itch.io

I thought the game was very pretty, but the player controller felt like a chore to control, and the level design was a little flat. Would love to be able to bounce around on enemies! This felt like it was a game made for bouncing around stuff, maybe it's due to the enemy shooting projectiles at you pushing you forward. I really liked that thing!

I think with a bit more freedom on the player controller it would be very fun !

It gets one charged at the start of a fight.

There is barely any post processing in the game. I do not think what you are calling post processing is the issue ! Maybe it is a browser issue and the download version runs better! (Are you sure it's my game you're talking about? I'm curious as to what is going on) 

Hey, thank you so much for writing such a massive feedback. It really means a lot to me, really. It's the first time I receive such a huge message with a lot of thoughtful and very valid criticism and it will tremendously help me to make a better experience.
I planned something else for the last boss: I wanted to make different layouts and arenas, something a bit like Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup  end floors (Old school roguelike, I really like the level design of it). Make it so when you arrive you have different variations with more pits and ennemies. Sadly, I got burned out (still had time left) and I was too scared to add another one, or to touch the fight, because the hour prior somebody softlocked themselves in the last level before the fight because I forgot to add pieces spawn points... This is something I really want to do in the future though !

The pieces are green or purple because they come from a different area. I wanted to make some kind of progression like this, thought it would be cool and mixing uup blood would be fun, I thought it was ugly the last day and wanted to removed it, and it's still there and I don't know why.
The targetting is broken, sometimes it does not show the correct information, sometimes the top left is wrong.... Again sorry for this. It's not possible to know which pieces can jump or not because of spaghetti code.

I do have to improve massively in all UI aspects. It's an area I struggle a lot into, and I really want to be better at it ! One of my goals this jam was to make something playable from start to finsh, and the user experience is still lacking to my taste.

The issue with incentivize the player to use as little pieces as possible is that it would make fights more tedious to me. You would have to spend more time to do more tedious strats, spending turn after turn and move a piec e at a time. This is something I want to avoid !
I want the player to make combos, do sacrifices if necessary to keep the turn as low as possible. I think it is funnier this way and why I added the par system. Unfortunately a lot of people didn't understand it (my fault of course definitely not theirs), and maybe it was not rewarding enough. Maybe I need to punish players for taking too long, but it would feel pretty arbitrary !

Game is not properly balanced after the first couple floors. I had very few feedback and test time for this and at the end I added extra pieces to the starting characters, which I feel makes a very high difference . The abilities might be overtuned as well. The last area may be too easy. But, maybe something about the formula is wrong, getting a piece each fight is too much and doesn't feel that good. These are things I would love to tackle on a bigger release than this. 

I do want to make it so sacrifice are necessary for later levels, at least 0.8 pieces per floor on average, if not more. This is a tricky spot to balance and the first time I have to do something like this ! I'm excited for what the future brings on that part.

Softlocks and lose conditions needs to be elegantly adressed, and I'm still trying to figure out a way.  Threefold rule is an idea but i feel like that would feel deeply unrewarding to not have a hard lose condition, not sure how to phrase that.

For progression I did not have anything planned like what you mention. What I thought was, after the shop, have 2 or 3 area choices, which would have very specific themes. The hole was an attempt at making this, an area with a lot of empty space ! Later on I want areas that only include some pieces, in order for the player to see as few different units in a game as possible (I'm trying to get that number under 15/20 but I'm not sure it would be feasible). 

I like shortcut :( Basically says that you have less fights in an area, you get less money in the end but get to keep your resources ? I think it's an interesting trade, maybe a bit strong. Passives needs to be reworked in general, I ran out of juice at the end, feeling sad for these as they do not feel great and inspired. I like the pin idea, it might be interesting to add in a shop as a side purchase! I like the system, would want to experiment with that. Maybe even remove the other passives!

Thank you so much for the lengthy message again, and sorry for the long response. Feel free to ignore that i'm juste rambling for myself !

Fingers crossed!

This is the first time i'm hearing this. The game pauses when it's unfocused maybe it's that. Otherwise may be a browser issue?

I'm in the process of making the game from scratch with hopes to release to Steam in  the future ! Will take some time but I'm hopeful

Love the presentation ! Character felt very good to use and play with, good job !

One of the cutest entry of the jam ! The goopy stuff looks wonderful ! I especially like your camera which felt very nice to use !
Well level design issues aside, would have loved to be able to jump on the crocodile guys. Damage boosting with the balls was very fun and honestly could have been a main gameplay part of the game I would have been delighted!
Love the sounds as well!

Very nice gameplay, some visibility issues (I know it's probably intended but I would have liked to see a bit further or at least highlight some platforms)
One of my favorite 3d platformer of  the jam ! Makes me want to play more.

Hey, nice question and great point ! 
I actually thought of this from the part of the definition "a departure from what is normal, usual, or expected, typically one that is unwelcome.".
I am rather not keen on doing stuff that are unwelcome to a player, though, and am not much into horror games and the like.
I spent one or two hour twisting the idea in my head and went "What if I could try to ""subvert"" the player's expectations by hijacking an existing game and trying to get something else out of it ? It's not a clever idea, it's not something that hasn't been done already it's like all the "What if x but instead it's y" stuff.
But I still wanted to have something that stayed true to the core game's principle. This is why at the base it's a chess game, and it's trying to stay as true as possible to the core loop "turn based strategy with planning"!
Also at the start it was more meant to be a Chess X hotline miami game but I'm not good at graphics so the only thing left from that idea is the blood splatters.

Sent you a message on discord with my feelings 

For future development I would start by making the character feel good ! Good luck with your journey !

Very nice and gorgeous entry ! Aside from the camera issues (been there, third person camera is a pain), and some softlock i really enjoyed the game !
Small note I think kicking dogs even in imagery is a bit of a turn off even if you don't end up doing that!
And I feel that 10 animals to get to the end was a bit much, as the gameplay was just shaking and nearly breaking my mouse !

A bit hard to navigate with the cursor moving around, felt it was a bit uncomfortable to use ! I get that it is the point but it was a bit too hard to focus on.
That said the vibe and art was on point, good job !

Couldn't get very far and get all the combinations, but having the characters you create fight each other is a very nice idea! Kinda like you create more mess to clean your mess!

I felt that it was hard to deduce the combos and did not understand if the order you put the stuff matters.

My game is stuck on the third level :( Player did not spawn :(

There is a bit of an issue with repeated keybinds, sometimes when you input them in quick succession the game doesn't register them.

I feel that somehow the game is not deterministic. As if the same input made twice would give different outcome. Especially in a bit sequence. I feel that it shouldn't be the case, maybe it's just my brain !
I went back and played again, game feels a little jank, but fun !

Charming game ! I feel like you could have done more with the repeating geometry though it felt a bit undereploited. Love the color puzzle though, good job !

I'm a bit sad I got stuck because the game looked very good :(
I played the whole left area and it was very fun !

Original story, wish I could skip the text a bit faster, otherwise very nice job! Assets looks nice, the scene and athmosphere look very nice !

Very original and creative gameplay ! I would have loved a bit more originality in the level design, bouncy stuff could have been fun ? 

Haven't heard about Chogue! Sorry for the targetting and mega issues, i'm still figuring out how do I want the pieces to move in the board (having pieces move on their own with some AI would make puzzle design much more difficult and less predictable which is kind of the vibe i'm going for)!

Litterally the first stuff sorry :D I tried my best following the instructions multiple times but it wouldn't work... I think it's because I didn't exit the code entering interface. Jumping from menu to menu is not very intuitive and it would have felt better with multiple tabs on the same one ? 

I'm sorry ill stop at the boss, the player controller is defintely not adapted for a one-hit bullet hell boss. And the inertia that goes with that is not enjoyable for these situations.
However, the game looks formidable, and sounds neat. And there are a lot of cool levels. But the character controller feels a bit too jank. I would advise trying to make it again ! It would be a great exercise! Look back at platformers you really enjoyed, see why they worked and why is your game juuust a bit far from that!
Not sure if you have twitter but this thread by maddy thorson explains a lot of the mechanics that makes the game play good and I would recommend trying to add some ! https://twitter.com/MaddyThorson/status/1238338574220546049?lang=en

Also the player controller is awesome ! Love the look and the feel !

Hey ! I've been trying to play your game, was fun, but I think the shaders are somewhat... wrong? The uv calculation seems off as the ground and wall textures move with the camera. Maybe it's windows build only !

Incredible game. Does not overstay its welcome. Mechanics are added one step at a time. Very athmospheric?
Love it !

Fun idea! Not sure if it's only me, but the game performance was a bit choppy, maybe webgl only issue?

I love the enemy design ! Very fun idea, amazing work !
(I kinda would have loved to be able to throw the plants into the bins from afar !)

Awesome game! Truly one of the highlights of the jam. Incredible work !

Absolutely incredible game. Amazing concept, game looks awesome, puzzle design is so great, all rounder perfect for me!

Not an issue from you, definitely something I might maybe probably work on if it's getting further

I like the concept and story, but the game in itself isn't very appealing to me !

Game is looking very good ! Love the details on the environment. Dialogues are a biiiit too much, a bit too spammy for me. But very nice job overall !

Very original and athmospheric entry ! Not much of a fan of the last level, but understandable that it's there.
I want to know how the ball shader is made though it looks awesome !
also very fitting music

Clever idea, Very pretty and snappy game !
Puzzles were a biiit hard for me, and it felt that not all the mechanics were introduced properly at once. But maybe i'm just dumb !

Interesting idea! A small tutorial and less keybindsand tweaking the win condition a little bit would be lovely !

Congrats for your entry ! There seems to be a lot of stuff missing from the entry, and I would recommend you that next time you include another option to download maybe?
A quick video to showcase the project working correctly would be lovely, as well as a little write-up!

I have to be honest I really like the predictability aspect of having no AI. 

The thing I was going for at first was an area selection before the shop. Some areas would have more mega units, some would be better suited for close combat, some would feature something interesting in the level like a hole in the middle, a lot of walls, special enemies with very strong effects that makes you rethink the whole floor....

The predictability comes from the fact that I suck at chess. I want a game where I and only me get to do the plans in order to win a fight. If I lose, it is my fault and not some RNG. It is not well executed at the moment, but I feel that AI would not go into that favor.

I'm thinking about how to make the more interesting and have multiple directions I could go for, I'm starting to like the idea of getting the game developped further but am very scared of the scope (and a little bit of impostor syndrome + perfectionnism which would just freeze my ability to publish anything that isn't perfect). I like the game, it has issues, technical ones and some more design heavy. If I come across some clean solutions it could really become a game on it's own and not some kind of clone!

Excellent points, I struggle so much with UI and of course playtesting and every little things makes a massive difference for games like this !