Fun puzzle game! I got through to the end, and it was neat how you had various types of things to collect to progress. The bee vision was a great feature, and I especially had a delightful moment when I discovered that the red diamonds were different if you looked at them through bee vision. Too bad that the final level wasn't complete, but it's a game jam! That happens. (I only had one level haha)
I like the mechanic idea a lot. It's quite difficult, but I think that could work if the player could see further ahead. (maybe zoom out the camera?) I'm not sure how it fits the theme; can you explain that? Anyhow, nice work! You said you are new to game developing, and I hope you keep with it :)
Love the aesthetic, and the player character animations are great. Whenever I try to use my sword, I get Game Over. Is this intentional, or am I missing something?
I had a blast! I like the "support role" theme, and I think you could've leaned even further into that. Sometimes, it felt like I was the main character doing an escort mission (which isn't horrible). It may, however, be difficult to find a balance between empowering the player and also making them feel like the support. Maybe additional abilities? Not sure. Anyway, the gameplay was silky smooth, super satisfying, and simply stunning to look at. The gun bolt animation and the headshot sound effect were my favorite parts about the gunplay. The environment was cohesive and really looked nice. Also, the variation in gameplay between the different types of Player 1 was a great feature.
All of this in 48 hours was a feat of development! Congratulations on a great final product :)
Ah, okay. Did you by chance play the webgl version? The pink cards are supposed to show clues, but sometimes, due to resolution scaling issues, they'll be completely off screen...sorry about that 😬
Loved it! I had trouble at the start, trying to figure out where to click to navigate and whatnot, but after that, things went well. I like the dynamic cursor, but maybe if there was a shaded region that would show where to click, it would help players navigate? There also could've been something weird going on with WebGL, as I always struggle to get the viewport right haha. I'm always impressed by your art, and combining it with the music made the mood perfectly chill. A little bit of puzzle solving is the cherry on top, and I'd love to see this day play out even more next year.
no player freedom (couldn't choose to let grandma die)
music makes me feel like I'm on in a pleasant adventure game, not a raging grapple on the seven seas
hat color is the best color
no handbrake on boat
cannot burn down forest
cannot supersize boat into Blackbeard's pirate ship
ravens wing are amazing fantasy plants and don't look anything like tomatoes
character art is too good
invisible boundaries didn't allow me to explore the farthest corners of Middle Earth
I feel extremely satisfied and cozy after completing this game. Would not recommend if that's not your thing.
(sarcasm implied! ^^)
In all seriousness, I really enjoyed this adventure. By pure luck, I decided to skip the mushroom dock and ended up completing it flawlessly linear, but I like how (after the tree), you can go to each of the docks freely and may have to return there if you don't have the correct skills. I think the only VERY SLIGHTLY frustrating part was the wide turning radius of the boat - it had me doing some five point turns haha - no biggie though. I also would've liked a larger camera view (maybe only when you're boating?) to make you feel like a little person in a big world.
The modeling of the important elements was done really well, and the artwork was amazing. The music also fit, so all of the artistic elements tied the experience together seamlessly.
Another commenter called this game "magical", and I think that describes it perfectly.
What a cool map! I didn't realize you were a parkour master and redstone god. I accidentally skipped the radio transmission part, because I saw the railway without the hint. (I later ran back and did the transmission because I was curious...) I accidentally woke Timmy up, so I may have let the cat out of the bag. Very cool map overall! I liked all of the different elements you incorporated. Oh, and the ambiance was great!
The mechanic was simple. The graphics were simple. But it all worked together to make a great game. The 2d lighting works very well with it.
I played 1-player, but I imagine it's even more fun 2-player. The levels are simple (though some are extensive), but the co-op aspect probably adds a lot.
I love the graphics, the music, and all the polish you put on this.
It was pretty short, with only one level, but I'd love to see more levels. I think it would have been useful to have an indicator for where the guards would be moving next turn, to preserve the strategy/puzzle aspect, rather than randomness. I think I got lucky and was able to just walk up to the target and complete the level quickly.
Good application of the theme. The time limit contributed a lot, since it may have been a bit boring without that.
I thought the graphics were very pretty everywhere except the main gameplay area (which the player spends most of their time in). If that got a face-lift, everything would look great. Nice work with the pixel art.
The timer was a bit out of position, probably because I am on a 1920x1200 monitor.
Great mechanic. The dual-purpose Stronger Together reference worked well. I think it could be even better if there was gameplay that encouraged the player to make a choice between the two modes.
I'm not sure how the health system worked. Maybe that could be explained in a tutorial or something, if you wanted to implement one.
I like your way of using the theme. A very neat idea that I'd like to see explored more. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to defeat the first purple enemy. There was no feedback as to whether I was hitting them, and the cooldowns for both attacking and jumping seem extremely long.
I enjoyed your choice of music and graphics. It was very pretty.
I think the player could have used either a bit more aerial control for more precision or a wider field of view (like Super Meat Boy)
Your update notes look like they address a lot of the big things, so I'd love to see how it plays after that.
I, unfortunately, do not have time to work through some of the harder levels, but they seem to be fairly well balanced. A few of them are quite difficult!
That "genius" feature was a great addition. I think I got two or three of them so far, and it's super rewarding. It's a feature that isn't necessary, but adds a lot of value.
Ah! I just read your "In what way does your game fit the theme?" blurb, and realized it was supposed to be 2-player. It actually worked quite well 1-player, and I'm sure it would also work well 2-player.
Great puzzle design. It was sort of an experimental puzzle-solving process, and it wasn't headache-inducing. The gameplay followed basic rules and led to enjoyable levels.
I think level 20 may have had a dysfunctional teleporter.
I did run into a bug where I had a negative amount of ants working XD. Luckily, it wasn't game-breaking. I also think there could be a bit more food on the map (I'm not sure if it was spawned in, or if the map was set up). Your graphics were great, and I liked how you did the foreground effect.
I don't think you normalized your movement, so I walked faster diagonally than straight.
The shop was a very nice, simple experience. I'm not sure what the "ant species" stat was for. Maybe it was the number of times I have evolved them?
Yeah, I originally had planned to put most of the biggest empires in, but didn't have time. I also would've loved to scale up the empires and have info about them scattered around, to have some points of interest.
Yeah, thanks for the feedback; I get what you're saying. It definitely would've been a bit clearer if I had been able to implement some of the features I was planning, but alas, it's a game jam :P
(The idea was to make a commentary on some of the greatest empires' falls due to division)
Thanks! I had ideas for more empires, with a timeline that you would fill out as you completed the discovery of the empires. I would also have the empires fragment at the end, representing what happened historically.
I'm sure there's even more I could've done, but I knew I wouldn't have time for that, so I kept the scope small ;)
I think I've already given my comments on this, but I'll add a couple more.
AI was great. Audio was quality. Love the graphics.
The boss fight was well done. I think if you had more time to put into it, you could make the ending a bit more lengthy, giving him some more health and dragging it out some more.
I forgot to mention when testing that, imo, the character switch would be nice on ctrl/shift instead of tab, so I can use my pinky (maybe some people press tab with their pinky, idk :P)
I think it would be nice if the dialogue triggered once you landed. It's a bit awkward hanging in the air listening to this guy talk who isn't in the frame yet.
Great job. I'm looking forward to the next installment ;)
It was too bad you were deterred from completing this one.
However, you did make that tile set, right? I love it. You could even make slight variations like adding a tad of greenery or crystal for different areas of the map.
I like the ground impact particles, but I wonder if they would look better if they faded out rather quickly instead of falling to infinity? Could be something to play around with.
