itch.io

After seeing what you did on the BT Game Jam with "Bugs make fine snacks" I immediately followed and I was pleased to see you created yet another beautiful looking game. 

Sweet and short, just like best things in life. 

If that's ok with you, here's a little bit of constructive criticism for this project (I do understand this is a jam project and the time constraint is very important here. As I said, I really liked the overall game/idea, so take this as a grain of salt ^^):

- First off, art is cute, polished, and it really shows who you are as an artist/developer. 10/10 there. 
- Really nice detail on the storytelling at the beginning, it really helps setting up the mood for the game. 
- Action platformer is a genre which is very difficult to get right, yet if it's done, it's absolutely amazing. I have to say however that in this project, both aspects are just a pass. They're not bad, but they're not amazing either.

>> Platforming-sided feedback:
- There's almost no variety on platform mechanics. Just basic move and jump. As far as it makes me feel you wanted to go for a more "chilled & relaxing" experience with the overall game, however, adding a small puzzle here and there, wall jump, dash, moving platforms or any other variety in platforming/movement would make the experience much more enjoyable. 
- When pressing space, if you go through a platform above, it'll jump again if you didn't release the jump button. If there's a tight jump or an enemy above this can be quite annoying. I'd personally make this "onbuttonpressed", rather than "whilebuttonispressed" if that makes sense. 
- Camera "Y" position: The character is always on the centre of the camera, which is good, however, there's a few times that you have obstacles below you and you cannot see them until you land on them. This happens specifically when you're over a platform and the obstacles are "a layer" below. 

>> Action-sided feedback:
- This is where I found most of the improvements could be done. The action side of the project is very reminiscent of games like "Hollow Knight", however, due to the controls/execution, it feels frustrating rather than enjoyable. 
- Hit "weight": You have player feedback when you get hit, however, there's no feedback when you hit an enemy (other than particles), which means you'll most likely get hit by an enemy approaching to you while you're mashing the attack button. Same script used when you get hit could have been introduced on enemy mobs stopping their moving pattern for half a second, and that'd make the combat way more fair and enjoyable. 
- Attack aim: Due to the controls the player only attacks on the direction it's facing, and together with the previous point, means that you'll likely get hit a lot of times, specially with flying enemies. If the previous point is introduced this may not be longer an issue. Other option is to change the aim based on your mouseposition and lick to attack, so you can attack while running backwards. 
- Dodge/Dash option: Again, personal preference, but would make combat way more enjoyable. 
- Final Boss: The boss pattern is really interesting and varied. However, with the current controls is almost impossible to hit/dodge properly so from what could be a really enjoyable interesting fight, it ends up being a little bit of a hassle. With the current boss movement/attack pattern, I'd say a dodge/dash and mouse aim is borderline needed. Also found an issue with the collision: if you stay inside the boss after being hit it'll not register the collision again, so I ended up killing the thing by going bellyflop on his face and then smashed attack while staying "inside" him until he died. 

Thanks so much for your kind words! Attempted to make some simple yet fun and short yet not too short, hope I got the right balance there xD.

If managing your time means no-lifing the 56 hours and close to no sleep then yeah, I guess I did... lol.

Glad you liked the game! Attempted to make it look/feel like kind of an old silent movie, hopefully got that right ^^

Quoting from discord announcements by Drake | Backtrace:

"This week, I will review the ratings and work with the judges to finalize who wins the prizes! The plan right now is to make the announcement on Friday December 17th in the afternoon EST. (I'm not yet sure exactly when, I need to coordinate with the judges on my side. I will let you all know as soon as I do)."

Hope it helps! :)

Thanks so much! Glad you liked it =)

Thanks so much! :)

Just for the record, if I enter on my game's "Edit page" I can see this message in the uploads section. Obv this is up to the hosts to decide but right now even if we wanted we cannot upload a new build. We could change the builds within the submission but only those that were uploaded before the voting period started:

Uploads are temporarily disabled because voting for Backtrace GameJam #3 - Win $2500! is in progress. You'll be able to make changes after the jam is over.

** Edited to add the message in writing since the screenshot is just not showing somehow xD **

Poor Timmy, he's trying to help out the ants! Not in the best way but he's trying nonetheless :P. Thanks for the kind words and the feedback! :D

Hey! Thanks for the kind words! And yeah I'll need to revisit the grab mechanic after the voting period is over to see what's up with it :P.

Nice immersive little story, feels a little bit creepy as well. As other have pointed out the fonts was a little bit difficult to read but overall, a really solid entry!! :D

Ten seconds? Wait on my playthrough it was literally two seconds. Maybe it's on my end then that's why I found it extremely difficult xD. Managed to get a couple right tho but it was random, didn't even have time to look at them before clicking xD

Nice one! Fits with the theme quite literally. Only issue with me is you need two people to play the game, aka a friend... i don't have any of those, they're overrrated xD. Jokes aside, good job making a full chess game in two days! :D

The walkthrough video helped a lot to understand the game. I'll say it's quite an unique way to fit with the theme and it's interesting how much effort is put into actually doing a complex driving system working. Nice one!

Kind reminds me of the classic (old) arcade games. Loved to see a working functional options menu, nice detail :D. Only thing I'd point out is the difficulty and content. Just by holding down the mouse button and moving non stop left and right enemies wouldn't even come into the screen, too many bullets for them to handle xD. With some balancing on this aspect it could become quite an entertaining game :D

Interesting concept and approach to the theme. graphics are simplistic but well done. Only thing I'd have made a little bit more player friendly is the commands, typing "changetype > XXXX" every time I wanted to change something was a little tedious. Other than that, was actually  a nice one! Had to finish it, got the boss down :D

Nice job on your first jam! As Ana pointed out, this can be the base for something bigger. I love how the art style or consistent and the sound fits it very well. Nicely done! :D

Simple puzzle platformer, love the gravity feature! Once I passed the game I tried again this time just using the gravity change (F) and I managed to finish the game faster than trying to move with WASD xD. Would've loved simple instructions within the game itself, had to exit the game and come to the page just to read which key would chage the gravity. Other than that, nice one! :D

Minimalistic style that actually does not look bad, the game fits the theme nicely and it is interesting. Nicely done! :D. Managed to finish it very quick tho, would have loved some more levels! :D

Thanks! Yeah this is the most commonly pointed out issue. Added a tip on the description to grab the ants with the dot but still I do fully agree the hand needs a bigger collider in order to make the grab easier. Anyhow, thanks for checking out the game! :D

Thanks so much! Glad you liked the artstyle ^^

Nice approach to the game. Looks good and it's interesting! The only thing I'd point out is the time you have to react. Maybe it's cause I just woke up from napping but that bar goes down very quick! Other than that, very nicely done! :D

That was a very interesting concept and execution. The look is very nice. Very well done overall! Only thing I'd say is second/third level (the one with the red masks) was already too difficult, but that can be me being bad as well xD. Nice one! =)

Without the bugs, this can be a very relaxing game. Scenery is gorgeous, music is very chilled :D

Hey again!

Tried connecting the VR and going to the VR menu before opening the game and it worked! The scenery looks amazing. props for making a VR game! I guess you limited the public with this but as long as it was worth to get you the experience you wanted that's more than fine then. Honestly, put me some music and some animations in there and I'd be all in for it :3. But the look man, you got that right ^^

Very nice entry and the gameplay is definitely entertaining. music also fits with the theme. Nicely done! :D

Thanks for playing and glad you liked it :D! And yeah, ants IQ is based on mine, they're special :P

Thanks for the kind words! And yeah definitely agree with the collision thing. Was one of the "TO-DO" before submitting, but didn't have time to implement. I'll get back and improve it once the voting period is over =)

I liked the movement a lot, reminded me of old RPGs. Got to the final boss, got confused on what to do, and exited the game pressing esc. After I click quit I saw something in the menu, reopened the game and finished it lol xD. As a small feedback, don't make your game 2 Gb download on a jam, don't think many people will actually download and try it cause of that :S. Anyhow, well done! :D

Thank so much! :D

Thanks for the kind words! Have gotten a few comments on the grabbing mechanic. Basically the detection is done by a raycast rather than by collision with the whole hand, so unless the "dot" in the hand is on top of the ant, it won't grab it. Once the voting is over I'll revisit and improve that :D. 

Also regarding the itch.io page, you have an option to open in a new window, but that still won't open it full screen will it? The "full screen" button option on itch.io will still cause the UI to be bugged, still need to use blue fullscreen button that comes with the unity build otherwise the UI just shrinks for some reason. My bad surely, but couldn't figure out why xD

Anyways, thanks again, and I'm glad you liked it! :D

Visuals are very good, music is fitting and love the random messages at the top left. Exploded a couple of times by smashing myself in a rock xD. Nice one! =)

What you could maybe do if you want to show your progress is create a different itch.io project and upload the updated version there. It won't count for the jam but at least you can show off your updates and once the voting is over you can update your main page :D

Nice idea! With a little bit more polish it can be a really interesting puzzle platformer. Well done! :D

Took me a bit to figure out which main.exe to run until I went to the game page. Nice simple and fun ^^

Thank you for playing and your feedback! Glad you liked it! =)

Thanks so much for the kind words! :D

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah I definitely will fix a couple of things once the voting period is over. I'll change the hand collision so it's easier to grab the ants, fix the menus, and initially I had an idea of why the grandpa wouldn't grab the lizard or anything, as he's scared of it, but didn't have the time to add the actual reaction before the deadline. Anyhow, thanks once again, and hope you check back after I make some improvements! =)

One of the best ones in the jam in my opinion. Polished controls, good subtle humor, good visuals, smart puzzles, very good animations. Honestly, it was amazing. Very well done!

Would've loved to see something a little bit more fit with the theme, but looks good! =)

Funny little game about annoying a scientist as much as humanly possible xD. Art was good, controls felt fluid. Only little thing I'd point out is that is a little bit difficult to identify what's solid and what's not. One poster you can walljump on it, the other onw is just decoration and you can't, etc. Other than that, very fun experience! Managed to get all 3 lovely things done to the scientist :P