to the public. The feedback has been awesome, but I am hoping that next time I get just a bit closer to the intended experience! Luckily I was on an awesome team that got along great. I learned a lot from this first jam, maybe in a few years I'll nail it like you all did.
Very nice work! Way to go getting all of this done during the jam. you've juiced the hell out of this thing and that helps a lot. Also, I think the little fungal aliens you made are adorable, and that's always a plus.
The one thing I was not a fan of was the input swapping. I know it was to fit the theme, but it just does not work for me. You've got this really fun, if simple, top down shooter and then it interrupts you periodically to ask you to relearn the controls. Often the moment of swapping lead me to take damage. To me that didn't seem like a necessary frustration. I think you could alleviate this by foreshadowing the coming change with an icon for each type of control swapping, but it may just be a bandage fix.
I would love to see you keep working on this. Your art style is great, and you've got a solid grasp of making games feel punchy, and satisfying, but I'd revisit control swapping thing and see if you can come up with something fun and thematically appropriate. I look forward to seeing what you make in the future!
This is super impressive for having been made in 48 hours. Way to go! You artwork is just adorable, and the premise is incredibly relatable. My dogs don't unplug the wifi but the do stare at my with big sad eyes, and cry like they have never known love. Thank you for this cute twist on pandemic living, I needed it!
In terms of game play I feel like with a bit more time you could tweak this into some really intense, really adorable, putting out fires game. Right now I can't manage to be fully engaged when I am at the Comp because I am just mashing LMB. I think part of what makes the dog/work balance interesting is that you want to love on your dog but you also need to be solving problems, and focusing on both is hard. Right now the computer side and the dog side both boil down to clickers. I would love to see you push this further. I'd play a Papers Please style unfolding narrative set in the bizarre time of 2020.
Hi fredxvi, I think that you approached the theme "Out of Control" from a really interesting angle. The idea of building a game around doing your best to make others happy, even if it isn't always possible really works for me. Unfortunately, I don't think it worked out in this case. I can see why you may have wanted to make the mechanics, and responses of the AI, obtuse. What social interaction isn't a bit obtuse? But, It did not translate into a game I want to play. I was unsure what my chocolates, singing, and cha-chinging was doing most of the time. I think that it would be really awesome to see you take another stab at this idea. More games about making other people happy are always appreciated!
I really think you should develop this further outside of the jam. You've got a cool idea going here, and I think one of the things holding it back is the out of control theme. Using left CTRL works for the them of the jam but I think you could easily improve your game by moving the switch half button to RMB. If you did that I think that switching between the two halves would feel more natural. Also, having damage switch which half you are controlling make the game more "out of control", it also makes it less fun. I got used to hitting CTRL after taking damage, but that seems like a needless step for the player to take. Aside from things like the lake of music or SFX, those were the things I thought could use the most improving. I really do think you could take this game further and make it something really enjoyable. I think that the best moment I had playing was when I realized I could jump, switch halves, and shoot enemies from the air before they could aim at me. Expanding on things like that could be incredibly fun.
I think you could have an interesting concept here. Right now I agree with you that it feels more like a slightly interactive simulation rather than a full game. The idea of indirectly controlling a rancher and trying to save rabbits sounds cute and fun, but right now it just feels too slow and largely passive. I'd seriously up the speed of the game , and maybe introduction things that are in the player's control. How about let the player build fences that keep bunnies in, but also obstruct the ranchers movement? Any-who, I hope to see you in another jam LRFLEW!
Thank you so much for the feedback Leko! I just finished palying Restless Wing Syndrome(great name), and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It seems clear that you were able to quickly get your central mechanic up and running and then roll with it! Our team all agreed we needed to get to the play testing phase earlier. If we were to keep going/ resart on this game I would definitely try to ease the player into things more. I really appreciate the feedback! Here's to future jams and learning from past mistakes!
Well hot damn, Leko, that is an awesome 48 hour game. I love that you explored a whole bunch of variations on your central mechanic. The levels with the stop watches that subtract from your time until the next jump are really interesting. Having to quickly adjust the timing after each stopwatch you pick up really threw my for a loop at first. If a had one recomendation it would be to tone down the SFX for the jump and the timer. Maybe take a cue from the devs who made Cocka-tune and use screen shake and scaling to get the player into the rythm of each level. Although, that may not work because of how much you alter the timing with your mechanics. Anyway, once again, great job!
That was a fantastic execution on a great idea. You made me feel anxious every time that phone buzzed. This has been the strongest emotional reation I've gotten so far in the jam. Keep up the good work!
Hahaha, hot damn. Sorry about the VR plugin thing. Thank you for letting us know about that! I totally agree we haven't taken it far enough. If we continue this it'll take a lot of experimentation and testing to figure out how much we can push the concept. Thatnk you for the feedback, Traggey!
Thank you, Colt! If we get a bit more time to work on this I think we'd need to design a level that encourages that kind of game play. ABBUS(Always Be Backing Up and Shooting).
Thank you, Eddie! It really is bizarre not having WASD do what you expect. The mental wires get crossed so easily. If we take the game any farther we'll need to have a much steadier build up in complexity.
Thank you to anyone who play's our game! Any feedback you have to offer would be greatly appreciated by us all. To the other devs, who worked on games for the jam, I can't wait to play your games.
